Hainan Island: Awakening In The Chinese Tropics
A photo essay from China's southern-most province
Hainan Island: Awakening In The Chinese Tropics
Nik Zanella is not the first person to uproot themselves for the sake of waves. Surfers have been doing so since the sixties; sometimes relocating just a short drive up the coast, other times adopting a whole new homeland.
Nik's move falls into the latter category, yet rather than Indonesia or some other similarly favoured nation, he chose somewhere else: China. Specifically, Hainan Island.
Hainan is China's southern-most province - the name means 'South of the Sea' - and is located inside the tropics with approximately 200 kms of coastline exposed to both North Pacific typhoons and summer monsoon swell.
All text and photos by Nik.
This article is not about how I got to this island, it’s more about why I made it my home. You see, I come from Italy, the outskirts of the outskirts of the surfing world, and yet I still grew up surfing overpopulated lineups where you earned your (sporadic) waves through devotion, silence, and shear intimidation.
In 2010 life brought me here. While working at ASP (the precursor to the WSL) and ISA events, I counted the number of pointbreaks - 13 in about 200 km of exposed coastline - divided it by the number of surfers - about 20 back then - then promptly quit my job as Chief Editor of SurfNews Magazine and moved in front of this right-hander. I currently work with China's national surf team.
Yes, this right-hander. Breaking on the exposed side of a fishing village of 200 souls, this is the undisputed queen of Chinese waves. Shallow, moody, and downright frightening under typhoon swells. I went to the hospital twice for her but she rewarded me with some of the best sessions of my life.
Fishermen call the place 鬼浪, or Gui Lang, which means Ghost Wave, after countless boats got sent to the rocks by freak breakers coming out of nowhere, most likely produced by far off typhoons.
In this photo, Hawaiian Nathan Mettler, long time China resident, on a 2m@17sec typhoon swell.
I surfed it nearly alone for eight years, but then moved 100km north working for the national team. That’s me dodging barrel number one million at the right.
Golf Course. A fairly well-known surf spot now, and possibly the best of the seven left pointbreaks in the central region.
That’s me at Golf Course, taken last December. La Niña winter is delivering countless solid swells. From October to now (January 26th) it never went below head high.
Here's a fun fact: The prevailing north-east winds blow offshore on all the left points.
Winter north-east monsoon is the main source of swells at this spot, but summer south-east can also be sweet if you know where to look.
My friend Dezi. Chinese surfers are discovering soul in the world’s most atheistic country.
Postcard from a non-spot. Rainbow was on, so I just waited for a set to show up.
Shot from the coastal route, this was the opening swell of the 2022 winter season at South Swallow Bay. This spot holds pretty much any size but the offshore can get ferocious. On this day I took my team to a sheltered beach (see next shot).
This is the go to spot on huge winter days, when the points are too windy and I don’t want to get tossed onto sharp granite boulders.
Training session with the National Team. I may be the only coach left on the planet that doesn’t have to share waves with anyone.
No takers for this near shore mutant.
As a regular foot, I love Crab Rock as it's one of the few chances I have to get a proper frontside ride
View of New Pond Monastery (and it’s majestic left point) from the top of the cliff. This is not the most exciting wave on the island but easily the longest, with rides exceeding 500m.
New Pond again, this time from the veranda. The wave starts with a punchy boil aside the big rock, followed by several soft sections leading into a steep inside. Sore legs are guaranteed.
Yours truly just past the big rock at New Pond. I’m 54 and I don’t mind long soft walls.
The next best thing to surfing an empty point is finding angles to shoot it. The inside of New Pond from the Belvedere and my kids gorging on it.
One last leg burning left.
Explorer, sinologist, surf coach, Nik has spent the last decade working at several levels of China's national surf development project, and also mapping China’s untapped coastline.
In his recent book ‘Children Of The Tide: An Exploration Of Surfing In Dynastic China’, Nik reconstructed Chinese wave-riding history from the 9th century to the present day.
To order 'Children Of The Tide', click here for printed version, and here for ebook.
Comments
Nice story & photos Nik . A bit like what the crowds were 40 years ago here in West Oz. I'm just having a little problem with the politics of the country at the moment , but I'm sure that I can overcome it for those barrels. Having said that , I'm off to somewhere that isn't China : Taiwan , for a bit of a east coast search in a few weeks , hoping to get some of that action.
