Asian surfing on the rise

Surfing in Asia has never been bigger and Bali is right smack dab in the middle of it. Indonesian and specifically Balinese surfers are also making their mark on the Asian surfing world, beyond their home shores.

The Asian Surfing Championship (ASC) recently honored Asia’s top surfers in Singapore, giving out awards in the Open, Longboard, Women’s and Master’s divisions, as well as saluting Thailand’s first surfing champion and Singapore’s women’s champion.

From a press release from the Asian Surfing Championship:

22-year-old Made Raditya Rondi from Bali Indonesia took top honors as the champion in the Open Division, having won the Quiksilver Thailand Surf Competition in Phuket last September, the Rip Curl Surf & Music Festival in Bali in October, and just last week the Billabong Cherating Pro in Malaysia. He is also the runner up on the Coca-Cola Indonesian Surfing Championship tour for 2011.

As surfing grows in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and other Asian countries, Bali continues to be the most popular and respected of Asia’s surf destinations.

photo by Marc oh! (Flickr CC)

And it is a truly international Mecca for surfers as this blog post about a German surfer who makes wooden longboards in Bali attests.

Here is a small excerpt from and interview with surfer and surfboard maker Marcus Gneist:

So, you got into fins to find out what was going on?

Yeah. And also I was pissed at the price. I thought I could do it better and cheaper by myself.

With wood?

Yes. All wood fins. Wood has properties you can’t beat. It’s lightweight. It’s flexible. Not damaged by water. It’s even ecological.

Read the entire interview in Surfing Magazine.

This entry was posted in Weekly Stories and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.