Arugam Bay Surf Club suggests

Arugam Bay Surf Club with the support of Paddle4relief have produced a Code of Conduct for all surfers visiting Arugam Bay. The members of the club, the local surfers, recognise the importance of highlighting the need for safety in the water. They realise the value of respecting everyone’s desire to enjoy the waves. This season has seen an increase in surfers visiting this top quality right point break. it has also seen a number of anti-social incidents every day in the water. Incidents materialising from a minority of surfers who feel it necessary to paddle for, and take every wave! Many of these surfers, can’t surf, and ruin it for those that can, and those that respect their fellow surfers around them, and that acknowledge etiquette in the water. Arugam Bay Surf Club members are promoting safety in the water and respect for ones fellow surfers. If a small group of surfers from a third world country that have suffered a civil war and a massive natural disaster can stand up and be counted for the safety of others then why cant the travelling surfer respect their peers also? Wake up everyone. Look at what a small group of youngsters have done and please share the waves with a smile! They are prepared to share their home break with all that come to enjoy the waves. Please be prepared to come and share the waves to. No-one is greater than the other. If you can surf, then you know the buzz, the fire, the feeling! Sit back, shout someone else into the next set wave, and enjoy their joy! Smile and hoot with them. Chill in the line-up, be mellow, and wait your turn for one of mother natures heavenly walls of blue/green glass throwing out it’s curtain of white water. Hats off to the local surfers of Arugam Bay for they truely walk the walk!

Walking the walk!

The very first WQS Sri Lanka Trials Surfing Event held in Arugam Bay, on the 16th and 17th June 2010 received sponsorship from Sri Lanka business, Indola Sports, based in Colombo. Indola Sports Sales Manager, Rebecca Palmer, linked with Sri Lanka Surfing Federation Overseas Fundraising Manager, Tim Tanton, in providing the surfers and officials with 100 limited edition t-shirts.

Sri Lanka’s Surfers with Indola Sports Sales Manager, Rebecca Palmer

(Photo courtesy of Peter Rob-o)

The competition was organised by the Arugam Bay Surf Club in association with the Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka, and Rebecca travelled to the East Coast of Sri Lanka to experience the closely fought event. The trials saw more than thirty Sri Lankan surfers from all over the island compete for the coveted two Wild Card places in the main Sri Lankan Airlines Pro sponsored ASP WQS 6 Star contest that took place directly after the Sri Lankan competition. In the end it was Arugam Bay’s Asanka and Milan who won the coveted Wild Card entries, and with it $500 each. Arugam Bay club officials Fawas, Krish and Sril headed an enthusiastic team of surfers who worked hard throughout both the trials and main event.

ASP Australasia Tour Manager, Dane Jordan, was extremely impressed with Arugam Bay’s surfers, and identified their motivation and enthusiasm for the sport as being crucial to the success of the high-profile ASP WQS contest. Dane also offered his full support to the proposed plans to develop a Surfing Federation in Sri Lanka.

Rebecca with SFSL’s Peter Rob-o (left) & Tim Tanton, with ASP Tour Manager, Dane Jordan (far right).

(Photo courtesy of AiyaSurfPhotography)

Indola Sports are the first Sri Lankan business to offer direct support to the proposed Sri Lanka Surfing Federation. The company realises the importance of the surfing to Sri Lanka, both for the economy and to the individuals who surf. The sport offers individuals a healthy balance in their lives when combined with their work, study and family commitments. The surplus t-shirts from the event, of which there are only a few, can be purchased from Arugam Bay Surf Club. Many thanks must go to Indola Sports for having the vision to recognise and support the goal of the majority of Sri Lankan Surfers.

My 9′ 1″ Southpoint Bonga Perkins did the damage. Slammed onto the rail, my lower leg went numb, no movement, extreme pain and the thought of it being broken.

Plastered - Crutches on a Tropical Island

Fortunately not broken, but swollen to twice the size it should be and more. It was described as looking like a big tuna, and the plan was to BBQ it! The muscle damaged, as too were the ligaments. The pain more than i had ever experienced. The swelling that refused to go down, the skin so tight it felt like it would explode.
A collision of treatments commenced! A conflict of ideas! Natural medicine versus Western medicine. I lost the battle, gave into the pressures of those around me, and went down the natural route.
Who’s to know if it was the right decision. The four weeks without sleep, the days of constant pain, the two weeks of swelling, the feeling of imprisonment within a cabana, missing the sun and the surf.
Now, i can walk. I dont have the strength in the leg but slowly it is healing. no more crutches, and no more plaster casts, and no more trips to the hospital.
Sri Lanka, not the lazy, sun and surf filled holiday that so many think it is!

