Hainan Surf Blog

After what has been a couple months of very little surf, save for a random weekend of small waves that barely qualified for surf- the kind that only leaves you thirsty for some real waves- I could no longer simply wait for summer's southern swells to grace our southfacing beach, and set out to find new and unknown spots. With the holiday festivities of Christmas and New Year's finally behind me, it was time to seek out some new destinations outside of the shelter of Dadonghai.

After spending nearly a month and half working my tail off to make enough money to by a small Chinese pickup truck, I had scoped a few little nooks and crannies nearby, and had seen some potential lineups hidden amongst the rocky and often inaccessible coastal terrain.

I had made a few training runs at night in the last month, and had seen glimpses of a potential lineup breaking on a distant reef in the next bay over from D'hai. It did not look easy to access without a long paddle, but I was fixated on the setup and the potential it could harbor for a clean southern swell. Following my curiosity, I found that the road that led me closer to a lookout point, also wrapped all the way around a golf-course and out to a secret little point with a steep dirt driveway. I had scoped the road before with Darci, and saw that while my truck would easily make it down, getting back up might prove a bit wearing on the little beater- what we did find was evidence of a shallow reef that seemed to catch swell from the north: the source of most winter swell.

So on these two days, when there was hardly a ripple in Dadonghai, I surfed two sessions with only one other friend in the water, and while the waves were small little wait-high rodeo rides, it was great to get back in the surf- and to find a new spot so close to home was a gift. It really looks like it will be a classic setup for the summer swells, and I can't wait to see what it shows from a real southern pulse.