An isolated spot with uncrowded waves is every surfer's dream. And that's exactly what you'll find here at Tupira Surf Club in Madang Province on Papua New Guinea's north coast. This is one of 10 clubs in the fold of the Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea, an organisation that's grown to represent a whole lot more than just surfing.

Charles Abel - Minister for Tourism: Surfing is proving to be one of the major growth boutique sectors in tourism in Papua New Guinea. Surfing is not only leading the way in growth of numbers, but also leading the way in terms of a model for development that involves community level participation.

Tania Nugent: I've joined a group of visiting surfers, who've come for a weekend safari at Tupira and we're being welcomed in local style. For the people of Tupira surf tourism is something new, but for Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea, President, Andy Abel, this is part of something he's been working on for more than 20 years, since he founded the association in 1988.

Andy Abel - President, Surfing Association of PNG: I think I was just driven by my passion for surfing. 97% of our people live in the village communities. Through my passion of surfing I've been able to harness that sport, establishing a sustainable, equitable platform where we empower these very people - the grassroots people.

Tania Nugent: Like 97% of land in PNG, this land and the sea along its coast, is owned by traditional clans.

Andy Abel: We go in, meet with the village councillors, the surfers, the local people, discuss with them the opportunity of introducing the sport of surfing for the benefit of the children , explaining to the village councillors and the elders the long term benefits of the sport and the potential to introduce surf tourism with the view of generating a sustainable source of income without destroying their natural environment, destroying all their timber and their resources which have been standing for hundreds of years, which unfortunately in many areas of PNG have been logged out by unscrupulous logging companies. The landowners get a pittance in return for their resource.

Tania Nugent: Through the surfing association people who come here to surf pay a levy.

Andy Abel: Which in this case is 10 Aussie dollars or 30 kina per day per surfer, be it Kavieng, Vanimo, Madang or wherever, that money is paid by every inbound surfer, then is collected by the surfing association, and then that money is distributed amongst the clans that are custodian to the respective surf breaks.

Tania Nugent: The Tupira Surf Club encompasses land than belongs to five different villages and several thousand people, iIncluding those who work at the club and guest house.
Wanem kain wok, y save wokim long hia long surf Club? (What kind of work do you do here at the Surf Club?)

Adi Tomol, Surf Club Caretaker: Mi stap. Mi Stat clinim dispel aria, mi bildim haus, gesthaus, taim mi bildim na mi stat lainim ol liklik mangi long surf. (Here, I started clearing this area, I built the guest house. When I built it I started teaching the little kids to surf.)

Tania Nugent: The guest house became another source of income for the community.
Ol man I cam long ovasis, oli stap long hia, na u lukautim ol, na ol ting wanem long dispel ples? (The people who come from overseas, they stay here, you look after them, what do they think of this place?)

Adi Tomol: O mi lukautim ol, ol I hamamas stret long stap. Ol laik stap tasol kantri no allowim ol long stap so ol mas go bek, so sampela taim ol I I cam bek gen, ol tokim mi olsem. (I look after them. They're very happy to be here. Thet want to stay but the country won't allow them to stay so they have to go back, so sometime they'll come back again, they tell me.)

Andrew Abel: The surfing association is not into promoting mass tourism, we are into promoting a unique experience, where we limit the number of surfers per surf break, in order to give those inbound surfers that quality experience that they are looking for.

Jamo Borthwick - Gold Coast surf coach: It is just such a sensational country. You get out into the villages and they are the nicest, friendliest, happiest, most welcoming people ever.

Tania Nugent: It was the promise of uncrowded waves that drew Gold Coast surf school owner Jamo Borthwick to PNG, and he combined his adventure with some surf coaching for the locals, and the experience has changed his life.

Jamo Borthwick: Just to see the joy and the stoke seeing kids playing on snapped and broken boards and riding the little shoreys in and having the best time of their life. One place I went to we ended up with one board in a whole village, in a whole surf club that we could use to for the training, so I just went, ok, when I get back to Australia first thing I want to do is try to get more gear going. So we got back and started collecting gear, which has been really good.

Tania Nugent: Jamo has joined a network of surfers from the Sunshine Coast to Sydney, who have been collecting boards for the PNG surfing association to distribute amongst its clubs.

Jamo Borthwick: In Australia we are really lucky, we might have... each individual surfer themselves might have two, three, four, five, sometimes more boards for the one person, whereas when you get over to PNG, there might be four or five boards between 30 or 40 or 50 people.

Andrew Abel: We are here to mark this important occasion of handing over these donated boards that have come a long way, by ship, from Australia. We have received over 300 boards and clothing and surf life saving equipment and boards, medical equipment .

Al Mom: The people in the area, they don't have a lot of access to disposable income, so having these items, they're luxury items for them.

Tania Nugent: Na u lukim ol dispela surf board ol I presentim tete na u ting wanem? (And you saw all these surfboards they presented today and what did you think?)

Local boy: Mi hamamas olsem ol I bin presentin long mipela na mi ting olsem mi ken kisim wanpela na traim. (I'm happy that they presented them to us and I think that I can get one and try it.)

Andy Abel: I am very confident that Tupira Surf Club will become, or already is the third major surfing destination in PNG.

Tania Nugent: The sun is setting here at Tupira surf club, the ceremony to hand over the donated surf board has been completed and within seconds of it ending, the local kids are out here in the water to test out there new boards. This is what it's all about.

Adi Tomol: Surfing I luk olsem emi wanpela nupela sport long kantri long mipela. So mi hamamas long surf. Emi gutpeal pilai. Na em gutpela mo ating mi biliv bai ol liklik mangi lainim dispel pilai ating tryu long dispel pilai bai ol I golong sampela hap na pilai long sampela kantri. (Surfing is a new sport in our country. So I'm very happy to surf. It's a good game. And I think it's very good. I believe that little kids will learn this game. I think through this game, they will go places and play in other countries.)

Andy Abel: When you go out and share the wave with them, and they have a big full beam smile, and they are laughing an jumping up and down, the parents are screaming on the beach because their kids have got a great wave, it actually becomes very emotional.