Earlier today this video, entitled ‘Dont bring your surfboard to China’ surfaced online. It appears to show a surfer, apparently at XiChong beach in Shenzhen, surrounded by officials in high-vis jackets, whilst another bloke, who is also dressed vaguely officially, hacks at the poor fellas stick with a saw. The whole ordeal lasts less than a minute, but when the fella wielding the saw is finished there is a neat triangle missing from the surfers board, who is standing next to it looking rather disgruntled (as you would).
We’ve done a bit of digging for the back story to this seemingly barbaric act and discovered that incident reportedly occurred after a swimmer was hit by a novice surfer earlier that day. The men in high vis in the clip then apparently turned up a while later and started grabbing boards off random surfers, who weren’t involved in the original incident, and hacking at them.
Shenzhen Nanaoxichong Cooperative, the company who manages the beach and who’s officials can be seen in the video, are reported to have said that there have been several incidents where surfers have collided with swimmers at the beach over recent years and in this case the swimmer in question suffered some minor injuries.
As a result the company have released a statement saying that surfing at the beach will now be banned as ‘conditions are not fit for the activity’. They also stated that all surfing equipment needed to be removed from the area by next Tuesday, or it would be confiscated.
Apparently surfing was becoming quite popular at the beach, which is reported as being one of the best spots in South China, and a real community was starting to build up. Consequently this announcement by Shenzhen Nanaoxichong Cooperative seems a shame, considering the Chinese government had appeared to be actively pushing surfing in China, particularly on the Island of Hainan, that steps as regressive and restrictive as this are being taken. That said, we’re sure for surfing proponents in the region and the small but dedicated local surf population, the closure of this beach will be considered all but a minor set back and, with their hopes to create a thriving surf culture in China, they will plough on unperturbed.
