CHIBA NORTH

The coast is 50km of sandy beach shaped like a banana, running from Ioka in the north down to Taito. The only breaks in the coast are a number of rivers and hundreds of concrete structures, Tetra-pods, a consequence of Japanese Pork Barrel politics. These tetra-pods sometimes run horizontally to the coast (---- ---- ---- )

or straight out into the ocean ( | | ) or are formed into T T shapes. Obviously they have a huge effect on the natural movement of the sand along the coast but whether that improves the sand bars or not is any ones guess. The sheer number of them definitely reduces the amount of beach for surfing. The +++ side is that they also create their own channels and sand bars, often the best waves are close by and there are natural elevator rips to pull a surfer out past the break line into the line up. Be warned these are HUGE and not for beginners to be playing around.

The undersea approach to this section of coast is a long sloping sand bottom so any swells are slowed dramatically as they approach the shoreline and hence generally lack punch.

So much coast so many options, the Japanese all seem to subscribe to the same mobile phone surf report sites and hence all seem to end up in the same places. Usually these places have the better sand banks however, as always with shallow beach set-ups the height of the tide plays an important factor and spots turn on and off all the time. Once you see somewhere working don't waste time driving - surf.

Swell direction does not have too much of an effect along this stretch of coast but the tides do, general rule if a sand bar looks good - get on it.

Parking is mostly free either on the beach or in close vicinity, though sometimes in summer the more popular places will charge ¥500 ~ ¥1,000 for all day.

Size: None of the setups hold more than double overhead waves and clean days at this size are not so common. This stretch of coast breaks cleanest with smaller swells and light winds.

Bigger Swells: If you don’t mind some serious duck diving go when the swells are over 1.5m, you might get lucky and grab a sand dredging barrel or a fast running sucky wall, then again you might choose closeouts all day and get flogged on the paddle back time after time. The lineups get progressively less crowded as the swells get bigger.

Winter: cold water cold winds; warm wetsuit, boots and gloves

Summer: warm water, hot days and beach parties, board shorts

Spring and Autumn - often the best for swells.

Offshore Winds:

Top Part: light northerly winds OK, Westerly directly offshore

Bottom Part: Westerly round to South South West at Taito

Additional Notes:

Food:

Taco Shop about 2km north of Taito - really good burritos and tacos

Lots of restaurants with good after surf food located in the 2-3km north of Taito.

Careful on the drinking driving - Zero tolerance in Japan and the penalties are HUGE.

- Kite Surfing at ‘Teds’ rentals and lessons and good knowledge of the conditions - Ted Surf: www.ted-surf.com/kite.html

- Close access to Tokyo

- Can drive on the beach in some areas

- BBQ ok, take your rubbish when you leave

- Iron Sand

- surf fishing and shellfish collecting

- Surf shops everywhere.

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