About Okinawa


No Waves In Okinawa?
Surfin Okinawa
OkinawaSurf-Spot No. 1
Okinawa Surf-Spot No. 2

Generally there are waves year round with Typhoon season running from May thrul December producing stronger storms than anywhere in the world. Low pressures from November to May. move quickly down from Korea ramming into Okinawa dilivering good chilly surf. Super typhoons deliver some very large surf on all corners of the island. One of the best waves is actually at the Sunabe seawall. This wave on a south swell has been ridden while throwing much like "Pipe". On any given day that you walk your dog or snorkel down at the seawall you wont see these waves, but when the window opens and the south lines start to light up the west side you would really be surprised. Spring offers a mixed plate of south wind swell and leftover low pressures. Fall is the opposite with powerful left over typhoons swell and fresh new northern low pressures .

The corel reef is live, sharp and shallow. Most breaks range from .5 to 1.5 meters of water at high tide. Tides are extreme with a swing of about 6 feet. A good rule of thumb for someone just arriving here is to surf two hours before and 2 hours after high tide. Ninty percent of the waves here are high tide breaks, but if you learn what you’re doing you'll find plenty of low tide waves. There are only two real sand bottom beach breaks on Okinawa.

The water temp ranges from 68 F to 88 F. Blue crystal waters with pools of piss. It gets really hot in the summer months. Hot spots of water migrate north with every south swell. In the winter the westside cools down to 68 F. That doesn't sound bad if your from California or Florida, but believe me after a year or so after your climatized and that cool 68 F water combined with a North Korean wind and you'll wish you had a 3/4 full wetsuit. Most of the year you can wear a spring suit (2/2 type) when it's chilly, but then bust out the board short for about 6 months. .

Don't forget the wave maker. The wind. Lot's of this stuff. In the winter months the lows usually bring the wind out of the northwest with the approach of the storm and ending up out of the northeast to east direction. This makes for good surf on the westside. In the summer the winds come from the south.

Typhoons are the best thing about Okinawa surf. Okinawa get's about 3 to 4 typhoons on the westside and lot more on the eastside.

Prefectural Symbol
The outer circle of the Okinawa Prefecture symbol represents the ocean. The white circle symbolizes a peace-loving Okinawa and the inner circle symbolizes a globally developing Okinawa. In short, the mark symbolizes "Ocean" "Peace" and "Development."

"Mensore!" -- a word for welcome in the Okinawan dialect.