Everyone has their surfing bucket list. Places you just seriously want to get to somewhere along the line. Am so stoked to finally be heading off to what was probably one of the first on my list when I started surfing. Remember turning the page of a Surfer mag back in the mid 90's and getting blown away by this double page spread of an incredible right point just barreling down a deserted jungle fringed beach. It was captioned Tropical Jbay. I was hooked. Nearly 20 years later and it's still one of the more remote surfing destinations on the planet. A handful of magazine articles, and a short segment in a single surf video. It's not an easy place to get to. Put it this way, if you have to apply for a Restricted Area Permit and arrange to have a "fixer" meet you at the airport to get you through, you know it ain't mainstream. Which is good. It means you're unlikely to spot another surfer other than a handful who may be living feral in huts at one of the reeling left points. But they're stuck there cos there no roads going anywhere else! If you're in a yacht like we are......empty beaches and waves await. You have more chance of getting dropped in on by one of the swimming elephants than another surfer. Another reason for it remaining off the surf map is that it has a really, really short surf season. Basically April or bust unless you happy to put in a bit of time to make sure you score. It works on the same groundswells that feed Indo, but the SW monsoon is onshore at most of the best spots. So you gotto catch some early season swell before the winds kill it. Luckily there are 2 nice looking red blobs lurking in the Southern Indian Ocean right now, which will make their way northwards just in time for our trip..... It was dubbed “The land of the head-hunters” by Marco Polo, who was the first Western visitor to this chain of over 500 islands, islets and rocks. As with most places, the British pitched up and annexed it, and used to dump Indian convicts sentenced to life imprisonment there. Geographic isolation, heavily restricted travel, mysterious Stone Age culture and totally uncharted waters are what this place is all about. Home to stone-age tribes that still practise age old rituals including some cannibalism, means you definitely don't go ashore in the restricted area's....unless you like the prospect of being dinner. Unwelcome visitors are generally greeted by an arrow or two. Seriously. Gotto hope you don't break a leash, as fetching your board on the beach might turn into a Survivor episode. Remember reading a story about how the UN aid helicopters flew over the villages to assess damage after the Boxing Day tsunami, and the locals shot arrows at the chopper! Local is lekker! Besides the tribes not being keen on outsiders, other hazards include salt water croc's. That moment as you realise the log in the line-up you've been looking at is staring back at you.... It's not a cheap trip. Boat costs are high as there's no local live-aboards, so your yacht has to sail there from Thailand...which takes a good 5 days, so factor that into the cost. Two weeks here will easily get you 6 months styling in Bali for the same price. And don't think you'll be able to sneak in there under the radar with a mate's boat. The Indian Navy patrols the waters and normally checks in on all vessels twice a day to make sure you're legit. And being legit there costs cash. Plenty of it. The heavy military presence is a good thing, as the whole area is a non-commercial fishing zone and they make sure that's adhered to. Which means the fishing is positively off the charts. Huge GT's will smash your poppers and big tuna will chow down on your lures. If you're in luck you'll hook up a marlin or two. So even if the waves aren't co-operating, the fish certainly will. We're lugging over as much fishing tackle as surf stuff! This place is as far off the grid as you get. There's basically no cell phone signal, and absolutely zero internet connection, other than at the main port. So advance apologies for no updates to the site for the next 2 weeks, other than one day mid-trip where we go back to port for provisions.
Remote, uncrowded surf. Warm water. Jungle fringed beaches without a footprint in the sand. Epic fishing. To say my froth meter is off the charts would be an understatement. PE peeps Barry & Greg Heasley, Dieter Kuhn, Karl Walton, Peter May and Randle Davey made a mission over to the Maldives recently. We actually bumped into them for a day or so whilst we were over there too. The guys scored some perfect sessions at one of the best rights in the islands before the monsoon set in for the last few days of their trip.
