Chinese national surfing team opens to promote surfing

The Chinese national surfing team held an open day, with team members showing their surfing skills, attracting more than 200 surfers to participate in South China's Hainan province on Sunday.

The Chinese national surfing team held an open day, with team members showing their surfing skills, attracting more than 200 surfers to participate in South China's Hainan province on Sunday.

"I stood up in the sea. I did it," said Liu Zhihua, a beginner surfer from Haikou, the capital city of Hainan.

"The waves are very big these days. It's hard for a beginner to catch a wave, but I just like the feeling of challenging myself," he added.

The Chinese national surfing team held an open day, with team members showing their surfing skills, attracting more than 200 surfers to participate in South China's Hainan province on Sunday.

The International Olympic Committee included surfing in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2016, and the Chinese national surfing team was established in 2017.

The Chinese national surfing team held an open day, with team members showing their surfing skills, attracting more than 200 surfers to participate in South China's Hainan province on Sunday.

Ma Fulai, head coach of the Chinese national surfing team, said after more than three years of hard training and participation in various competitions, the national team has made rapid progress, and at the 2019 world championships, both the individual and team rankings were above average.

The Chinese national surfing team held an open day, with team members showing their surfing skills, attracting more than 200 surfers to participate in South China's Hainan province on Sunday.

"I am glad to see more and more locals come to Riyue Bay to surf. The waves and scenery here are very good," said Michael Allan Weaver, an American coach of the Chinese national surfing team.

The Chinese national surfing team held an open day, with team members showing their surfing skills, attracting more than 200 surfers to participate in South China's Hainan province on Sunday.

Wanning, a coastal city in the east of Hainan, has 109 kilometers of coastline and the highest wave in Riyue Bay can reach up to three meters, which is very suitable for surfing. 

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A debate over how to bring back surfing in Germany's landmark English Garden escalated on Sunday after city workers removed a beam surreptitiously deployed over Christmas to restore a surfable wave in the river that runs through the park.

For years, the site had been a hot spot for surfers and spectators because of the meter-high (three foot-high) wave created by the strong current of the Eisbach river. But the wave disappeared in October after city workers cleared away accumulated sediment, gravel and debris from the riverbed. That set off discussions between the city and the surfers on how to restore the wave.

The authorities were apparently not moving fast enough to suit at least some of the the surfers, who enjoyed several days of holiday surfing in wetsuits after unknown individuals deployed the beam across the river bed on Christmas Day. A banner on the adjacent bridge declared in English, “Just Watch. Merry Christmas!”

The surfers may have been stoked, but the city was not. The fire department moved in early Sunday morning, and the improvised structure and the wave were gone, the dpa news agency reported.

The city has urged patience and asked an engineering professor from the Munich University of Applied Sciences to advise on possible solutions.

Safety concerns became more prominent in May, when a 33-year-old surfer died after her board was caught underwater and she couldn't free herself from the attached leash. The city's climate and environment department said in a statement Sunday that the beam was “illegal and potentially dangerous.”

The department said that after the tragic accident earlier this year, “the city must not and cannot tolerate impermissible structures at the Eisbach wave.”

A Munich surfing association said on Thursday on its website that city authorities were imposing too many conditions on efforts to restore the wave and that the process has “stalled.”

A post on the IGSM surfing association website said that the city was imposing “ever more conditions and added demands” on the project, including indemnifying the city for any risks during a test period and procuring an engineering certificate that the adjacent bridge is strong enough to support fastenings to the wave device.

The association warns that the site “is not a wave for beginners and not a place to start with river surfing, even if one already has experience in the ocean." It warns of concrete blocks placed behind the wave as brakes on the strong current: “These are dangerous for inexperienced surfers because in case of an uncontrolled fall one is pressed against them by several tons of water and gets off at best with serious bruises.”

Rules for use include being a fit, experienced surfer and using a breakaway leash.

Fire department employees dismantle the installations and devices for an artificial wave on the Eisbach in Munich, Germany, Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)

Fire department employees dismantle the installations and devices for an artificial wave on the Eisbach in Munich, Germany, Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)

A man tries out the temporary Eisbach wave in the English Garden in Munich, Germany, Friday Dec. 26, 2025. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)