Three Stories Shaping the Surf World Right Now
From the beaches of Cox's Bazar to the reefs of Fiji and the desert of Coachella Valley, the past week served up a reminder that surfing's reach keeps expanding. We're talking historic firsts, heavy-water windsurfing mastery, and a wave pool that's rewriting the rules for inland surfers and photographers alike.
Bangladesh Makes Waves at the Asian Games
Surfing debuts at the Asian Games this September in Japan, and a crew from Bangladesh is gunning for a spot on the podium. For Mohammad Mannan, 25, and Fatima Akhter, 16, the road to this point has been anything but straightforward. They train out of the Bangladesh Surf Girls and Boys Club, a weather-beaten shack on Cox's Bazar, the world's longest beach stretching 75 miles along the Bay of Bengal.
"The moment I step onto the board, I forget everything else," Akhter told AFP via The Daily Star. "When I successfully ride a wave, I feel happy and fulfilled. The feeling is impossible to describe."
In a cricket-obsessed nation, Akhter has faced intense stigma as a teenage girl riding waves. Mannan, meanwhile, started out selling seashell jewelry to help his family, then picked up skateboarding before the ocean called him. His parents wanted him to quit and focus on studies; he refused, studying John John Florence on YouTube to refine his technique. Their first trip to the Maldives was a shock — better boards, bigger waves, constant travel. "It's impossible to understand an ocean if you've never surfed there," Mannan said. Now they're chasing history at the Games.
Maui Windsurfers Own Cloudbreak
Halfway across the Pacific, Maui's Bernd Roediger and Morgan Noireaux put on a clinic at the Fiji Surf Pro. Cloudbreak was firing 13-foot faces, and the conditions were being called some of the most demanding ever seen in professional windsurfing. Roediger took the win — his third major title this season — despite a strained ACL and a month off the water. "It's like a blessing," he said. "So many things have to go your way."
Noireaux dropped the highest single-wave score of the event, a 9.5, but inconsistent winds kept him from a second scoring ride, leaving him third. France's Antoine Martin slotted into second. On the women's side, Australia's Jane Seman reclaimed her 2022 Cloudbreak title, sweeping all three finals. The carnage was real: four rigs destroyed, one broken foot. As Maui News reported, the event showcased the sport at its absolute limit.
California's Second Wave Pool Goes Live
Back Stateside, Wavegarden just fired up DSRT Surf in the Coachella Valley — only the second U.S. park running their tech (the other's in Virginia Beach). The numbers are wild: 1,000 waves per hour, a catalog of 60+ wave types, including a dedicated aerial ramp firing every 30 seconds and a barrel setting dubbed the "Twister" that's "powerful, wide, and technical."
"I never imagined I would be testing aerial waves in the middle of the desert," said Jacob "Zeke" Szekely. "It's the best wave pool in the world." John Luff, co-founder of Beach Street Holdings, added that the barrel "completely blew me away... it actually gives you time to take a conscious breath in there." Sessions are expected to start around $60 an hour — notably cheaper than Palm Springs Surf Club's $100 entry. Public booking hasn't opened yet, but "late summer" is the target. For photographers, this means consistent, repeatable peaks in perfect light. For surfers, it's a training ground that doesn't care about swell direction. The Inertia has the full breakdown.
Three different corners of the surf world. Three reminders that whether you're fighting for representation, charging a reef pass, or dialing airs in the desert, the stoke is universal. Keep chasing.
