Roke

Typhoon Roke made a direct hit in Fukude/Hamamatsu on Wednesday, winds up to 80mph and 25ft surf.




Flying tree limbs and pieces of metal sheds prevented me from going outside and capturing any peak action, but I filmed these 2 quick clips from the safety of my place. I thought the ol wagon R might fly away at any second...

Roke2 from Bart Templeman on Vimeo.

After things calmed down a bit I checked out the neighborhood...

Mouth of the Tenryu River, seen through the floodgates.

The normally passable beach road in Tenryu. Usually the water line is 100meters to the left, but at some point the storm surge hurled all this junk over the seawall.

It's Friday now, the wind has calmed down and the surf is flat!



But I got some nice evening photos to share in the next blog...

Nami Fest

Here are some pics and a video clip from the annual Nami(Wave) Fest surfing contest that went down this month in Hamamatsu, Japan. Special guest Al (from Al Surfboards fame) came all the wave from California to attend.

Please pardon the video quality, this was all shot with a digi still camera and a crusty tripod.

Nami Fest 2010 from Bart Templeman on Vimeo.

Photo by AL






Photo by AL

Day at the River

The other day I took a bike ride down the river because the waves were completely flat. Usually I have my camera, but today all I had was my tiny Ipod nano. Inspired by the magical video clips flowing daily out of the hit blog site TheBlurfCurve, I tested out the video camera function on my Ipod nano to grab some clips using my hat as a tripod. I then had to remember how to use imovie to throw this together. Please enjoy this ghetto fabulous river scenery.

Day at the River from Bart Templeman on Vimeo.

Beach Bike Trail

I have been lagging a bit with taking photos as of late, but today I took my camera on an afternoon ride down the coast. There is a nice bike trail that stretches along the whole coast here, this is only a portion of it that weaves through the pine forests with beach access points every mile or so. Some of the sights...


If you are on the beach in these parts you are either fishing or surfing, or both.


Bike trail through the pines.


The surf scene is alive and kicking in Japan, especially on weekends. Everyone packs into their vans and parks it at the beach from sunrise to sunset.


Towards the Tenryu rivermouth, the pines gave way to open space and plenty of wind turbines and the lighthouse.



Some lefts peeling into the rivermouth. I have a good feeling about the potential for surf here, the setup resembling a reverse Santa Barbara sandspit.


Racing back home before dark...


Full moon rise over the river in Fukude.

Morning Commute

Here are some photos taken this morning on the walk to the beach from our new place in Hamamatsu. About 7 minutes from the front door to the sand by foot, 2 minutes by skateboard, 1 minute by bike. There is plenty to check out in this new town and new area, and I just scored a mountain bike, so I will be exploring plenty.



Sign on the way to the beach, I believe the translation reads, Warning, do not stroll the shorebreak fully clothed, you may be caught inside by a Tsunami and attacked by a cross-eyed catfish with eyebrows.


According to my personal translator, "Hama" means beach and "matsu" means pine tree, like these that line the beach.


But most importantly, WAVES! There is a huge stretch of beach here, with miles and miles of beachbreak. There were plenty of fun peaks to choose from this morning, leftovers from a tropical storm making its way up north. Plenty of fishing going on as well, with boats patrolling the outside and fisherman in 4wd jeeps spread out along the shoreline.