Surfing in Bangladesh
Only 20 years back, surfing was an unfamiliar phenomenon to the people of our country. At that time, surfing entered into our dictionary with the help of some foreigners. It is the contribution of Jafar Alam, who is credited to unleash the beauty of surfing in this country. Back in the 90’s, Alam got a surfing board from an Australian tourist, but it was not taken to the shore until seven years have passed. He became interested in surfing from Television program and then he learned it by himself. Later he met with some American and learnt more about this surfing. He is the one who open first surfing club in Bangladesh with almost 70 local boys back in 2002. To make surfing equipment available in this area he opened few shops near Cox’s Bazar. Also Tom Bauer, owner of a nonprofit surfing organization, took steps to expand surfing in Bangladesh.
Surfing destination of Bangladesh is at Cox’s Bazar which is a small town of this country, but has the longest beach of the world. This town has the biggest crowd of tourist who come to have a view of Bay of Bengal and is the surfing center of Bangladesh. Cox’s Bazar offers short board waves during the period of March to December and for the rest of the period, it offers long board waves. This area of surfing never displays an extreme level of surfing, whereas a stat show it offers almost 150 days of surfing condition each year.
Surfing in Bangladesh is yet to achieve a average standard of surfing, but the excitement among the Bangladeshi people about surfing is much bigger than expected. Interesting fact is a good numbers of females surfers are joining in surfing. From 2005, a surfing competition is being held in Cox’s Bazar every year with the combination of national and international surfers. All of these facts point towards a bright future of surfing in Bangladesh.