Surfing
Meet The Man Behind Tioman’s Surfer Paradise
Passionate and chasing his dreams, Hisham Uyub is as real as it gets as a Malaysian surfer.
Hisham Uyub, as he is fondly known by the Pulau Tioman surfing community, recalls how he first started out surfing, “Back then, there weren’t many opportunities to pick up surfing. We had to share one surfboard between seven of us,” he laughs.
But we just kept on going for it and today, the surfing scene in Pulau Tioman has evolved so much! It’s way much more affordable and you can even find surfing schools across the country now. It’s amazing.
It's all for the next generation of surfers.
© RED.TURTLE MEDIA
Hisham has been involved in organising the Tioman SurFestival since the early days of the event. Four years later and the competition is still growing from strength to strength. “In our first year, there were less than 300 surfers and spectators,” he smiles and points at the huge crowd on the beach, “and today more than 2,000 people turned up just to watch.”
From its humble beginnings, the Tioman SurFestival has become a mainstay on the Malaysian surfing calendar. “All of this started out as means of giving back to the community, to bring up a new generation of surfers and to promote the surfer culture amongst Malaysian youths.”
Meet the faces behind Tioman SurFestival 2014
© RED.TURTLE MEDIA
“Now we have more than 60 participants from 7 different countries from around the world. There are pros and amateurs alike, all taking part."
The Tioman SurFestival is a huge platform where all of us surfers can all come together and do what we love best.
And Hisham has even bigger plans for the future. “I’m hoping that we can turn this into a 5-day event, like most surfing competitions around the world. That will be like a surfer’s dream come true, It’s been one heck of a journey so far, and I have every intention of doing this for as long as I can.”