Photo - Flash. A Tuk Tuk that didn’t fare so well!

Three of us had been experiencing the weekly trips - all of us sustaining leg injuries. Two through surfing and one through cricket, but all surfers. The three included Sri Lanka’s top two surfers, Asanka and Milan, along with the elderly statesman, me!
It was Poyet, a Buddhist holiday. A day when no animals, fish or living creature is killed intentionally. A day when one normally only eats vegetables - not even an egg is boiled! So, maybe the two meter long snake was aware of this, and felt more than confident that it was safe to cross the road!

The driver of the tuk tuk braked violently to avoid hitting the reptile. Unfortunately he swerved at the same time, which saw the tuk tuk first bank to the right on two wheels, and then to the left! So the three wheeler became a two wheeler! It was happening so fast, but also appeared to be in slow motion. I was sure we were going over, and that the incident would see us all in hospital with further injuries, or worse! I could see that one of us was going to be thrown from the three wheeler and seriously injured. I was in the middle so was sure i would come off with the least injuries. First i thought it would be Asanka thrown out, and then when the weight was thrown the other way, it would be Milan. I had visions of Milan being crushed under the tuk tuk, of thoughts of the headlines in the newspaper, of Sri Lanka losing one of it’s finest young surfing talents. It appeared that each time we banked over we were at 45 degrees. All of us holding on, and instinctively distributing our body weight. The saving grace appeared to be Milan, who stuck his left leg out and using his bare foot, somehow had the instinct to force his foot onto the carpet road and provide us with the leverage we needed to right the tuk tuk.
The snake appeared to be oblivious to our experience, and the excitement it had caused, and just slithered off into the jungle. It’s identitiy unknown, probably a python.
We, on the other hand, were all high on adrenaline, fired up and chat, chat, chat! It appeared that the driver was more concerned in not hitting the snake because of it being Poyet, than thinking of his passengers, that he could have inadvertently killed through his actions!! Pissu! Lol!

The story of how the surf club at one of the world’s best surf breaks is striving to overcome a checkered history of conflict and natural disaster. Five years after the tsunami, the WQS arrived in Sri Lanka. Meet the local surfers who put the pros to the test at Arugam Bay Surf Club.

Youngsters from Arugam Bay swap fishing for surfing
From fighting the waves to riding them

By M Naushad Amit
Sri Lanka has some excellent up-and-coming professionals in the sports field who are making a name for themselves as players, trainers and coaches. Cricket and rugby top the list while many in the track and field sports have also come into the limelight recently. Strangely a bunch of youngsters from Arugam Bay are on the verge of swapping their traditional profession of fishing to take up to surfing, an internationally popular sport hitherto alien to Sri Lanka and confined mainly to occasional glimpses of foreign events on television.
The Arugam Bay surfing break which was recognised by the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), the global governing body in surfing has now developed to be a popular destination for international surfers. Many in Arugam Bay who were battered by the ethnic war and the raging tsunami are now gradually picking up the threads of their shattered lives and moving on by taking to surfing along with the unceasing number of international surfers who come here on training or holiday.

To cater the demands of the tourists who come to stay in Arugam Bay for long periods, a young set of surfing enthusiasts took the initiative of forming the Arugam Bay Surf Club (ABSC) seven years ago. At the beginning these youngsters only knew to balance their body weight on a surfing board with their natural talent to swim. But during this period the ABSC has grown to become a dominant force in surfing in Sri Lanka.
“When we began seven years ago we knew nothing on surfing. We had only ten members then who knew to swim well but had no idea of how to handle a surf board. As years passed by our boys learned a great deal on surfing through the huge number of international surfers who came down to Arugam Bay. Now our membership has grown to 35 and all are equally talented,” Krishantha Ariyasena the secretary of ABSC told The Nation.
The ABSC were further boosted by a group from England who had come down to uplift the living standards of the people of Arugam Bay after the devastating tsunami. The group ‘Paddle for Relief’ headed by Tim Tanton consisting great surfing enthusiasts promoted Arugam Bay to the outside world as an ideal surfing destination while engaging in social welfare work. The local surfers who used to train on borrowed surfers were presented two brand new surf boards by Tanton’s Group.
“Tim and his group were really behind our efforts in promoting surfing among the local youngsters here. Over the years they helped us in many ways and we also came to know a lot of foreign friends through them,” Krishantha added.

