Philippine Sea
Sick BB
Shit, now I'm regretting turning down an offer from Rash wetties over there for a visit. I did get warned but thought I had something more important on. Funny how life's real important issues fade into insignificance when you know someone's getting waves better than yours. Ha! I'm hurtin'.
Be afraid BB, be very afraid
The top predators in the Japanese sea, Fukashimavores (caesium 137) and the Yakuza. :)
BB, ashamed to say I worked all day today but from the window this morning conditions looked pretty good. Having said that, just chatted to a mate who said they did it pretty tough up our way today. Sets still in the 8ft range and winds not really co-operating. Tomorrow the swell is supposed to drop a little and go more easterly so we might have a few more places to fall back on.
Your MIL sounds a bit like mine, she's tough as nails too and the Matriarch of quite a large (by Japanese standards) family. It's taken me quite a few years to get on her good side. The Japanese have a word for old ladies like that, 'Obatarion' try that word on her and see how you go (lilt the 'r'). She'll probably laugh. I think it comes from a bastardisation of the term 'Old battleaxe'.
Anyway glad you're scoring here. Generally Sept/Oct/Nov is the best time for waves and the water is warm. Winter pumps too but when it's snowing in my neck of the woods and the water temp is about 6 deg, it has to be pretty good to get me out there.
Which brings me to Welly. I love winter here Welly. I know you did Hokkaido but the Tohoku area is home to probably the best powder in the world and back country stuff is out of this world. We're talking annual snow falls in excess of 12-14 metres.
I'm exactly 91 km away from the Daiichi reactor and we went through the whole earthquake, tsunami thing. You know where you saw that big whirlpool in the port on the news? That's about 30 minutes south of me. To this day, there's evidence of the quake everywhere, but to write about that will take up pages.
BB, Japan as you can see is not all postcards of Fuji-san and Cherry blossoms but the people, the food, the honesty, the kindness, the quirkiness of this place is quite addictive I'm sure you'll agree.
Absolutely zen, quirky with occasional lapses into the bizarre. I have given up trying to explain it to people at home, they only want to hear the stereotypes. It looks like the wind has kicked in here so I'm not sure there will be much on offer tomorrow. We fly down to Amami om Monday but the forecasts are looking poor for surf. I think we will be able to amuse ourselves anyway!
My sister landed in Tokyo for her first visit on the day of the quake and friends of ours run a business that was flattened by the tsunami so we keep up to date on the issues. I don't know how long it takes for things to become "normal" again. A whole generation would be my guess.
Hey BB just had a sunday morning surf @ your local ... Won't ever do that again!
Real quality waves, the first peak, but I've never been in the water with such kooks ever!
No wonder you write with and acid pen. And Mals out there, wtf! That was a mal experience I've
never encounted before. Why ride a mal?? Why ride anything when you haven't any wave sense??
Mate I don't know what to say other than now I understand! Geez!!
Hey BB I will give you my theory on a Sunday morn at your local....
There was a time when those living west of the beaches would all funnel down the arteries to my
local and Sunday morn was a dangerous exercise in going for the early.
Now my local is all about tourists, so I'm thinking that has filtered those west of the beaches onto your main artery
and hense my experience yesterday morn.
Whatever be the fact, that's a very crowded situation your corner of the world has become from the days when I called it home.
Zen, I read in some of your other posts (sorry cant find em) about the loss of surf spots due to that wonderful gift to coastal engineering, tetra-pods. When travailing around Japanese beaches I could not help but think of the lost opportunities of making/improving waves with those tetra-pod projects.
Have you seen good waves created by tetra-pods?
I read about one but checked it out and it looked pretty poor.
Man made waves seem to be a bit elusive, as man-made wave companies and projects have had plenty of money given to them with pretty poor results. I think any coastal engineer should check out Japan before they are given the tools to the tool shed.
You're brave mouse we try to avoid Saturday mornings. I am waiting in Fukuoka airport for a flight in the general direction of Okinawa with a new low forming so wish me luck!
Hey Sypkan, I could go on for hours about fucking tetrapods.
