Komesu Coast.

The Komesu Coast is the southern tip of Okinawa main island, ~40 minutes by car from Naha and centred on Itoman City. The reefs face south through south-west. Suicide Cliffs, the marquee left-and-right reef break, takes its name from the cliffs above, where the final stand of the Japanese 32nd Army played out in June 1945 at the end of the Battle of Okinawa. The town now holds the Cornerstone of Peace memorial. Cape Kyan, just west, is the most consistent spot on the entire island. Komesu Reef itself runs along multiple peaks east and west of the cliff park.

May through December is the swell window. Pacific typhoons send south to south-west swell that wraps the southern coast; the Ryukyu Island chain blocks most pure south-east directions, so a Komesu day requires the right typhoon track. Suicide Cliffs wants a clean south-west swell with north offshore. Cape Kyan picks up a wider north-east through south band on a north-westerly wind. Winter is small. Working size is 1 to 2.5 m through the typhoon months, with 10-second-plus period the threshold to stand up on the outer reef.

Water sits at 21 to 23 °C in February, 28 to 30 °C in August. A 3/2 springsuit does the year, boardies for summer. The reef is shallow live coral with urchins everywhere, and the inside dries out at low tide. Surf the two-hour bracket either side of high. Currents wrap around the cape in size, and rip channels feed the outside peak. Crowds are real because Komesu is the closest reef to Naha. Pros from mainland Japan and abroad stack the outside on a good day. On a flat or wrong-wind morning, drive east to Mibaru Beach, a sand bay sheltered behind the reef where surf schools work the inside.