Before I started this internship, I had never even tried surfing. During my time as an intern, another intern who was a keen surfer and offered to teach me. We found a surf shop named ‘Mizuke Surf Shop’, which is on Kawarago Beach. To get to the surf shop from Omika Station, you must travel one stop on the train to Hitachitaga Station. From there it is a 20 minute walk to the beach. You will know you are near the beach when you see the burger shop named ‘Beach Burger 9’, take a left and you will arrive at the surf shop.
The surf shop is a unique place which is owned by an even more unique person named Bonji. If you are not very confident with Japanese, he will be able to speak enough English to you in order to understand what you need. I was able to rent a surfboard from him for only 10,000 yen for three months – which is a very good price. Especially as it allowed me to use a beginner board and when I became more confident I was able to upgrade to a slightly harder to use longboard, saving me a lot of money.
The waves on the beach are consistently good and the sun rises early in the morning so the beach is the perfect place to go to watch the sunrise (if you live in the apartments or with Sagawasan which are both close to the beach), while in the summer you would be able to go after school!
When it comes to learning, the method you use is up to you. You can learn for free from a friend or from a YouTube video – or you can pay Bonji for lessons (although I am not sure how much this would cost). If you were to get involved with the surfing down at the beach there is a great community to get involved with which would greatly supplement your internship.
