As always, the first stop was Yoshida but it had only tiny waves – almost flat.  There were only 3 or 4 fisherman there.  Surprisingly, they weren’t in the middle of the beach.  They were at the far left part.  I wonder why.  It was raining so hard that I didn’t even bother to take a picture.  (Sorry) The second stop was Shizunami.  There were a several fishermen and a handful of surfers.  It was better than Yoshida but we were hoping for better.  So we continued to the third stop – Kashima.  (Where we surfed on Saturday and Sunday).

Unfortunately, Kashima was worse than Shizunami.  One surfer was coming back to his car and one was sitting in his car thinking about going in or not.   Needless to say, we went back to Shizunami.

Here’s how it looked:

Further to the left (towards the old jetty):

Challenging, but definitely surfable.  For the first 30 minutes or so, several sets of heavy waves came in.  It was quite a workout!  I could certainly feel it when I was writing on the blackboard later in the day!

Eerily similar – wouldn’t you agree?  Sunny, fishermen staking out the middle part of the beach and tiny waves.

Of course we knew that the Shizuoka Longboard Classic finals were today so we continued past Shizunami to Kashima.

Like yesterday, cars were parked along the narrow roads leading to the beach.  Why were so many cars here?  Overflow from Shizunami?  Great waves?

Anyways, we parked on the street and walked down to the beach with the trusty digital camera in my hand.  Here’s what we saw:

Not particularly exciting.  To the right here’s what we saw:

Lots of people waiting for little waves.  We also saw some tents – the telltale signs of a surf contest.  Doh!  That meant that the middle part of the beach would be off-limits and that everyone would be clumped together.  Oh well.

Surfed for just over two hours until the wind picked up.  Today was the first Sunday of the month so that meant that it was official beach clean day.  At 9 am, plastic garbage bags were handed out to the civic-minded surfers including yours truly.  I’d estimate that 25 – 30 people spent 15 minutes or so picking up garbage.  It’s amazing how much cleaner the beach was when we were finished.  I’ll we definitely try to go to the beach next month too!

First stop – Yoshida:

The fishermen had already staked out the middle part of the beach.  It didn’t really matter because the waves were tiny.  To the right, there were a few surfers…

on to the second stop – Shizunami!

Certainly a lot more promising than Yoshida.  Here’s another picture:

Small waves and an unusually high number of longboarders.  From my casual observations, I thought that mostly shortboarders surfed here.  Strange…

I quickly found out the reason.  Can you see the large clump of surfers down the beach?  The 20th annual Shizuoka Longboard Classic was being held.  We decided to move on…

Third stop – Kashima.

I haven’t surfed here since the end of June.  Today was much better than the last time we checked it out!

We surfed here for a couple hours until the wind picked up and the crowds came.

I knew that the waves probably wouldn’t be very good, but at least it wasn’t raining!

When I arrived at the beach at 6:30, I saw 8 people surfing, 1 surfer carrying a surfboard and 1 smoker / wave watcher.  It was a pretty typical weekday at Kashima.

The waves were not amazing, but at least they were surfable – a refreshing change from the past few sessions.

If you look closely, actually not that closely, you can see quite a few fishing boats.  I don’t know if it was my imagination or not, but I swear I could smell diesel fumes!

I forgot to mention it in my post about June 18th so I will mention it now.  Last week we saw a solitary jellyfish.  One jellyfish isn’t much to worry about but I certainly don’t want to experience my first jellyfish sting.  When it happens, I’m sure I will be posting of a badly swollen arm or leg!

Here’s a picture showing the lack of progress on the beach houses at Shizunami.

When I arrived at just before 7 am, here’s how it looked.

A few surfers and a stand-up paddler guy.  This paddler guy was probably the same guy that was here a week before.

My friend, a short boarder, decided to use his fun board because the waves weren’t looking so hot.  I always use my 7’6″ fun board, but on days like this are better suited for long boards.  We were in the water for a couple of hours, but only had a couple of good waves.  It seemed like every 15 minutes or so, a decent wave would come along.

Looking forward to next week!

Not an optimal day for surfing. You sharp-eyed readers quickly noticed that it wasn’t crowded. In fact, there were 2 surfers out there and this guy giving up for the day.

It was raining a bit and I had driven about 45 minutes to get here, so I certainly wasn’t going to turn around and go home. Not much to report, but I had fun practicing my paddling!

Here’s what it looked like about 3 hours later:

The weather had cleared up and was threatening to become a sunny day. A few more surfers were out, but there was a lot more waiting than surfing going on!

On the way the our traditional post-surf coffee at McDonald’s, we passed by Shizunami. The construction crews were hard at work on the beach houses.　This is an ominous sign that the official beach season is nearly here. Once the official season is here, people have to pay 1500 yen for the privilege of parking at the beach. Craziness!

The waves were much bigger than Typhoon #4 and the wind was still quite strong – not that tempting for a novice such as myself. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me and couldn’t take any pictures. I watched them for around 10 minutes and only saw one of them catch a wave. I did one of them take a nice tumble head over heels though.

Even though I had my gear in the car, I decided against going out. I knew that I’d be going out the next day at Kashima, my new home point.

On Wednesday morning, I arrived at the beach at about 6:15 am. There were a few cars, but not crazy like a few weeks before. The wind was strong and the waves were big – they reminded me of my visits to Hamamatsu. My friend and I briefly talked about checking out Sagarako, but we decided to give Kashima a go. It wasn’t a very successful session – caught a few waves, but nothing to write home about. (Mom, if you are reading this – hello!)

Once again, I didn’t have the camera, so I couldn’t take any pictures. Here’s a site from one of the surf shops, but it is misleading.

Looking forward a day of nice waves MINUS the typhoon!

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…

When I arrived at just after 6:30 am, there was a grand total of 5 surfers on the beach and in the water.  Fortunately, the waves were bigger than 50 cm.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take the digital camera.  I tried to take a picture with my cellphone, but it was in closeup mode and the picture is horribly blurry.  Here’s a picture from one of the local surfshops.   Strangely enough, it doesn’t show any surfers – everyone is about 100 metres to the right of where this picture was taken.

A misleading photo, but there were surfable waves out there for the patient type.  Interestingly enough, when we left just after 9 am, there were 5 surfers, albeit different ones, in the water.