The water was so glassy on this sesh that it was impossible to even read the curve of the wave - cos you couldn't see it. The wave starts out back on the reef, and then horse-shoes around a 90 degree bend in the reef - throwing up a big peaky barrel whilst it does so, and then barrels off at a 100 miles an hour down the rest of the reef. Lock in and just gun it. Shallow as shiz after the bend, but worth any scrapes you might pick up as a consequence. Yrrr, there were some blerrie big waves that unloaded on the reef at Teahupoo in the last coupla days. Like the type that'll smash you into lil itsy bitsy pieces of fish food if you get caught inside. The ou's are calling it bigger than the Code Red swell of a few years back. I dunno. But either way it was just bloody mental. Check it out... Some good waves this week. Put in a few 6-8 hour days. Sore ribs, bit of rash....all worth the effort. Thankfully no arc eye's yet - as brough my Oakley Water Jackets with. Takes a bit of getting used to surfing with shades on, and learning to live with a few water drops in your vision all the time, but more than happy not to burn the sh*te outta my eye's. Look like a lekker Vaalie kook with em on, but that's the price to pay! Surfed a rare left that only lights up in an unusual wind direction. Perfect peeling lefts down a long point. Jeesh, I so wish I didn't suck so bad on my backhand, cos you could get super long rides if you could pump a bit to make the odd section every 100m or so. Even being useless still got 100m rides. Nice flat reef too, so face plants went unpunished. Just us and 2 friendly locals. Wind switched up again, so back to our favourite spot. Perfect waves for 2 days. Head high to overhead sheet glass perfection. Most of the time just the 2 of us, with just 2 sessions with another 4 peeps. Surfed so much didn't have time to take any shots. Eish. Caught a few fish trolling between surf spots. Garth picked up a kiff grouper that weighed in at nearly 12kg's. Plenty of dog tuna, and a few red snapper. Freezer is full again. Yebo. Glad to know I'll never starve if my husband has a fishing rod handy! Waste is a huge problem on the islands, as there's no garbage collection - meaning the islands have to dispose of their own waste. Unfortunately this means a lot of it gets dumped in the sea (and then washed back up onto another island!), although some is burnt too. The locals on this island came up with an ingenious way to use all the plastic cola bottles. They cut em up, painted em, and pieced em together to build a fence for the pre-primary school. Reduce, reuse, recycle! Lekker! Missed the lunar eclipse cos was early hours of the morning, but snapped a shot of the moon rising instead. Moon phase plays an important part of surfing here, as tides often govern when you can surf a spot - or how much paddling you'll be doing. Many spots are just too dangerous on the low tide, unless the swells really big and you can surf further out on the reef. The tides create some serious currents in and out of the reef passes too, so you can find yourself paddling your meilie off and getting nowhere fast! You only have to try surfing on the wrong stage of the tide just once to learn that lesson! Think of the worst rip you've ever been caught in....and triple it! Last week here coming up. Charts are slow to start with, then pick up into some good looking surf. Just holding thumbs the winds play ball.....