First, it's been proven that tetrapods do very little to control erosion of beaches and in fact do way more damage than good. Most times a line of pods will create a deep inshore gutter and combine with a scouring effect, disrupting the north/south sand flow. This affects the outer sand-bars creating a straight breaking close-out right onto the pod wall.
Compare a normal healthy Australian beach with a Japanese beach and it becomes glaringly obvious.
Second, and I know from experience, no matter how high the flippin' wall is, it will NOT stop a tsunami. In fact, I think the tetrapods did more harm than good as it funnelled the volume of water in some places and concentrated the energy creating more damage. The evidence of that is a ten minute drive away from me at a little creek mouth with massive walls either side. A handful of houses were untouched while the water pushed 500 metres + inland and mowed everything down. Sort of like concentrating the nozzle of a hose. A little ways to the north, the Tsunami washed in over flat land and most places stayed upright, albeit flooded.
Admittedly, they do control large swells, but I compare that to some storms we had back home, outer sandbars broke up the swell and dispersed the energy resulting in severe beach erosion but not much damage and the sand came back over time. Here you have 10 ft waves breaking directly onto the cement wall because there are no sandbars to break up the swell.
And finally, there are pockets of beautiful coastline here that you have to carefully frame if you want to take a photo. Tetrapods are just fucking ugly! and they're everywhere. You can show me a picture of any beach in Australia and I could probably guess roughly where it is. Virtually every beach in Japan is a litter strewn desolate grey cement wall all the way from Okinawa to Hokkaido.
I can think of no decent man-made waves here. We have to surf in and around these things and on occasion we do get our classic days. But, I have seen 7 decent surf spots totally destroyed in 8 years and another one not so far away earmarked for 'erosion control' in the not too distant future.
Sypkan, I love Japan but as conservationists and environmentalists they are hopeless. You could cut the apathy with a knife here, it's shameful.
But as I mentioned previously, the tetrapod industry is a billion dollar a year industry run mostly under the auspices of the ministry of construction, with strong ties to Yakuza backed construction companies.
At any given time if I have an unwilling ear I speak out about this to the local surfers or anyone that cares to listen. The usual response is a shrug of the shoulders and a one word reply- 'shouganai' which translates to 'nothing we can do about it'.
As a footnote, they also kill economies too. About an hour south of me there was a thriving little seaside village that had a lively surf industry. a couple of shapers were based there. In summer there were swimmers, surfers, fishermen, holiday makers. There were beach bars and yakitori stands, places selling shaved-ice (kakigori) for the kids, seaside Ryokans which are small Japanese hotels and a couple of Onsens (hot spring public baths). In their infinite wisdom they decided the pretty little beach with a nice left off the northern end and a series of nice peaks the length of the beach (picture a place like Garie south of Sydney) needed 'erosion protection'. It was fine for the last 100 years or so but it was the next in line for 'protection'. In six months, the whole beach was lined with tetrapods. Now, this place is a ghost town, it's sad, bleak and empty. A few hangers on kick around there, mostly old people. Nobody surfs there, nobody goes on holidays there, all the shops and restaurants have closed. The streets are overgrown with weeds and empty. I last went there about 4 years ago as a mate of mine used to get boards shaped from the last shaper that tried to remain. I think he bought boards out of pity. He shaped nice boards but I don't know where he is now.
This quaint little seaside spot died overnight and not one person did or said anything and so many peoples livelihoods were taken so a handful of pollies could get richer and a few Yakuza could get fatter.
This is the real Japan by the way and it aint no postcard.
Actually, having said that, we did have a pretty smoking sesh yesterday at a local breakwall. Lefts up to double overhead and light winds. Surfed for four hours. Maximum of 5 crew out and only my mate and I for the first 2 hours.
Shitty winds today, bit of swell but not much on offer. Lay day today and tomorrow looking good.
Later in the week typhoon 22 (Sepat) should be sending us some nice swell and this one should be more agreeable staying further from the coast.
Which should bode well for our mate BB down in Okinawa who should be getting some solid east/nor-east swell in the next day or so.
Hope you score BB.
wow! good response Zen, though a little bleak. It appears u can give that blindboy character a run for his money when the subject suits, and it looks like you love the tetra-pods.
