The above picture was taken just before 6 am this morning.  I was surprised that I was able to take this picture without any surfers.

There are surfers.  How many can you see?

Another wave with no surfers.

One of the local longboarders showing how it is done.

How was the surfing today?  OKAY – one of the locals told us that it was best from between 5 and 6 am.  But that is like saying “You should have been here yesterday”.   Had a good session, but not as much fun as yesterday.  Looking forward to next month!

The big question is – Would the waves be as nice as yesterday’s?

These pictures were taken at 5:40 am:

Not as nice as yesterday, but certainly workable.  The waves were quite good and I caught quite a few waves in the first hour or so.  Like usual, the wind picked up and the quality of the waves went down.  I got some advice from Mr. T about how I can improve my surfing.  Even though the waves weren’t optimal, I continue to practice until almost 10 am – my longest session at Yoshida so far.  Looking forward to tomorrow’s session (my last session before my week-long conference in Germany).

For some reason, I think it is good luck to be able to see Mt. Fuji before going to the beach…

A lot of people seem to have Wednesdays off, so I wasn’t surprised to see around 20 cars in the parking lot before 6:00 am.  Here’s what the waves looked like:

A beautiful day for surfing and / or fishing.  Look again at the top picture – quite a few fishing boats out there!

We took a break around 8:30 and I snapped this shot of Mr. T, a friendly local, in action:

In case you are wondering, it’s not this Mr. T:

It would be interesting to see this Mr. T surf.  I pity the fool that snakes Mr. T’s wave!

Anyways, I had a productive session today.  Caught a fair number of waves and practiced my takeoffs.

Typhoon 11 has completely passed by Shizuoka now, so I figured that it would be just a regular day at the surf office today….

I was right.  There were about 10 cars in the parking lot – Ubon vacation is over so just the regular crew of surfers was there.  As far as conditions, they were a little better than last Thursday – no wind, nicely shaped but a little undersized waves.

This is what I saw at 6:30:

A longboarder catching a nice a small, but nice wave.

I snapped a couple more pictures as well:

No crowds to worry about today.  During the first 45 minutes or so, I was able to catch plenty of small waves.  However, at around 7:30 or so, the wind began to pick up and the quality of the waves worsened.  We continued to surf with little reward for our efforts.  At around 9:00, we called it a day.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Even without knowing exactly where we live, you can see that most of eastern Japan was expecting some larger than average waves.

When we arrived at 5:30 am, the parking lot was already half full.  Although Yoshida is a “secret” point – an awful lot of people know about it!

Here is what we saw when we arrived:

A closeup of the middle part of the beach:

Yep, lots of surfers jockeying for optimal positions.

This was Kazumi’s first time to go to Yoshida and wanted to do some bodyboarding but she forgot her board leash so she became the official sports photography for today’s session.  (Don’t worry – she had other things to do as well.  We always keep our beach chairs in the van, so she was able to enjoy some suntanning as well).

In this picture, my friend and I are checking out the surf:

If you look closely, the left bottom part of my deckpad is missing.  Somehow it torn off when I was surfing at Tatadohama on Friday.  (Don’t really need it – but it looks kinda stupid!)

Here are a couple shots of yours truly in action:

We continued to surf until the crowds picked up and the wind came or is it the other way around?  Anyways, it was a refreshing change to surf in big waves.  Looking forward to the next typhoon swell. 

P.S. this is my 100th post to this blog

Even though we had a good parking spot, I couldn’t sleep soundly.  I could hear the sound of an idling diesel engine.  Quite annoying and certainly not good for the environment.  I think that the majority of surfers respect the environment so I was surprised by this.  Of course, it is during summer vacation so I imagine that a lot of people are city slickers making their annual trip to the beach.  Anyways, I didn’t sleep so long and was up and about around 5 am.

Here are some pictures I took around 5:30

Not many people in the water yet, but already people are setting up their tents for the day.  (Camping is not allowed on the beach).  The waves didn’t look so great, but as the tide went out, I expected that the waves would get better.

Here’s a picture that was taken at 6:30:

As you can see, the waves were bigger than they were at 5:30.  The waves continued to get better and I enjoyed surfing until about 9:30.

This is a panorama photo taken around 10:30.  (Click on the photo to see it full-size – you won’t be disappointed. )

Here’s a closeup shot of the middle of the beach:

If you look closely, you can see a red and yellow flag.  This flag is put up at 9 am.  To the left of the flag is the swimming area and to the right is the surfing area.  I would estimate that about 70% of the beach is for swimming and 30% is for surfing.  (FYI, bodyboarders with fins must play in the surfing area and bodyboarders without fins must play in the swimming area)

Here are a few more photos of the beach:

We’re busy for the next couple of weekends, but we’re looking forward to going again next month.

BTW, when we left the beach at around 11 am that diesel van was still idling.

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!

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.

We left at around 3 am, but decided to take the route along the ocean instead of driving through the mountains. It is an extra 20 kilometers but it certainly is an easier drive – especially in the early hours of the morning.

The forecast called for a 30% chance of rain, but it turned out to be mostly cloudy. I actually got a bit of a sunburn on my head and face. I will wear my surf hat next time.

How were the waves? At 6 am, the waves were pretty good, but as the tide went out, the waves went with them. Here’s a picture of me playing in the soup at the end of the session…

That’s right.  I went to Tatadohama.  Went by local roads – left at around 3:30 am and was in the water just after 6 am.

How was the surf?

If you look closely, you can see a big grin on my face!

Was the water cold?  You betcha! I estimate that about half of the people out there this morning were wearing boots.  I stayed in the water for around 2 hours and that was enough for me – for some reason, I seem to lose a lot of body heat through the top of my head.

Was the beach crowded?  At 6 am, there were 10 or so surfers in the water.  This is what it looked like just before 9 am.  (Just for the record, Kazumi took the two pictures of me, and the picture below was stolen from this website.