we've got some hot tips for your bucket. let me magic corner spots and some great alter memorial to the w. travels off we go. ah, the southern chinese island of high non, it's home to the countries. new surfing industry. used to be just a winter travel destination for entire class, all changed. surfing offers, laid back lifestyle for some, for others. a chance at international sporting success,

me in 2007. darcy lee, you moved to hi non from her home province and central china. she learned to swim and then took, i'm surfing and it was the best move she'd ever me. change me anything. if it wasn't surfing, i might be leaving a normal life that marry to have a city. yeah, just a basic nice who's but she ended up on a tropical island in the south china sea, 1300 kilometers away from home. the waves now determined the course of her life. darcy made for history and china. she was the

1st woman to take part in a professional, international surfing competition. today, she's brought us to her favorite practice spot. but we're not allowed to tell you where it is. to figure it there are no who tells here and no tourists. but it's a long way down to the water. the bays, calm surface is deceptive. there are large rocks below. and if you fall off your board and land on one, you could injure yourself. me. darcy paddled out quite a way to find a good ways, but the effort is definitely worth it. ah, ah, darcy prefer to use a long board about 3 meters in length. this board allows her to ride smaller waves

for longer periods of time, so she can improve her technique. darcy retired from competitive surfing in 2014, to focus her attention on cleaning up china's polluted coastal area. but she can't imagine a life without surfing. and this is the perfect place to do it for any cell for that, you know, you don't want to serve some where does sobre crowded. so. 1 this, the no one's out there and water temperatures, good ways are consistent. so i got way, a lot of wasting our. yeah, very nice. that was quite a workout. that evening darcy arrives at a local club where she works as a d. j. the place is packed with young people, both local residents and tourists from the mainland.

the weather is nice and people are nice back by now and is better suited to enjoying life than it is to working. i love it. in the club is a great place to relax and have fun. darcy introduces us to a young man named joe who's just moved to hi not. and he's glad he did his job. well, there are lots of problems with living in a big city, but there's no stress here. i feel relaxed and happy. all right, but don't wearing the darcy started her shift at midnight. she's got a long night ahead of her. i like to share my music. here people i want to people to my me and say from it is and be free and come back with their cell with their own body that day. ah,

darcy wants the crowd to get the most out of her music and to make sure that they do, she has to set the right mood. she calls herself the medicine woman and burns dried, said ruth, to give herself and her audience more energy. the party continues until dawn, the later that morning. surfers are already chasing the wave that she usa. they include members of china's olympic team, which was founded just a few years ago. a rigorous training program attract young people from all over china. jo washington is from fish one a mountain is province in south west china. the provincial government is picking up

the tab for him and several other boys to train here. sure thing is and i want to do well, if i work hard, i could win the national championship some day. these young people develop their skills here for 6 to 8 hours every day. mm. other provinces are also taking part in the training program. when some of these kids arrived here, they didn't even know how to swim. let alone, sir, i'd say is just 9 years old. but after 2 years of training, he can ride the waves like a pro. joe has also made

a lot of progress. the kids have to learn how to stay ahead of a moving wall of water and just the thought that during practice, you have to deal with lots of different waves in different conditions. does cm dot that will help you later on in competition. because you'll know which waves are the good one. talk to me in the morning practice session is over now. joe and the others have worked up quite an appetite for lunch. there is no balls, meat and vegetables. coach. whoo. yeah. link says proper nourishment is a key part of the training program. made him out on the last. oh, actually get up at 540 every morning 1000000 to 6. if the waives the good, everyone goes. how long? how long? how, how can we go running the hybrid? what a $30.00 balance

in perhaps these young athletes will one day compete and international surfing tournament. the best of them will join china as olympic team. another member of the fish, one team, 11 year old young c cheese has already made the olympic squad my job is that i want to win the national championship and you know, i can say like i tried last year, but i just wasn't good enough. so i couldn't get the title to use young has the kind of determination that chinese sports official just love to see and their athletes right now i non is getting ready to host to the national serving championship. china's head coach ma

lie knows that his team will face stiff. international competition in other countries have strong staffing programs. we inches getting started when we put together our 1st olympic stuffing team in 2017 and i still got a lot of work to do. i mean, no job. we'll get better all know that we want to qualify for the 2024 limbeck. no. oh, you'll get hang out to young athletes like jen and joe are part of china future when it comes to international surfing competition. and the coaches have to scout and develop even more new talent. 4th, officials have been scouring the country for promising candidates. the practice is over for the day. now the athletes will clean their boards and take

care of other maintenance paths. most of these kids come from poor families, so serving may provide them with a more prosperous future. but fish one head, coach, leaching says that only the best of them will be allowed to stay at the camp and leave a little young people when we were just getting started to realize the whole family and just didn't make the coffee high off where someone knew all they didn't like the training program, so they let the gen and joe share a room in the dormitory. they say that their coaches are like parents to them. joe says he hasn't seen his mom and dad since he arrived at the camp. it's been 4 years now. do you missed them? where?

