A look into the Terasawa Girls Skimboard Festival in Nagoya, Japan through the eyes of Jen Jacobs
and Keiao Gucwa-Bucasas.
Day 1
Start of a 7 day trip to Nagoya, Japan for the Terasawa Girls Skimboard Festival.
The sport of skimboarding is blessed by a slightly obsessed and passionate rare group of people from across the globe that creates a unique opportunity to meet new friends from all over the world– Keiao and Jen met and became quick friends over five years ago at the World Championships of Skimboarding in California. They’ve been talking about doing a skim trip ever since.
Keiao tried to organize a group of girls to skim the Terasawa Girls Festival this year — but, its a far flight for those not working for the airlines– or Jen, whose just a short flight away in South Korea, where she’s been teaching English for the last year.
Keiao planned everything from the point of arrival to where they would be staying. Jen had it easy and just booked her plane ticket and packed her skimboard. Keiao’s a welcomed mini celebrity to Japan where she was invited to coach at the first Terasawa Girls Festival and is now welcomed as part of the family to the warm hospitality of the Japanese culture and skim community.
Stoked to be here… and let the journey begin!
Jen Jacobs
Keiao Gucwa-Bucasas
Day 2
Woke up to the foot steps of 3 year old Kito walking around that house. Tired and dazed from the jet lagged I was still able to wake up with excitement. Sachiko (our host while staying in Toyohashi) had mentioned that the waves at Terasawa beach had been fun the past few days. I was ready to hit the beach. Unfortunately, when the waves were at it’s best the camera sat in my backpack as we all skimmed 🙁 There’s nothing better then ending a skim session with Sushi! We headed back to the house for the rest of the day to wait for all of the other girls who would be arriving for the contest. Nothing more exciting then waiting to reunite with old friends and meeting new ones. Mata ato de ne bye bye.
— KGB
Keiao had to sleep in the kitchen because it was the only room in the house that had an air conditioner. i put the a/c remote on the floor between the both of us so we could adjust the settings in case we got too cold or too hot while we were sleeping. unfortunately, we didn’t get the best sleep upon arrival on our first night in Japan tossing and turning and scrunching ourselves into a cocoon all night sleeping like ice-cubes in a big ice box. We were both just too tired to adjust the a/c.
either way, we woke up bright and early ready to start our first day in japan! Sachiko, our host for the weekend, had the cutest four year old son, who came romping on our sleeping mattresses to wake us with cute smiles and reading animal books and watching Curious George dubbed over in Japanese over a few cups of coffee.
after breakfast i was stoked to hear we were headed straight for the beach. just a fifteen minute drive and the coast was in sight beyond the bamboo jungle and rice field horizon. the farmland gave way to the coast and decent waves.
we skimmed some fun waves for the next few hours and ate delicious one dollar sushi plates for lunch. our bellies were filled and our legs satisfied from skimming. we stopped at a local surf shop to meet the owners and shopped for japanese cuisine at the grocery store. we bought a few beers and chilled for the rest of the evening as we waited for another dozen girls to show up at sachiko’s house for the evening.
tire.d stoked. happy. satisfied. full. and energiz.ed all at the same time.
keiao and i set the a/c timer straight this time around and slept like bears hibernating for winter. i was so stoked and feeling full-filled on my first day in japan with the japanese skim crew. i fell asleep dreaming about the skim contest that would happen the next day.
–Jen Jacobs
