Hanging Ten at Yang Yang

A while ago I posted a great video of winter surfing in South Korea presented by YESiSURF.com & Another Day.
Very inspirational!

The other day I went on a road trip to the east coast to seek out those very waves. Not quite winter but the beginning of Autumn.
First stop was Sokcho and it was great to sea the ocean again but the waves weren't really surfing friendly. A nice swell but it was all beach break. No bars seemed to be evident. Having said that it was really nice to get wet and roll around in the swell.

It was heading south toward Gangneung that the real gold was discovered.
Just little fishing villages and seaside towns are where it is really at.

Hajodae was a beautiful sleepy town that had a promising point break and a big stretch of beach heading up to the north. A bit choppy on the day but good size. There were a few places that had boards, mainly for hire dotted around the point. But this was out of season so most were closed.

Further south is Yang Yang and a couple of little towns around here seemed to be the place.

Gisamun on the 38th parallel was were the mushroom navigation light in the video lives. Mainly a fishing village but there were surf shops dotting up to! They had some really nice boards for sale and hire and lots of paraphernalia. Chatted to a local or too and they had some interesting yarns to weave.
But of all things on this day the swell was too big. 3 meter and it was crashing over the breakwall. The evening before  there had been a number of people out getting some waves but I arrived just on dusk. Too late.

checking some of the hardware

That magic mushroom

quite a large swell that day!

 A bit further south is another sleepy town that also has some good breaks but I was just passing through this one.

 

All of these places are overpopulated in the height of summer but at this time you had the run of the joint. Gotta get back and this time have a surf but in the mean time I will just keep watching that video and dreaming. Not that I want to do the snow thing but in season it looks like a great place for a wave and really promising for a country that is just at the beginning of its surfing history.

Postscript: if you want the ultimate in uncrowded waves there is a group that organises surfing tours of the North Korean East Coast!!!!!   check it out here  just scroll down for some English