Around The World In 80 Waves

After a day of rest Chris convinces me to make another early start in search of waves on saturday morning. We pick up another ex-pat surfer Ben who I enjoyed many waves with back in the UK and set of on a wave safari.

Ben, Chris and I check out a number of different breaks that I haven’t seen before but decide to opt for the waves at Dee Why. You can see all three of us in the line up here.

I had actually surfed here before, but staggeringly forgot to report that I had visited this break back in July. Only discovering that when I was about to report on returning there. It must have got lost in a previous backlog, so I am hoping there are not any more.

The surf is a bit all over the place but certainly the best we saw along the coast.

It doesn’t take me long until I have dropped into a few, and all the time in the water am enjoying the banter between Chris and Ben.

The waves are about head high and there are loads of people in the water, but I certainly manage to get my share of waves while we are here, including one fantastic right which I manage to slalom my way to the shore picking a workable line through the surfer soup. 

We are in the water for a few hours and having loads of fun, but as ever fatigue or another appointment means we have to get out.

Chris has a visit scheduled with the tax man here in Dee Why so we get out and enjoy a coffee and a bite to eat whilst enjoying the Australian wildlife walking along the sea front.

I already knew it but this session confirms that you cant beat surfing with your friends.

My smile says why.

From Manly I drive about half an hour north to Palm Beach, which is used as the location for Summer Bay in TV’s Home and Away soap opera. (A big shout going out to John Beattie at this point because I know he likes this beach.)

I have been up here a few times hoping to catch a wave or two, but it has always been flat or I was without a board at the start of the Australian leg of my adventures. As a result I am delighted to see the swell rolling in. There are also not too many people in the water because this beach is right at the end of a peninsular north of Sydney.

I have already surfed twice today and am a tad raw after being rubbed to pieces by my wetsuit.

I didn’t thrash about endlessly as a consequence. Instead trying to pick an easy way out and fun waves to ride back in on.

I had a great chat with a local knee boarder who seemed to be having fun in the waves which were breaking quickly over another sand bar.

As you can see I also bagged my share, but didn’t last much more than an hour, because it was now just after midday and I was on my third session of the day!

After getting changed I chatted with a surfer from Jersey, who had been living in Australia for twelve years.However I didn’t hang around with her for long, leaving her to take on the waves with her pink board as I drove south super stoked with my bountiful morning of surf.

North Steyne beach at Manly is almost always busy. It is the northern beaches version of Bondi, which tourists flock to, but it is also popular with local surfers too.

The beach is about two miles long and after driving across the peninsular from the ferry terminal I discover that the ocean there is the most crowded I have seen anywhere during my time in Australia. It is only just past eight and hundreds of surfers have already paddled out.

I can’t be bothered with scrapping for every wave in the crowds, but spot a little break in front of the beach volleyball courts which is going largely unridden.

I paddle out there and am quickly chatting with another guy in the water called Geoff, who I discover is an editor at The Australian newspaper.

Apart from dropping in on his waves as you see here, (my apologies Geoff) the two of us chat about great waves around the world and where my trip has taken me.

Amazingly we have a little peak to ourselves for a couple of hours until the children and surf schools start arriving in the water.

Geoff and I bag lefts and rights for fun until things get too crowded. It was only a few feet but really clean and getting warmer all the time as the sun rose in the sky.

Whilst in the water he told me that I should have been here the day before when a solitary dolphin had appeared. It had been content to hang out in the line-up and rub up against legs dangling in the water. 

I have had so many great dolphin encounters on this trip but no evidence for you to back up my claims, so am a bit gutted to have missed the experience. Especially because I had looked at the waves here the day before and there had not been anything showing when I had arrived. You never know what is around the corner though and I will have plenty more time to see marine life on my trip.

It is still only half past ten when I get out of the water from my second surf of the day. It would be criminal not to take more advantage of the swell which has arrived so I pack up and head north again.

After my night on the sofa Chris and I are up and have wheels rolling by half past five.

We head straight for the coast and after checking a couple of breaks decide to get in at Curl Curl where the swell is showing more than everywhere else.

