Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka

OCEAN BEACH, San Francisco/California (Friday, November 4, 2011) – The ASP has admitted that, due to a calculation error within its rankings’ system, the 2011 ASP World Title has yet to be officially decided and that Kelly Slater (USA), 39, was prematurely awarded his 11th ASP World Title on Wednesday.

“Our rankings’ system is designed to split tie-breaks based off of seed points,” Renato Hickel, ASP World Tour Manager, said. “Kelly (Slater) and Owen (Wright) tied at best nine of 11 results, so we went to best eight of 11 results and the system gave it to Kelly based off his higher seed position. We were operating under that assumption and created the ASP World Title scenarios based off of that. This was a mistake. In the end, we’re responsible for this and should be held accountable. We apologize to our fans, the surfers and to Owen and Kelly.”

Moving forward, Slater must win one more heat, either at the Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco or at the following event at Pipeline in Hawaii to confirm his 2011 ASP World Title. For Wright to remain in the hunt, he must win both the Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco and the following event at Pipeline in Hawaii.

REVISED 2011 ASP WORLD TITLE SCENARIOS:
- If Kelly wins either Round 4 or 5 (one more heat win) in San Francisco, he will confirm his 2011 ASP World Title.
- If Kelly fails to win another heat in San Francisco, Owen must win this event to send the 2011 ASP World Title race to Hawaii.
- If the race goes to Hawaii, Kelly must advance out of one heat to confirm his 2011 ASP World Title. If Kelly fails to advance through a heat at Pipeline, Owen must also win this event to stay in the 2011 ASP World Title Race.
- If Kelly fails to advance out of another heat this season, and Owen wins in San Francisco and Pipeline, the two will tie at best of nine, eight, seven, etc. events, and the 2011 ASP World Title will be decided in a “Surf Off”.

Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 7:30am to assess conditions for a possible 8am start.

The Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco, Stop No. 10 of 11 on the 2011 ASP World Title Series, will be broadcast live on Fuel TV, Livestream.com and live.ripcurl.com

Surfline, official forecasters for the Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco, are calling New NW swell will build through the day on Friday and be strongest in the afternoon, with solidly overhead surf. Those waves fade throughout Saturday, although the morning will still be fairly solid. Our next swell will move in over Sunday afternoon and will be strongest Monday and will be a little smaller than the Friday afternoon swell. Variable onshore wind will prevail over the next few days, although there will be periods of light wind and relatively clean conditions

Source: http://www.aspworldtour.com/2011/11/04/asp-admits-calculation-error-prematurely-crowned-2011-asp-world-champion/

A common theme among the surfers of Sri Lankan Airlines’ ASP Pro 2011, when describing Arugam Bay, was seeing its similarities to other countries.

Brazilian-born Andre Derizans said the waves reminded him of his own slice of the ocean back home in Hawaii. Winner of the Men’s Longboard Tour Duane Dusoto (a native Hawaiian) agreed. “Just like Bali,” said his final-round rival Taylor Jenson.

American Lakey Peterson, the 16-year-old runner-up champion for the Women’s 6 Star World Tour, said: “The waves are a lot like the waves in California which I grew up on. It really helped my confidence.”

Though the Indian Ocean water at Arugam might curl and crash like its world-famous Pacific Ocean counterparts whether they be in Brazil or Bali, there’s more than the condition of the waves to consider when examining what’s unique about surfing in Sri Lanka, and the sport’s interaction with the culture at large.

Behind the waves
For one thing, the California coastline hasn’t been devastated by an 18-meter tsunami — Hawaii’s beaches haven’t spent the past three decades under the shadow of violence. When examining the culture behind surfing, especially in Sri Lanka, there’s just as much to examine on the land than on the sea.

Following the tsunami in 2004, Arugam Bay has had a tenuous relationship with development and assistance. Many fishing boats were donated to the locals and put to good use, but other projects have been announced and implemented with scant information about their outcomes or successes.

The major exception being Paddle4Relief, a charity organisation that has been actively developing the area — whether it be building roads, donating surfboards, or drilling fresh-water wells for local villages — ever since the tsunami.

Biggest boon
The Sri Lankan Airlines Pro event itself has been the biggest boon to the area — both in stimulating the local economy and providing exposure to the area’s renowned waves. The ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) made the entire six-day event available worldwide with live-streaming coverage on their website. The event attracted both locals and foreigners alike, and this year’s had an even bigger turnout.
Although it was the sixth year Sri Lankan Airlines has partnered with ASP for the event, this is only the second year the event has been hosted in Sri Lanka — lingering fears of terrorism and violence kept the event in the Maldives.

“SriLankan Airlines is firmly geared towards making this year’s event a huge success and maintain Arugam Bay’s standing as a favourite among the top surfing destinations in the world,” said Chairman of Sri Lankan Airlines Nishantha Wickremasinghe. “We are also looking at other events, not necessarily water sports, like cycling and volleyball.”

