SPORT – The capital of West Papua Province is Manokwari, this city is located along the coast in Dore Bay, there are many tourist attractions around Manokwari, one of which is Abasi Beach or it can be called Batu Kotak Beach, this beach is located at the eastern end of Manokwari City and is famous as a tourist location. water surfing tourism.
Residents of Manokwari, if anyone likes surfing, may not need to Bali and other tourist destinations. Abas Village, East Manokwari District is only nine kilometers from Manokwari City Center. This beach is never empty of surfers. apart from the beautiful beach, the sea has big waves for surfing, the children of Abasi Village have the guts to love a sport that can be said to be extreme, it can be said that Michael and his friends have the guts to not be afraid to leave the shoreline up to 100-200 meters into the sea to wait for the big waves to roll, after the waves come with surfing boards which are not like people surfing, but they only need to use a one meter long board and they stand on the board and are pushed by the waves to land.
In this way they are very happy and enjoy it. Abasi Beach has waves every day, so surfing makes this beach different from the white sand beaches of Manokwari. Abasi Beach is also often used by a number of foreign tourists who enjoy surfing when traveling to Manokwari.
Thanks to the skills of Abasi children who are just in elementary school, they surf like adults or professional surfers. Michael explained “We don’t practice, every day when there are good waves we play on the beach”, and the surfers at Abasi Beach are members of a club called Abasi Surfing.
On Abasi Beach, Manokwari, all people can enjoy this beach without any charge (free) and there are houses belonging to residents on the edge of the beach which are often used as places to stay by foreign tourists, the house is simple so it can be categorized as a homestay, and there is a local resident who Can speak English named Yafet Maryen, Yafet can help communication between foreign tourists and Abasi surfing children as a guide or as a guard while they are at sea, they can also provide short courses on how to surf in the water for beginner surfers.
When the wave season has passed and the sea is calm again, tourists who like marine sports can still go on holiday to Abasi Beach. This beach has lots of beautiful coral reefs. Abasi Beach is very suitable for snorkeling and freediving from April to September.And if there are tourists who want to go to Abasi Beach to surf, they have to bring their own surfboard because the supply of boards owned by young people at Abasi Beach is very limited and tourists who want to enjoy snorkeling tours also have to bring their own snorkeling equipment such as snorkel masks, snorkels, inflatables. life jackets and other equipment.