“There’s some crazy slabs here, a world-class rivermouth which has done the rounds lately, and obviously the fun longboard wave at Riyue Bay,” Co-Founder of Surf China Co. Ethan Huang told SURFER. “But when there’s a solid swell, there’s no one surfing the heavy waves. We aren’t worried about overcrowding. We want surfers to come to Hainan.”
That may soon be a case of careful what you wish for. With the South China Sea’s waves, a new park powered by PerfectSwell technology, and elite golf courses, the Chinese island has become a unique surf tourism prospect. Add the island’s palm-fringed white sandy beaches, year-round warm water, 2000-year culture, incredible food and modern, clean and affordable infrastructure, and duty-free status, and maybe this joint won’t be uncrowded for long.
Surfers aren’t a new species around here. In the 1980s, SURFER sent photographer Warren Bolster and journalist Matt George on the island’s first surf mag trip. “Exotic, remote, empty” was George’s summation of a coastline that extends for 1000 miles into the South China Sea, and whose eastern flank is exposed to consistent NE monsoon swells, summer southerlies and seasonal typhoon swells. The prevailing north-east winds also blow offshore on all the left points.
In the early 1990s, a surf crew from Osaka, led by pioneering shaper and entrepreneur Hiroshi Yonekawa, began visiting Hainan Island regularly during the winter monsoon season and teaching the first few locals to surf.
In the early 2000s, a nascent surf scene was set up by Robert “Wingnut” Weaver and Jimmy Ganzer, and a devoted crew of expats revolving around Mama’s hut in Riyue Bay. They described the scene as like Malibu in the 1960s.
Then, under ASP CEO Brodie Carr, the World Longboard Championships were held at the left point of Riyue Bay in 2011. They would host the season climax for five years, as well as QS events, before the ISA also started doing events in 2018.
The Italian writer and surf coach Nick Zanella came to work at those early events. “I counted the number of pointbreaks – 13 in about 200 km of exposed coastline – divided it by the number of surfers – about 20 back then – then promptly quit my job as Chief Editor of SurfNews Magazine and moved in front of an epic right-hander,” he told Swellnet in 2023. He now coaches the Chinese surf team.
As such, Hainan has become the surf capital of China. Now the surf population remains small, but it is growing fast. 15-year-old Siqi Yang became the first Olympic surfer when she competed at Teahupo’o at Paris 2024, and China is currently investing in 15 other artificial wave parks. Riyue Bay now hosts most of the government-led training camps, while the next-gen of locals are doing reps in the park when the long off-season means the waves become more scarce.
Surf China Co, Official Global Hospitality Partner for the China Wave Pool, sees surfing as another honey pot in their mission to make Hainan an international tourist destination. The government have made the Island effectively one huge duty-free shop, in what has been one of the most ambitious customs liberalisation in China. It now accounts for 8% of the global duty-free market and had 1.5 million international tourist arrivals in 2025. A 30-day visa-free entry policy for citizens from 86 countries has further smoothed the process.
Golf has been another key attraction. Hainan has emerged as a top golf destination in Asia, attracting thousands of golfers annually due to its year-round tropical climate and more than 15 world-class courses. Shanqin Bay is regarded as the crown jewel; Golfweek’s Best ranked it as the sixth best course in the world and the top in Asia. It’s also extremely exclusive, with only a handful of members and a reported joining fee of over $1 million. Another setup is Mission Hills Haikou with 10 unique Schmidt-Curley-designed courses built on black lava rock. It hosts The Hainan Classic, , a new stop on the European DP World Tour. One of the island’s best lefthanders is called Golf Course, for obvious reasons.
Surf China Co.
“It’s unique that our surf and golf packages include access to these golf courses, given their exclusivity,” said Huang, “but we are getting loads of golfers coming for the courses, trying surfing in the park and then getting hooked. Plus, the whole family can stay on site, and either enjoy waves in the ocean or the beginner settings.” With the Venn diagram between surfing and golfing ever-swelling, it won’t just be Kelly Slater who will be keen to pack clubs and quivers.
Yet most tourists won’t be hitting the relatively unknown, and relatively unexplored, spots that light up when the powerful, high-quality southern groundswells hit the island’s eastern and southern coasts between August and October. Hainan has been a unique surf destination that may have been hiding in plain sight. With artificial waves also now on tap, and a government investing heavily, that may all be about to change.