There is a sand bar here and we have a nightmare getting through the waves which seem to be surging over the top of it. We both get a bit of a hammering on the way out as you can see! 

We both make it out back to the clean waves eventually but it is then a question of which wave you paddle for to avoid just getting hammered by a close out.

Chris cheers me in to one after half an hour and I drop into the head high wave in the early morning sun. The ride was my only one of the session and was little more than a huge drop and a bottom turn before getting clattered by the rest of the wave.

After it I can’t face another battle back out and we need to get Chris back to Manly by eight so that he can catch the last ferry into Sydney that will get him to work on time, so I call an end to my session there.

Chris isn’t far behind me and has time to rinse the salt off and get into his work clothes before the short drive south. We make the ferry with ease leaving me with the rest of the day to see how many more waves I can catch elsewhere.

I needed to cheer myself up after Kathleen’s departure and could only think of one thing to do. I had to go surfing!

Cronulla which is Occy’s home break is a short drive from the airport and also catches most of the available swell in the area so I headed down there. There is miles of glorious sand to enjoy under the sun, but the waves have dropped somewhat.

Choosing a tiny peak for myself I paddle out anyway. It is no more than two feet high and breaking over sand so nothing too challenging compared with a lot of the breaks I have bagged.

I am quickly into plenty of rides though and enjoy the fact that the water is so quiet while all the kids are at school and everybody else is at work.

It doesn’t matter how big the waves are you still have to earn them and I think this picture shows how much I was putting every sinew into my paddling for the small waves.

Either that or it is a serious contender for the world gurning championships!

I wont be back down this way again so am glad to have added Cronulla to my list of breaks surfed on this trip.

Two hours in the water here puts a smile back on my face and I even complete the journey back to North Sydney before rush hour starts avoiding all the traffic across the Harbour Bridge.

After chatting with my folks online just after dawn, I went back to bed. Then, following a very lazy Sunday morning with Kathleen, the two of us went down to stretch out on the sand at Coogee Beach.

The beach is packed again today because it is the weekend, but the swell is only barely showing here still.

I decided to go body surfing in the small but clean waves hitting the beach, but couldn’t tempt Kathleen into the water. For somebody used to the North Atlantic it was great, but for somebody used to the Gold Coast it was freezing.

For some reason we didn’t take any pictures of me body surfing the waves so here is one of a bear surfing instead. It is not a bad representation to be fair, because of how dark my tan is compared to the average Aussie. Apparently I am quite easy to spot amongst the crowd in the water.

I quite enjoyed thrashing my way into the beach, and warming up in the sunshine afterwards is always a pleasure. Another beach for the scrapbook!

The Volcom Pro at Cloudbreak is another of the annual stops on the ASP tour. This wave was my primary reason for wanting to visit Fiji.

The surf here can sometimes be massive too, as this entrant from the Billabong XXL competition can testify to. As a consequence I know I am going to have to be at the top of my game to surf well here.

The rights to surf the waves here used to be owned exclusively by the nearby heart-shaped private island resort of Tavarua. It kept crowds down in the water but inevitably meant that far too many waves went unridden.

However a recent change in the law by the Fijian government has opened up the waves to anybody who can get out to them. Even enthusiastic amateurs like myself.

The waves at Cloudbreak are absolutely cranking upon our arrival with guys dropping into waves that are well overhead, and the standard of surfing is set by two guys landing 360 airs on consecutive waves whilst we secure the boat to an anchor bouy.

On this day I have already surfed twice so take a moment to read the action of the break before getting in. Whilst waiting I am not over the moon to see another one of the sea snakes that had caused so much havoc at Waidroka swimming through the water between me and the line up. I decide to add a rash vest for protection from it and the sun before leaping over the side of the boat, but sadly it was no help at all with all the sea lice that seemed to be stinging me for fun as I paddled through a patch of water they were hanging out in.

Once past the lice ridden water I decided the only way to go at this break was to paddle straight into the line up and go for it. However when I dug deep for the first wave coming my way, I got to my feet but could not get the board down the face of it. Instead I bobbled along the top of the crest trying to stamp on the nose to get it to drop in.

