Darci Liu

We had a chat with Darci Liu, China’s first professional surfer turned ocean conservationist about her journey through surfing, the ocean and paying it forward.

Hubei to Hainan

I’m originally from Enshi in Hubei Province, it’s a small minority city, but when I say small I mean China small - there are still 8 different counties. I left there quite young, I moved to Hainan in 2007, which is when I started to surf. I started to compete in surf competitions in 2010, at which point I’d only been surfing for three years.

When I grew up I was a dancer. I attended art school where I learned how to be a ballet dancer. I never dreamed of dancing forever, my dream was just to leave my hometown. I always knew I’d go to Guangzhou first because my mum had a business there. When I was there I met my ex who was a surfer and went to Sanya. That's when I learned how to surf. 

Actually, I didn’t really know how to swim so I kinda learned how to surf and swim at the same time! I was a little scared of the water, especially when I couldn’t touch the ground, but that’s why I have a surfboard!

I think it’s amazing that once you stand up on a board, the fun takes over the fear. There is so much joy up there, so much fun, it takes away all fears. 

I did not like it right away but what made me really fall in love with surfing is how much I could see myself change as an individual, through it. I found much more inner-strength and clarity.

It gave me so much strength and a belief in surfing - it’s like how others have religion and believe in Jesus or The Buddha, for me that’s surfing because I found out so much about myself. Before moving to Sanya I was very lost. I didn’t really know where I was going or who I was beyond being someone’s girlfriend, so surfing is my navigator, it guides my life's direction.

I’m very grateful for my parents, they raised me to make decisions by myself. Since I was 10 they encouraged me to make decisions about what I wanted to study and where I wanted to go to school. So I’ve made decisions about my life since I was young, which means I have a no-fear kind of strength in my blood. 

I don’t really think about consequences, I just go for it and in the end, it’s right. I don’t really feel pressure, I just feel like the universe put me here to play a role and go on this journey and it’s my job to find out the reason for this.

Surf journey

I was working as a bar and cafe manager, but my friend who’s Californian had a surf shop, the very first one that opened in China, and he needed people who could speak English to help out for a few days, so I helped him out and when I’d finish the day I wouldn't want to go home. And I was like “wow, there’s work that you just wanna do and don’t want it to finish?! I wanna do this work for the rest of my life”. 

So I asked him if I could work full time in 2009, but there weren’t loads of customers back then so he couldn’t afford to pay me anywhere near as much as I made at the bar but I  said ‘it’s ok, I just want to work here” so I quit my job and worked as a surf instructor. 

It was a very life-changing decision for me, working for the surf shop meant I had more time to surf and I improved very quickly as a surfer. 

We organised the first unprofessional, amateur contest in 2009 and it was because of that contest we drew a lot of attention from Santa Cruz and all these other surf brands so that in 2010 they organized the very first professional content that was sponsored by the local government and I was the only Chinese female that competed in that one. 

In 2011 the women’s World Longboard Championship came to Hainan and they wanted a local Chinese wild-card and I was the only choice!

I competed and that’s how I ended up as the first-ever professional surfer in China. I was the very first Chinese surfer to compete in a world-class contest. It’s just crazy how much changed because I made that decision to work in the surf industry.

Competing is not really my thing. I felt like I went as far as I could with it and also felt like, so I stopped competing in 2014. I felt like I wanted to understand surf and the ocean more. When I was competing I met a lot of people from all over the world, all the best surfers and a lot of people who are very aware of ocean conservation and our impact, a lot of really cool people.

It made me really think about who I am and my role in the community as the first professional here, so I felt like I could play a huge role in my country and improve things, not just my surfing skills. 

I felt like I couldn’t go further. I was already the top surfer in my country, where else am I going to be the world champion? I don’t think so. 

So I told my sponsors and WSL that I wasn’t going to compete anymore and made the decision to focus on ocean conservation.

Ocean conservation

After I stopped competing I went to Malaysia and I worked for an underwater TV production company, who I’d worked with previously. I learned how to scuba-dive, became a PADI Master, and produced educational films on ocean conservation. 

I get pretty stoked when I see hundreds of locals in the water. Surfing is such an organic sport. When I see people come here to surf, it makes me super happy because I know they’re doing something to take care of themselves. I was just doing things to chase my own happiness and now people come to me and say that I’ve changed their life, so I just want people to have the inner strength to do that.

I think covid has helped, it’s shown us that it doesn’t matter how much money you’re gonna make - the world can change tomorrow.

I run a surf retreat right now and we have yoga instructors and people that do meditation. I want people to learn how to find strength, not just stand up on a board. 

In the last 10 years, the surf scene in Hainan has already grown a lot and there’s still a lot of room for growth. Hainan is now a free-trade province, which means it’s going to grow a lot and make it more of a travel and business destination, so surfing will grow from there too with a whole industry around it. 

Hainan’s the only province in China that’s banned single-use plastic and in 5 years only electric cars will be allowed. So even when we grow, we will be able to preserve the environment and the ocean. Things are moving in a really positive direction. The government and the people are thinking about how to develop in a sustainable way.

Going forward

Being the first professional surfer in Chinese is definitely something that I am very proud of. I don’t feel pressure because of it but it’s something that I’ve thought about a lot. Why me? Out of 1.4 billion people, I feel like the universe pushed me into it, to play this role and there is a reason behind it and my job is finding out what is the reason. I need to give the universe a reason that I’m the right person. To be the best version of myself and to influence other people. 

I see people coming here to surf now and it makes me super happy, people aren’t just living a robot life living just to work and pay a mortgage but are doing something to take care of themselves. People come talk to me about how I helped change their lives because I was just chasing happiness.