Saffa’s make for good exports. A hard work ethic normally makes sure the ou’s land good jobs when they bail for overseas. A good example is ex-local surfer Craig “Pottie” Potgieter. Pottie left for Aus a few years back, and headed up Lizzard over there for a while. But the ou’s know a good thing when they see it, and Surfing Australia hunted him down and gave him the head honcho job at Surfing South Australia (SSA). The title was actually CEO, but Pottie being the humble ou that he is was a bit embarrassed by that, and decided he’d rather call himself General Manager instead! So Pottie, tell us how you landed this primo job!? I was doing a lot of coaching for SSA. They put on a major 6-Star Surf Comp on Kangaroo Island with a music festival. They lost a ton of cash and had to get bailed out financially by the Government. Management were let go and the media went into a frenzy. Kippie here walked into the office not knowing the scale of the drama and offered to help till a new management team could be put together. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, suddenly I was hounded by the press, news networks were interveiwing me I was thrown in the deep end! Tax payers were freaking about the bailout, the guys to blame were gone….. and I was left to tidy the mess! But all good, it’s sorted now. These positions aren’t long-term, so I expect to stay 3-4 years then move on. Are you the first non-aussie to hold a position like this? I think so. But the guys from Surfing Australia have been really supportive. I have a lot of support locally too, which helps. But yeah, I get the feeling sometimes that people probably wonder why a foreigner has the job. What all does your job entail? Lank! I deal with Government, Sponsors and many others at boardroom level. I deal with anything Surf-related in South Aus as we are the body responable for the sport. I run a Surf School and oversee many coaching programs from groms to elite (obviously with the assistance of a great team, including some top ex-professional surfers). We also have a pretty full calendar of contests. I still do a lot of coaching, because that's what I love. I also volunteer my time to take disabled and disadvantaged people surfing, it’s amazing how it lifts them. Where’s your offices? Hopefully on the beach so you can still sneak in a lunch time sesh! My office’s right at the beach! I also work from home a lot. We have bought a house close to the some good surf spots (just a run down the road), so I choose to work from home as much as possible. I do a lot of work on weekends and after hours, so if I work from home in the week I can sneak a couple of surfs in the day when nobody is around. I can surf whenever waves are pumping (fringe benefit). It’s part of my job to surf, and I get to spend time with our members. Its amazing how much discussion relating to the association takes place in the water. Do you get to travel a bit for work? Any chance of taking the South Aus team for a bit of coaching in Indo or something? I go to Coolangatta a lot as that is where Surfing Australia is based. Across the road from Snapper. I get a few surfs round that area. I also stay at the Surfing High Performance centre at Casuarina. This place is amazing. It is so hi-tech, absolutely crazy. No expense has been spared, google it. I love it there. There is this room full of boards which you can test drive. The place is awesome and worth a trip to if you ever in the area. Surfing in Australia is a really legitimate sport, right up there with cricket and rugby. Guess that means you guys get some decent funding? Yes, funding is pretty good. The sport is big and the government back us. I was at a function last week for Surfing Australia and the Deputy Prime Minister was there as well as the Sports Minister. They put heaps of cash into surfing and see surfing not only as a sport, but as a healthy lifestyle which they want to promote. We are lucky to have the government support because corporate funding has slowed down. So how hectically crowded is the surf down your end of the world? Hustle central? Or can you find empty peaks without having to drive 1000k’s down the track? I surf on my own so often, it’s crazy. It can get crowded but very similar to PE, but nothing like the East Coast. I honestly have not had a crazy crowded day in South Aus. We have plenty of surf. If we don't get surf in the gulf where I live it's a quick 30 minute trip to Victor Harbour which always has swell. You can go to Victor and there is about 50km of coastline with non stop breaks, it is something you have to see to believe. I often compare where we live to PE or the Eastern Cape. We have plenty quality surf but the publicity is up the East Coast, it can stay there we happy for all to believe the waves suck here, lots of sharks and cold water haha (water tem at the moment 23 degrees). Dave Lippy said to me before I left “….don’t worry Potz, the Great Aussie Bight has awesome waves you will be happy!” –he was right, he knows his shit! I know you’re keen for PE ou’s to come pop past for a visit and doss on your coach for a few days – so tell us in a coupla sentences why your new home town is a lekker spot and worth a surf trip!
They are all welcome, we have plenty space. Walking distance to some awesome reefs. From here there are spots like Cactus (ask Dave Lippy or Donald Parman) and the Yorke Peninsula (Ask Andre Swart he has had plenty surfs there). Victor harbour is down the road and we are slap bag in the middle of the Aussie wine region. Its all good, we just need some visitors – Pull In!!! Shot Craig! Good luck with your new post. Know you’ll do an excellent job! Thanks Stay Cool!! Tell everyone I say Hi! Surfers are all about the present, which is why we tend to forget that the who's who of the surf industry has changed pretty radically over the last 30 years. Many of the brands that were big back then don't even exist today. The various economic crises over the last few decades have exacted their toll on the surf industry - pretty much what it's going through again right now. Let's hope the brands around today fare a bit better and manage to survive the economic downturn a lil more successfully than their predecessors. Anyone that was around in the 80's will remember Instinct, Gotcha, Catchit, MCD and Hot Tuna amongst others. They were the threads on our backs and the stickers on our boards. Lumo was in - for the first time. So were Rayban wayfarers and Oakley Frogskins. Brands like MCD - s spin-off from Gotcha - were radically outta the box. The brand (started by Shaun's cousin Michael Tomson) was built around the very best (and often most controversial) surfers ofthe time - Dino Andino, Sunny Garcia, Derek Ho, Michael Ho, Gerry Lopez, Brock Little, Matt Archbold and Martin Potter. The MCD team of Gotcha was recognized internationally as “the mother team” of all surf brands and came to be known as the “Superior Mothers.”
