The founder of the Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea has a master plan for a fair go. Paul Chai reports.

Andy Abel, the boss of the Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea.

Andy Abel created the Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea (SAPNG) to bring sustainable tourism to PNG. Thirty years on, his system of fairness is being picked up all over the country in a variety of different ways.

It all started in the late 1980s when surf-loving Abel had a revolutionary idea while watching the tragic events of the Bougainville civil war unfold.

He knew that PNG had a very valuable, and underdeveloped, resource and it was not buried under the ground. It was the perfect waves that crashed against the coast during the monsoon season.

So, he decided to start the SAPNG with a simple principle of fairness. Abel would not make the mistakes of the foreign-owned mining companies whose disregard for the traditional custodians helped to trigger the Bougainville conflict.

He knew that when the traditional custodians are marginalised and exploited for access to their natural resources they will eventually clap back. The fact that three decades later the Bougainville copper mine remains shuttered is testimony to that.

‘I realised I had an opportunity to make a difference in PNG in the pursuit of my passion as a surfer,’ Abel says.

‘If one man can shut down a mine with 40 per cent of Papua New Guinea’s GDP, you have to ask a fundamental question: who are the gatekeepers of the resource? And 97 per cent of PNG’s landmass, including three nautical miles of coastline, is owned by the traditional custodians, not the state.’

‘I took 50 surfboards to the full house of parliament and gave them a three-hour Power Point. I engaged the community first and in 1972 this is what should have been done with the cooper mine.’

At its core, the SAPNG seeks to develop surf tourism with a community-centred approach, respecting the role of the traditional resource custodians but providing them with income and making sure any tourism has limited impact on traditional village life.

The association is sustainable, fair and only goes to places that offer it an invitation.

Permission is gained, tourist numbers are controlled, and a levy paid to the locals for the use of their land.

Abel’s father is English, and his mother is from Milne Bay, and he credits his upbringing with his success. ‘As a Papua New Guinean growing up with mixed parentage I have been able to blend these two worlds together,’ he says.

Starting with a single surf club in Vanimo, the SAPNG now has 500 local surfers nationwide.

It has been a rocky road with Abel navigating tribal conflicts, poverty and traditional views but his project recently came full circle when the surf management plan was accepted in Bougainville, the very region that inspired it.

‘I told the story [of the creation of the SAPNG] in Bougainville in 2017 when I was invited up there to speak,’ Abel says. ‘I took 50 surfboards to the full house of parliament and gave them a three-hour Power Point. I engaged the community first and in 1972 this is what should have been done with the cooper mine.’

It took over three decades, but the SAPNG this year achieved the historic signing of the first SAPNG surf management plan with the chiefs and traditional resource custodians of Popok Island and the village of mainland Arawa in central Bougainville.

This is an excerpt of the article ‘The Chairman of the Boards’, which was first published in the October 2021 issue of PNG Now, PNG’s leading lifestyle magazine. Click here to read the full story online.