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academia and surfing

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advertising and surfing

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aerial

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angle

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Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Hey Matt, Glad all is well; I am looking forward to the on-line version!

Mine is an easy update; the entry on page 120 ... "Australian expatriate Rod Payne tried to become the first surfer in China by paddling out at Hong Kong's Big Wave Bay in 1979,..." is correct except that, rather than "tried to become...", the more correct term would be "became..." since I surfed for two hours before the police came. Also, the correct name for Big Wave Bay is "Dai Long Wan" (literally meaning Big Wave Bay)

China is the world's most populous nation, with its 1.2 billion inhabitants making up one-fifth of the world's total; it is also the third largest nation in terms of landmass, behind Russia and Canada. China's eastern border is marked by the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. Australian expatriate Rod Payne became the first surfer in China by paddling out at Hong Kong's Big Wave Bay in 1979, although he was quickly removed from the water by police. Former Australian national surfing champion Peter Drouyn contracted with the national government in 1985 to form a Chinese surf school, and began giving lessons to a group of Chinese student/gymnasts in the gentle waves off Hainan Island, located in the South China Sea between mainland China and Vietnam. Drouyn's project was terminated two months later, without explanation, and he returned to Australia. In November 1986, a group of visiting surfers from California and Hawaii—Rell Sunn, Jon Damm, Willy Morris, Matt George, and Warren Bolster—were feted in the capital city, then transported to Hainan, where they rode small but warm three-foot waves. "The huge bay was hugged in between two rocky headlands," George wrote in the subsequent 

 article. "We were hell and gone from the official receptions and banquets of Beijing now. We were just surfers again."

Surfing had meanwhile taken root in Hong Kong, 300 miles to the northeast. In the spring of 1997, American-born surfer Francesco Suarez, a 15-year local at Big Wave Bay, founded the Hong Kong Surfing Association, along with Australians Simon Chau and Grant Robinson. China also hosted its first surf competition in 1997, the Hong Kong Cup, with more than 60 native-born and visiting surfers vying in the small, crumbly surf typical of the ill-named Big Wave Bay; winners were invited to an international competition in Bali. By 2003 there were six surf shops and a surf school in Hong Kong; the Hong Kong Surfing Association had more than 500 members; and the field for the annual Hong Kong Cup included surfers from Australia, France, Japan, England, and China. Hainan Island is now home to perhaps two dozen native surfers. Action Asia, an outdoor sports magazine that includes surfing, began publishing in 1998.

While virtually the entire Chinese coastline remains unexplored for surf, the known areas—Hainan and Big Wave Bay—contain mostly beachbreaks. Autumn and winter monsoons produce waist- to chest-high wind swell waves with some regularity; spring and summer typhoon surf is bigger, but shiftier and more difficult to ride. The weather in Hainan and Hong Kong is subtropical, with water temperatures usually in the upper 60s and low 70s.

China

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