Changes are afoot in the world of surfing. The sun is rising on new empires, and the first rays of light will soon make landfall. Next month, the first professional surfing event in China will take place.

As the ASP looks east and prods a pointy 6'1" into the belly of the dragon it's time to scratch up on some cultural learnings. After all, the times they are a-becomin' different, and Australia and the US no longer have the mortgage on surf culture. Other countries also sit at the table now and they are bringing their own unique flavours to the sport.

We should be aware of the changes imminent, because for too long Australia and the US have gorged themselves on butter. We've been spolit. Gone soft. Run out of ideas and bloated ourselves on a sense of entitlement. In time, the geographic New World will become surfing's Old World. To move forward surfing needs gunpowder not butter. China is the future and I, for one, welcome our new surfing overlords.

The ASP also offer hearty salutations.

A recent press release announcing next months comp in China gives a hint of things to come. The competition, the ASP announced, will be held on the 'magnificent island of Hainan'. In preparation, a reconaissance party comprised of 'Mr Sam Bleakley from United Kingdom, Mr Emiliano Cataldi from Italy, Mr Erwan Simon from France and professional photographer, Mr John Seaton Callahan' recently visited.

Behold the formality! The endearing use of convention and title! The ASP, as you may have guessed, mean business.

Surfing's peak body is doing its utmost to impress their comrades: gone is the breezy language of yore, gained is a sense of ceremony and austerity. And good on the ASP for moving with the times. For being a culture chameleon. Yet when the time comes to pass will the courtesy be returned by China, especially toward the surfing imperialists? Will Mr Robert Kelly Slater, Mr Dane Reynolds and the rest of the running dogs be afforded the same degree of deference?

And what about South America? What about South America!

Home to a young, rabid surf population in Brazil, Peru and Chile, this week it is also home to the ISA world games. Held in Peru, and overseen by administrative zealot, noted arse man, and founder of Reef Surfwear, Fernando Aguerre, the ISA games is a snapshot of surfing's competitive future.

Aguerre has chanelled his Latin passion into a single lifetime goal: to get surfing into the Olympics. Swifter, higher, stronger; he has become a man obsessed. The ISA Games are modelled upon their Greek cousins and while opening this years ISA Games Aguerre even paraphrased a speech by former Olympics head knob, Jacques Rogge.

Following that speech, surfers from thirty one nations scrubbed up and held a march-past in front of the President of Peru.

A march-past! That proud and glorious beach procession. In Australia it remains the bastion of the clubbies, symbolising order, authority and discipline. The post-war boardriders rejected these notions and split the surf club ranks in favour of freedom and the Far North Coast. They rained on the surf club parade and left en masse, inadvertently creating a new subculture. And for fifty years that subculture bore the characteristics of its forebears: defiant, independent, subversive.

Yet now, if I stand on my tippy toes and peer long into the distance, I can see that movement petering out. The search for surfing's new cultural home is over and from here on in things will be done very differently. It's time to pull your socks up surfers, part your hair, and hide the tough stickers. We've got governments to impress and people to influence. It's for the collective benefit of our magnificent sport!