But no matter how innovative MCD was, despite having a stellar surf team, the economic crunch still got em. So how will today's brands survive the current belt-tightening period? Who knows. Let's just hope they've learnt some lessons from those that went - and fell - before them. Gotto say I really miss those old surf brands - for one thing - they had some insane ad campaigns! Like this one from Gotcha.... If you grew up surfing in the 80's you definitely owned some Instinct gear. Originally established in South Africa in 1979 by World Surfing Champion Shaun Tomson, it was one of the most recognized surf brands throughout the 1980’s. Instinct was synonymous with surfing legends Tom Carroll and Barton Lynch, who were both team riders for the clothing label.
They also had one of the most innovative ad campaigns that we've ever seen from a surf brand. Who can forget their classic one-liner ad's like " It's simple, either you get the wave...or it gets you!" and "Waiting for waves is OK. Most people spend their lives waiting for nothing!" The brand suffered from the tail-off in the retail market in the 90's, but an attempt was made to relaunch it in 2006, although this was short lived. Pity - cos they would have been as relevant today as they were 30 years ago. This landed in my inbox this morning...
"Dear Sir, Have a nice day !It is Diana from Horizon Surfing Products Factory in China, I contact you for the potential business opportunity for surfing accessories products. Please check the attached of our hot sell products info for your reference, please let me know your product need, then we can offer the best price for you! We can also send samples to you for testing. So please let me know your valuable comments soon , our factory is located in Shenzhen, and we also sincerely invite you to visit our factory if you come to China. Thanks for your time again !" The mail then went on to offer me leahses (otherwise known as leashes)....of the straight or coiled variety - meaning surfing or bodyboarding. They were doing a big push on all things SUP (so very not good!) Yip, pretty much everything surf related you buy comes outta China. Even surfboards - although they're the pop-out variety so maybe they don't count? But almost every boardbag, leash, and deckpad come from the People's Republic. Most of your boardies and surf T's as well. We like the fact that they're cheap, and tend to ignore possible human rights infringements associated with their production. Outta sight, outta mind. With a population of over 1.3 billion peeps, they sure have enough ou's to work those factories. What could prove interesting is the move to flip the coin - not only have the Chinese make all things surfing, but to become surfers themselves. The ASP is starting to actively promote surfing in China, and is hosting contests there. Of course the surf brands think this is a good way to grow market share - another billion surfers to buy your stuff. The hiccup is that those billion are also going to be competing for waves. In future it might not be the Brazilians who hold the "travel in packs, take over the waves" moniker, but the Chinese. Which of course is terribly myopic from our side, cos someone somewhere along the line introduced surfing to our country, for which we're eternally thankful. But surfing is probably one of the most selfish sports around, period. As much as we love it, we still like to have more waves to ourselves...and the prospect of having to absorb a mass of Chinese surfers into our line-ups is a bit daunting! Might be one of those typical cases of 10 years from now someone goes "maybe this was a kak idea" when JBay has 500 surfers stretched along the point. One plus is that if anyone can come up with a cheap wave pool it'll be the Chinese! As far as all our surf kit coming from the land of the dragon? Personally I'm all for local is lekker versus mass produced Chinese stuff, but it's hard for our guys to be cost-competitive against the manufacturing power of the east. Still, if you can afford to, pay the extra coin and buy local if you can....and if you can find it. |
AuthorMillerslocal Archives
July 2021
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