We spent International Waboba Day, August 12, playing Waboba Tennis (Wennis). What did you get up to?

Cast Your Vote

We had four great entries for the Waboba Asia Video Competition 2010 and it has come down to a head-to-head clash between Sanya locals, Tim and Misty, the Mazzarellas and Brendan of Surfing Hainan.

Now we need you to help us decide who deserves to win the five-star holiday plus 5,000 renminbi in cash.

Click here to watch the videos and cast your vote.

If you’re kicking yourself for not having entered the competition, watch out for the Waboba Asia Video Competition 2011, coming soon.

The first prize is a weekend at one of Sanya’s five-star resorts. The prize includes flights to and from Sanya from anywhere in Asia, plus two nights in a five-star hotel, plus 5,000 RMB in cash.

To enter the competition, all you have to do is shoot a video that has a Waboba ball in it somewhere, preferably with it bouncing on water.

Feeling inspired? Maybe you think you could do better than Nate and Brendan’s video for the Surf and Skate.

For full details of the competition, click here.

And what a bubble it is. Prices here doubled overnight.

We’ve been building the website for the event, and if all goes according to plan (assuming there’s a 3G signal at Mama’s Restaurant in Riyuewan), we’ll be broadcasting online live commentary, plus photos and videos, from the event.

We’ve gone all fancy and hi-tech with our feeds for the event, so if you have a website, blog, facebook page or the like, you can embed a live broadcast of the event on your site with this snazzy little widget here. There’s also a Chinese language version coming soon.

Last year’s event was a breeze and a gas, and this year’s promises to be bigger and better, so if you fancy your chances in the toppling winter surf, or if you just want a great weekend away, go on and sign yourself up for the event as either a competitor or a spectator.

For more info contact Brendan at Surfing Hainan.

We’re not letting you off lightly. Pack up your guts, trunks, bikini, shades, SPF30 and your best sense of adventure. You’ve got things to do before the rocking starts at the First Annual Sanya Music Festival…

For full details, click here.

I Dreamed a Dream

Mario’s report is a handy overview of the market and the pricing in the various parts of town, and a rehearsal of the argument that surging demand for a place in the sun could keep local property prices rising for a good while to come.

But what’s with all of the frantic building, especially on second-tier sites set well back from the beach? Is it waving or drowning? It wasn’t so long ago that we were hearing predictions of widespread bankruptcies among Chinese property developers.

As this report from Caijing hast it, these risks have not gone away. Interestingly, one of the article’s examples is an Agile Property Holdings project worth 20 billion yuan just up the coast from Sanya City at Clearwater Bay.

Agile, the article claims, was unable to leverage financing for the deal and was forced to sell a project stake instead. It is now said to be under heavy pressure to accelerate the project by several years in order to deliver the return demanded by private equity investors and prevent these investors pulling out.

It’s a story with what sounds like a familiar ring to it. There’s an enormous amount of building going on in and around Sanya at the moment, and supply particularly of second-tier property is surging, but are all of these developers really that bullish about the Sanya property market in the near term or are they just trapped in a frantic race against their debts?

Segway Sanya Style

In the Sanya beach style happenin’, the cool points are all with the Segway now, that sleek combination of übermodern silent mobility, gravity defiance and spinning gyros.

Gently lean forward and you’re hurtling toward the sea with no sign of stopping. A subtle wiggle of the hips and you’re whizzing impressively past the bronzed Russians in their bikinis. Another wiggle and you’re up at the ice cream counter ordering two Cornettos.

All it needs now is a cup holder.

For the vertically inclined, the Segway is now available for 20-minute rides on Yalong Bay beach in front of the Sheraton Sanya Resort at a cost of 200 yuan per time. For more information, contact Sanya Zero Tourism on 0898 38283300 or 13925008823.

Sea, Sky and Windsurfer

And Flaubert was right, of course, because as any sailor, surfer, windsurfer or kitesurfer will tell you, the sun is actually there to make the wind blow and the waves topple over.

Warm winds have blown through Sanya for nearly a month now, so we recently doused ourselves in sunscreen and headed off to Sanya Bay to try out the latest on offer in sailing and windsurfing.

Competition is hotting up in the windsurf rental market, with the grandly-named Sanya Sailing Windsurfing Association now going head-to-head with the grander-named Sanya International Windsurfing & Sailing Club.

Although both are decidedly under-equipped, the latter beats the former by an “International”, a beach hut, a harness and a 6.9-metre Simmer sail. The name advertises global ambitions. The equipment says not yet.

The Sanya Sailing Windsurfing Association runs the sailing and windsurfing in Dadonghai and in Sanya Bay opposite Coffee Time and Fat Daddy’s. For several weeks now, as the East winds continued to blow, the association’s boards and catamaran have sat idle on Dadonghai Beach, with no sign of anyone there to rent them out.

The Sanya International
Windsurfing & Sailing Club

Nonetheless, it is worth making the trip to the International Windsurfing & Sailing Club, situated on Sanya Bay beach in front of the Howard Johnson Resort, not least for the use of a newish Simmer sail and a board that doesn’t slip away from underneath you.

We’ve been told that the club’s windsurf equipment is actually the best on offer in the whole of Sanya, including Yalong Bay.

More fun than a catamaran

Dinghy rental at the club is 500 RMB for an hour. Windsurfer rental at both the club and the association is 200 yuan per hour or 300 yuan for a full day.

The Sanya Sailing Windsurfing Association has a base at the Western end of Dadonghai Bay (look for the catamaran sail), and in Sanya Bay in front of Coffee Time and Fat Daddy’s. Contact Andy Zhuang (庄加强) by mobile at (0)13976283213.

The Sanya International Windsurfing & Sailing Club has a beach hut in front of the Howard Johnson Resort in central Sanya Bay. Call Call Zhen Ke Xue on (0) 13976962036. There’s also a fixed line number: 0898 88671575.