Surfer Andre Derizans enthusiastically described how much help SriLankan Airlines had been, saying, “they’ve advanced surfing in Sri Lanka by five to 10 years”. They put in a great deal of effort to get these world-class surfers to come to the competition, even helping Andre with visa issues.

They also have a track record of donating surfboards to the locals, as well as offering lessons. Last year they donated a rescue tube which had been used to help save 300 lives from drowning. At the presentation following the finals, ASP Contest Director Dan Jordan was excited to announce that they would donate another two rescue tubes, as well as three brand new surfboards to the local surf club.
“The most important thing,” according to Derizans, “is to invest in the top and the bottom,” by which he means that it’s not necessarily enough for big organisations to come through for a few days a year and donate some of their equipment.

Surfboards are expensive to make and that price goes up even more for hopeful Sri Lankan surfers who have to purchase them from overseas. Big world-class events are great for implanting a desire to surf in Sri Lankans, and to give the waves their deserved exposure, but without their own board shops and a present year-long culture, the dream might seem to some to be too effervescent.

Surfing culture and attitude
Depending on who you ask, surfing can be a sport, a lifestyle, a religion, entertainment, meditation, an art form expressing profound inner truth, or an invasion of liberal western values on the youth — so it might be best to see what the ASP judges are looking for from their surfers in the event.

That would be a combination of traditional and modern manoeuvres, degree of difficulty, variety, and commitment — the judges want to see that the surfers are enjoying themselves, how many other sports look for the same in their participants?

That one’s sense of enjoyment is a criterion that the judges use for their score-giving reveals a great deal about surfing culture and attitude. Professional-level surfers are competitive, but also completely cordial and friendly.

For example, the final heat in the women’s event between the two Californians Lakey Peterson and Courtney Conlogue was between two friends who have been competing against each other for years. “I’m happy with the event. I would have loved to have won, but Courtney surfed great and second is a good result for me.”

Even other surfers who had failed to advance in earlier rounds could be heard clapping and cheering for their fellow riders.

More than a good time
However, there’s more to surfing culture than friendliness and having a good time. “Utilise the ocean, but take care of it,” said Men’s Longboard champion Duane Dusoto delivering his victory address “the ocean will provide sustenance, just like in Hawaii”. Aside from a message of environmental friendliness which surfers universally share (their sport does depend on it, after all), perhaps Duane’s remarks gets to the heart of what surfing culture represents. Surfing involves a specific connection to geography as well as a lifestyle and attitude. The best surfboards in the world won’t make a difference to a rider who can’t differentiate between which waves are worthwhile and which will collapse on themselves after a short distance. Whether regarding familiarity with the water, a sense of community, or equipment, location is key.

Striving for self-sufficiency
What Sri Lankan surfing is striving for, more than anything, is self-sufficiency — not having to rely on buying boards overseas and getting lessons from the professionals who happen to around. The Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka (SFSL) is making great strides towards that goal.
According to Overseas Funding manager and Principal Director Tim Tanton, 10 boys just completed the first stage of ISA surf instructor training. Also, Asanka, Sri Lanka’s #1 ranked surfer, has had one-on-one coaching sessions with Adrian Sorati, considered one of the best coaches in Australia.

Asanka officially acquired that #1 status in July by winning the Arugam Bay Surf Classic — an event exclusively for Sri Lankan surfers. It was the first-ever surfing event of its kind in Sri Lanka, and hopes to increase in stature and popularity for next year’s event. The event was sponsored by Arugam Bay Beachwear, a young company founded in 2009.

Regarding Derizan’s idea that development must apply to both the “top” and the “bottom”: if the ASP World Tour and SriLankan Airlines are working at the top level, then the bottom would be the SFSL, the Arugam Bay Surf Club, and Arugam Bay Beachwear — the ever-growing local institutions.

Arugam Bay Beachwear, famous for its use of bright colours, is expanding its market as well as its line of products — the proceeds of which go to the Arugam Bay Foundation, which focuses on youth empowerment and employment, keeping the beaches clean and marine conservation projects that cover a much larger swath of coast than just Arugam. More than anything, these local institutions are laying the groundwork for the future of Sri Lankan surfing.

Increasingly, that future seems more likely to bloom out from the inside than be pieced together by outside donations. When the professional surfers look at Arugam Bay and are reminded of their home shores, it’s about more than merely the water. They also see a culture with a friendly, welcoming attitude with a deep reverence for nature, and, of course, a passion for riding the waves.

Source: http://www.ft.lk/2011/09/14/culture-construction/

Paddle4relief joins hands to make it a ‘first’ in Sri Lanka

Arugam Bay Beachwear along with Paddle4relief a UK based organisation, arranged instructor training for members of the Arugam Bay Surf Club. The training was conducted by the International Surfing Association (ISA).

