Konnichi Wa!

[Lucky Al]

The beachbreak down the end of my street turned on the other day! Usually on a Sunday it's jam-packed with surfers from Tokyo, Kawasaki, Yokohama, Chiba and a hundred other cities within two hours' drive. But not this time! This time it was just a handful of locals in the water for the entire afternoon. I videoed a bit before jumping in and getting some good ones, too:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3998465055

[Moby]

Nice work but whats with the big fark off pile of rocks? Looks like they could provide a challenge

[Butts]

Luck Al, nice footage Great coverage

Looks very inviting, although a bit cold

Hope you got your fill

[loco4olas]

Al,

Some great waves.

Surprised at how the standard of surfing has improved amongst Japanese surfers-the goofy in the vid surfs great.

Care to tell where the spot is and what you're doing in Japan (PM if you want to keep it private)?

Matt

[Lucky Al]

I don't mind saying, Matt! I'm in Kamogawa, Chiba prefecture. Lived here on a Japanese Government scholarship since January 2006 and spent my time working on a video documentary about Kamogawa's surfing community. The scholarship runs out at the end of this month, and when I've left I'll sit down and try to make something watchable out of all my footage. I have an idea I might eventually be able to show it at the surf film festival they have in France every May - not this year, though. The goofy-footer in the clip is Toshihiro Sekiya, and the spot is right in front of his house. He can see it out his window, so he's always on it when it goes off (which is not very often) first. The 'big fark off pile of rocks' is a row of tetrapods! I have a lot to say about tetrapods, but I gotta run now. Meanwhile here's another clip from two weeks ago - also featuring Sekiya-san, as well as another great Kamogawa surfer named Naohisa Ogawa: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 4012&hl=en

[the shackle]

cold in the water up there at the moment al?

[bro]

I love Japan, the culture, the people, the food and the women, hmmm especially the women

Have only been there for trade shows would love to do a surf trip there some time soon

[Sleepy]

great stuff al!! loved the longboarder in the second vid. makes me wish i'd accepted a job there starting this month...

[Lucky Al]

The longboarder's Ken-san, a real ripper and surf nut! When I said I had to run earlier, it was because I'd arranged to video Ken at work in his kitchen. He's a cook with his own little restaurant a couple hundred metres from Maruki, the spot in the second vid. Surfs every day big or small, in early mornings and mid-arvos between preparing for and serving lunch and dinner. Ken knows waves so well, he always catches more and rides longer and more smoothly than anyone - and not because he's on a longboard. The reason he only gets two waves in the vid is I came late, when it was time for him to rush to work - I know he must have got twenty good ones before that. If people ever pass through Kamogawa they gotta visit Ken's restaurant, Donya. Ken's always happy to meet and chat with visiting surfers, and he has a bunch of surf vids and mags for customers to look at while waiting for food to come, too.

[Lucky Al]

The water's pretty cold - almost everyone in 5/3 and booties. But the water forty minutes' drive north is a lot colder - everyone in gloves and hood. Still farther north, they wear semi-dry and dry suits!

[bc]

What's the backing song?

[the shackle]

The water's pretty cold - almost everyone in 5/3 and booties. But the water forty minutes' drive north is a lot colder - everyone in gloves and hood. Still farther north, they wear semi-dry and dry suits!

i'm hearing you. i spent three and a half years up in fu kushima. i never bothered with the ocean until at least may...........luckily there were plenty of other distractions, snow etc..........

[Lucky Al]

not sure which track you mean, bc. in the first vid it's 'obeah man' by exuma, in the second there are two: 'miyabi' by agatsuma hiromitsu, and 'hot on the heels of love' by throbbing gristle. the sounds of agatsuma's shamisen put me in mind of a western, with gunslingers or swordsmen making their way to some ghost town to settle old scores or plan an impossible heist. i don't know what i was thinking when i used the other two tracks. there are people making interesting music here in kamogawa who'll let me use some things in the completed documentary.

[the shackle]

The water's pretty cold - almost everyone in 5/3 and booties. But the water forty minutes' drive north is a lot colder - everyone in gloves and hood. Still farther north, they wear semi-dry and dry suits!

i'm hearing you. i spent three and a half years up in darn. i never bothered with the ocean until at least may...........luckily there were plenty of other distractions, snow etc..........

oops i'm not sure where "darn" is, i meant to say Fu kushima

[fong]

, the food and the women, hmmm especially the women

oh.... jap women drool....oppps mean food

our new defence partners....who would thought

i recken the sking b better than the surfing.....eh al

[Lucky Al]

i don't know, fong. i've only been to the snow three or four times in my life, not yet in japan. certainly many australians come to japan just for the snow, but i'm stoked on the surf.

[Lucky Al]

this is from monday: a mysterious stranger appears in an idyllic setting where children play, and a shadow is cast across the land. the stranger changes shape and disappears, and the children continue to play as if humanity were not doomed and children everywhere could play in the same way forever...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5053&hl=en

[the shackle]

fukushima