Best Surf Trips from Tokyo
Japan's surf is good. The trips out of NRT and HND are even better.
21 spots featured
Tokyo is criminally well-positioned for surf travel. With Narita and Haneda offering direct flights across the Pacific, into Southeast Asia, and onward to the Indian Ocean, a Tokyo-based surfer can reach more world-class waves in under 8 hours than almost anyone else on Earth.
Bali is just 7 hours direct. Manila is 5. Guam is 4. These are the trips Japanese surfers have been quietly running for decades while the rest of the world flies through Singapore. The Mentawais, Siargao, and the Philippines reef passes are right there.
For bigger missions, Tokyo offers direct flights to Hawaii (8 hours), Sydney (9 hours), and the US west coast. The combination of proximity to Indonesia and connectivity to the Pacific makes Tokyo one of the world's most underrated surf-trip launchpads.
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USA(5 spots)
Pipeline
North Shore, Oahu, USA
Pipeline is the proving ground of professional surfing—a shallow, left-breaking barrel that has defined generations of surfers. The wave breaks close to the beach over a...
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Sunset Beach
North Shore, Oahu, USA
Sunset Beach is one of surfing's most revered and challenging waves—a football-field-sized playing field of shifting peaks and deep-water power. West Peak is the classic heavy...
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Makaha
West Shore, Oahu, USA
Makaha is Hawaii's original big wave spot—the place where big wave surfing was pioneered before Waimea Bay. Multiple sections (Point, Bowl, Blowhole, Inside Reef) offer different...
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Waimea Bay
North Shore, Oahu, USA
Waimea Bay was the most prestigious big wave break in the world for decades—a thundering right-hander that only truly comes alive when swells exceed 15 feet. When it's on, the...
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Canoes
Waikiki, Oahu, USA
Canoes is Hawaii's most iconic learner wave and the birthplace of modern surfing. Most days it's a gentle, rolling right, but when big south swells hit, the barrel section...
View Canoes surf forecast
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Indonesia(5 spots)
Uluwatu
Bali, Indonesia
Uluwatu is Bali's most famous wave, a long, walling left-hander that breaks over a shallow reef at the base of dramatic limestone cliffs. The wave offers multiple sections, from...
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Padang Padang
Bali, Indonesia
Padang Padang is Bali's version of Pipeline—a short, violent, left-hand barrel that explodes over a dangerously shallow reef. Unlike Uluwatu which works on small swells, Padang...
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Desert Point
Lombok, Indonesia
Desert Point is one of the longest, most perfect barrel rides on Earth—and one of the most fickle. When SW swells combine with low tide and offshore winds, this Lombok left...
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Impossibles
Bali, Indonesia
Impossibles earned its name because it's usually too fast to make—the wave races down a shallow reef so quickly that most sections close out before you can reach them. But with...
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Uluwatu (Bombie)
Bali, Indonesia
Uluwatu Bombie is Bali's big-wave arena—the deep-water outer reef that activates when massive Southern Ocean swells march north. While the famous inside sections of Uluwatu max...
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Australia(5 spots)
North Narrabeen
Sydney, Australia
North Narrabeen is Sydney's premier beach break—a long stretch of sand where lagoon run-off creates ever-shifting sandbanks that produce world-class lefts on their day. The...
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Shark Island
Cronulla, Australia
Shark Island is Sydney's most punishing wave—a right-hand slab that breaks over an almost-dry rock shelf, producing thick, heavy barrels of cartoonish proportions. The wave is...
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Ours
Cape Solander, Australia
Ours (Cape Solander) is Sydney's most notorious wave—a heavy right-hand slab that breaks over shallow rock in front of dramatic sea cliffs in Bra Boys territory. Claimed and...
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Bondi Beach
Sydney, Australia
Bondi Beach is Australia's most iconic beach—a crescent of golden sand flanked by sandstone headlands that has defined Australian beach culture for over a century. The surf is a...
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Cylinders
North Stradbroke Island, Australia
Cylinders is North Stradbroke Island's premier point—a sand-covered reef that produces long, walling rights when strong NE-E swells wrap into Moreton Bay. The name says it all:...
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Japan(5 spots)
Tsurigasaki Beach (Shidashita)
Ichinomiya, Japan
Tsurigasaki Beach, locally known as Shidashita, made history as the venue for surfing's Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Located on Chiba's Kujukuri coast, this exposed...
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Onjuku Beach
Onjuku, Japan
Onjuku is Chiba's mellow alternative to the competitive intensity of Tsurigasaki. This family-friendly beach town offers gentle waves that are perfect for beginners and...
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Katsuura
Katsuura, Japan
Katsuura sits at the southern end of Chiba's surf coast, rewarding those who venture farther from Tokyo with beautiful waves and significantly fewer crowds. The beachbreak...
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Kugenuma Beach
Fujisawa, Japan
Kugenuma is the beating heart of Shonan surf culture, just 40 minutes by train from Tokyo's Shinjuku station. The beach represents Japanese surf history, celebrating the roots of...
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Kaifu River (Japanese Pipeline)
Kaifu, Japan
Kaifu River is nicknamed the Japanese Pipeline, and when typhoon swells funnel into this rivermouth in southern Tokushima, the name is justified. The wave produces grinding...
View Kaifu River (Japanese Pipeline) surf forecast
Philippines(1 spot)
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