寺内元基インタビュー「海に寄り添う生き方」 GENKI TERAUCHI Interview “How to live closely with the ocean”

“I am a researcher, and I also think of myself as an activist. I hope to improve the coastal environment.”

So says Genki Terauchi, who makes surf-boards using wood from the mountains, just upstream from the ocean where he surfs. He began doing this when the beach he used to surf at became reclaimed land. The protest movement against the construction did not succeed, and the area became manmade land. Because of this incident, he began to realize that at the end of every ocean is land, and that there is a very close connection between the ocean, the forests and the rivers.

After graduating from an university in Tokyo, Genki started his career at a computer-re-lated equipment manufacturer in his native home of Ishikawa. He felt fulfilled working as a product planner, but yearned to have a job related to environment conservation, which he developed an interest for while majoring in architecture at university. So he changed jobs, working to acquire earth observation satellite data. He spent time going around the world, including the Arctic Circle in Sweden and Alaska where the satellite data ground stations are located. However, his workplace at the Earth Observation Center in Saitama, Japan, was too far from the ocean for him to go surfing, and the shameful feeling about his beach disappearing did not leave him.

With his awareness of these issues as a foundation, he decided to move again, this time to the Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center (NPEC) in Toyama Prefecture, working for oceanic environmen-tal issues under the framework of the United Nations Environmental Programme, and moved back to his hometown.

He accumulates ocean color data acquired from artificial satellites, and develops monitoring techniques for the oceanic en-vironment. His research interest lies in interpreting the huge volume of information retrieved by satellite observation and con-necting that information to countermeasures for oceanic environment conservation. It took him six years to come up with an idea after joining NPEC, and another four years to publish that idea as a scientific paper while attending graduate school. His research con-tinues, still today.

He began surfing with a friend after graduat-ing from university. Until then he had focused only on winter sports like skiing and snow-boarding, but he became captivated by surfing within a single day. “I couldn’t forget the mo-ment when I took off for the first time. I was hooked! The smooth feeling of gliding on the waves was clearly different from what I was used to on the snowy mountains. I become interested in the history of surfing and surf culture. It just appealed to me so much that I wanted to know more and more about it.”

At his studio where he makes wooden surf-boards, he also builds furniture. A piece called “River Table” is his masterpiece. His philosophy is to use only locally sourced wood, and finding few options, he began to make his own. He observes the ocean through satellite data from space as a researcher, and experi-ences the ocean in the water as a surfer. He also observes the forests that are connected to the ocean as a wooden surfboard builder and furniture designer. When Genki is in the zone, using both his hands and head to engage with the ocean in various aspects, he looks truly great and strong.

GENKI TERAUCHI
Born in Ishikawa Prefecture in 1976. PhD (science) holder, wooden surfboard builder, furniture designer. Representative at GT Designs/Chief Researcher at Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center. Prompted by starting to surf when he graduated university, he changed from working as a regular employee at a manufacturer to being an oceanographer. On the sidelines of his ocean research, as a result of pursuing surfing in the ultimate environment at one with nature, he began making surfboards with wood from the mountains upstream from the land. Leveraging the architecture knowledge he learned in uni versity, he established GT Designs in December 2017 by building a studio on the premises of his home and beginning full-blown manufacturing of wooden surfboards and furniture.