This training was ground breaking as for the first time in Sri Lanka it gave ‘Instructor’ qualification to ten surfers from the Arugam Bay Surf Club. This gives Arugam Bay Surf Club a unique distinction of being the first surf club in Sri Lanka, which has trained instructors for surfing lessons.

Arugam Bay Beachwear, which has a strategic partnership with Arugam Bay Surf Club, started Arugam Bay Foundation, which support programs that focus on community development, livelihood opportunities through surfing and awareness about clean beaches and marine protection.

Surfing has tremendous potential in Sri Lanka yet is does not have a ‘formal’ sport status.
It carries with it a potential from tourism point-of-view and to develop livelihood opportunities for the youth. Tim Tanton of Paddle-for-relief has been working silently behind the scenes to give it some structure.
“I have been working in Arugam Bay and Sri Lanka for a while to promote surfing as it has an untapped potential. I have seen sports like this add a lot to the tourism and related benefits. I am happy to say through our relationship with ISA, ASP Australiasia we were able to achieve training for Arugam Bay Surf Club. Arugam Bay Beachwear has been fantastic at top level to provide support, direction and encourage, basically driving us to do more. I thank them for that.” Says Tim Tanton, Paddle4relief.

The trained instructors from Arugam bay Surf Club are Lafeer Fawas, Krishantha Aryiasena, Siril Praneeth, Rosantha, Milan, Jenith Jayson, Aravinth, Pranith Santharuwan, Premaratne Pranjis and Lasitha.

This is the first batch of instructors in Sri Lanka who can give surfing lessons and start the popularity for this sport.“We believe in Arugam Bay Surf Club, we always thought it could be the cornerstone of surfing in Arugam Bay in every way, hence our partnership with them. It could teach, train and provide livelihood opportunities for youngsters through this amazing sport. We want to drive initiatives to realise the potential in Arugam Bay. We are very excited and encouraged, coupled with dedicated individuals in Arugam Bay who are working with us,” says Arugam Bay Beachwear CEO/Director Ajai V Singh.

Arugam Bay has seen a lot of interesting surfing events in the recent past.
The first one was the only domestic surf competition called Arugam Bay Surf Classic that was sponsored by Arugam Bay Beachwear, followed by the renowned Sri Lankan Pro-Surf.

Source: http://www.ft.lk/2011/11/02/arugam-bay-beachwear-supports-arugam-bay-surf-club-to-become-surf-instructors/

The Surfers of Sri Lanka still have a long way to go. However with determination and courage we will strive to reach to the top. Nilma Dole of the Sunday Observer writes,

Arugam Bay has been known as a top surfing area for many years now. During the season, from about May to November, it is easily the most popular destination for foreign visitors to the east coast. It’s a working fishing beach and there is quite a lot of rubbish on the sands, compared with the southern beaches, and is perhaps not the best place to come just for a beach holiday: most foreigners I met were there for the surfing. Many locals want to clean up the beach, however – see below – so this may change. For now it’s still very pretty, and quiet, if you want a place to gather your thoughts, and you can visit nearby mangroves on Pottuvil lagoon, or go to Kudimbigala Forest Hermitage to see Buddhist shrines. The Lahugala-Kitulana National Park is 16km inland from Pottuvil and large herds of elephants move there during the dry season (July and August). The road from Arugam Bay is now completely open so you can travel south to Okanda and visit Yala East National Park. This park was closed from 1985 to 2002 because of the Civil War and during that time there was a lot of poaching (which, sadly, still goes on) so there is not as much fauna as in the more famous Yala National Park to the west. Nevertheless, the Kumana Bird Sanctuary is heaven for twitchers and since the park does not receive so many visitors, it’s a less frantic experience than in Yala West, with many fewer jeeps racing around full of noisy people carrying cameras with enormous lenses!

There are not many buses going here from Monaragala so make sure you turn up early as they get very hot and crowded, and you don’t want to stand all the way. When I did it the 44 mile journey took over three hours! The bus seemed to stop about every 100m and at one checkpoint everyone was ordered off the bus and searched by the military.

The Arugam Bay Surf Club
I walked along the beach to the main surf point one afternoon and was lucky enough to meet Krishantha Ariyasena, who is 23 years old and is one of the founders of the Arugam Bay Surf Club. He invited me to visit him next morning at his family’s guest-house, the Freedom Beach Cabana, to tell me more about it.

The guest-house is a laid back, surfy place at the southern end of Arugam Bay, popular with long-stayers and return visitors. An Australian was eating a breakfast of rotti and dahl when I arrived, and loyally claimed it was the best food on the beach. The food is cooked by Krishantha’s sister, and did look tasty.

