MIYAZAKI -- A rare kind of club activity has been established at Aoshima Junior High School in Miyazaki City's Aoshima district -- surfing.
The area is known as a famous surfing spot in Japan, but the club was only established this fiscal year. Students started training in June, after club activities were impacted by the school's temporary closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Out of 45 students at the school, twelve joined the club. They train while dreaming of riding the waves in their hometown.
Eleven club members gathered at Aoshima Beach, about 2 kilometers from the school, on June 21. It was their first day in the ocean. Students were puzzled by the waves as they changed constantly, but some succeeded in catching waves when they were able to match their timing to an incoming wave.
"I had been surfing with my parents before I entered junior high school. I want to practice with my friends and deepen my bonds with them," first-year student Kai Serra-Sanfelin, 12, said with a smile.
Surfer Hironari Yamamoto, 37, who works as a lifeguard on beaches all over Japan and lives in the city, has become the club's instructor. Students practice in the ocean on Sundays but on weekdays they are mainly in the school's pool.
"If you don't practice well here, you'll see differences between you and other students when you go out into the ocean," Yamamoto advised the students, who learn techniques such as paddling, in which surfers lie flat on a surfboard and paddle with their arms, and turning around. They enjoy playing water polo on surfboards in order to get used to them. There are smiles all round as they practice.
According to the school, of the two elementary schools in the district, about half of the students go to other junior high schools outside the area when they finish elementary school. One of the reasons is the lack of club activities at Aoshima Junior High School. Last year, there was only a badminton club and many students chose other schools outside their school district because of the club activities on offer.
School principal Koji Furukawa, 56, who was assigned to the school last fiscal year, thought about making Aoshima Junior High School more attractive by creating a new club that would take advantage of the characteristics of the district. The school surveyed its students and those at the elementary schools in the district, as well as their parents, about what club activities they wanted. Many requested a surfing club and the school decided to set it up.
An official at the Tokyo-based Nippon Junior High School Physical Culture Association said, "We haven't done a survey [about surfing clubs], but we've never heard of surfing as a junior high school club activity."
More than 60% of students who graduated from local elementary schools this spring entered the school. Furukawa felt that the surfing club had an impact, as half of the 18 first-year students signed up.
"The surfing club is unique to Miyazaki Prefecture, which offers a blessed environment by being close to surfing spots. I hope one of our students will become an Olympic surfer one day," he said.
--Surf year-round
Miyazaki Prefecture, which has about 400 kilometers of coastline along the Pacific Ocean, has about 60 surfing spots scattered around the prefecture. One characteristic of its beaches is that surfers can enjoy the waves throughout the year, as waves caused by typhoons and low pressure systems come right up to the coast. In 2019, about 253,600 people -- mainly surfers -- visited beaches in the city of Hyuga, which has some of best surfing spots in Japan, such as Okuragahama.
The World Surfing Games championship was held last September on Kisakihama Beach next to Aoshima Beach. The nine days of the championship attracted 88,000 visitors from all over the world.
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