Indonesia is and always will be a paradise for surfers. Travel there in the months from May – October each year and you would be hard done by if you didnt get a barrell…
Nias has been on my to do list since i was a kid, so when a swell looked like it could offer some goods, i booked my ticket and started my jpourney to the island off North Sumatra. I was travelling with my mate Callum who decided to jump on the mission the night before i left. 35 hrs later we were stting in our accommodation at Lagundri Bay Happy Losmen (run by Rahel, local ripper) staring at the set up that enticed me into coming to this part of the world. The conditions were 4ft and light onshore, but the best day wasnt meant to be til the next arvo so after a solid feed and a couple of Binnies we hit the hay. Just before i nodded off, Cal says to me “Marti were gonna score pits i guarantee, i got a little spot up my sleeve”.
The next morning we wake to glassy conditions and the wave looking about 4-5ft. It really needed a stiff offshore to clean it up and we waited all day, but it only ever showed glimpses. It seems like the hardest part about scoring the wave is having those clean, groomed conditions. The swell started to pulse later in the arvo and while out surfing i bumped into my friends Mikala and Daniel Jones. They were on the same program as me, flying out here for the swell, hoping to get some great pits, but feeling a bit bummed about what we were getting. We decided if tomorrow wasnt any better, then we would hit the road and go in search, there were at least 50 plus surfers staying on the point, so anywhere uncrowded was a move forward in our minds.
On our second morning it was slightly bigger but still with that morning sickness feel to it. While watching the surf i bumped into a few of my booger mates from sydney.. Ewan Donnachie, Jem Cresswell and Jase Finlay. All seven of us had been checking this slab out that was round many corners for the last couple days and we all agreed today was the day we had the best chance of hitting it. It was a really intimidating set up, breaking at 6ft plus and right in front of dry coral ledge. There were two sections to it, with the end section being pretty much a closeout. Conditions werent in our favour, with a dropping swell, not many waves got ridden. But im defenitely hungry to hit it up next time. We said goodbye to the boogs, as they packed to head back to oz, while we planned the next part of our journey. Mikala and Daniel had had enough of Nias too, so Cal said it was time to pull out a couple of secrets.
We left Lagundri at 2 am the next morning. All i will say is, we had to use cars, boats , bikes and local villagers to get there. One night we stayed at the dirtiest hotel known to mankind. It was like thee ones you see in the movies. There was no air con or fans, it smelt like shit, was next to a mozzie infested stream of sewage that flowed threough the village and the beds had rat shit all over them. But it was all worth it the next day, when we finally found what we were looking for. Sure it wasnt 10ft flawless freight trains, but all we werew after was some nice clean pits in an area thats untapped, knowing your one in only a handful of surfers to have scored the joint, and its just you and your friends out. The next two days were spent trading 4ft flat bottom slabs and getting spat out of every wave. It was so glassy, as you were taking off you could see every inch of the razor sharp reef. Both Mikala and myself got up close with the bottom and came out with some nice free tattoos to the shape of claw marks all over our bodies. We were all so stoked Cal had shown us his little paradise, it definitely made our trip.
With more swells on thew horizon, i decided to head back to Bali to catch up with crew and refuel for the next mission…

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Cape Circus from Josh househam on Vimeo.

