TYPHOON MAON

Typhoon No.6 "MAON" July 15th - 25th 2011

Front running swell trains started showing up Friday 15th in the early hours and with a Brisk SW cross offshore the northern beaches of Chiba were head thigh plus all day, Ichinomiya sand bars were in pretty good shape and it was nice to beat the weekend crowds. Heading into a the Japanese Beach holiday 3 day weekend so expectations were that everywhere was going to be really busy.

Saturday 16th - Early session out at Seaside Park Kamogawa, where the swell was starting to arrive 4-6ft sets (head to double overhead) On the early high tide the waves were peeling off right-handers from behind the tetra pods into the river mouth. Lots of waves and the expected summer crowds were curiously absent A strong local crew were out in force and charging hard. Stinking hot day not a cloud in the sky and at least 35 degrees.

Second session just after lunch on the lower tide was amazing solid 10ft plus faces on some of the big sets and at times complete glass, fast down the line walls with grinding throwing inside cover ups for the brave.

The SIJ team played hard scored big and had a top day, typhoon MaOn is pushing swell and this is only the beginning.

What will the morning bring?? Its a BBQ and beers tonight then head to Maibu as we all expect the swell to be too big for all of the beach breaks.

Sunday 17th 2011 morning and we awoke at Malibu Reef break along the Chiba Coast line, Fog blanketing the ocean at 4.00am due to the heat difference between the ocean and air temperature. It looks small from the car park as we can only see 100m, a quick walk down the beach shows that the set waves are well over head & peeling off both left and right. Waxed up and got out into the line up where we all scored some top rides.

Afternoon session and the low tide and Malibu continued to through out sizeable set waves, busy but still able to pick off a good number of double overhead bombs, as usual the best waves were the right handers that peeled over the reef...... STOKED!!

Monday 18th - An early wake right in front of Malibu Beach. The size had jumped and the sets were breaking well out the back in the double over head range , the amount of waves rolling in had also increased. It was not as clean as yesterday but there was still some super sick rides going down. The lefts were fun but the getting caught inside was heavy and quite a few gave up after taking too many waves on the head over the shallow reef. The right handers had big fat take offs, which when they hit the reef almost doubled in size instantly, sometimes almost scary board breaking big. Fantastic to be out there catching what will for sure be one of the best swells this year.

Tuesday 19th, Most of Chiba was blown out with the East in the wind as MaOn pulled further North, a couple of reefs in South Chiba fired for a few hours and a reef on the west of Izu fired off left hand point break waves all day.

Wednesday Blown out everywhere, Thursday Same same

Friday 22nd - MaOn has passed to the north and been downgraded from Typhoon Status to Low, Swells from the SE and E are hitting and she is starting to send swell from the NE 'Back Swells' - The wind is also NE so if you're in the right place the waves are flawlessly perfect.

Kamogawa North end beach & reef, Maruki, are on FIRE. 6-8ft - Head + on the beach break and double overhead on the reef - bombs coming through with thick ridable walls just like indo. Amazing. Lots of barrels counted. Surfed multiple sessions over 5 1/2 hours till the arms were falling off. WOW!!!

Afternoon sessions we will let the photos do the talking.

Saturday 23rd AND THE SWELL KEEPS COMING !!!!!! - Early morning rise for everyone again; camped out over night overlooking Hebara Beach. After one of the best days surfing action we have seen in many years down at Maruki we had to change locations due to a local competition. No problems - solid 3-6ft sets (head to double overhead) on the beach and reef here at Hebara, strong NE wind blowing cross offshore. Lots of the team turned up along with half of Tokyo due to it being Saturday & hit the line up and scored AGAIN, - THANKS MAON - heaving lefts and solid a-frame style right hand drops all morning with the odd 8ft plus set coming through and cleaning up the line. The north east wind is blowing hard making conditions cold, so its back into the 3mm full suits for some. The swell keeps coming from "Maon" and there are now rumors that it will get bigger again on Monday as we see one last push from this EPIC monster before she moves up north. This one will be talked about for years.

Saturday afternoon the tide and swell and wind aligned to light up Hebara and everyone was talking about it be ALL-TIME amazing. A couple of us that had surfed 7 out of the last 9 days were burnt out and headed home after the morning session for some family time and to leave it to the weekend warriors.

Below are a few videos we shot during this 10 day Marathon Typhoon!.