River Bores - Zigzag’s Substitute Surfing series:

US pro surfer and big wave rider Greg Long is recounting his most memorably moment, from a ride shared with Mark Healey, on a recent trip to surf the legendary Qiantang river bore in China. “After surfing the [bore] for nearly 10 kilometres, it slowly backed off in deep water, before going under a large bridge,” describes Long.

“We each had enough momentum built up and were able to keep riding the swell under the bridge,” he continues. “Traffic overhead was at a dead stop and everybody was honking and cheering out their windows, all the while we were laughing hysterically. We shot the bridge until the wave reformed on the opposite side as a perfect peak... he went left and I went right. We carried on and surfed the wave for at least another 10k's upriver!”

Their trip, shared with Healy and Greg’s brother Rusty (all chosen due to their very necessary skills on jetskis, to chase the bore down the river) was organised by companies with business interests in China and the Chinese government. The Chinese are said to believe that water is the blood of the earth and the tides are evidence of the earth’s pulse, so they place great emphasis on the annual event, held during the largest tide of the year, with a huge festival and treated the visiting surfers - who did demos for Chinese dignitaries on the banks - like rock stars.

Though this bore had actually been surfed before them, in the surfing world, the Longs and Healey’s high profile trip also focused attention on this underground offshoot of traditional surfing. Riding river bores on surfboards, it seems, is growing rapidly around the world. It’s not that surprising, as conventional waves become more and more crowded, that the more adventurous out there would turn to alternative waves like these to fuel their stoke.

But what is a river bore exactly and how does it work? Essentially river bores occur during spring tides, when the incoming tidal flow advances upstream. Usually the best bores also require the topography to feature a wide bay that then becomes very narrow. This squeezes the water into the river as a powerful, fast moving wall of water, which in the bigger rivers sometimes also appears as a wave train of waves, most of them rideable. Often these will be peeling waves, adequately mimicking open ocean waves, as they feel out submerged sandbars or break along the riverbank.

These days there are crews regularly surfing river bores in places as diverse as Alaska, France and Asia and new waves are being found and ridden regularly. In fact, last week French surfer Anthony ‘Yep’ Colas pioneered such a wave on the Batang Lupar Benak in Sarawak, Borneo.

At one point though the most well known river bore in the world was probably the Severn River Bore in Wales, UK. First ridden in 1955 by British surfer Jack Churchill, over the years surfers have come from all around the world to surf the Severn Bore and have a crack at the Guinness world record, first set at 3.2 miles in 1967.

One of these record chasers was South Africa’s very own Deon Bing, who travelled there in the early 1990s. Though the guys he surfed it with said they broke the record (unofficially), Bing reckons it was riding the wave itself that made the mission worth it. “It was a complete mind trip,” he says. “You don’t really go left or right, just straight forward, so it’s a really warped kind of view, almost like tunnel vision.”

For Bing, the most memorable experience surfing the Severn Bore was the farm animals on the banks. “The cows and sheep were drinking on the banks and jumping in surprise as the wave passed,” he laughs. “I also remember the smell of sheep shit and stinging nettles as we climbed out at the end.”

Fauna and flora, albeit far more wild than sheep and nettles, is a feature of another famous river bore, the Pororoca of the Araguri River in the Amazon. Brazilian big wave rider Carlos Burle travelled there with the likes of Gary Linden and Ross Clarke-Jones in 2004 and tripped hard on the experience including the “pink dolphins, full moon, deep forest and power of nature everywhere.”

Like most river bores, riding the Pororoca, says Carlos, is obviously different to regular waves. “You can't approach the Amazon bore with the same attitude you've at the waves on normal beach,” he says. “It is unique [and] you've got to enjoy it instead of just try to rip it.”

Back in China, Greg Long also recalls how he had to change his approach to surfing the river wave instead of the fully salted variety. “You do have to be a little cautious, and take it easy at times if you are trying to hit the lip as the wave doesn't seem to push back at you as hard,” says Greg.

“What really gets most peoples attention though is the duration in which one of these waves will last,” he adds. “You keep expecting the wave to die out but it will continue carrying its energy for miles.” Long also recalls how they had to check out a map to figure out where there would be dangerous obstacles in the river to avoid. “The power that these waves posses should never be underestimated,” he warns.

Greg, Carlos and Deon all rate their river bore riding experiences as a highlight of their lives, and Long and Burle especially are keen to return to China and the Amazon respectively. “The quality of the wave exceeded all my expectations and I would definitely consider going back again,” smiles Greg. In fact, his brother Rusty did return to China this month with Jamie Sterling, joined by South American Pororoca pros Serginho Laus and Marcos Sifu.

Finally, though Bing probably won’t return to the Severn - having been there done that - he reckons he would love to have a look at riding one of the other waves. “Riding a river bore is probably something all surfers should put on their list of things to do,” he says.

Next week: Standing River Waves