Yeh I have read a bit about breakwalls and how they tend to chew sand out elsewhere while fixing (more like slowing) the immediate problem as u said. But it appears to a layman like me if u sloped the rocks/tetra-pods gently u would make waves break further offshore (fixing erosion more) and make it better for surfing, win win (if authority type people knew how to cooperate). And there appears to have been plenty of opportunities in japan to have perfected this layman's theory. In Australia as well, all along the east coast, even the local little man made harbour here (át O sullys) could have been tweaked a little to make some sort of wave, Maybe not perfect waves but it would not be hard to make better man-made waves than the one at Narrowneck.
If only u could get the Yakuza on side, and ignore the engineers who seem to have spent too much time on the theory.
A bit disappointing your observations about japanese people and the environment (not disagreeing), but I think its more about accepting those in power (legitimately and illegitimately) more than we do in the west. I find the japanese (and their general religion) quite nature loving. They just dont seem to have that inclination to challenge power and corruption like we do. Bit this also makes them lovely polite people to be around as well, like u mentioned. I think Australians could learn a lot from the japanese about being generally nicer people.
Have u seen Katagai? bit of a man-made D-bah set up. I got some good waves there, though super crowded.
Yeah Zenagain, I looked on the net about the fields around where you live ! crikey mate theres fair few, thats for sure.
Have you watched Jeremy Jones movies "Deeper and "Further" ..? There is some amazing back country filmed in Japan, do you know if that was near where you live? What ski area is your favourite.
Sorry BB, I might get tuned by Shaun for going off the subject here a little.
Welly, I board the Tohoku area but most of my weekends are spent at a place called Mt. Bandai in Fukushima prefecture. It's about 2 1/2 hours from when I leave home to the first lift. My favourite place is called Ura Bandai Nekoma ski jo. A smallish resort, lots of steeps and faces into the north so the powder is always nice and fluffy. There's another called Alts Bandai which has really nice long groomers and you can sneak into the trees over the bowl area. The Ski patrol are pretty militant when it comes to off piste.
I try and do a week somewhere new every year so been to Nagano a few times, Yamagata and Hokkaido. I loved the Hokkaido snow but didn't like Niseko, it was almost as Aussie as Falls Creek.
Haven't seen the DVD but might try and find some clips. The next back country stuff I want to do is in Aomori at a place called Hakkoda. Very wild place. It's not uncommon for them do get dumps of 3 metres over a weekend.
pretty sure it was called katagai, in the Chiba prefecture, I was only around Tokyo area.
Also went Snowboarding near Nagano, Nigata I think, scored the best dump of snow for years, this little beginner was in snowboard heaven, buried in powder every time i stuffed up, great fun.
Sunday at Miyazaki was onshore and messy so we drove back to Fukuoka through the mountains and stopped at Takachiho to see the gorge and waterfalls. Amazing scenery! flew down here yesterday morning so I am now sitting outside my friend's house looking over a wide bay to the hills on the other side. It's warm and the cicadas are going crazy trying to drown out the chickens and the goats. All very country soul, right down to the surfboard factory we stopped at yesterday that only does full hand shapes and sands them on the grass outside. The feel in the water was very much that way too, very cool and relaxed.
We surfed a rocky reef about 250m offshore. It was only about 2ft but the potential was obvious. It doesn't look like we will get much swell but it should pick up a little over the next couple of days. Lots of spots all around the island and, from the photos we saw, all capable of producing real quality, but fickle, with long flat spells out of season. The tides are wrong this morning so we will wait until this afternoon and head up north where there should be a bit more swell. Until then we will probably hang out on the verandah amongst the Bouganvillea and the Frangipani.
Sounds nice BB, hardly tropical here. Raining cats and dogs atm.
Wife and I planning a few days in Okinawa this winter and it will be my first time there. I heard Okinawan sushi is not too flash though, must be a mainland thing.
Please excuse my downer couple of posts regarding tetrapods, I can get a bit on a roll sometimes.
Be careful too, I heard Okinawan reefs have a healthy appetite for skin and fibreglass. Thanks for keeping us updated.