I've been gazing at the Ameehan (NE monsoon) this winter and wondering where all that swell was going.
Somewhere south of Hainan been smoking too.yew!
The Amihan blows pretty much constantly on the east coast of Philippines this time of year. Check out live satellite wind maps like Zoom Earth and see the N to E winds rarely drop below 40km/h 24/7 out to sea and that pushes constant swell in. BUT forecasts generally have "gentle onshore', which means blown out, from first light as most of the coast cannot handle any onshore winds. Trick is to score the offshore/glass mornings which happen every few days and can go up to about lunchtime. Another trick is to DYOR and find those almost inaccessible south facing points and reefs that are offshore in a N/NE wind..........
That flat sand beachy is beautiful.
looks legit
yeah great story thanks Nik awesome photos and im sure you will have plenty of mates now to surf the 'Queen'....old chinese saying ...loose lips sink surf spots
Yeah seems weird to let people know about these spots while living in the most populated country in the world. Instacrowd
No way Hainan will ever become an International surf destination. Too hard to move around, much more expensive than I do with lower quality waves. Plus all spots I mentioned including that right are on MSW, Surfline etc.. (not given by me of course), and I still surf alone a lot…
If I have learnt two things from surf travel it is that surfers will go everywhere regardless of the quality of waves, costs, of ease of movement, and that surf capitalism will always follow them.
Nice pics but.
I agree but China is different. Just getting a visa is quite a nightmare, can’t rent a car, if you don’t speak mandarin you are in troubles.. etc. Surf is booming now but the only foreigners we get are expats living in Shanghai coming to Riyue Bay for holidays.
Greetings from Beijing, Nik! I moved here with the family a few months ago. Love your pictures! Will get down to Hainan for surf next winter and look out for you in the water at one of those rocky points.
My wife is from BJ. Stu told me about you in Vietnam. Get in touch if you come visit. I set you up on uncrowded spots. Forget about Riyue.. it’s a zoo already
Thank you for the kind offer. Will definitely visit and get in touch. I look forward to meeting you and surfing in Hainan.
Now you move to China, when I’ve left. Cheeky haha. Enjoy that Beijing chaos!
In 2012 went there for work. Didn't have a board with me and there was surf like that pictured above. Got to borrow a board and get a few at one of the above lefts. Very long so much fun. Shame I had to leave the next day and head down to Sanya, didn't get to explore due to work commitments. Even then bullet train through the middle of the island, expressway the same. All sorts of Govt assets there too. Mind blowing joint.
Would I go there again? Probs not. All the resorts etc cater primarily for rich Chinese and Russian. Some places had no english signage. May have changed now.
Great write up and pictures. Thanks for sharing. I can't help but conclude I'd better get up that way before before WW3 breaks out...
Oh and the flat sandy beach, with the island in the background....... if you turn around there is the Meridian resort. Massive. Good diving too around the island.
Great pics, enjoyed the article. Travel kills bigotry.... The photo of Dezi could be a surfer anywhere on the globe.... Peace ...
Always enjoy Nic's articles (and the photos).
It doesn't look overly industrialised but wonder what the pollution factor is like
Air pollution is not so bad down that way. But the water gets brown pretty quickly from rain and/or sea state, which is typical of the South China Sea. There is also a fair bit of fish farming here and there on Hainan which sometimes gets a bit disgusting due to the way they recycle/circulate the ocean and pond waters (but other surf areas are far worse for this than Hainan.)
Btw nice photos but I think they might slightly oversell the average surf quality on Hainan. It’s not a surfing destination like say Indo is. Mostly mushy longboard waves.
Also, Hainan is no secret spot. Even the Chinese government promotes it as a surf destination.
All true, that’s why I can freely expose it. It is not a place where an hardcore surf traveller will ever go. It is not a novelty location (isa and WSL run countless events here) it is just a place where average surf happens every day and that sometimes gets really good.
Lots of great places all around the world to explore surf / culture wise, low crowds etc, I’ve just finished exploring Japan, great country
Beautiful pics and thank you for the write up Nik. Some superb looking waves there!
fuck, imagine having that right point firing with no one out
I saw a clip of a policeman chainsawing a board in half, the bloke had been surfing against the rules. How does that happen?