Krishantha was born in Arugam bay and has lived here all is life. He apologised for the quality of his English but I found him easy to understand, and apologised in turn for my lack of Sinhala. He has been surfing since he was a child and is passionate about the surf club.

‘We formed the Arugam Bay Surf Club before the tsunami but since then it’s got bigger because we never stopped running it. We had a lot of problems after the war and after the tsunami, but now we’re recognised as a club.’

I asked him about his experience during the tsunami but his warm smile immediately disappeared. ‘It was terrible,’ he said. ‘I just want to forget about it.’

Arugam Bay was badly hit by the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami, as was the entire east coast, and although most of the properties here have been rebuilt, the trauma people went through will clearly take much longer to recover from.

‘After the World Qualifying series (WQS) we got much more publicity. The Surfing Federation [of Sri Lanka] was formed. Surfing isn’t recognised as a sport in Sri Lanka, but we are fighting to get it recognised because until that happens it’s impossible for surfers to get any government funding. We need to have more surf clubs. Currently there are clubs in Mirissa, Hikkaduwa, Unawatuna, Matara – Madiha, and here.’

The WQS was staged in Sri Lanka for the first time in June 2010, with trial events for the local surfers sponsored by Indola sports. The International Surfing Association has previously held competitions here but the WQS was a much bigger affair and attracted a lot of media attention. This year, in July 2011, the British Pro Surf Association (BPSA) are holding the Champion of Champions Surf Contest. I asked Krishantha if he would be competing in it and he laughed.

‘I do compete but I’m not a good surfer anyway. Some of my boys are very good. The best surfer in Sri Lanka is Asanka Waduge. When the competition is on lots of people come to Arugam Bay. Massive big teams come to compete. I hope the local community makes a good income from them. It’s very good for attracting tourism. The war finished 2 and a half years ago and since then it’s a lot busier. People think that after the war we got a lot of tourists, but it’s not true. Even during the war people were warned not to come here but it was all bullshit. We never heard bomb blasts, but people stopped coming anyway.’
‘What would you tell people who were thinking about coming here?’

‘This is a good place for relaxing and enjoying yourself. Even if you’re a beginner you can hire a surf board and have surf lessons. If there are no waves at Arugam Bay you can go somewhere else nearby, such as Whiskey Point or Crocodile/Elephant Rock, where there’s a mark like an animal on the rock. If there are no waves there you can go to the national parks.’
Then he told me about a strange building above the bay called ‘the castle’:

‘It’s thirty years old – very old. It was made by an English guy called Richard. That building was not affected by the tsunami, even though all the concrete buildings were. Everything else was flattened. It’s lucky we know how to swim. After the tsunami a lot of kids were scared to swim so we started running a swimming club. We’re trying to do it again very soon. There’s a guy called Tim Tanton who does a lot of help for the local boys. He runs a charity in Devon called Paddle4Relief. He’s been coming to Sri Lanka for the past ten years and has a lot of experience. Tim brought surf boards for the boys – boards are really expensive and we couldn’t afford it. We lend them free to local kids to learn.’

I checked out Tim Tanton’s website later: www.paddle4relief.co.uk. He’s doing some great work and is holding a fundraising event on Saunton Sands, Devon, UK, on 21st August 2011. If you are in the area it is well worth supporting him. The Arugam Bay Surf Club really is making a difference to the local community and is just one of the projects he supports in this part of Sri Lanka’s east coast. Much progress has been made but it takes real work to keep the momentum going. Krisantha is well aware of this and said:

‘Please come to Arugam Bay Surf Club. You need to get lessons from a real surfer, not a tuk tuk driver or something, it’s too risky. A two hour lesson, including the hire of a soft top surfboard, is about R2500 [currently about UK£14]. All the income goes to the surf club. Fawas is President of the club and I’m Secretary, and we work very hard. A lot of people here just think about themselves and don’t think about the beach. Money sent to Sri Lanka doesn’t always go where it should go and people still don’t really care about things. We’re planning to do a clean up the beach day in June. We want health inspectors to look at the beach. It will bring together local people, the tourist police, the army, the navy and the tourists. We need to get the hoteliers involved, so they collect rubbish every morning from their section of the beach. There need to be a lot more dustbins.’

With this level of dedication and commitment the future of Arugam Bay looks promising, but local businesses really need to think as much about the community as about making money for themselves, and everyone need the tourists to keep coming. Then again, there is such a friendly atmosphere here that for many visitors to Arugam Bay the problem is making up their mind to leave. I shook hands with Krisantha and wished them all luck, sincerely hoping I could return one day. The Australian had finished his breakfast and he picked up his board, saying all this talk was very interesting but it was about time to go surfing.

Source: http://www.tripsideways.com/destinations/surfing-in-arugam-bay-sri-lanka/