sure. but every sunday the coach gives us a cell phone and we do a video chat with our families, harvey. and evening roll call. the coach analyzes the athletes performance. then everyone heads off to dinner. afterwards, it's time for bed. joe is one of 21 members of team one. many parents can't afford to visit their children here. but joe knows that his mom and dad are proud of him. that gives him confidence and keeps him working hard on his surfing skills. now we're going to leave the bay where the surfers practice and visit a different part of hi non this is lee hung young, a retiree,

who lived in beijing, but spend a lot of time on the island. tonight, lee is having dinner with friends. they propose a toast to the joy of living on a tropical island. all of these men are retired and they spend a few months on high known every year. we worked for a state own food industry company and can afford to live well in retirement. so can the others here are ha, why don't i come down here every once in a blue sky, white clouds, the sea and why you and you know, what more could he want? especially now during the winter, you can take if you want to live a long life, come to high. now the food is great and outside the weather is warm. 25 degrees celsius lee and his friends meet almost every evening. life is good and at least

for lee it's anything but boring. the next morning he shows us why. he's packing up for a trip to the beach where he'll show us a different kind of serving us. there are 2 kinds of people. those who wait to dance all sent those who define it. there's humour in that statement, but also a bit of truth. the wind is up today, so lee and his dog head off for the water me li won't let us take pictures of his apartment. he said people might get jealous the tie non real estate market is booming. a lot of older buildings have been torn down to make room for new residential complexes. a 100 square meter apartment on the popular south toast cost,

the equivalent of 800000 euros. construction companies are thriving here. lee has traveled widely for business, and for pleasure. he's been to europe and the united states. on one of his trips he saw people kite surfing and decided he wanted to try it. he made his 1st attempt here on high non 5 years ago. lee and his friends can afford these kinds of vacations because they benefited from china. spectacular economic growth over the past several decades. ah envision today or near perfect air temperature? 26 degree water?

25 degree. ah i done done has been waiting patiently for lead to return their c sharp a year. i feel happy and free. gone, you know, like a sailor are no, it's like i'm connected to the sea gardens or you can, you're just floating over the water wash or hot hot these people are also enjoying the breeze. a lot of seniors like to come to the beach to cool off the but lee once more out of life, the weather report for tomorrow calls for more when. so he'll be back

the news until just a few years ago about the only people you'd see on the water at whole high bay, where fishermen now the place is hacked with servers. who chung, they have been here for a decade. don't. would you know, joe, when we 1st came here to serve, the villagers were very friendly and keith, they thought we were crazy to go out on the water every day. and they thought that life on the bay was really boring and it was so they were curious about this. how did you hope she knew now makes his living as a surfing instructor tenant, you mean one year he's showing you fun. how to properly paddle out to the waves and

then stand up on the board. afterward he grades her technique, paddling good, standing up to needs improvement. woo says the best way to keep your balance is to place your feet properly. and look straight ahead. towards this thing that you really don't want to, china didn't have extremely like this whole. but now it's all changed. now. i'll hold the dot or even have experience this thing in this stuff. so i just tried to give trying how the, how the local service community includes children and their grandparents. 6 year old gentle one has just made us 1st strong will to the council. it's greg to the youngsters around side all day and they get plenty of bank vacation. so i'm

lots of time. in the meanwhile, you is working on her technique instructor will stays close in case you need help. you try to focus on standing up despite being tossed around by the ways i know that it is a challenge which is helping me to overcome any inhibition. use the view is proud of the progress that she's made so far. please

help me clear your then when you print on land, you can things individually long. that's a whole lot to me. if lightning be found, the i still make much of mistake, but when you finally found up on my poor, it's a great thing in the face of whole, high village has changed since the surfers arrived. now there are beach bars and other businesses that cater to young, hip customers the the serve tourists are welcome here, provided that they spend lots of money and don't criticize china as communist government. you can see them everywhere. some of the older residents sell beetle not on the sidewalk as they have for year

