日本海

We went on a mission out to the NihonKai(Sea of Japan) the other day. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical of scoring waves in any 'sea'. But, around this time every year storms begin to spin on the Korean Peninsula and throw a huge fetch towards the west coast of Japan. In winter you have to hike over snow covered beaches to get to the surf but late Oct is still nice and warm. At 2am the crew assembled for an overnight drive out west, after 4 hours we arrived with the sunrise.





The first spot we checked out was a bit junk with the onshore winds but the boys were still in good spirits...

Finally we took some good advice and headed to a more protected zone and found some offshore beachbreak loveliness.

For about 4 hours it was on, great waves and friendly crowd. This setup was sort of a warmer central california sandbar setup, minus the angry locals and sharks.

All Photos Below by Unagiya-san
Me


Taga-san, master driver and tube hunter


Naito-san, in my opinion the most powerful surfer in the 053





Everyone had some good waves, good turns, but also took a few late drops and beatings



Mori-san here, shaper and fan of california point breaks. Thanks for lending me a wetsuit.

Bo's new ride

Check it out... all right!

Waves

A few random slow shutter shots from an evening at Toyohama.