The Sawi Thailand International Monsoon Surfing Competition

[timber]

Many have been contacting me asking how the competition went.

This is the first competition that has been held at Sawi, which is

about 40 K's south of Chumphon. In the first day of the competition

the surf was running about 1.75 meters at Sairee Beach. Ira Knight,

from South Africa, finished the day with a time of 7 seconds.

The break was not holding and was difficult to stay up for long.

The second day of competition was held in the, "Mix Master,"

at Khow Tan. The waves were 2 meters and Ira Knight won

again, with a time of 15 seconds. Weather forecasts from

WindGuru indicated a wave height of 3 meters was expected

for the third day. The storm moved south and the wave height

was only 2.2 meters. Ira Knight won the Monsoon Surfing

Competition with a time of 12 seconds. Shona, a lady from

South Africa came in second with a time of 9 seconds.

A big thanks to the competitors, and remember to get ready

for next year.

[pramaprow]

Where's the photos?...

[sscsamui]

Where's the photos?...

why did we not hear about this before it started? I would have love to surf in it....

[timber]

The posting was a bit tongue in cheek. We normally get 3 to 5

days of surable waves in late October or early November.

The time can not be scheduled. A couple of South Africans

came to Sawi to teach English and brought their boards with

them. They looked out patiently every morning looking for

the surf, they live across the street from Sairee Beach Sawi,

and then they rode their bike to school. Finally the surf was

up. The waves were 1.5 meters plus, but the breaks were crashing

and reforming. Very hard to surf and not for very long. We

went looking for some point break surf, and found some not

bad waves at Khaow Tan, a small fishing villiage. They got

some fun rides in and made local history. Not sure if the east

coast has been surfed or not. Pretty sure nothing locally.

I took some pictures, but with the dark stormy weather, and

a poor telescopic lense they were pretty crappy. I have poor

bandwidth here, but when it is good enough I will post some

of the pictures.