You surf often. Do you still feel stuck?
Taiwan has a flat season, inconsistent conditions, and no systematic training environment. Japan has the opportunity — but accommodation, transport, wave pool bookings, board rental, language and coach access are all hard to arrange alone. Even with the trip planned, you may never actually reach Japan's elite coaches or its local training system.
We arrange the local hosting, the coaching communication and the trip details, so you can concentrate on surfing. Wave pool training, Japanese coaching, video analysis and Chinese-language support help you see your own problems — and go home with a clear direction to practise.
Give us the logistics. Keep your attention for surfing.
For surfers who already stand up, and are ready to break the plateau.
For Taiwanese surfers who can already paddle, take off and control the board unaided. This is not a beginner surf camp. It is for people who want clearer feedback, more systematic training, and to genuinely get past where they are stuck.
- You paddle, take off and control the board unaided
- You have plateaued, and roughly know where
- You want to be corrected repeatedly, not praised
- You would rather improve than relax
- You have never surfed, or still need pushing into waves
- You want a beach holiday with some surfing in it
- You want a big group and a party
- You want guaranteed barrels and a tan
Improving takes more than water time
Progress needs clear training goals, a repeatable practice environment, visible video feedback, and coaching you can actually understand and absorb.
Wave pool training
A stable, repeatable environment — suited to correcting technique and observing progress.
Elite Japanese coaching
Access to high-level Japanese coaches that ordinary visitors cannot arrange alone.
Chinese-language support
Not just translation — help understanding what the coach's feedback means and how to apply it.
Video analysis
See what you actually do, understand the problem, and watch it change.
Local hosting, handled
Accommodation, local transport, board rental, bookings and communication — arranged.
Real Japanese surf culture
Board shops, coffee, the rhythm of the coast, local etiquette, izakaya, ordinary conversation.
A practice direction you take home
You leave with one to three clear training priorities to keep working on in Taiwan.
Why a pool beats the ocean for learning
The ocean is where surfing is worth doing. It is a poor place to learn, and the reason is measurement, not romance.
You get the repetitions
A good ocean session might give you twelve rides in two hours, most compromised by position, crowd, or a section closing out. A pool gives you the same count in twenty minutes, on demand.
The wave stops being a variable
When every wave differs, you cannot tell whether a turn failed because of your technique or the wave. Hold the wave constant and the only thing still changing is you.
Feedback arrives while it still matters
Every ride is filmed from the same angle. You watch it, adjust one thing, and do it again eight minutes later — not next weekend, when the feeling has gone.
Why Makinohara?
Makinohara has the wave pool, an ocean coastline, a real local surf culture, and Chinese and Japanese language support. It suits a short, concentrated block of progression — and a genuine look at how Japan surfs.
Makinohara is also one of Japan's great green tea regions. The pool sits among the fields — mornings are quiet and the water is glass.
Choose your training rhythm
Whether you have a short break or a full week, there is a rhythm that fits.
Four-day intensive
For surfers with limited leave who want to see the problem and the direction quickly. A short, concentrated block of pool training, coach feedback and video analysis to find what is actually holding you back.
Arrival, welcome tea, an introduction to the local surf scene, board shop, pool visit, choosing a rental board
First pool session, video analysis, setting tomorrow's training goal
Second pool session, video review, a local izakaya
Free ocean surf if conditions allow, final review, practice notes for home, departure
Seven-day progression week
For surfers who want depth — training, review, recovery and local culture, with enough space for the body and the understanding to absorb it. Not a week crammed full.
placeholder — price and first-trip dates are not yet set. The list hears first.
A practice direction you can take home
You go home with more than photographs. You leave with one to three clear training priorities — what to work on next, why, and how to tell whether it is working.
specific priorities, not a long list of notes
shot from a consistent angle, still useful months later
how to tell whether the change is actually happening
And Taiwan, when the wind turns
The Kuroshio runs north from Taiwan's east coast to Japan's. We travel both ways along it. Taitung and Hualien — warm, uncrowded, mountains meeting the sea, and the best food of any surf trip you will take. In development.
The people you travel with
Zijun Wang 王紫君
A Taiwanese surfer who has been training between Taiwan and Japan for years. Handles the Taiwan-side communication, planning and Chinese-language support — and joins every pilot trip personally.
Coach name TBC
placeholder — name, biography and photograph require the coach's consent before publishing.
First dates go to the list
No newsletter, no drip campaign. One email when the price and dates are set, and nothing else.
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