Funny you should mention the Korean PET bottles. Over here in the west of Japan, in northern Niigata prefecture, the beach litter from Korea and China is a myth so widely accepted it has become a fact. The beaches here are generally filthy (and full of tetrapods). I think I have seen rubbish with Korean writing on it about twice in the last three years. Those Koreans must really love their Asahi beer and get all of their coke, bottled tea, laundry detergent and fertiliser etc. imported from Japan. Strange that.
On the subject of snow, Zao Onsen and Myoko Kogen are hard to beat in my opinion.
I just looked up Hakkoda... out in the middle of nowhere but looks awesome. It will be quite the exciting rode trip from Ibaraki if that is how you end up going there.
Hi zen just a fantastic lunch of local food at a little restaurant, vegetables, tofu, miso, assorted pickles and things. We are not on Okinawa itself so I can't tell you much except the hearsay that there are lots of US soldiers on R&R from Afghanistan who are not particularly friendly. On the bright side there are heaps of little islands nearby to escape to. The latest report is better so we might get some decent waves before we go. Today looks like 2ft again. We are just waiting for the tide. It would be a real mission to find decent waves here without a local guide as there are so many bays and headlands. Hiro lived on the northern beaches for about 6 years and has a little stained glass business here so he is free to surf whenever the conditions are right. I'll post again if we get waves this afternoon.
Well I'm happy to say finally it all came together this morning. Just surfed for 3 1/2 hours at my local right-hand reef. Great spot and very localised, outsiders rarely dare to paddle out here but I've put the time in. This morning just me a mate and two other locals sharing 4-5ft right handers with a nice bowling end section. The wave is very reminiscent of Trestles.
Mixed bag of swell and conditions for the next week or so, so we'll just have to keep an eye on it. BB, you must have some swell on the way, or it appears so on the charts.
Away san, Zao is on the cards for winter, always been keen to see the Juyho (Spelling?) and the missus has booked us in for a week there mid-Jan.
The drive from Ibaraki is sweet, bought a new Outback 2 years ago and an empty carpark, traction control off and you can't wipe the smile off my face. Very safe feeling car on snow and ice.
Yeah those Koreans love their Calpis 'eh?
BB, hope you score and not in a sexy way.
Still small this afternoon zen. Surfed a right hand reef like Velzyland but only 2ft. One guy out when we got there and we had a good hour before the young locals turned up. No drama but with a tight take off area and a stack of small waves already ridden we left them to it. The typhoon seems to be heading this way and the swell should start hitting tomorrow. We have to be out of here Thursday, not least because if the typhoon continues on its present course the whole place will be shut down for several days; no flights, no electricity, roads out and lots of property damage. The locals are all starting to stress. If we are lucky we should land some quality tomorrow and Thursday morning and get out before it hits.
Looks like Typhoon 23 (Fitow) is going to intensify real quickly and go right over top of you.
If it stays on the path it is now, Friday looks like it's going to cop it. Seems like your timing is spot on.
Stay safe.
Yeh there is a fair bit of stress happening here but they are still hoping it will turn north before it hits. Still small this morning so we grabbed a few little peelers at a beach break before the tide got too low. Some bigger sets as we were leaving so we still might get something decent if we are not too busy helping to board up the windows.
Nice way to say Sayonara.
Sounds like you enjoyed your time.
I'd have to say the Japanese (on land anyway) are among the most welcoming people I've ever come across in my travels.
Sunday/Monday shaping up to be all time in my neck of the woods.
Glad you enjoyed.
Enjoy zen!
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-03/new-fukishima-radoactive-leak-m...
Holy shit zen your gonna surf in that water?
I know Yorkes. It's a kind of head in the sand mentality. I'm 90 k's away from Daiichi. There's a lot of Pacific between there and here.
When you consider an Olympic swimming pool holds about 2,500 tons of water, 300 tons is really just a drop in the ocean.
Still, dumping that shit in the ocean is inexcusable.
@ Zen ,Thought some people like yourself might appreciate this link posted from a good friend of mine from Vermont USA, John Gerntd Burton's No1 Board designer and engineer, JG is 50 rips on any board till this day, surf, snow and skating bowls still.
Check it out.
http://vimeo.com/40877942
Sweet little vid Welly with some nice tracks too. Thankyou.
Soon it will be snowing on the beach here, so those tropical pics really look inviting.