Taking cues from Peter Schroff?
That happened a few years back in a very busy beach near Shenzhen on the mainland. The surfers had behaved irresponsibly and injured one tourist some days before and yelled names at the security guards. Then the police intervened the hard way. Not that I’m in favour of that but someone has to regulate the booming number of beginner surfers. That little town lives solely on tourism and locals were very pissed at the surfers. This side of the story was never told on media, that just went after the click bait of ‘police banning surfing in China’.
That happened a few years back in a very busy beach near Shenzhen on the mainland. The surfers had behaved irresponsibly and injured one tourist some days before and yelled names at the security guards. Then the police intervened the hard way. Not that I’m in favour of that but someone has to regulate the booming number of beginner surfers. That little town lives solely on tourism and locals were very pissed at the surfers. This side of the story was never told on media, that just went after the click bait of ‘police banning surfing in China’.
Was surfing that beach (and others) occasionally around the time.
Seemed that the problem had been building for a while - people surfing and letting their boards go through the usual bus loads of swimming tourists, taking them out.
The Chinese don’t quite have the same system of red and yellow flags like Aus.
And yes they often have a unique solution to things…
Pff…easy fix…bit of q-cell and 6-ounce…all good…
Lets be realistic, you can quite easily 'disappear' in China for no reason at all.
Haha.. no, you cannot disappear in China. Worst case scenario they send you back to your country
I would say the people that have disappeared would disagree, but need to find them first. Nothing a like a reeducation camp for a holiday, just ask the Uyghurs
As a foreigner you cannot disappear in China, nor get sent to a reeducation camp. You are more likely to disappear at the main train station in Milan or in some shady suburbs in the US.
Not true. I disappeared for days at a time at certain party spots around Shanghai hahaha
And woke up in Hong Kong with a full beard and a scorching rash?
Communist dictatorship?
Looks like it has a small swell window (if you're chasing groundswells)?
Not really small. We get swell from NE to SE. Average period in NE season in 10/12 seconds. It can reach 17 sec if a typhoon gets on the right track. We get about 8/10 surfable typhoons a year. Again, if you are into hollow waves then indo is a better option for a surf trip. But living on Hainan you can select where and when to go.
Don, consistent trade-swells like what you get up in Qld is the staple and all you'd need. Consistent, fun sized swells open to all that ocean to the east-northeast and south-southeast.
Thanks for the article, Nik.
Disappointed I never got down there when I was in China regularly.
What's the surf like today?
Shoulder to head high. Kids surfed an open beach. Small chest high at the points. I injured my hear drum wiping out last week so taking a few days off.
Thanks for the pics, article and comments Nik.
Cool article, really enjoyed it and the pics too. Looks super fun.
Been to China twice- Shanghai and Qingtao once on business, once pleasure, had fun on both occasions.
Probs wouldn't stump up to go surfing there, more keen to check out Taiwan but mainland China in my limited experience is a fascinating place.
Nice photos. Prevailing north-east winds blowing straight off the mainland: Air quality must be a concern. Looked a bit hazy.
Air quality is excellent here. It’s plastic pollution and fisheries runoff that concern us the most.
And I thought Hainan was only famous for a steamed chicken dish
Air quality 'excellent' anywhere on the eastern seaboard? Maybe the Chinese version of 'air quality: excellent' Mate you need a holiday to get some perspective back. Though if Rome is your gauge maybe it is pretty good in Hainan...
The air quality index AQI right now shows 19 in Sydney, 18 in Wanning (the prefecture capital 20k north of where I am) and 9 here on the coast. again, regardless what both sides of the propaganda machine says, China is made up of many many realities. Things are drastically worst in major towns in the continent but I’m sure you would not be able to point out Hainan island on a blank map so I don’t expect you to have any idea of what’s the reality in this country..