It didn’t work though and turning round to paddle back out my heart sinks when I see it was the first wave of a monster set and I am about to get a flogging. I am completely caught inside and any efforts at paddling towards the unbroken section will just result in a collision with guys charging the subsequent waves, as you see here. I have no choice but to just take getting hit on the head by the whole set.

The first wave rips the board out of my arms and drags me bodily backwards towards the reef. The second will only do the same thing so I leave the board trailing behind me and try to dive under the white water.

As this picture demonstrates I am immediately clear on how close to the reef I am when I try to do this. The crystal clear space between the reef and the bottom of the white water is little more than a foot deep so I adopt a Superman pose and try to swim through the available keyhole! I actually manage the manoeuvre quite effectively, and am unharmed despite overhead Cloudbreak washing over me with my face inches from the reef. The success is short lived though because after three waves the surfboard leash is ripped right off my leg by the power of the wave pulling on the board, sending it careering over the reef behind me with the camera still attached to the nose.

I know I am very unlikely to see either the board or the camera in the same state again but have bigger concerns at the moment because I now have to swim my own way out of trouble and back to the boat, acutely aware that my route will take me back through the last known spot where the Banded Sea Krait was seen. I didn’t panic though and cutting out sideways to the direction the waves are breaking I am quickly through the worst of it. Thankfully one of the Aussies in the water paddles over to allow me a breather hanging off the front of his board and I am soon back on the Fijian Surf boat.

Now we have to take the big boat around the back of the reef and the observation tower on top of it, to try and collect my board which appears to have been washed off the back. All aboard are spread out to minimise the draft of the boat and this video should give you some idea of how little water we had to work with! Amazingly after an hour of manually dragging the boat across the reef we get the board back and there is not a scratch on it or the camera and even more importantly, me! The time to collect the board did cost me the rest of my opportunity to surf here though.

I had really wanted to surf well here, so despite all of the above decide straight away to go back for a second bite at the break the next day. 

After all the fun I had with the reef the day before I opted for wearing my helmet and boots for the second session which is admittedly a tad smaller than the day before.

As you can see I did much better, but the wave itself is unbelievably fast. I dropped into a hand full of waves but couldn’t keep up with the breaking shoulder. Charging it on an 8 foot fun board was a unique experience I’m sure!

Cloudbreak is sometimes known as Crowd-break because it can be so busy, but there was little more than a dozen people in the water for this session, and making sure I chose my waves carefully I picked off a few screamers.

However everyone wants a great wave here and somebody couldn’t resist one of the waves I was riding, dropping in right in front of me. I tried to turn up the face and punch through the lip, but only succeeded in falling off when the board was above my head and already going over the falls, soon to be followed by my good self getting rolled over the top. This resulted in the leash getting wrapped around my throat and then being pulled tight as the board got dragged in towards the reef. Getting garrotted by your own surfboard is not an experience I would recommend!

The result of this was getting caught inside once again and the rest of the set clobbering me in turn. After my previous experience here there was no way I was going to let go of my surfboard today. As a result I had to put up with each wave washing me further across the reef, with me trying to skip across the top of it in my booties.

The Aussies who had earlier christened me ‘The Reef Whisperer’ felt that a new name was in order as a consequence, so for the rest of the session I was known as ‘The Reef Dancer’. You can see my fancy footwork here.

After one major flogging I decided to quit while I was ahead. I figured having surfed overhead cloudbreak on a 8 foot board without snapping it, or putting a scratch on myself I had done well enough to be satisfied with the sessions I had enjoyed.

Despite all the issues listed above I can’t believe I have bagged Cloudbreak on my travels. I was so chuffed about it as you can see.

A short trip across a deep water channel from Namotu is Wilkes Pass. The right hand reef break there can be world class, and again there were some awesome shoulder high sets peeling off the reef.

Nobody needed any persuasion to jump over the side here because the waves were so good. I haven’t surfed a decent right in ages so I was itching to catch my share of forehand fun.

