The weather forecast was for sunshine in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon, so I definitely wanted to go out surfing today. However, this was the what the wave forecast for this morning looked like:
As you can see, the forecast was for a terrifying 50cm - 99 cm swell. Not too promising, but I figured that some paddling practice could do me some good…
Usually news about the environment is pessimistic at best. I was happy to see a report that the humpback whales are doing well in the North Pacific. In 1966, the population was estimated to be less than 1,500. A large study conducted by 400 researchers between 2004 and 2006 found that the population now numbers around 20,000. About half of these whales migrate between Alaska and Hawaii, while the over half migrate from Russia to Japan and the Philippines. The findings also suggest that there must be a third migration pattern that hasn’t been identified yet.
To read more about the study and to see some beautiful photos, visit here.
On a usual Wednesday, there are 5 or 6 cars parked at the beach when I arrive at around 7 am. When I arrived at around 6:30 this morning, the narrow farmer’s road leading to Kashima was lined with cars. Here’s what the lineup looked like. Lots of surfers - there must have been at least 50 people on the beach and in the water. I was surprised - but if I expected good waves the locals must have known that good waves were in the mix. I wasn’t disappointed - the waves were a good side. Had a good session - probably my best outing of the season. Looking forward to the next session!
Typhoon Number 4 is on the way, it rained quite heavily last night and was raining this morning when I arrived at work. By the time my first class finished, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. Here is a picture of Mt. Fuji from my desk.
In the foreground you can see my powerful “NO Value Star” computer. In case you are wondering, I didn’t write that - it was like that when I got it. I then decided to get a better picture from outside…
I was game for trying a new point, so I put on a T-shirt and jumped in the car. (I must have looked ridiculous - I was half-wearing a wetsuit and a T-shirt). There was no way I was going to bother taking off my wetsuit and then put it back on in a few minutes. For those of you who have had the fortune / misfortune of wearing a wetsuit will quickly agree with me.
We drove for about 5 minutes to Sagara, an industrial seaport. I had been there before, but I had never surfed there before. I was put off by the rather large, rather official-looking sign in Japanese with “No Surfing” “No Jet skiing” “Danger” and some other things that I couldn’t read. (The sign is quite faded and has some difficult kanjis).
When we arrived, there was a solitary longboarder in the water. However, it didn’t look as menacing as Kashima. The wind was still strong and it was still raining quite heavy. We quickly got in the water and enjoying ourselves.
I am quite lucky about weather. The rain stopped and sun tried to make an appearance. Here are a few pictures that I took at around 10 am. I wanted to take a picture of the sign but it was blocked by a couple of vans.
When I visited this point before, it was completely flat - barely a ripple. Apparently, this point only has waves when there is a typhoon swell. Of course, the locals know this well and when we were leaving, there were about 30 or so surfers and a bodyboarder in the water.
A nice morning at the beach!
Like usual, the forecast was for rain. When I rolled out of bed at 5:30 am, it was raining. It don’t look like it was raining too hard so I got ready. When I went outside, it was raining hard enough that I got an umbrella and was having second thoughts about going. These thoughts quickly passed - I knew that this was my chance to catch the end of a passing typhoon, so I was certainly going.
An hour later, I was in the parking lot at my unofficial new local point, Kashima. Here’s what I saw:
You can’t really tell from the pictures, but the waves were quite big. I guess that it was overhead or maybe even bigger. Not too many people were in the water, but I thought I would go out for a paddle and try to catch a wave or two. My friend hadn’t shown up yet, but I was going out anyways.
I had my wetsuit half-way on when my friend arrived. He suggested that we try a different point just down the road…
The wave forecast didn’t look too promising, but I decided to head to the beach anyways. It was pretty windy as well. When I arrived at the beach at around 7 am, there were only 4 surfers in the water. Not a promising sign. As they say, a day at the beach beats a day at the office! Caught a few waves, but nothing to write home about - good enough for a blog entry though. Forgot the camera again, but found this picture on the website of one of the local surf shops.
If you look real closely, you can’t see me.
For the record’s sake, here is what it looked like yesterday (when I wasn’t there).
Check out the guy posing like a bird on the tetrapods.
