china-hainan
#19. Hainan, China: Fast emerging as a surfing center in Asia is China's Hainan Island, in the south China Sea below Hong Kong. Away from the concentration of massive hotels for package tourists in Sanya, Hainan is laid back and casual with a string of points, reefs and beachbreaks directly in the line of swell from the consistent northeast monsoon from October to March. The island gets a surprising amount of quality surf from good points to hollow beachbreak, with the left point at Riyue (Sun and Moon) Bay getting most of the attention. Hainan has hosted several international events already like the Swatch Girls Pro, with surfing industry sponsors falling over themselves to stage more surfing events on the island and get their products in front of 1.2 billion increasingly wealthy Chinese consumers. Image: Callahan/surfEXPLORE
Surf is everywhere. It rolls past our coastlines, whipped up by storms off shore, held up by offshore winds, and can go from playful to terrifying the blink of an eye. Sometimes it’s blue, sometimes green, sometimes gray. Whatever it looks like, it’s always beautiful. Islands have some of the best waves, and this gallery shows twenty of the world’s best surfing islands. From India to Indonesia, there’s a wave for everyone.