Fortunately, one of the key sports trainers joining me out there was none other than Nicola (Nik) Zanella—Italian surf journalist, Sinologist, and surfing legend who lived out in Hainan for 15 years. I met Nik in Rome back in 2018 and was held spellbound by his tales of China. Though family commitments have brought him back to Italy, chatting with him before the trip was amazing, such a good source of info and support to get me ready!

First Impressions & The Language Puzzle

Chinese is a complex language and stressing on the wrong part of a word can change its meaning easily. “Thank you” can become “Elder Sister” with the slight change of intonation. Try to use the Chinese word “Ma” without some fluency and you could end up with big problems!!!

Got off to a broken jetlagged sleep at the hotel and joined the training team for breakfast. Great to see Nik again and to meet in the Real for the 1st time, Pablo, the head of Surfing for the CWSA. From online discussions earlier, found out Pablo had completed a masters at Sheffield university in the North East of England and had surfed with the awesome NE surf crew round Scarborough, something which we both had in common. He said he made an impression as it was the first Chinese national surfer they’d ever met and surfed with. After a quick discussion of the day’s schedule for the course, off we went to class to greet the students.  

The Coaching Crew & The Classroom

They were a group of Surfers from all over the country. Mainly from Hainan, although we also had a group from Beijing, who run an indoor city way there.  Lastly, some guys from Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong province. Focused, enthusiastic and friendly, the nice part of training surfers all the world over is the passion they have for the subject and the great affinity we all have with each other.

The courses went on for 4 days covering Surf Coaching and Water rescue training, in the classroom and on the beach. The best part I felt was the scenarios we created for first aid and coaching beginner students workshps. We’d set up characters and roles for the “casualties” and “learning surfers” to put the training coaches through their paces and challenge them. The whole class was laughing at the fun we created for the unsuspecting students!

The Surf: Nights, Pools and Points.

In addition to the luxury of 4-star accommodation, amazing buffet of Chinese and European foods for breakfast (became a dumpling soup junkie!!) there was a wave pool 400m from my hotel room!!! I’ve surfed the Wavegarden tech style pools of Bristol and Edinburgh, but this different:- an Endless surf pool. It uses chambers underneath the pool floor filled with water which is then pumped upwards at different timings and magnitudes, to produce a variety of waves. Nik and I surfed it after work at night acouple of times and I fortunate enough to be lent a 5’9″ Mayhem fish by one of the students (Thanks Renee!).

The water and lights created an amazing kaleidoscope of dark blues and purples. This against the black night sky made it a surreal experience, struggling on the 1^st session to get my bearings.

I felt the waves were pushier than the Wavegarden ones and helped project you out of the turns. Had 2 sessions on the rights and as a goofy, would like the opportunity to surf it left (hopefully next time?). Then nicely rounded off both times shouting the breeze with Nik, over a beer and burger:-)  

On Saturday, I got up early and as I had Renee’s board still, thought I’d do a dawn patrol at Riyue Bay. Typhoon Bavi’s swell was still pumping with only 4 others out! It’s a left-hand point, the swell producing solid head height sets. Starting off with a fairly easy take off, it then rifled off along a shallow flat rock reef and got progressively hollower. I hooked into two of them, with some nice positioning turns, before some driving turns and pocket hugging as it got shallower.

As the sun came up, the swell and tide started dropping. More and more people started paddling out and within 30 minutes was sharing the spot with 30 or so locals. The subsequent waves involved threading the needle through grommets on the take off and then getting snaked by local hotties. Pablo came out and said hi, he was super frothing so I left him and the crew to it, more than happy with the session.  The walk back was amazing, down a country road with a mountian backdrop of lush jungle. Close by, such a variety of butter and dragon flies, with lush lovely flowering plants. Knew a few of the varieties, but the majority of the fauna and flora was new to the eye.

Reflections on China

On Sunday morning, I caught the first half of the England vs. Norway game before being seen off by members of the team, who kindly packed me breakfast for the road. From that door to my front door back home, it was a smooth 24-hour journey—easily one of the seamless travel experiences I’ve had.

Everything on this trip was brand new to me: the people, plants, animals, apps, writing, language, and architecture. As a pretty experienced (and admittedly somewhat blasé) traveler, Hainan completely reignited my sense of curiosity and excitement.

My Key Takeaways:

• The Culture: People aren’t rude; they are just simply unemotive and direct in public. Culturally, this stems from the traditional requirement to show a good “public face.” But underneath that exterior, people are incredibly warm, helpful, and caring. We shared endless laughs and smiles once the guard was dropped.
• National Pride: There is massive pride in their culture and country—and rightly so. Coming back to the UK almost feels like stepping 20 years back into the past in terms of modern infrastructure and how people work together for the common good.
• Ease of Travel: Traveling is smooth, though Google Translate is an absolute essential. Many locals understand and read English words, but like many of us learning a foreign language, fear of embarrassment and lack of practice keep them from fluency and helping you.

A massive thank you to Hainan, the CWSA, Nik, and all the helpful, friendly people I met along the way: Eastside of the Silk Route!