The Heavy Current Surfing Club in Higashi-Matsushima, Japan did not lose one member in the Tsunami that claimed the lives of 1,800 of their neighbors, according to a story in the Washington Times.
When they saw the tide suddenly withdraw after a massive quake on March 11, they knew a huge tsunami was coming. They all fled the picturesque beach of this town in northeastern Japan to safety on higher ground. . . “We didn’t lose any members, because we respect and fear the ocean,” said Seiichi Kato, sitting by his surfboard and tent on the beach. “But other Japanese forgot about nature, and they could not escape it.”
Now, rather than move in to refugee shelters some club members are camping out on the beach and helping to clean the place up as a way of dealing with the grief over lost friends. One thing they have noticed: the tsunami didn’t change the beach. “We were amazed that the beach looks exactly the same as before the tsunami. It destroyed everything man-made, but nature is almost the same.”
We’re always amazing by surfers’ ability to ride things out no matter how bad it gets.
[Link: Washington Times]
