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Koreans haven't taken to surfing with the same enthusiasm as the Japanese. There are no national or local surf associations, and no competition circuit. (Ironically this hasn't prevented the trendy youths of Seoul – a land-locked city –from from adopting the latest surfing fashions.) At this point in time, most surfers in Korea are locals who have lived overseas and learned the or personnel from the US Navy stationed.

The best surfing destination in the country is Cheju, the popular holiday island off the southern tip of the mainland. The south coast of this island gets the same Pacific swells as Okinawa, which has great waves. You can find good, or at least reasonable, surf on Cheju throughout the year. The best time to surf here is from August to Octo¬ber, and the main centre for surfing is Chungmun Beach, right in front of Cheju's biggest tourist com¬plex. It has a reasonable beach break, but it's packed in the summer. For discerning surfers, the island's best wave is on the next beach along to the west, below the Hyatt Regency, a powerful right-hand point break that can produce 4m tubes.

There aren't many recognized surf spots on the Korean mainland, though both local surfers and visi¬tors believe that because the Korean peninsula is surrounded by ocean on three sides, and there are plenty of swells throughout the year, there are many places waiting to be discovered. The best-known surf spot on the mainland is Heiunde Beach, near the busy port city of Pusan on the southeast coast.