Typhoon 6

Typhoon #6 has churned up some gigantic surf here, I took a looooong road trip to find a more protected wave, and wound up stumbling into some rivermouth perfection. This point only turns on when its big and the swell wraps into the Suruga Bay. The view from the lineup while riding this wave is incredible, with Mt. Fuji towering in the background as the wave wraps down the point. However, my camera is not waterproof so I have no photographic proof!
By chance, Nori-san from Cojo Surfboards stopped by on his way to Fuji and snapped a couple cell phone pics.

Typhoon Melor (#18)

Typhoon Melor (#18 in Japan) made landfall a few nights ago here in Shizuoka/Aichi and was raging outside for a couple days. The days leading up to the typhoon were rainy and gray, but the waves were pretty good. I have experienced some bad weather in California before, but I have a new respect for the power of these tropical typhoons (or hurricanes or cyclones depending on your location). There have been times when I have been been scared in the ocean, but this was the first time that just walking outside has seemed life threatening to me. The worst of the storm hit in the middle of the night with 70-90 mph winds, making for a very sleepless night.




Before the typhoon made landfall, I took trip down the coast to explore some different surf spots.


I found many miles of surf like this, gray and offshore with nobody around and much bigger than it looked.



This is a photo from left that is closer to home near the local rivermouth. Mostly closeouts, but every once and awhile a gem would come through. Again, much bigger than it looks, no humans around to give it some perspective.



This is one of the more well known spots on the coast, Tahara Long Beach. There are a few professional surf contest held here each year, since it seems to be a consistent wave. This day was big, but still pretty manageable. This wave is very similar to Morro Bay, minus the warm water river from the power plant.



Unsurfed slab #1. Fun wave to look at, but probably painful to surf. I was waiting up on the cliff for a Japanese charger to take it on, but nobody showed. I thought about paddling out for 1/10th of second then thought better of it. Not to sound like a broken record, but it is bigger than it looks...



More unsurfed beachy, where is everybody?



Me, about to go storm riding the morning after the typhoon passed. If I look a bit tired it is because I was up all night listing to the wind scream and waiting for our apartment to blow away.



A few gems made it through the chaos, but this was more of a day for watching.



Nature, meet man...



Looking north up the river following the worst of the storm.



This used to be a bike trail, quite a few pine needles were shaken loose from the matsu trees.



Toyohama looked semi-surfable, nobody around, just one car in the lot.



This is my favorite check spot. Just a random construction along the side of the bike trail to give you a view over the pine.


Storm clouds pushing out the last of the typhoon.





After two days of searching, I found my rivermouth sandbar perfection, perfect and peeling 6 inch drainers. I mind-surfed myself silly for hours, it was fantastic.



One of the most incredible things about the storm systems here is the speed in which they come and go, one day will be gray, rainy, windy and huge out-of-control surf, and the next day will look like this, calm and glassy and inviting.

I will be off visiting the Island of the Gods for a little while, taking many photographs, but probably without the means to upload and share the photos. As soon as I get back online I will share the goods.

Super Typhoon Choi-wan

Super Typhoon Choi-wan came and went bringing some huge surf to the coast here, Saturday was probably 15 feet and fairly clean conditions, but not much shape around here. Some of the outer sandbars were breaking, but I didn't see any takers willing to paddle out (or anybody on the beach at all for that matter). I will come clean right now and admit that I wussed out and I was not willing to charge the outer sandbars alone. Somewhere in Japan was going off I am sure, but my local knowledge is limited, maybe next time I can get to a point or reef that can handle the size. But I was out there the next moring when it was a more manageble 4-6 ft.

California, I think this thing is headed into the northern Pacific then coming your way, hopefully you will get some waves as well.

One of those mornings where you can hear the surf and smell the salt in the air before you even see the ocean.

This would have been a fun surfable wedge, but unfortunately there is an unfinished skaffolding/pier coming off of the jetty here, so at the end of each ride there would have been a chance of being impaled on the pilings.

Tetrapods, Eagerly awaiting their new homes in a lineup near you. As I have mentioned before, from the coastline that I have seen, Japan has more concrete structures developed along the shoreline than I have seen anywhere in the world. When the waves come up, some interesting nature vs man-made object battles take place.


Local skimboard crew, playing it safe on the inside.

This was the only surfable wave I saw along the coast this day. But the currents and closeouts kept everybody out. It is much bigger than it looks. Ok, I am all out of excuses as to why I didn't paddle out but at least I lived to post photos for everybody to look at.

Not the smartest place to be fishing this day. You can sort of get a feel for the size of the surf in this photo.