We were warned however that the reef high was quite a bit sharper and closer to the surface by the Fijian Surf guides.

I can confirm this by riding a little too long on the first wave I caught. The water is so clear that you can see every contour of the reef below you as you skim across the face of the waves. The reef gets ever closer to the surface with every turn you make along the line of the wave.

I got so close to one wave that a group of Aussie surfers I have met at Sonaisali who were out on the other Fijian Surf boat nicknamed me ‘The Reef Whisperer’. That particular episode cost me a chunk out of one of the fins!

You see me here after surfacing and grabbing the board, paddling like a man possessed to avoid ending up washed right on top of the reef by the following wave.

Nobody wanted to stay in long here though because we were all more interested in Cloudbreak a few miles away.

After my skin-full of Long Island Iced Teas you can imagine how special I was feeling getting up at 7am to meet the surf boat run by Fijian Surf. However after signing a disclaimer saying that I knew I was taking my life in my hands, myself and a number of others set out into the Pacific in search of waves.

Despite being several miles out to sea from the mainland free WiFi was available on the little boat which took us to the break, through which we were able to watch live coverage of the Huxley Pro taking places at Trestles in California. (Airports, hotels, hostels, etc of the world please take note!)

Namotu is the boutique island resort which you see above and our skipper suggested that we try a few waves there to warm up.

The lefts breaking off the islands coral reef were amazing and there were only a handful of surfers in the water. Although two of them were on Stand Up Paddle boards and were being rather too greedy about how many waves they were catching.

Despite feeling pretty rough I went straight over the side of the boat and was soon sobering up by osmosis in the tropical water, which was warm enough for surfing in shorts once more. Aside from a strong current along the reef there was nothing else to be worried about.

The take offs were surprisingly mellow and I had quickly dropped down the face of some fun waves which were about shoulder high before snaking all the way along the line.

I had decided to catch one more before returning to the boat and keen to make the most of it, kept riding the wave for far too long. There was coral sticking out of the water around me by the time I bailed off, thankfully managing to hit a spot where there was a slightly deeper pool to fall into. I managed to scrape the board off the reef without any significant damage and paddle back to the boat where everybody soon joined me before we all moved on to the next break.

By the time I arrived at Waidroka Bay I was running on auto-pilot so I was delighted to be told that a boat was heading out to the famous break called Frigates in the morning because it avoided any decision making on my part. It is named after a gap in the coral reef that was big enough to get the old warships through, called Frigates Passage. 

The waves peel beautifully off the edge of the reef, however it is not accurate to say they break off the island of Viti Levu because it is a surf spot that is 16 miles out to sea and requires an hour boat trip just to get there!

I was joined on the boat by a group of surfers from Australia and a couple of divers because it is also a great spot for checking out the marine life.

Upon arrival at the passage we were delighted to be met by head high waves which were almost mechanical in their perfection and not a breath of wind. This wave was for Peter Kraus, and it might well have been the perfect wave he was always looking for. Just a shame it was a left Pete!

With him in mind I decided I had to try and charge the waves today, without holding back. There were only six guys in the water so my efforts were soon rewarded and I was quickly into a few beautiful rides.

I was once more wearing the boots and helmet to give me some protection from the reef because this was a very serious wave. Everyone had been warning me that the sun here in Fiji was particularly powerful too, so I also added enough zinc sunscreen to have galvanised a frigate!

There was no wind to start the session but it picked up steadily through our time out on the ocean, which made conditions increasingly challenging. You can see me here dropping into another monster, and also the other surfer ducking through the clear water on the left of the shot.

After a few hours I was tired and went back to the boat for lunch, only to be told by the divers on our boat about how many sharks and other marine life they had seen swimming around underneath us. Great!

However it was the wind rather than the angry fish that was the reason for me not getting back in the water here. The morning had been a perfect session and I wanted to treasure that for my friend, preferring to watch the other surfers and enjoy a bit of fishing. By the time I had got back to dry land I had been on board for almost eight hours and can freely admit to almost walking off the side of the jetty due to still being on my sea legs!