Shonan surf history: homemade boards and Enoshima
Compiled by Surf Haunts · Updated 2026-09-21
Shonan covers a stretch of coast rather than one surf break. Our print centres on the view towards Enoshima, the island off Fujisawa, with Mount Fuji in the distance. Along the nearby coast at Kugenuma, the surfing story includes a local surfer making his own boards long before Japan had a national surfing association.
A magazine and a homemade board
In a 2013 study of surfing's early history at Kugenuma, researcher Katsunori Kobayashi recorded Yoshitsugu Naito's recollections of learning about surfing through National Geographic in 1947.
Naito experimented with wooden boards, saw the boards used by US servicemen in 1951 and later made a foam board in 1961 after reading American magazines. The research draws on an interview with him. It's a personal account of trying things out, rather than a tidy starting date for everyone who ever rode a wave in Japan.
When a wider surf scene took shape
The Nippon Surfing Association describes young people in Shonan and Chiba making their own boards around 1960 after watching Americans surf. Its history calls those homemade boards “floats”.
The association was established on 15 November 1965. The following July, 99 surfers competed in the first All Japan Championships, according to its historical account. Those are milestones in an organised surf scene; Naito's earlier experiments add another part of the picture.
The island in the background
Enoshima is easy to recognise by the tower above its trees. The Sea Candle observation lighthouse took its present form in a 2003 redevelopment of the tower and its surrounding garden, so that skyline belongs to a much later period than the early board-making stories.
Nearby, Shonan Coast Park runs beside Katase and Kugenuma beaches. Kanagawa Prefecture notes that Mount Fuji can be seen from the park in clear weather. The mountain isn't a guaranteed part of every day's view, and its position relative to the island changes with where you're standing.
Do you remember the early boards?
We'd like to add more local detail: old board photographs, club memories or a family picture with a date and a place. Email us if you have something to share or correct. We'll ask before publishing it and agree how to credit you.
Our Shonan print
The photograph shows the Shonan shoreline and Enoshima in 2024. Our Shonan print brings the beach, island and Mount Fuji into an illustrated composition. It's a separate view, rather than a copy of the photograph or a reconstruction of the 1960s.
Compiled from public historical sources and fact-checked against them at the time of writing – not a first-hand or local account. Corrections and memories are welcome; we verify before publishing anything sent in.