From the porch of my villa, I watch a swell roll in from the Andaman Sea and crash on the western shore of Phuket.

It is a dark, rainy, windy day on this Thai island. Which makes me wonder whether I’d be wasting my time venturing down the west coast, to Kamala Beach, which is scheduled to host the latest stage in the Amazing Phuket Plus Surf Festival.

Billed as the island’s biggest-ever surfing event, the festival is sponsored by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and has featured five separate three-day competitions throughout June and July: in Khao Lak, then Kata, Kamala, Patong and Surin. Each event has male and female competitions in both longboard and shortboard disciplines.

As my taxi rounds the northern headland of Kamala, and its white sand beach unfurls to the right, I spot only two surfers in the sea. Their shaky technique suggests they are not competitors. I stroll along the beach in light rain until I come across surf rental company Kamala Water Sport.

“It’s been cancelled, bad weather,” one of its instructors, Max Bunyarit, tells me about the opening day of the Kamala event.

The 44-year-old has been riding for more than 20 years, and has watched the sport slowly blossom in Phuket.

“Much more popular now than a few years ago,” he says, as he points out foreigners surfing further down the beach. “I think tourists didn’t think about surfing in Phuket before. Now more tourists know they can do it here. We think surfing can definitely get to be even bigger here.”

Surf tourism is a huge and lucrative business globally.

Pre-pandemic, this industry was valued at up to US$62 billion per year, according to academics from the University of Western Australia, University of the Sunshine Coast, and Australian National University. They add that research shows the Covid-19 pandemic only heightened the appeal of outdoor activities like surfing.

In some destinations, surfing is the driving force of tourism. About 16 per cent of tourists to Central American nation Costa Rica travel there specifically to surf, according to a 2021 study by the International Association for Surfing Research.

That study found surf tourism contributed US$35 million a year to Uluwatu, which is just one of many popular surfing spots in Bali, long Asia’s top surf tourism destination.The continent’s other popular surfing spots include Lombok and Sumbawa, also in Indonesia; Siargao, in the Philippines; Nha Trang, in Vietnam; and the southwest coast of Sri Lanka.

Phuket, on the other hand, has always been better known for its luxury resorts, market shopping, rowdy nightlife and tranquil beaches. It is still rare to see a tourist carrying a surfboard, or in the ocean taming waves.

But Phuket’s new festival is part of a campaign to boost its global surf tourism profile, Thailand Surfing Federation president Chanin Aiyarak said at the launch of the event.

To widen the appeal, the festival also consists of live music, surfing workshops, street art exhibitions and an array of food vendors.

Phuket is unlikely to steal serious surfers away from Bali, because its waves are not nearly as large. That, however, has an appeal of its own, says Tourism Authority of Thailand director Naparat Vudhivad. Whereas the large, powerful waves of Bali can be intimidating for novice surfers, Phuket’s are safe yet still rideable.

“This makes Phuket a great place to learn to surf as it is not too difficult,” Vudhivad explains.

“The best surfing season for Phuket is around May to September. And the best surfing spots will be along the shore of the west side of Phuket island – Bang Tao, Kata, Kamala, Kalim, Surin, Patong, Nai Harn. Plenty of the hotels in this neighbourhood provide lessons for guests to try out the sport, or lessons to perfect their skills.”

In 2022, Kata Beach, just south of tourist hub Patong, hosted the six-day Phuket Beach Festival International Surfing Competition.

Organised by the Thailand Surfing Federation and the Southeast Asia Surfing Association, it involved male and female shortboard and longboard competitions as well as DJ sets, art displays, surf workshops and food stalls.

The beach has had a recent surge in foreign surf tourism, says Kularb Bunchalorn, manager of Phuket Surf, a shop that has operated here for 20 years. She has met riders from China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines, as well as further afield.

“Phuket waves are not world-class,” she says. “But we have warm water, it is easy to get some surf, and there are many surf shops on the beach so you can rent boards or you can do some lessons.”

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