17th January, 2011
Last Friday some of the local surfing gang got together again; Moyu, Tie Zhuang, Darci, Matt, Peter, myself and two guests (Andy and Jimmy) head up to the east coast on a full van. It has been long time since the last surf together. The waves were really good fun!
Tie Zhuang got a new board all the way from Oz.
And there he is trying it out at the beach break.
After a short board session Tie Zhuang joined us with a longboard at the point.
Andy riding the point
That guy looks like Jimmy
And then everybody came back for food!
Andy
Joe with his 7' wired short longboard, a monster boat that catches everything. As Joe would say:"That board will make your big old ass float"
Matt looks a bit cold
Since Joe Blair has arrived Mamma's looks like a board repairing workshop. He know everything about it and I'm taking advantage of that to learn all the tricks.
Christophe's new board got damaged at the point by someone dropping in his wave. Luckily Dr. Blair was there.
Joe telling one of his "happy ending" stories while he waits for the resin to dry.
He also repaired a 7' Virgin Island that he shaped a while ago for us. Everybody in Surfing Hainan loves that board. All his boards are made of EPS foam, a material that doesn't suck water in. But if you have to repair it, don't do as we did and remember to use epoxy resin as the polyester one would damage the foam.
That's all for now. The forecast for the whole next week looks unreal with a consistent 3 to 4m swell, don't miss it and come for a surf trip with us!!
See my previous blogs here.
14th January, 2011
January is pumping non stop. We had great sessions for the last few weeks. It is of course a little bit chilly but I can’t complain I didn’t need to use a wetsuit until last Wednesday when the north off shore winds blown the water away straight into your eyes while you paddle your arms off to catch waves.
The point blown away on one of the smallest sets
The most interesting thing about last few weeks is that Joe Blair and Mark Anders came to visit. Joe is an old board shaper that has given his life to surf and “happy endings”, he has many funny stories to tell and he knows everything about boards. Mark is a free lance journalist and a great surfer, his job allowed him to surf most of the world. He came back to Hainan for a new story about how surfing is developing in China.
As soon as I knew about them staying at Mama’s I packed the tent and decided to spend some time with them camping just in front of the point break. We share some great waves and Rum. They gave me some good tips to improve my surfing and Joe keeps making me try shorter boards out and experimenting different fins set ups, he says that the longboard will take the childhood away from me. I learned a lot from them.
Here there are some pictures of the those days together:
Sea food meeting talking about the future of Surfing Hainan with two possible Chinese investors
Me, Joe and Ah Wen having a laugh
Tobey looks Mark riding his new board that Joe shaped for him. Monday was a bit small but sunny.
While Joe teaches how to SUP on the lagoon...
...I gave a surf lesson.
And the next ones are some pictures of Tuesday 11th session:
Brendan almost tubed at the beach break on Tuesday
Christophe
Christophe again!
Christophe posing for us
And as a good French man here you have Christophe complaining about the cold with a lovely wave on the background
This next week the swell is going mad with a 4m swell predicted for Monday and Tuesday. Contact us if you are interested on a surf trip!
7th January, 2011 - 2011 年01月7日
It couldn't be a better way to start the year; 3m swell, clean, off-shore winds, pretty warm and some little sunshine too! (unusual knowing that good waves come with bad weather). I've been surfing and giving lessons for the last two weeks everyday, we had great fun the waves and the weather were amazing.
Riyuewan's beach break perfection
My students paddle out through the lovely lines
Some of them try out bigger sets
Others go for some more white water
After a nice beach break session in the morning we decide to go for a point break session in the afternoon
As you can see It was so good!
Happy New Year everybody!!!
Photos and text by Julieta Hepner
It has been a busy few weeks with lots of surf lessons in Riyuewan. Here are a few photos of Steven giving some lessons to some English siblings that visited from Hong Kong.
"This is a longboard. The best kind of board for learning how to surf"
"This way!"
The sister stands!
And so does the brother!
Sunset on the ride home
18th December, 2010 - 2010 年12月18日
Here there is one more picture for my Nap Photos Collection:
The Art of Nap in China
Hainan Local Divers caught by the lazy air of the Island
Photos and Text by Julieta Hepner
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