All photos Ben Newman. Vids by Josh Househam and Darran Franks

The east coast of oz has been going crazy this winter and last weekend i ventured up to Sydney to try duck under a few slabbing lips…
My friend Benny Newman picked me up from the airport with his mate Daz. They were super hung over from a big Saturday night, but were keen as to head over to Cape Solander to take some shots and shoot a few clips. We arrived into the car park at “OURS” and it was by far the most crowded i’d ever seen the arena there. Storm Surfers were shooting there stuff with RCJ and Tommy Carroll and the usual locals were out there getting amongst it. But for how many people that were watching the action, the lineup was pretty uncrowded. Throughout the day there were only a handful of people paddling (sometimes no one) and 2-3 crew towing..
I paddled a few waves to warm up, then “Bones” came over to whip me in. On my first wave it was a bomb, i hadnt really towed “ours” before, so i was a bit sketchy and how to approach it. Ended up hitting the step on take off thinking i had it in the bag, however when i landed my board stopped dead and i proceeded to face plant and get sucked over slamming into the bottom.
It was really slow all day, but when the good ones came it was great. The arvo glassed off and the swell got cleaner and we had an amazing session trading waves with Chalk, Dingo, Bones, Roo and Dom.
I was staying at Dingo’s pad that he shares with Parramatta Eels legend Reni Maitua Fuimaono and Ren’s girlfriend Nat. They were the best hosts ever and during the time i was staying there i met some really great people. Ren’s pad is just behind the beach with a full view of the coastline and the kid surfs pretty damn good too.
Dingo was being his usual self, waking up an hour before dark frothing for surf, we head round to Chalks and wake him, then load the bus for a mish down south. The waves weren’t as good as we had hoped, but we still had heaps of fun pulling into 4-5ft spitting rights and no one else around.
Overall was a great trip with good crew, fun waves and great food. Was great hangin in Maroubra and meeting the people and surfers that make up there community. Cheers everyone that i met and thanks for the hospitality…And big thanks to Reni and Nat and Dingo for lettin my crash at there joint, Bones for whippin me into some nuggs and Chalk for taking me surfing….

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Marty Para from Jacob Wooden on Vimeo.

This is some stuff shot from my trip to NSW…..
Thanks “Woody” for the clips bro…And young Alex and Juggy for the shots. And thanks Mooney and Jug for the hospitality…
It wasnt 15ft pits, but it was heaps of fun and a lot warmer than back home.

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Untitled from stugibson on Vimeo.

The last 5 days have been pretty hectic. Saturday we hit the eye of the storm and paddled huge surf down south (as you can see in my last post), then on sunday we had the funnest mellow session at one of Hobarts better point breaks (the clip of Dustin Hollick), where we had waves with multiple barrell sections. The weather ranged from 2-8 degrees with snow and hail storms and fierce 40-60 knot winds.
The swell then made its way up the east coast of Oz and Fiji was the place to be. The old bank funds weren’t treating me too good, so with reports of pumping surf in NSW, i decided to head to the Central Coast Monday morning. “Bones” picked me up from the airport, then we hightailed it to “Jugs” house and straight to the surf. The next coupla days was fun 4-6ft pits on both beachies and reefs.
Il be putting up a short edit and some shots from the NSW trip in a coupla days so stay tuned…….

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Click on link below to watch a video edit from the day…..

http://www.coastalwatch.com/news/article.aspx?articleId=9164&display=0&cateId=3&

The Pom (James Hick) gives us his rundown on the session:

“It was the biggest swell, reading 14 metres. We all just had some big boards and have wanted to paddle it for a while, so this was a perfect opportunity. We’d been keeping our eye on it for a few years now. I think it was one of the biggest swells they’ve ever seen, it was reading 14.5m on the virtual buoy, and it had every single colour on the chart.”

It was a special day because there was only four or five of us surfing. Everyone was pumped, and there was good community camaraderie. You are in the middle of the Tasmanian wilderness on one of the biggest days ever recorded. In a way it was quite historic. They had to be some of the biggest waves paddled in Tasmania.

It’s a big bowly point break that has some tube sections if you’re in the right spot. You get these bowly ones that throw out and you can get some big barrels for sure. Some of them would let you in really easily but some wouldn’t let you in at all. AS you go further out you are the more exposed to the wind, so we had to pick our sections otherwise it was too windy to ride the wave. As soon as you tilted your board onto your rail the offshore wind would get up under your other rail and hold you up so you had to go straight down them and bottom turn, you couldn’t set your line on the take off because it was so windy.

From where we were surfing the wave is about 15-20 seconds ride. The first section is obviously the biggest, it just depends how far you wanted to ride it and how far you wanted to paddle back. It is definitely an incredible place, the trees tower over you and completely shelters you from the wind for one section; it’s a really special natural arena. Stu and Chiz were screaming from the bushes, you couldn’t really see where it was coming from.