The ABSC who are now affiliated to the Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka has become a leading club in the sport by holding many locally organised events throughout the country. But their greatest break in surfing came during late June with the SriLankan Airlines Pro Surfing 2010, a six-star event recognised and organised by the ASP. Sri Lanka was presented two wild card entries and through a qualifying championship the local surfers from Arugam Bay won the slots to represent Sri Lanka along with over 100 professional and international surfers. The ASP officials were really impressed by the local talent who competed without less technical knowledge.
“This was the greatest moment for us at ABSC. AH Milan and WL Asanka from our club won the wild card slots for the event. The officials of ASP identified our talent and they were good enough to share their experience. We never requested them for financial support or surfing boards. All we asked was their advice and guidance. In reply to our humble request they conducted special workshops, training sessions by top professionals and even used our boys as beach marshals and for ground operational activities. They appointed one of their coaches to stay back for two weeks after the championship and conducted coaching camps. They were keen to uplift our standards and bring us to a level where we can conduct our own events,” said thrilled Krishan.

The ASP tour manager for Australasia, Dane Jordan who commented on the talent of Arugam Bay surfers emphasised that they had the ability to spread the sport among other locals who were interested. “The surfers of Arugam Bay are really impressive. They have the potential of becoming professionals but what they lacked was the technical aspects of the sport. Otherwise they had the in-born talent.”
Arugam Bay surfers who battle the sea for their bread and butter for six months of the year are now amateurs in surfing. Professionally they are fishermen but during the off season they find ample time to take part in local tournaments and earn an extra buck by helping tourist surfers. The area itself had become dependant on tourism and more than half the population are engaged in tourism in one way or the other.
“Even during the war Arugam Bay had tourists coming down throughout the year. Tourism has become the main source of income for people around here. Our surfers too are part of it but still we continue our traditional profession and our fishing harvest is efficient enough to supply the local hotels. But with what we have learnt during the past seven years we want to move full-time into surfing. There’s a lot of potential in that,” Krishan went on to say.

After the training programmes conducted by the ASP, the Arugam Bay surfers are now eligible to obtain coaching licenses in surfing. This will give them hopes of becoming full-time professionals in the sport. As a start the ASP presented them with two brand new professional surfing boards during the awards ceremony of the SriLankan Airline Pro Surfing 2010. “With the demand we see here for surfing, it will be timely to begin a surfing school for beginners. We have the blessings from the ASP and it will also help out locals from all parts of the country to learn surfing. Our surfers have the talent but we lacked the technique and teaching methods. But after the workshops, coaching camps and experience with ASP, they said we can now start teaching the newcomers. It’s a major turning point for Arugam Bay surfers and ours will be the very first surfing school in Sri Lanka,” Krishantha said.

Sri Lanka’s finest surfers were out in force to compete in the WQS Sri Lanka Surf Trials. The event held over two days, 16th and 17th June, saw a tight affair between a number of surfers. The top eight battled it out under ASP Australasia jurisdiction on the 18th June following the opening ceremony held out on Main Point, Arugam Bay. Asanka blasted his way through the first semi-final, truly showing why he has predominately held the No.1 spot in Sri Lanka for the past few years. The young pretenders, Milan, Sril and Pranith from Arugam Bay, were joined in the last eight by the long, blond haired, Natheen of Hikkaduwa, Asanka’s young cousin, Pranjis from Komari, Sril’s younger brother Chanu, Aatha from the Main Point and Arugam Bay’s colourful legend Susanthan. They were out to knock Asanka off his thrown. Alas, it was not to be! Milan continues to improve by the day, showing the potential recognised in last years 2009 UK Pro Surf Tour Event. Leading up to the competition it was Sril and Pranith who were showing awesome fire power on one of the world’s finest right hand point breaks. It was however, Milan’s day as well as Asanka’s. Both were blasting a series of manoeuvres on surfboards donated by the Devon Organisation, Paddle4Relief, back in April this year and showing the rest of the world how much natural talent can be found on the tear drop tropical isle known as Sri Lanka. The East coast of Sri Lanka may well not be a rich or developed area of the world but it sure has a richness that money cannot buy.

Sri Lankan Airlines Pro ASP WQS 6 Star Men's Sri Lanka's Wild Cards (Photo: AiyaSurfPhotography)