Mr. & Mrs. Joe & Sue Polak
Consideration is being given in Anguilla to the possibility of creating a new niche in the island’s up-market tourism industry in terms of water sports for visiting surfing adventurers.
It is an idea being promoted by Mr. and Mrs. Joe & Sue Polak, owners of Almond Tree Villa at Sea Feathers, who have made the suggestion to the Anguilla Tourist Board which is now working on the matter.
In order to prove that surfing can be a way to diversify the island’s tourism product, the villa owners have brought to Anguilla a highly experienced and well-known surfer, Mr. Ben Gravy, from New Jersey, in the United States, to explore the island’s waves. Having done some pleasurable surfing at Windward Point and Sandy Hill Bay, two breezy easterly areas of Anguilla, and viewed other places, Mr. Gravy is convinced that there are enough surfing possibilities to promote adventure tourism in several locations on the island.
Mr. Polak explained in an interview with The Anguillian newspaper how the proposed water sports project came about. “My wife Sue and I built Almond Tree Villa eleven/twelve years ago. We have been promoting Anguilla as a destination on our own, and my main job is President of the Henderson Sport Group in New Jersey. We have multi-brands of water sports that we promote, and are the largest manufacturers of wet suits and water sports apparel in the United States. We are involved in multi markets – diving being one, and in this particular case we thought it would be good to explore Anguilla as a possible surf destination.
“Ben Gravy, here with us, is a professional surfer and also an influencer and blogger with about 75,000 followers. He produces videos every other day. He got out just a snippet of one on Instagram on Monday [of surfing in Anguilla] and it wasn’t two hours before he got 17,000 people. So it had a big impact. We thought that would be a great way to expose Anguilla from another direction. This is not from typical people who are necessarily looking to stay at resorts and so forth, but looking for a possible water sports destination.”
(Photo courtesy Louise Fayet at anguillabeaches.com / @anguillabeaches)
Mr. Gravy said that, in addition to surfing at the Windward Point/Junks Hole area and Sandy Hill Bay, he drove around the island looking at possible seascape areas for surfing with a lot of breaking waves. He explained that it was necessary to see whether the reefs are safe to surf, if the water is too shallow and the quality of the waves. “We have to do a lot of looking, and if everything is okay then we go out and do some exploring to see what we find,” he stated.
The 30-year-old well-known surfer said he was surprised to find some good surfing opportunities in Anguilla, and that he was delighted with the many comments he had received from his social media followers. “Most of the comments were: ‘I had no idea that there were waves in Anguilla.’ Before I came here many people were telling me that they thought I was just going on a romantic vacation with my girlfriend [Jordon Verni, the photographer] but I told them I was going to find some waves. So far, I am very surprised that there is actually surf here.”
Mr. Polak concluded the interview with The Anguillian newspaper by saying: “Ben is showing that he is on Anguilla, is surfing and, so far, as of Tuesday, 23,000 people saw that. Anguilla is getting that exposure so it is good for Anguilla; it is good for Ben. It is good for my company that does the hyperflex brand. Ben rides for us and it helps everyone. It also helps Almond Tree Villa because we are trying to get more guests to come to the island.”
Mr. Gershwin Lake, of the Anguilla Tourist Board, commented: “What this does for Anguilla is that it opens up a whole new market for surfers. We know that social media is the way to go now, so we have posted some pictures on our website showcasing that we can be a surfing destination.”
Surfing is described as “the sport or pastime of riding a wave towards the shore, while standing or lying on a surfboard”.
