Myanmar

Where to surf in Myanmar

The secretive Buddhist nation of Burma has been re-christened Myanmar under the repressive military led dictatorship (SPDC). Tourism is in its infancy and the government controls almost all facets. Displacement, slave labour and illegal imprisonment are just some of the alleged human rights abuses, plus ethnic and religious tensions between armed militias and the army have been continuously flaring up in coastal regions. Most western governments advise their nationals not to visit or invest in Myanmar.

Surfers have explored only a thin slice of Myanmar’s 2000kms of coastline in the state divisions of Rakhine and Ayeyarwaddy.

Beyond the state-run tourist beaches of Ngapali and Ngwe Saung, the coast turns and becomes the Ayeyarwaddy Delta, a mess of silted, gently shelving estuaries and islets all the way to the mouth of the Yangon River. This whole region lacks any regular surf, as the Andaman and Nicobar chain cut off the long distance Indian Ocean groundswell, so it relies on WSW windswell to kick up waves in the height of the SW monsoon (Jun-Aug).

The west-facing coastline of Mon State holds so many estuaries and rivermouths that perfect sandbars must exist somewhere, but nobody is looking for them.

Over on the eastern perimeter of the Andaman Sea, the Tanintharyi division of Myanmar is home to the jumble of 800 Mergui islands, which come in all shapes and sizes. The new government is slowly opening the archipelago for tourism, yet the only hotel on Khayin Khwa (Macleod Island) closes down for the 6 months of the SW monsoon as waves of up to 3m batter the tranquil beaches.

Many dive boats operate live-aboards in this area and it would take a lot of searching to find the beach and reefbreaks that undoubtedly exist in this largely unexplored area. Steep granite and limestone also hinders any good surf in places, so often it is just average mellow beachbreak like Koh Phayam, a Thai island at the bottom of the archipelago.