On this episode of the Foil Life Podcast we sit down with Dane Gillett, the British expat who has spent more than 30 years in Japan and is widely known as the English-language voice of surfing in the country. From his base at Hebara Beach in Katsuura, Chiba, Dane has spent decades documenting breaks, building SurfingInJapan.com as a side project, and turning that knowledge into a full lifestyle around the water.
In this episode we talk about:
- Arriving in Japan on a short trip more than 30 years ago for the snow, then realizing he never wanted to leave
- Falling in love with Japanese powder (and the value), spending years in the mountains, then eventually shifting fully to the coast
- Meeting his Japanese wife, settling in Tokyo, and needing an escape, which became weekends chasing surf with almost zero English-language info available at the time
- Building SurfingInJapan.com from notebooks and word-of-mouth in the only foreigner pub in Tokyo, then driving the country for 25+ years to map breaks, beaches, and places to stay
- Turning a pure hobby into the thing that now supports his lifestyle after three decades of consistent work
- The reality of “living the dream”: staying humble for years, then realizing people benefit when he talks openly about the long road and the possibility
- Lessons from growing up in a family of 13 kids, work is life, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, and chase what you’re deeply passionate about so you never feel like you’re working a day in your life
- Why Japanese snow still stands out globally, and why the ocean life on the Chiba coast ended up being the better long-term fit
SurfingInJapan.com: https://www.surfinginjapan.com/
Splash Guest House: https://www.splashguesthouse.com/