It's raining and the wind is blowing, but out in the middle of the water four international big wave surfers await the oncoming surge. The wave arrives and the surfers mount their boards, riding it as long and as far as they can. However, this is no ordinary wave. They're riding the silver dragon, the Qiantang tidal bore.

Every year around the time of the mid-autumn full moon, hundreds if not thousands of people line up on either side of the Qiantang River in Zhejiang province to watch the annual tidal wave known as the tidal bore. A tidal bore is when an ocean wave travels up a narrow path against the regular current of the water. This usually happens in rivers.

Commonly known as the Silver Dragon, the Qiantang River tidal bore happens to be China's and the world's longest inland surge.

Since 2009, in a move to help promote surfing and extreme sports, international surfers have been allowed to ride the inland surging waves. This year four teams from the US and Australia competed in the Red Bull sponsored Qiantang Surfing Shootout challenge.

RVCA, Ocean and Earth, The Crew, and Vision streetwear in teams of two competed in the shootout challenge during the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival. The American duo Makuakai Rothman and Kalani David from team RVCA came out on top and won $10,000, edging out one of last year's winners; Australian Phillip MacDonald of team Ocean and Earth.

Wang Bingqi, 21, from Hubei province was one of the many spectators watching the tidal bore and the surfing competition. Wang said he and his friends came to see the legendary tidal bore. After waiting for an hour for the wave to show up, he was impressed. Wang said he was also impressed by the surfers.

"I think these surfers are really cool. They ride this wave and it looks like they're going to fall," Wang says. "It's an extreme sport and it looks very cool, maybe they should open this to more people, maybe we regular folks can get a chance to try it out."

Yang Mingchun, 45, came from his hometown in Sichuan province to witness the waves. He was visiting his daughter who is attending university in Zhejiang.

"Coming to see the tidal bore has been something of a dream of mine. I read about it in books when I was a child and I've always wanted to see it," Yang says. "It was exhilarating to see it in person. I wasn't expecting to see surfers ride the wave, that was really something. I have to come back in the future."

Sixteen-year-old Kalani David, whose team RVCA won the surfing competition, says he was "stoked" to be able to ride the tidal bore. David says he had a great time in China even though the waves of the tidal bore were different from the ocean waves he's normally used to.

"It's very different. It's powerful but the wave's not as good, but today I had a really good time," David says. "Usually there are sandbars, so it's not as deep. That's the difference, it's just how the wave is, it's a bit weaker."

While this year's event finished well, everything didn't go according to plan. During the final day of the competition, the weather nearly canceled the finals. Wabsano's Glenn Brumage, director of business development for Wabsano International and one of the judges of the competition, says that at one point the rain and fog got so thick the safety officials wanted to call the event off. Eventually Brumage says the weather gave in and a compromise was struck between the safety officials and event organizers.

Brumage says that he's happy with the results of this year's competition, saying the tidal bore brings in very good, consistent waves, every year and this year was no different. He says he's excited for next year and that there are plans to make the event an even bigger spectacle.

"The athletes we've had this year were the best we've ever had and we've had some of the best in the world over the past five years," Brumage says. "We're stoked for next year, we can probably increase the number of days and we may be able to increase the number of athletes.

"One of the things we would really like to do next year is to include a Chinese team. We'll begin to look at that now."

ericjou@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 09/30/2013 page9)