Shonan
ćš˜ĺ?—
An hour or so south of Tokyo - Kugenuma Kaigan - Often hundreds of surfers sit waiting in waveless seas - Occasionally southerly swells pump perfectly into the bay and awesome waves reel from peaks all along the beach - Longboarding is a joy for many here - Though the local shortboarders rip on the tiniest ripples
Further east past a wonderfully temple populated island of green - onwards towards the ancient capital Kamakura - there lies stretches of reef where waves can be surfed in clearer water - Fuji-san and the distant volcanic mountain range dominate the horizon from most spots here and the effect is magnificent! - In such a densely crowded place it is admirable that so many people can live so close to each other - Even amongst the crowds in the ocean, waves can be ridden and shared - When the summer comes so do the typhoons - Twenty or thirty super low pressure systems will surge up from the south west or south east and pump swell into the gaping bay - These days are worth experiencing, sometimes coming and going within a matter of hours, sometimes lasting for a few days - Typhoons just hanging off the coast to the south provide constant swell - On such days the crowds reduce to realistic numbers and epic reefs will break all along the coast - SHONAN MAGIC
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Mark Stone - surfish7@hotmail.com
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