Shizunami was a little better than Yoshida so we decided to wait.  While we waited, we talked to the locals about other nearby points and heard that Shizunami was the best place to be today.

Eventually the rain stopped and the waves got bigger.  Surfed until the wind picked up.  It was so strong that I had to hold my board with both hands while walking across the beach!

I only took one picture today - I thought I took more.  Anyways, here is that one picture:

Excuse the low quality of this photo.  I snapped this with my cellphone.  In case you can’t read it, here’s what it says:

Juicy Pork Rib meets BBQ sauce!

Smoky flavor will makes you hungry.

Looks unique shape, but VOLUME MANTEN!

Good thing I had already ordered it before I saw this confusing catch copy.  A McRIB doesn’t taste like I remember it - I remember the sauce being very red in color and that it was so hot (in temperature) that you could barely hold it.  (Mind you that was quite a long time ago)

A rare appearance by Mr. Fuji - minus the layer of snow.  I guess that there will be snow there in the next month or so.  This is my first year in Shizuoka so that is mere speculation on my part.

I finished class at 12:10 and arrived at the beach just before 2:00.  I had no idea what to expect because I have never been there in the afternoon yet…

Wow.  One surfer.  Next stop, Shizunami.

A little blurry - but you get the picture.  No pun intended.

Here are a couple more pictures:

It was a refreshing change go surfing in the afternoon - I will have to try it again.  Perhaps Friday??

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!

While walking along the beach, I came across these rather strangely dressed guys.

Don’t know what they are supposed to be.  Any ideas loyal readers??

The Shizuoka Longboard Classic seems to be quite a big local event (IHMO).  I talked to a couple of the locals that were volunteering at the event and got at the necessary 411.  The Shizuoka Longboard Class is 2 days long - the first day had 40? heats - 5 surfers per 12-minute heat.  That’s right - it would take over 8 hours for all the heats.  Crazy!

Without further ado, here are some pictures from one of the heats:

Who am I to judge?  But to my untrained eyes, I think that the red surfer won the heat.

I didn’t hang around too long actually.  Perhaps if I knew some of the people in the contest it would be a lot more interesting!

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 woke up at 4:45 and managed to get on the road just after 5 am.  Here’s what I saw at 5:50 - just 10 minutes after sunrise:

What a great view!  I quickly suited up and was in the water at 6 am.  I surfed for 2 hours - the first 90 minutes or so were quite productive but the final 30 minutes involved more waiting than surfing.  In fact, 3 or 4 surfers also decided to call it an early day.

Here’s how it looked:

It was a great session.  Surfed until my arms and shoulders were dead tired.  It has been a long time since I’ve had such a quality outing.

Still lots of people out in the water - there was even some nutball wearing only a rashguard.  I’m still wearing my shortie / Farmer John suit but a lot of people are wearing full suits now.

While window shopping in one of the local surf shops, I found this wonderful Billabong fleece sweatshirt.  I couldn’t believe what I had found.  Check out the patch “Onry A Surfer Know The Feering” - Is this some kind of joke?  A product that appeals to Engrish users? Or did some creative genius not bother to run it through a grammar or spell checker?

Maybe Billabong should change their spelling to Birrabong!