PHUKET'S Quiksilver 2010 Surf Competition is to stretch over five days from September 22-26 as organisers improve the facilities at Kata beach and add a fashion show and a beach party.
With a viewing stand and judging tower to be erected for the event, it's almost as though the Phuket surfing title is Kata's answer to the much-admired women's beach volleyball that is held annually on neighboring Karon beach.
The beach party and the ''Perfect Idol'' fashion show are both scheduled for Sunday, September 26.
Emphasis on the skills of surfers, who are coming from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, US, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and South Africa, is expected to attract 300 Thai and non-Thai competitors.
Kata is the best surf beach on Phuket, the organisers believe. The August-October issue of Thailand Surfrider magazine highlights the part played by surfers in beach safety, with ''Ajarn Surf'' S. A. Martin defining short-period swell and long-period swell and the part both play in disorienting individuals in the water.
''The mixture of short-period swell and long-period swell can be a lethal combination,'' the article says,''creating spontaneous and dynamic ocean currents called 'flash rips.'
''The flash rip is the Phuket cocktail, a deadly period of short-period and long-period wave activity unique to the region. One minute the swimmer/tourist is standing in waist-deep water, marvelling in the moment at the beauty of Phuket; the next minute they are swept off their feet and carried out to sea.''
Even on calm days, Phuket's west coast beaches can pull strong surfers off their path. Somkhit Kuernun reported that before the tsunami, there were an average of 12-16 surf related drownings on Phuket each year. Since 2005, with lifeguards intermittently on the beaches, the toll has dropped to 9-12 a year, he says.
Public Health statistics recorded 57 drownings on and around the island in 2009 but did not specify how many were beach drownings.
A campaign to train Phuket's beach lifeguards more thoroughly is being undertaken at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort, with the support of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation, before Phuket's Surf Lifesaving Carnival at Patong on Saturday, September 11.
With a viewing stand and judging tower to be erected for the event, it's almost as though the Phuket surfing title is Kata's answer to the much-admired women's beach volleyball that is held annually on neighboring Karon beach.
The beach party and the ''Perfect Idol'' fashion show are both scheduled for Sunday, September 26.
Emphasis on the skills of surfers, who are coming from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, US, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and South Africa, is expected to attract 300 Thai and non-Thai competitors.
Kata is the best surf beach on Phuket, the organisers believe. The August-October issue of Thailand Surfrider magazine highlights the part played by surfers in beach safety, with ''Ajarn Surf'' S. A. Martin defining short-period swell and long-period swell and the part both play in disorienting individuals in the water.
''The mixture of short-period swell and long-period swell can be a lethal combination,'' the article says,''creating spontaneous and dynamic ocean currents called 'flash rips.'
''The flash rip is the Phuket cocktail, a deadly period of short-period and long-period wave activity unique to the region. One minute the swimmer/tourist is standing in waist-deep water, marvelling in the moment at the beauty of Phuket; the next minute they are swept off their feet and carried out to sea.''
Even on calm days, Phuket's west coast beaches can pull strong surfers off their path. Somkhit Kuernun reported that before the tsunami, there were an average of 12-16 surf related drownings on Phuket each year. Since 2005, with lifeguards intermittently on the beaches, the toll has dropped to 9-12 a year, he says.
Public Health statistics recorded 57 drownings on and around the island in 2009 but did not specify how many were beach drownings.
A campaign to train Phuket's beach lifeguards more thoroughly is being undertaken at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort, with the support of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation, before Phuket's Surf Lifesaving Carnival at Patong on Saturday, September 11.
