Tupira, wonderful cultural

By COLIN TAIMBARI
ITS two months since the PNG Kumul World Surf League world longboard championships in Madang’s picturesque Uligan Bay down Bogia way, but those in the surfing world still haven’t stopped talking about Tupira and Papua New Guinea.
Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms are still in overdrive mode about how beautiful Tupira and PNG are with re-posts of images and positive comments. The big social media buzz is why they all cannot wait to return for the next world championship in Vanimo in March next year.
Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea founder and president Andrew Abel says Tupira and PNG are “a definite game changer” for the WSL and more so the longboard event. This is because the longboard event has always played second fiddle to the much-fancied shortboard event with stars such as ‘King’ Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning and John John Florence strutting their stuff on the big waves with females champs like Stephanie Gilmore, Carissa Moore and Tyler Wright among others doing the same.
This disparity is not only in the popularity stakes but the WSL forks out more than US$500,000 in cash prizes per year for the shortboard world circuit while for the longboard, it’s a meagre US$150,000 in total annual prizemoney.
However, Andy Abel believes that with the growing popularity of Tupira and the world-class waves at the PNG Kumul World Longboard Championships, everyone is now sitting up and taking notice. The popularity of the longboard event could now be elevated to a new high. And one of many major factors when the event was streamed live to more than 1.2 million people every day around the globe was the sheer number of spectators that turned up each day at Tupira.
“We easily had a thousand people there every day including school children in uniforms cheering and the surfers and the people watching from around the world were simply amazed,” said Abel.
“Tupira was nothing like they had experienced before. We were in Hainan, China, before coming to Tupira and there was no one except for one or two people just wandering around on the beach, so Tupira was definitely an eye opener for the international surfers and they really enjoyed it.”
Women’s eventual winner Chloe Calmon, from Brazil, agreed: “It was incredible to see so many people cheering for me with my friends all there to support me through that final.”
Abel said the surfers not only enjoyed the surf but also the local culture and the fantastic environment in general as they went diving, snorkelling and fishing in between the championships, catching some awesome fish in the process.    The highlight for many was the free aerial helicopter tours provided by Helifix – that just got them in such ecstasy – as many of them had never flown in a helicopter before. The five-star meals served by Peter Long and his crew from IPI Catering and the endless supply of SP green can from the Tupira clubhouse bar were simply the icing on the cake for a marvellous, one-of-a-kind experience.
Put simply, Tupira was the perfect mirror for a wonderful surf cultural experience in PNG when it successfully delivered our first ever international surfing event at little known Ulingan Bay from March 18 – 25.
The world’s best longboard surfers numbering 54 which included 36 men and 18 women on the elite World Surf League (WSL) circuit converged on majestic Ulingan Bay without an inkling of what to expect.
Travelling to Tupira on their first night, the giant potholes along the north coast road did not help ease any fears of what may lay ahead given all the negative perceptions the surfers may have read or seen in the media. But once they woke up the next morning – they were mesmerised by the beauty of Tupira Surf Club. Its simple traditional structures including the clubhouse, its large green lawns and magnificent landscape abundant with tropical plants and its world-class waves confirmed they were in paradise!
Women’s runner-up Crystal Walsh, of Hawaii, summed it up perfectly. “This wave is so dreamy and perfect, it was great to have a longboard event here. I’m really excited and just super afraid of waking up and this being all a dream,”  she said.
For the locals, this was an event to behold. Nothing bigger and more exciting had befallen their sleepy corner of the world since maybe World War 2 when Tupira was used by the Japanese as a landing strip for their supplies and then later by Asian loggers as a logging pond to stockpile logs for shipment.
The transformation of Tupira has been inspirational to say the least. It is simply amazing how Andy Abel, SAPNG and Tupira Surf Club president Justice Nicholas Kirriwon have transformed Uligan in a short period of time and placed it on the world map. Tupira is unique to other surf clubs in PNG and the world because it is 100 percent owned by the locals from the 10 or more communities surrounding Uligan Bay. At Tupira, the ancient art of carving surfboard from traditional woods is also earning up to AUST$600 per ‘palang board’ for the locals.
SAPNG’s surf area management plan has also taken a foothold with the local resource owners now the masters of their own destiny through surfing not only as a sport but also as a sustainable tourism revenue earner.SAPNG is also taking the lead in the evolution of PNG women in surfing through its Pink Nose Board which allows young village girls to have their own surfboards. Village children are also encouraged to attain an education through SAPNG’s “No School No Surf” programme and SAPNG, with the support of Exxon Mobil and Buk Bilong Pikinini opened the Nicholas Kirriwon education resource centre during the championships. But then how can we forget the main event – the PNG Kumul World Surf League world longboard championships. The world came but instead of conquering, Tupira transformed them.
“This is crazy, I’ve never experienced anything like that and to get a win here with all my friends around me makes it that much more special,” was how the men’s winner, Taylor Jensen, of USA, described it.
“This has been an amazing experience from start to finish and today was unlike anything I’ve ever seen – it’s almost enough to leave someone speechless.
“I was a little worried coming here just because you hear things, but witnessing it in person was just proof  you can’t believe everything you hear. The people here are amazing and this is something I’ll never forget.”