and lots of stores and restaurants are making good money. ah, some people here are still making a living by catching fish. their boats are tied up in a lagoon not far from whole high bay. today we'll meet one of those fishermen. one shall buy one and he and his wife and son live on their fishing boat. the. the family can't afford to buy a house on land. they don't make enough money from fishing to qualify for a mortgage. so they've been living on this boat for more than a decade. we set off across the lagoon and we have to stay there because it's too windy right now on the open sea. it's

a lot of work to keep the boat in good shape. lungs wife has mending some nets. they'll try their luck at fishing in the lagoon without him and we're not making any money. so we have to borrow from friends and relatives. the lesson plans when dies down. we'll start fishing again and pay them back on the now they're hauling the nets back on board long sun long. so punk is helping out he's 17 and as finished school, the family didn't catch many fish today. life for these people is heart and want to pung says he doesn't think much of the local surfer community. i've never talked to any of them. if they stay here,

prices will go up and that will cause problems. ah, surfers on one side of the lagoon golfers on the other and between them, the fishing boats with these group seem to have nothing in common. all that one knows is that it's tough right now for him to make and meet the, with the guys most, all the more and more people from the mainland coming here to spend the winter. as it is specially people from the northeast. what the control one by envy them and we do is work hard every day and they come down here and eat in restaurants and have a good time and hulu, but the family has enough to eat and over all their life on the fishing boat is okay. and as soon as the winds on the open fi died down,

they'll go back out and do some real fishing mega chip coming long says that if he had more money, he'd like to provide a better education for his son. but for now, the 3 of them will stay on the boat and hope for a change in the weather. me. meanwhile, darcy new has lots of new business ideas. she's building a skateboard track here, and also rent surfboards to tourists. she plans to open a cafe as well. darcy is working with her friend, lee ging to try to get young people to eat healthy foods, like vegetables, smoothies, and organic alva condos. she thinks the idea will catch on leaving lifestyle. i have is very healthy and very keening and very empowering. and i will love to have the one that will come there, serve and to observe our base,

not just sending on the 3rd. it would be like, how would you travel, you could fly. we asked darcy to call her mom, back home in jose providence, what does she think of her daughter's new life? if you live there, now, you don't want to live like we do. what can we do? well, that mean we don't understand, you know, somehow we do a darcy parents would like her to get married and have children. but her rejection of that lifestyle is reflected in these paintings in her cafe. darcy says that surfing has broadened her horizons. it's like you're in town or that you can see nice, but was there showed you see the lights, the my it's mega lighthouse. i had a direction what i want to go, what i want it to come to lead. darcy says that the skills she learned from surfing

have helped her to navigate the twist in terms of everyday life. me. young c, g from the olympic team is a little nervous right now. she's made it to the finals of the under 15 competition for the national championship. young will have to serve as many waves as possible to stay on the board for as long as she can and successfully perform a number of turning maneuvers. and she has to do all that over 20 minutes, but she's confident that she can win. i don't feel good about my chances. dungy. i call you the next stage of the competition will get underway soon.

to the finals for the under 18 group. at the age of just 11 young manages to come out on top. young teammates cheer as she weighed before today. every hour of practice that she's put in over the past 2 years has paid off the she owes a lot of her success to her coach. with with me when you, when we did a well the whole lesson, we discussed things and then go back out and i've been training non stop for 2 years now. and i was real to him today. and now it's time for some food. and for the 1st time in days, young doesn't have to deal with the pressure of competition. later we talk with

team high non coach michael weaver. he's one of several foreigners hired to turn chinese surfers into champions. weaver is optimistic about china chances with the average, the government putting in the amount of money being invested, the quality a wave here. i think by the time the next, the lympics comes around. i think china will be ready to compete in the world class . now it's time for the national service championship award ceremony. young as the star of the fish one team. she took part in 3 competitions, one them all and earned 3 gold medals for her effort. yet, bill joe and jen are in the audience with 13 me. joe didn't win a metal this year. that makes him want to train even harder. the

morning i'll have to give him everything i've got. so i can win next year. coffee on the head coach is proud of her team, but young says that winning the national title is just the 1st step in her career the, the well yeah, i want to be the best in china and compete in the olympics. and then join the professional. it seems to me these young athletes plan to take the surfing world by storm and that's just what the government wants them to do. china has discovered surfing both as a competitive sport as a way of life. me, me kick off

the wage and i was back in time when black germany football is looking exhausted under most andes. now the present is a matter of fact. the also has to go in through w. mm ah, excuse me. ah, ah,

ah, was who's this is the w news live from her land. the u. s. denies it is behind cubans, biggest wave of protest this decade. cuban security forces clamped down after thousands take to the streets. the government there blames washington for the rest is also coming up authorities from south korea.