When we finally got to the wave, some of the guys were definitely well under gunned. Those of us who had our 9’8” big boards we were fine, but a couple tried to paddle out their 7’2”s. Jimmy Dell, local lad, had a good crack on a 7’2” and on his first wave it snapped his board straight in half on a pretty big wave. There was lots of carnage, we all got cleaned up on this 18 foot set, it just came out of nowhere and none of us could do anything about it. Three guys snapped their leashes, and their boards got washed up on the rocks, fins knocked out. Mikey Brennan lost two fins and ended up riding his board as a single fin for the rest of the day. Mark Visser snapped two boards.

By the time we got back we were so exhausted because the walk itself was such a mission. But you are really tired, happy you made the most of it. Waves like that don’t come around that often and you hope you did everything in your power to do it right and hope that we didn’t kook it, because I might not ever surf that place again.

The best thing about the day was the whole adventure; nothing about it really came all that easy. Even on the drive down, there were fallen trees on the road and we had to take to it with axes. There were four or five trucks with their straps ripping this tree off the road; nothing was going to stop us from getting there!”

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There’s certain places you travel in this amazing world that give you sense of living that you will only experience a few times in your life.
Growing up as part of a generation where technology controls our lives, we find it hard to escape it. The “desert” in north west oz is a place where you heal. Your problems in your life are put to the side. The technology you rely on is abscent and forgotten. Instead of nights sitting in front of the tv, there replaced with nights sitting around a campfire, under the stars. Sharing yarns with good friends and dreaming about how good the surf might be the next morning.

This journey west came about after a storm brewed up in the Indian Ocean. It was sending swell to West Oz and Indo. The last time i was up the desert, was 4 years ago. I knew what the place had to offer and straight away my heart was drawing me to it. But ive never been to Nias and for a natural footer, it was destined to be a spot i wanted to score pumping before i die. My friends Lucas “BOO” Street and Mike Brennan were on the same program. They both had never been to either spots and were frothing at the bit to go for a mission. The call was made to stay on oz territory and the plan was put into action.

Four hrs flying and 10 hrs driving later, we pulled up at Scotty Bauers headquarters. We were to grab a few hours sleep before continuing our journey to where the desert meets ocean. Scotty has lived here his whole life and knows the ins and outs of every part of this coast and the tricks of the trade needed to survive up here in this harsh but beautiful place.

Once we had abandoned the sealed road for the dirt track, things start to get interesting. The track slowly trurns into a mud run and we start to doubt whether the little Hyundai we hired is up for the job. Scotty manoeuvres his 4wd in and out of waist deep pools of water, while we struggle to keep up behind him. Then we come face to face with “the big one”. We had heard about this part of the road. Apparently it had swallowed half dozen cars in the last 48hrs. Most of them being 4wd’s. And just to freak us out even more, there was a 4wd stuck smack in the middle, with the water up to its windows, fully abandoned. The trick was to stick to the left though, the right side was a big hole, thats what got people. We successfully edged our way through and finally made it to the carpark and our first view of the jewel.

The swell was predicted to hit this morning, but by the looks of the ocean, it hadn’t even started. As the day rolled on and the sun started beaming, still no sign of the new swell. Crew were rolling in and the carpark was slowly getting congested. The calls were being made, “hoax swell”, “swells late”, “peaked overnight” etc. We still had faith so decided to kill a bit of time and set up camp. On our return, finally signs of a pulse. That was enough to get suited up and out there. Although the water is quite warm, people tend to wear full length steamers, as the bottom is sharp and littered with sea urchins.

We were lucky enough to run into the local lads, who offered to let us crash on there camp site while we were up here. There set up was amazing, the site was on the edge of the lagoon, away from the other campers. They had a couple of jet skis pulled up on the beach and a caravan that could sleep six.If the surf was shit, everyone would go fishing or diving and in the arvo’s we would have big cook ups and sink some cans of the local brew. Once the sun would go down the starlight show would begin. As there is no houses or light posts around for hundreds of kilometres, the stars would shine brighter than ever. The lads pointed out a few constellations, like the emu and the scorpion….

