26 August, Zhoushan, China: The Dongsha Open of Surfing 2024 wrapped up yesterday at Dongsha Beach with the Philippine’s Daisy Valdez Dela Torre claiming wins in both the Women’s Shortboard and Longboard Divisions, Japan’s Takamura Kazonura taking out the Men’s Shortboard Division, and China’s Su Riu winning the Men’s Longboard Division to end this 2nd annual surfing and beach festival that saw competitors from China, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the USA gathering to compete and share the stoke of surfing at this amazing island location on the East Coast of China, just a few hours’ drive from the city of Shanghai.
The event was challenged by very small wave conditions this year, as a typhoon had just passed and provided great waves in the days leading up to the weekend, but it was a diminishing swell that greeted the competitors on Saturday and the waves were all but gone on Sunday.
Regardless, the competitors took on the challenge and made the best of it, with the Philippines Daisy Valdez Dela Torre topping the list of highlights by winning both the Women’s Longboard and Women’s Shortboard Divisions. Her ability to find just enough power in the tiny waves to complete maneuvers carried her to victory, although she narrowly escaped a priority interference call in the Shortboard Final as the judges deemed the wave already unscorable, giving her the win. She went on to win the Women’s Longboard Division as well and will go home with a heap of cash in her pocket.
“I’m so happy to win both divisions,” exclaimed Daisy. “ I almost didn’t join the shortboard division as I didn’t bring any shortboards with me, but then Terry (City Surfer) said I could borrow one of his boards, so I decided to compete. And even though the waves were really small and difficult, it was still surfable so I’m really happy to bring back these wins for Team Philippines!”
“This is my first time to China” she added. “When I saw the video highlights from this event last year, I was like ‘wow, there are really good waves in China” so I knew 100% I had to come and join this time. I got to bring my daughter Kaila, and then we were in the longboard final together, so it’s been really fun. I know she could have won over me…I’m just lucky I got the best wave in that final.”
In the Men’s Longboard, Hou Ming Cai was a standout in each of his two heats, sitting atop the leaderboard coming into the final, then scored the event’s highest single wave score of 8.67 (out of a possible 10 points) in the final, but then made a priority error that canceled the wave score and dropped him to 4th place with a 0.00 score, giving Su Rui the win with his 5.0 score. Only the highest score from each competitor was counted in the 20 minute final.
Rui Su is on the Shandong Province surfing team, and was happy to win but admitted luck was on his side. “I’ve been focused on training the past 1 year and I didn’t attend any comps, and with these small wave conditions as you can see my technical skills weren’t as good as they could be. But luck is also an important factor, so well, I’m not complaining. For sure I’ll come back to compete here again next year, and I’m happy to enjoy the moment and not focus only on winning.”
In the Men’s Shortboard Division, arguably the most difficult division for both the competitors and the judges due to the small waves, but it was Japanese expat Takamura Kazunori who took the win. He lives in Hangzhou and surfs regularly on weekend at Dongsha Beach. “I discovered City Surfer a few years ago and it was a pleasant surprise, but I didn’t expect to win a contest that was made by it,” said Takamura.
“I believe luck was on my side today, especially because the waves were quite small. Many of the talented surfers here are used to larger waves in places like Hainan and the wave conditions in Zhoushan feel similar to those I’ve surfed in Japan, which might be why I was able to win today,” he explained.
“Having a great surfing community like City Surfer in my life here in China is something I’m truly grateful for. Not only does it provide a place to surf on the weekends, but it also contributes to the development of local surfing culture. The sport of surfing has huge potential in China, which is very exciting,” he added.
This is the second time an international surfing event has been organized by City Surfer here at Dongsha Beach, with sponsorship by government tourism and private businesses, and the Asian Surf Cooperative providing technical and media support.
This year, the surfing competition was held under a new format, which has been named the City Surfer Festival Leaderboard Format, where each surfer in each division surfed two rounds, with their best scoring wave from each round totaled and input in to a Leaderboard. The four surfers in each division with the highest totals in each division competed in a final, with the highest single wave score earning the victory.
This non-elimination format was implemented due to the small waves on offer for the two day event, to provide the best opportunity for the surfers to spend as much time in the water as possible, yet encouraging them to perform their best by going all out chasing the highest score on each wave.
The schedule, heats, and leaderboard information from the event can be viewed on Live Heats at http://liveheats.com/events/272561
The 2024 Dongsha Open of Surfing concluded last night at the City Surfer Beach Club, with the awarding of cash and prizes, fireworks, and plenty of free Corona beer, to end the fantastic weekend.
“Oh behalf of our City Surfer team and our government sponsors, we thank everyone that came to participate and be part of this event,” said City Surfer founder Terry Yu. “We’re happy to show Dongsha Beach to the world through this surfing competition, and that it allows our Chinese surfers to link up with other surfers in Asia and beyond. We will keep this momentum going and continue to expand this event in the future, and welcome everyone back again next year.”
The Asian Surf Cooperative thanks the City Surfer team and the Zhoushan government for making this event possible and inviting the ASC Team to run the competition, and a big thanks to all the surfers that joined in.
The 2024 Dongsha Open of Surfing was sponsored by the Zhoushan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism, and Sports, the Putuo-Zhujaijian Management Committee, the Zhejiang Zhoushan Tourism Company, and Zhujiajian Island Tourism Co. Ltd., and a special thanks to Corona for all the beer!
For any questions and further information please contact:
CITY SURFER
Email: [email protected]
Wechat: CitySurferCN
Phone: +86-17857679909
Asian Surf Cooperative
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +34 608 48 20 50
