110 East
www.CathaySeas.com
This is 110 East, the periodical yet erratic newsletter of the sophisticated,
rugged and facetious surfers in China and South East Asia.
16 november 2005 (previous newsletters below).
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CONTENTS :
1- China (surf, and more)
3- Worldwide (field surveyors of bird flu wanted)
4- Hot Spot : Pooejin-ni, North Korea (01 map)1- CHINA (surf, and more) :
* After the 720 surf open held on Hainan island 19 and 20 november, Hong Kong
surfers will have their own event on 11 december at Tai Long Wan (Sai Kung),
courtesy of Rip Curl company.
In the meantime, Cathay Seas has received more than ten individual e-mails
asking about Hainan island and the surf opportunities one can find over there,
including to run competitions. No doubt the island should become the first
surfing destination in China.
If you think it already means too many people, let us remind you that China has
18.000 kilometers of coastline and more than 5.000 islands.
http://www.XgameHK.com or call Kelly in Hong Kong : 2921 1192.
* Cathay Seas is currently working on the Links page for improvements and also
on the chinese section of the website, in order to make it useful for local
people who dont know what a duckdive is…
Benevolent volunteers are wanted for english-chinese translations.
3- WORLDWIDE (field surveyors of bird flu wanted) :
Cathay Seas is in touch with the World Food Programme and we have proposed our
services to relay important information on the spread of bird flu, both to and
from the surfing community. We, surfers, often visit wild places such as
marshes, wetlands and natural habitat of wild animals and thus we are a
population prone to witness strange things happening to animal life.
If you think you have seen such a thing, CONTACT US for we will collect and
relay the information in real time.
You don’t have to be sure, you don’t have to witness a large scale anomaly and
you would be ridiculous only by not doing so. We need detailed reports of what
you have seen, eventually with photos, videos and precise locations for further
searches.
What we mean by strange things is out-of-the-ordinary animal illnesses
(Avian Flu affects everything from tigers to birds), animals getting sick from
eating carcasses of other animals or serious human cases of flu-like symptoms
in areas with a lot of migratory birds…(…) areas like large wetlands or
marshes could be possible disease transmission points.(Quote from WFP e-mail)
For us it could mean dead or disoriented animals (from one to many-many), humans
with a serious flu in an area of birds migration and so on.
You will identify the areas of interest just by reading your national or local
news but its likely to happen anywhere including where it is supposed to be
safe. By now, bird flu has been confirmed in Asia, Russia, Europe, Alaska
(going South) and soon-to-be-expected North Africa (going back to Europe).
This is serious and not only for birds, dont take it lightly.
http://www.wfp.org/newsroom/in_depth/early_warning/index.asp#AvianInfluenza
4- HOT SPOT : Pooejin-ni, North Korea
The internal border dividing the Korean peninsula is 4 kilometers wide x 250
kilometers long and is called the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ.
Its been void of human settlement for more than 50 years, save the occasional
military patrols, which makes the whole place a great natural reserve of
temperate climate, defended by powerful environmental organizations, one
million military personnels and the largest amount of landmines ever deployed
in a single area. Technically, North and South Korea are still at war against
each other.
On the East coast, between Kosong city (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea
-north) and Chigyong (Republic of Korea -south), the four kilometers of the DMZ
bathe in the Japan Sea and tubular waves in the 2 meters range are quite common
from November to April (thick wetsuit required for winter). The coast is made
of sand beaches interrupted by rocky capes that create pointbreak waves and
Pooejin-ni is one of them. Up in the North, beyond the DMZ, the surf spots of
Kosong city are dominated by the rivermouth of Hug Yom river and its ever
changing sandbars.
Surfing in the DMZ is of course a joke and a practical impossibility and there
are no records of anyone having surfed in North Korea either : an expeditionary
team should check the legal possibility of it even before buying plane tickets.
… Meanwhile, surfing in South Korea is a much more simple possibility, both on
the coast of Japan Sea or Yellow Sea. Between two sessions, tourism agencies
will take you and your family to selected places of the DMZ, so that you can
get a clue of the Other Side.
For surfing purpose, Cathay Seas has the data and the maps… just send your
orders !