Politics and Surfing:

PNG Prime Minister to support surfing on the North Coast

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 17 December 2004: - - Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has jumped on the surfing craze currently hitting Papua New Guinea’s north coast — from Wewak to Vanimo. Sir Michael, who boasts about surfing as a child using wooden splinters, claims surfing as a traditional part of Papua New Guinea culture.

“Surfing was not introduced to us — when the canoes were damaged, our dads and uncles would cut the surfboards up. We started when we were in the village, at about nine or 10,” said Sir Michael. The Prime Minister was speaking to a group of visiting Australian journalists and photographers in Wewak recently.

The group was out to catch the perfect swells in Vanimo and Wewak on a promotional trip arranged by the Tourism Promotion Authority and the PNG Surfing Association to market surfing as a tourism product for PNG overseas.

The group also presented 35 secondhand surfboards to village surfers to encourage cross-cultural relations between PNG and Australia using surfing as a vehicle. Sir Michael was impressed and said he would travel to Cairns next year to buy used surfboards for the children of Boram, Kreer, Wewak and Wom.

“You know this (surfboards) is something we are lacking. You see the kids using soft woods,” Sir Michael said.. “I am really happy and I am encouraged by what you are doing. I am going to buy a number of them (surfboards) and bring them up in a container for kids up here.”

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