The story, about a new event to be held on Hainan Island October 26-30 of this year goes on to announce, "ASP International is thrilled to bring the sport of surfing to China for the first time in history."
We'll leave the cynicism aside in a moment, but first let's acknowledge that two stops (the current number on the Women's World Longboard Tour) does not a "tour" make. Then let's acknowledge that surfing's known about China for some years, so maybe let's ease up on the whole "first time in history" thing.
Having said that, the piece brings up a fair question: just where does surfing stand in China? Danny Way jumped the Great Wall on a skateboard and Shaun White wowed them in a snowboard terrain park outside of Beijing, but surfing's presence in the world's largest emerging market has been decidedly lower profile.
Or maybe that's just as it relates to PR stunts like the ASP's up-coming event. After all, surfers would have to be blind to not know where their board shorts and flip flops come from, to say nothing of the pop-out boards in their local Costcos. Take the Peking Duck Surfboard factory in Hong Kong, for example. They claim to produce 30,000 surfboards a year.
"All boards are hand shaped using Australian blanks and finished with Australian cloth and resin," reads their website. "We make according to your shape and design and with your logo or ours."
By comparison, on average, a mid-level surfboard operation in the United States may produce 1,000 to 1,500 boards a year.
Historically speaking, surfers have had their eyes on China for at least 30 years. Peter Drouyn, one of Australia's most famous surfers in the '70s and creator of the ASP's man-on-man format, first explored the country in 1985. In 1997, the Hong Kong Surfing Association was established. Along the way, numerous other surf explorers have poked around, including Triple Crown mastermind Randy Rarick and photographer John Callahan. Good surf has been found in Taiwan and around Hainan Island -- site of the women's longboard event. In 2008, Mark Healey, Greg and Rusty Long, and Jamie Sterling first surfed a tidal bore in the Quantang River, also known as the "Silver Dragon."
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