Yeah right mate. Been over the border overland and back between Vietnam and China on numerous occasions over the years - both crossings - Mong Cai and Pingxiang - and that stretch north between Haiphong and Mong Cai features a lot of heavily polluted pollution spewing industrial wasteland. Lived in the Pearl River Delta area for years and if you're trying to tell me that in between the industrial nightmare of Vietnam's north coast and the Pearl River Delta all those cities up to Guangzhou-Shenzhen-HK megalopolis (never mind Nanning Qinzhou etc etc)you've found your own piece of Switzerland that magically separates itself from the surrounding atmosphere you've got your head up your rectum. Yeah the air might not be too bad a lot of the time but 'excellent' anywhere around that region? Loosen you dick grip and find something else to grab hold of. No I haven't been to Hainan. I know the waves there a would be pretty shit novelty stuff at best - never mind the absolutely disgusting water quality so I never wasted my time with it. I'd say whenever a bit of north wind flow sets up down that way the air down there would become quite pungent and foul. Still excellent though, of course Mr China!
I don’t blame you for all the rage and hatred, you had to spend time in the worst possible places in the country, if not on the planet. I refused countless job opportunities in between Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and further north along that coast, and never spoke of Hainan as a piece of clean heaven, in previous posts I lamented about plastic pollution and fisheries runoffs. But no, we never get hazy smelly air. Peace man.
Rage and hatred. Right mate. Grow up you sook. Just telling it like it is. Spent a lot more time throughout China than just GZ SZ area there. You can smell China half way down through Laos at times- yeah been back and forth through Mengla plenty too, and it even gets on the nose down there in Halong Bay if we're talking about the coast. Don't get upset just because you think your status as the hero of your own thread is being threatened. It's not. You can win if you want to and just you keep sucking in that year round pristine air. Goose.
Edit. Love China by the way. It's a big part of my life. They as a people are honest about the environmental situation and a lot's been done to improve it. They certainly don't get upset when people point out the obvious realities of life there in that regard so I'm not sure why you would feel the need to.
"China is made up of many many realities." Bang on.
Looks like the extra fetch down to Hainan cleans up and amplifies the swells which are fairly raw from the lows crossing the NW Pacific when they hit around southern Japanese islands and Taiwan.No trouble travelling around Taiwan independently but if you can’t hire a car and access a camp site then difficult to cove that 200km surfable coastline on Hainan.
You should be able to find a camp site just about round where the excellent air quality starts.
We don’t really rely in pacific swells like Taiwan or Japan.. . Except for typhoons. Most pictures you see are taken during winter NE monsoon swells, triggered by barometric difference between northern china (cold high pressure) and southern china (warm low pressure) from October to March.
Had a few very pleasant, solitary days at Golf course about 20 years back. rather fun, in a mellow, maldives-on-sand kind of way. Surfed HK and south china a bit and as stated above, all it needs is that winter monsoon wind and trade swells appear. If its snowing in Japan, its surf time in southern china is a good rule of thumb. And Hainan does feel a lot removed from many of the worst environmental vandalisms of the mainland. On the other hand, was chatting with a navy seal last week and he reckoned that Hainan would be where it all kicks off in any conflict with China as that is where the PRC has all its sub bases.
Ticket to Hainan or Taiwan, anyone?
That typhoon swell passed by Luzon in Philippines, bottom half was glass/offshore when it arrived and day after, Tuesday westerlies really picked up, northern half out of control. Pretty epic paddling back out after a wave at "some reef" seeing crew back-dooring the right hand peak and slotted in double overhead pits set after set like clockwork. One local goofy doing laybacks in the screaming sucking barrels, jeez. Wish I had a camera out there, some of the epic images of that session are burned in my mind, but that would be wasting waves! I sat a bit inside 20-30m away from the crew getting the "smaller" ones haha, with a bit more north in them and not so gnarly, breaking on a slightly different part of the chest deep reef, but far more regular than the 10-15 min smokers. 12 super fun and fast well overhead waves in an hour, then the local hotty crew swarmed the 1 person peak and that was that for me. They have the joint wired and greedy as hell, but very cool guys. More than 5 people on the peak and it's crowded with 3-4 wave sets, but get out there at first light and usually have it for an hour+ to yourself and sessions any time during the day when the crew rotate thru. Filipino guys love their booze and sleep ins :))
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-27/typhoon-doksuri-leaves-at-least-6...
It’s a 2 days swell.. but a good one w 15sec period
Love how a posted comment brings up a cool article you originally missed.