Japanese Professional Surfing Tournament :

Surf City Hikkaduwa

Demi Hewamanna and Dilanka Manakkara

Keeping the surf spirit up riding it low, bubbly, sideways and high. Pictures by Dilanka Manakkara

The week of March 19 to the 23 was just an awesome week, with lots of sun and great weather making it just perfect for surfer dudes and dudesses to skim the waves in down south Hikkaduwa. The Japanese Professional Surfers Association (JPSA) surfing tournament was held in a joint effort with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and SriLankan Airlines. This is an event that has come back to the shores of Sri Lanka after four years.

“This event returned to Sri Lanka after several years and the main objective of this event is to reintroduce the Japanese surfing event to Hikkaduwa so that it could boost the tourism industry in the country,” Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Managing Director Dileep Mudadeniya said at the event.

The opportunity to host the JPSA competition in the tropical island is of great importance and since May 2009 the country has been completely free from the 30 year long conflict and this is a great chance to rekindle the lost sensation of Sri Lanka”, Minister of Tourism Achala Jagoda said.

He went to add the country has the perfect environment and ability to encourage off season travellers and sport enthusiasts to the country. We see a huge growth also in the arrival of tourists and in the future we expect tourists to arrive from everywhere and we hope to organize several more surfing contests all around the island, we believe where tourism would make a big impact in the country’s economy.

The competition was judged by 15 judges, seven professional surfers and seven media personnel from Japan. There were ten surfers from Sri Lanka and this shows that our people are very excited about making the country soar high with participating in everything possible and showing their talents in the sports as well. From Japan there were 80 participants with 50 males and 30 female surfers also consisting both professionals and amateurs surfers.

The JPSA tournament first began in 2001, being held from February 21 to the 24 where 32 Japanese and other international surfers took part in the competition.

History of surfing

Surfing was a central part of ancient Polynesian culture and predates European contact. The chief was the most skilled wave rider in the community with the best board made from the best tree.

Pleasure Seekers President/Executive Producer Hiroyuki Serizana with a gift from Japan to be given to Ministry of Tourism.

Grand Champion from Japan Nori Taiki, Ishan Chanaka, five times champion UsikoShi Minetou, Teal Eugene Michael, Babaiaya, 80s and 90s champion Kawai Mikro and Mambo were some of the surfers who braved the waves

The ruling class had the best beaches with the best boards, and the commoners were not allowed on the same beaches, but they could gain prestige by their ability to ride the surf on their extremely heavy boards.

Surfing is a surface water sport in which a person moves along the face of a breaking ocean wave which is known as the surf.

Surfing also can take place on rivers, riding a standing wave.

Surfboards

A surfboard is an elongated platform used in the sport of surfing. They are relatively light, but strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding a breaking wave.

They were invented in Hawaii, where they were known as papa he‘e nalu in the Hawaiian language, usually made of wood from local trees, such as koa, and were often over 15 feet (5 m) in length and extremely heavy.

Major advances over the years include the addition of one or more fins on the bottom rear of the board to improve directional stability and numerous improvements in materials and shape.

Shortboard

Smooth flow

Babaiaya and Kawai in a friendly conversation

Since the late 1960s many of the surfboards in common use have been of the shortboard variety between five and seven feet in length, with a pointed nose and a rounded or squarish tail, typically with three skegs (fins) but sometimes with two or as many as five.

Longboards

The longboard is primarily a single finned surfboard with large rounded nose and length of 9 to 12 feet. Also called a Mal, which is a shortened version of Malibu, one of, if not the most popular longboard wave.

Right now there are 800 to 900 surfers arriving to Sri Lanka from Japan and through this make Hikkaduwa an alternative surfing destination to Bali and Hawaii. More and more competitions are going to be held in the months to come in the country next hot shot place for surfing which is Arugam Bay. In 2004 around 19000 Japanese tourists came to the country but it dropped to 10,000 in 2008 because of the war and once the war finished the number again went up to around 11,000 with 70 percent of them coming for leisure.

The Ocean Beat Surf Tour owned by Mayura Chanaka better known as Babaieya is the main place that hosted the Japanese judges. Babaieya along with his brothers Ishan Chanaka and Chandika Thushara also known as Mambo looked after the judges throughout the whole stay. These guys have their own surf club called “A Frame Surf Club”, and through that 17 took part in which Babaieya came fourth and Nadin Sampath came first.