Why me ? The doubts and fears of a surfer in Hainan
www.cathayseas.com
For some years now, the bad mood among surfers in the Chinese island has been largely reported.
Several incidents recently involved expatriates surfers and classes of Chinese kids and their surf instructors. The province authority decided to react after the agression of an instructor at Shimei by five expatriates who call themselves locals.During that incident, the man was insulted, then physically attacked. I was the target but i was also responsible for the ten kids who were with me for a lesson. Thats why i decided to fight back and put an end to the escalation, he said to a local news channel.
Using his martial arts skills he knocked down three agressors, broke the arm of one and immobilized the fifth until police arrival. The Hainan Tourism Board then hired the twelve local surf businesses and three consultants from the Maldives to define tourism rules and long-term local development plans.
Our islands are now underwater six months a year, said a native Maldivian consultant, so im glad our experience can be applied elsewhere.
The situation has been calm in the waves recently but the climate remain tensed as everyone claims to have a legitimate right of priority access. The local surfers are now acknoweldged as real locals : Chinese, while the historical locals, foreign expatriates, keep wondering what the new rules will be. One thing is sure : the days of free-for-all are over. Will there be a birth-right as in Hawaii ? Or a financial donation peak order as in Indonesia ?
Making the beaches private has been rejected from the start by the federal communist government in Beijing which make at least one less threat to worry about. Indeed, no one knows what the surf experience will be six months from now.
Until then, all surf tours, surf shops and hotels make huge discounts to fill the cashiers desk before what they fear could be a drastic change in the money-first attitude of past years.