Great August waves and my itago



Very nice surf last week thanks to Typhoons 15 and 16. Friday at Kako was perfect, a little over head high and really clean… Kako closed out Saturday so I headed over the Gyokyo for another great session. On Sunday and Monday it was breaking in Funka Bay…all in all, it feels like the typhoon season arrived a month early, which is great as August is usually pretty small. After the nice stretch of waves, the winds shifted onshore, and it’s been pretty junky since...

This year I pulled back on my board building activities mainly due to a lack of space, and quite frankly, a lack of need. I ride about 6 boards somewhat regularly, of which three are my own builds. On top of that, I have a few more boards that are gathering dust, so I really can’t justify making any more at the moment.

But, as I really dig the process of taking on new projects, I’ve decided to try to replicate some traditional surfcraft and see how they turn out. Even if they don’t turn out to be rideable boards, I thought they would be a tangible way to explore surfing history.

The first thing I wanted to make was an “itago” (板子), a traditional Japanese surfcraft similar to a paipo board. These types of boards were used for wave riding in Japan from about 150 years ago up until the 1960s. 

 

Originally, itago were “found” surfcraft; with kids using the removable floor boards from fishing boats to ride waves. Later itago were purpose-built, and adorned with advertisements for products or departments stores, and available for rent at popular public beaches throughout Japan. An excellent history of the itago, including numerous board examples and historical pictures, is available at Nobbywood Surfboards:

http://www.nobbywoodsurfboards.com/webpages/cn74/storage.html

The itago I made is a replica of one of the boards in Nobby’s archives/collection, an example of a rental board used in Kanagawa in the late 1960s.

 

About 20 years ago after a surf session in Toyoura an old fisherman came up to me for a chat, and he told me that he used to surf in Rebunge as a kid on "boards". I hadn't given that conversation much thought until I started reading more about the history of the itago. It now makes me wonder how far back surfing culture goes in Hokkaido.     

Old school Japanese itago surfing

Japanese girls with an itago
 



The replica

Hot in the summer

It's been hot and humid in Iburi this summer, today it reached 30 in Muroran for the first time this year, and Sapporo even hit 37. That's hot stuff for us Dosanko. Thankfully we have the ocean, and although the waves have dropped in size, it feels so nice to cool off before and after work. Today I even trunked it (with a vest), and it was a little slice of heaven. It's so Honshu summerish here that I even had a kuwagata (beetle) in the yard. It looks like the waves will pick up Friday with the Typhoon 13 swell, can't wait to surf some decent waves in just trunks and a rashie. Hopefully I'll have some decent pics to post next week.    

After work this evening

Ms Kuwagata

Typhoons 9,10, 11

Consecutive typhoons (9,10 & 11) have been spinning their way down south, moving incredibly slowly, and producing a couple weeks of long-period swell. The conditions up here in Hokkaido have been fantastic, sunny blue skies and clean faces. Up until yesterday, I had logged 18 sessions in the first 14 days of July. I finally took a day off today to kind of rest up for another bump in the swell tomorrow. I'm throwing up a few pics from the last week, we had bigger days, but the pics kinda capture the mood...Many thanks to Hiroyasu for the action shots...

Official End of Rainy Season

They say there's no rainy season in Hokkaido, but in each of the 15 Junes I've been here, it's rained like hell. Today we got a reprieve after nine days of sog...With the sun, we had a nice a bit of swell, and a low low tide...which all added up to an awesome morning. Long may the sun last...

Triple digits

Hit the 100 session mark for the year on Wednesday...and a mighty fine session it was too. I headed out to Gyokyo after work just as the wind was backing off. There were some really fun peaks, and a nice mellow crowd.
The following morning the swell was still up and Kako was great, clean head-high waves off the tetras all the way to the sand. Two sessions that day, before and after work, unfortunately no photographs...I was too excited to get in the water to take pics. Awesome couple of days this week!

2015 100th session

2015 100th session

Painting the fence and ran into this guy

Thinking I need a VW Type1

Typhoon 7

Well, I'm blissfully exhausted after logging some serious water time last week. The week started off with smallish clean and fun waves and things just kept building until Friday when, thanks to Typhoon 7, things got big, especially at Kako. Here's a couple of shots from early in the week.

Breaking off the tetras, clean all the way down the line

The Boss taking off in the boneyards

Did he make it? Tune in next week...

Golden Week

We had a great Golden Week here in Hokkaido, sunny all days but one, and some nice waves. The local break (Kako) felt a bit crowded a couple days, peaking at about 12 people, but was pretty empty otherwise. Us local surfers got together for our annual beach clean up and BBQ, good fun all around. There's an awesome sense of community at the local break, it is a real pleasure to live and surf here.

The waves have dropped, but the sand at the Kako rivermouth is really good this year so even on small days the waves have nice shape.
Below are some pics from this morning, small and nicely lined up. I took out the Big Red Simmons I made last year and it was a blast ... the board is so fast and just fired down the line, can't wait to give it a run tomorrow as well.

Little peelers

 

Big Red Simmons

Re-painted the tank on my MR. Looking good!