Craikey took the cake for unluckiest surfer. He finally paddled out in the arvo and sat patiently out the back waiting for his wave. As the biggest wave of the day loomed onto the reef, Ry swung around and proceeded to paddle under the ledge. Once to his feet, the wave began to bottom out pushing him head first into the reef. He came up, copped the next 3 waves on the head and ended up 300m down the line. Ended up tweaking his knee pretty bad and sat the next few days on the bench. The next day Mikey did the same on another bomb.

Dino was the backside master out there, pushing through chandeliers into heaving slabs and coming out with the spit. Boo got an amazing no hands backside pit, but Kerbs and local lad Nath stole the show on the preferred side, weaving through the bombs that came through.

On the way to the airport we jsut so happened to run out of fuel 200kms from the nearest servo at 2 in the morning. Hazards went on and as cars approached we would take turns hitching. An hour later, finally a fella pulled over and offered us a lift to the servo to fill up a jerry. Lucky that, as we only just had enough time to make our flight.

Overall the trip had everything. Pumping waves, great crew, sketchy moments and amazingly good times. Cheers for Boo and Mike for being epic travel crew. Also Scotty Bauer and Dino Adrain for there hospitalty.

Big Thanks to all these lads for good times
kerby brown
ry craike
jarrah
jamen
camel
robbie
nath
randell

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All photos thanks to Scotty Bauer http://bauerphoto.com.au/

MIKEY’S TAKE

Intro

The world of free surfing has shown that our secret playgrounds are doorways of knowledge that lead us to becoming greater surfers. Learning and sharing how to get there, where to paddle out, what wave is best, the inches between the right take off and a costly mistake are all parts of surfing and what we want to be aware of. All this knowledge of being a surfer is priceless and can only be gained through time. It is the reason why we look up to those before us who inspire and create perfect lines on waves and they are truly the best surfers in the world; like ANDY.

Being connected to the land and the ocean is sometimes forgotten about as being a big part of the surfer lifestyle but in fact it’s the most unique part of what surfing is all about. Since the days when kings first encountered the ocean’s energy, to today as we search for the perfect wave. Surfing the perfect wave is like a dream and like the spiritual dream world is to the aboriginals- getting barrelled is like to surfing.

The image of perfection has been moulded into our mind’s, which leads us to yearn for it. Those of you who want it bad enough will wonder outside the box, off the beaten track and for us lucky enough, we will find these experiences in moments living as surfers. After all, those lost days travelling for less than average surf are made up for when finally rewarded.

The Trip

Our trip began with myself, Marti Paradisis and Lukas Street driving through the desert hours on hours, filling up tank after tank committed to getting closer to our destination. Marti is ‘KING CHICKEN’ driving the whole way and resisting anything otherwise. Through the night we luckily caught up with Scotty Bauer who we followed along dirt track crossings and treacherous pathways on our way inward. Ahead lay a sunken 4-wheel drive submerged to its windscreen in muddy water with a small tinny attached. The tinny appeared to be afloat as we spun past trying to mimic the exact tire tracks of Scotty. With a crazy evil laugh he punched through puddle after puddle, which somehow we managed to follow.

As the sun gradually arose on our arrival, so did the swell. It still wasn’t yet clear what we were in for over the next few days but regardless it was already feeling special. We were lucky enough to setup camp with local threaders Kerby Brown, Ry, Dino Adrian, Jam’o …. , Nath Brejnack along with Goldy resident Jarrah Tutton and visiting image creators & Mikey. It was the best campsite I had ever seen and located right along a beautiful beach and lagoon. Dino’s grey 70’s style caravan was sprayed with a large black peace symbol that set the scene. With shelter, dining table, bbq and fireplace we felt as though we were living it up old school with a cool hippy vibe. As the evening was upon us the swell looked like it was stacking up to the horizon. Blue arora’s bounced between the lines and into out a space as the night sky came alive. Although there was not much to see in the desert, talk of UFO’s, aliens, and murders kept us on the look out, under the brightest stars everybody told a few yarns before passing out awaiting the next day of waves.

