By Mahmudul Karim Rubel – Surfing Bangladesh

A two-day surfing competition was held on October 6^th and 7^th  in the Bay of Bengal near the Kolatoli beach in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. 'Surfing the Nation', a Hawaii-based sports body, organized this competition along with Surfing Bangladesh.

Though 17 surfers from the USA, Australia, Indonesia and Japan were scheduled to take part in the last day of the two-day competition, they were not able to compete as a result of the cautionary signal number 3 having been hoisted. 45 members of the Bangladesh Surfing Club - both males  and females,  were divided into three groups and kicked off the contest at 9:00am.

At the start, Bangladesh's President of the Surfing Bangladesh Club, Zafar Alam, jumped into the Bay with the other surfers joining  him soon after. None of them, however, could surf for more than 10 seconds due to  the turbulent waves.

Unfortunately, Bangladeshi sports officials, media, and locals are still unaware about the excitement of surfing. Fighting to reverse that, Mahmudul Karim Rubel a well known organizer, is working to incorporate Bangladesh into the ISA. Five local surf clubs are uniting to form the Bangladesh Surfing Association, with the help and cooperation of local sports officials and the Bangladesh Olympic Association. This will hopefully popularize Bangladesh surfing and Bangladesh’s largest beach on the national and international level. For questions and suggestions, please contact us at dbemailbox@yahoo.com.

The best season for surfing in Bangladesh runs from April through June. To learn more about Bangladesh’s beaches and coral islands, please contact the Bangladesh Surfing Association.