Are you familiar with 'Never Summer' snowboards? I currently ride a Saloman Sanchez with Flow bindings but was looking at a NS Proto HD/X cause I'm a pretty big fella. The Proto seems to tick all the boxes for an all mountain board but at nearly $1000 here, they don't come cheap.
Anyone know why i cant veiw anything vimeo
zenagain wrote:Sweet little vid Welly with some nice tracks too. Thankyou.
Soon it will be snowing on the beach here, so those tropical pics really look inviting.
Are you familiar with 'Never Summer' snowboards? I currently ride a Saloman Sanchez with Flow bindings but was looking at a NS Proto HD/X cause I'm a pretty big fella. The Proto seems to tick all the boxes for an all mountain board but at nearly $1000 here, they don't come cheap.
Zen I don't know much about those brds, I looked them up and they look good all latest tech stuff Transition Rocker Camber Profile (EXRC), don't know what that is.
Why are they so expensive $1000.
I looked up the Burton Brds and around $600.?
Last snowbrd session was 3 christmas's ago Nesiko, Burton gave me a 2011-12 Malolo 163 Model, which was unreal loved off piste variable and especially pow conditons as well as real solid on the groomers. I couldn't find these now, I think this years model close to the Malolo is the "Family Tree Landlord Snowbrd" still at 163cms.
I'm a bit biased to Burton as that is all I've ever rode, for about 8 years I tested brds for JG who has been with Burton in Vermont ever since they started. JG's the man and has been the back bone of all the advanced technology in snowbrds all around the world.
I know a lot of other companies copy of Burton in same way or another, Burton's development structure is paramount and they spend shit loads in that area.
Hey but saying that, I was lucky to get 3-5 brds a year to trash, while reporting back to JG, I soon found out that if the brd lasted say for 30 days hard riding, they were happy.
They are smart and make them for the punter who rides say 10 days a year, so then that would last about 3 years.
I'm not sure how durable/sturdy the "Never Summer's" are, but for that price you would want it to last, in retrospect to where you ride and live your lucky you get so much snow, which covers those nasty fucking rocks that can tear ya edge and side wall out. One thing I learnt in NZ when riding thru rocky or low snow areas, be real light on ya feet and don't turn, cause if you did hit a rock it would only be a nose to tail straight gouge in the PTex base.
Brds are getting shorter now, the Malolo 63 is the smallest brd I've ever had, but it felt like a 68.
Oh shut up Welly, getting carried away :)
Don't shut up Welly, I could talk snowboarding all day.
I'm due to hit it up the mountain this Sunday for my first of many for the season.
Probably the wrong time of the year to launch a snowboarding forum down there and probably even less so considering Swellnet is a surfing site.
Everybody rides Burton here and are dressed in Burton top to toe, I wanted to get something a little different. I heard really good reports about Never Summer boards and I wanted to get a sintered base as opposed to extruded because I'm not really a park rider and i like to go fast.
My missus bought me a new outfit for Xmas as I've been in the same jacket and pants for the last 5 years. So I've got a flash new Billabong outfit too.
Got 60 cm at my local on the weekend, another 20 or so for the next day or two and a dusting for Saturday night, looking good for Sunday.
Yee Hah!
Oh and price? Who knows, they retail for about $600 in the USA but they won't ship directly to Japan, you have to buy them here through their one and only distributor at about 85,000yen which sucks. but probably the same reason why a Firewire shortboard will set you back the equivalent of AUD$1200-$1500. Supply and demand I suppose.
Love the snowboard discussion.. keep it up! Actually it's worth a separate thread.. especially with the NH winter which means Zen can keep us informed for the next 4 months (rather than Australia's half a month of snow!). I've started one on the NH season here: https://www.swellnet.com/forums/wax/55556
Flew over the Phillipine Sea north of Taiwan early Tueday morning. There was a stack of waves happening along that whole chain of islands all the way to Okinawa and probably further. Hard to pick the size from 40,000ft but it looked very substantial. Not much in Fukuoka where I am today but I am heading to an island down near Okinawa on Monday and there is a new typhoon in the region so I'm hoping to strike it lucky.....but not too lucky!