The next day we awoke early to brew the coffee, suit up and make the very solid paddle out. The waves were mean, square and heavy. Breaking in shallow water so making it out the back and avoiding a set was nerve racking. The tight take off positioned everybody close and everyone took turns to dig into the sets and set a line threading down into the inside bowl. Some un-believable barrels were ridden with some really critical take off’s were taken. Ry on his first wave went down on a bomb unfortunately, hurting his knee as it jacked right up. I felt guilty as I called him into it, but Kerby ensured me he was making him go anyway. Those guys are fuckin funny, real cool and surf amazing. The sections of the wave just threw out wide the whole way down the line, with steps coming up the face of the wave. A reminder of the waves consequence was reported after news of a booger being scalped by the sharp reef and having to be rushed to hospital put things into perspective. Everyone shared the swell and picked up some amazing rides to remember and all day the waves were pumping, as it got glassier toward dusk.

It was like a dream, quick enough to blur but powerful enough to imprint on my brain forever. I started remembering how epic it was to be in a new place and learn everything about it, watch the local’s rule it knowing everything absolutely possible about the joint including where to go for the best Ice cream. We met up with more epic locals like Camel, who told us more funny unrepeatable stories followed by more surf. Just as it became all too evident to me this was what it was all about, meeting the people who inspire and sharing a really strong connection that exists with such a place. Evil, powerful, perfect for sure, but something else about the place, I don’t know if the colours of the red desert and blue water have anything to do with it or the fact that everything was so desolate yet alive. But, the fact was it was good to get a new perspective on life. After reading Flanagan’s book ‘Here on Earth’ and thinking about the world spinning at something like 1000+ kph, to get barrelled moving that fast against what is occurring must mean it is something like a warped vortex which is why I think it must feel so good.

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All photos Andrew Chisholm

Shippies is a pretty consistant wave really. Sometimes when conditions look great it can be a complete hoax and other times it produces the goods when least expected. The 28th and 29th May was one of those days. Yes the swell was predicted to be pretty large, but the winds were looking horrible. My friend “John BONES Dwyer” came down for the swell so it was a pleasant surprise to be greeted with 10-12ft tubs unloading at the base of the big cliff. The usual suspects were amongst the barrell dwellers, James and Ty Hollmer-Cross, Danny Griffiths, Mikey Brennan, Jimi Mckean and Rudi Schwartz.. The “POM” came down to give it another try and actually got some nuggets, well earned considering he had to sit on the rocks and watch on the “day of days” a coupla weeks ago. Storm Surfers were in town doin there thing with there 3d cameras and Ross and Tom in the line up. Everyone got well pitted all day. A few crew hung around down south for the Sunday session which was another amazing day. A little smaller but just as clean and half the crowd. Those are the days that stand out. Just a nice crew with consistant waves and sunny skies. I told Bones he just experienced a rare occasion, most people who have there first sessions out at shippies are lucky to get it on, let alone two days in a row. He was the happiest man alive..
At the end of the day i grabbed my GO PRO out and whipped into a few… Theres also a coupla of clips from a trip i did down deep south with Sandy Ryan and Adam Morris, we scored 6-8ft left hand slabbers and had an amazing session. Check in soon for the shots and the stern Clip….. YEEEEEAAAAAW

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The last two days have been so fun… Shippies was throwing out the goods again with 10-15ft waves yesterday and 8-12ft pits today… Heres a shot from the inside.. I will do a more detailed report with footage and photos the next coupla days……..

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Andrew “CRISPY” Christie is Volcom’s in house photographer. His set-up consists of a greedy bar so he can capture it all in motion as well.. I recently went on an Ours mish and Crispy came along to capture some action…..

See more of Crispy’s work at www.chroniclesofchristie.com/

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