Back in the 1990’s: I would get a call from Tokura-san that a typhoon has formed off the coast of Japan so get ready. No cell phones back then so it would be to my home land line. I would call my travel agent and get on a flight from Hawaii to Japan asap. Getting picked up from the airport, jumping on ferries to outer islands, and diving for hours and hours. We would arrive and the waves would be flat. BUT, we all knew that the typhoon swells will be showing up soon. There were no internet, cell phones, or surf reports back then. We would go off local knowledge and mostly instinct. Japan is a big country with lots of surf spots so finding surf is relatively easy. The hard part if trying to figure out where would be the best spot on a given day. We usually called it “The Day” which means we are at the best spot on the best day at the best time. It was our job, and more important, it was our passion. We were surfers that wanted the best of the best. The crazy thing is we were always ended up at the best of the best.
This particular day was on a special island. Heavy rain a month before broke open the river forming an absolutely flawless cobblestone bank. A super typhoon a hundred miles out to see sent glassy swell lines that once hit the bank, turned into a monster barreling wave machine. It was 6-8′ Hawaiian scale, nobody out, and absolutely gorgeous weather. It’s one of those days I still dream about…
