Surfing > Articles > Crowded House?

The world’s a pretty big place, and two-thirds of it is made up of sea water, so it might seem a little strange that some people regard the oceans as being too crowded for their liking. But ask any committed surfer these days what pisses them off most about the sport and they’ll almost certainly answer “crowded waves”.

Like most people, the majority will continue to moan but do little about it other than go on their annual surf trip and crowd out someone else’s waves. But for a few surf adventurers who believe in action rather than words, travel and discovery are the only options. These guys - and an increasing number of girls - will scour the earth to find empty waves and surf in solitude with just a buddy or two.

The islands of the South Pacific, the Indonesian archipelago and the Philippines are the main destinations for these surf travellers, but isolated warm waters and palm-fringed beaches don’t come without their inconveniences. Getting there in the first place can be a major hassle - there’s nothing quite like a rucksack and a surfboard for attracting attention as you try to board an already overcrowded bus, train or ferry in a far flung part of Asia.

That attention is almost invariably friendly and curious, but it can become a drag trying to explain in sign language for the 99th time exactly what a surfboard is. And the public transport bit is often the easy part, because once you’ve arrived at the terminus you then have to make your way to the waves. Of course, you may be lucky - I have a friend who was travelling by bus along an isolated part of Mexico’s Pacific coast, saw a perfect wave breaking in front of a tiny fishing village and got off there and then. She didn’t continue her journey for another three months.

Usually, however, things are more difficult, and it’s not unusual to hear of hard core surf explorers fighting their way through jungles to get to a remote stretch of coastline that’s rumoured to have good waves. Assuming they manage to dodge the snakes, mossies and tigers (yes, tigers have been seen checking out the surf on the edge of some jungle-bound surf spots - or perhaps they were checking out the sea food riding the waves) all you then have to do is set up camp on the beach and, assuming the waves are actually breaking where they’re supposed to, paddle out and ride them. Simple.

Just don’t forget how sharp the coral is and how shallow the water if you wipe out; remember the sea snakes and jelly fish that may be drifting on the currents; and there’s always the small matter of sharks.

So is it really worth all this hassle just to catch a few waves? Well, Pat Lewin, a native of Perth, reckons so. “The thing is, if you get it right you’re gonna score the kind of waves that you may only get once or twice a year back home - if that. And unlike back home, you can take off on whichever wave you want ‘cos you’ll be surfing with just one or two mates.

Sure, there are hassles involved, and everyone comes back with some sort of horror tale - I’ve had mates who’ve caught malaria, had tropical ulcers, dysentery, and I once picked up some stomach bug that took weeks to clear when I got home, but that’s all part of the adventure - it’s a trip you’ll remember for the rest of your life, whereas going two miles down the road to surf crappy little waves at home - well, you won’t even remember that the next day.”

Of course, not every break is totally isolated like those that Pat and his mates choose to surf. You may find yourself surfing beside a native village, as did Evan Slater, editor of Surfer magazine, on a trip to The Philippines. He described how the villagers, who had never seen surfing before, rushed to watch the action in the water. They “poured out of the tropical forest and made their way to the edge of the reef. The bravest swam out to get front row seats.”

But not everyone wants to live quite so close to nature that they’re sharing bed space with insects and snakes every night, and for those surfers with a bit of cash saved up - or the right contacts - the way to do it is on a nice little yacht with a fridge full of beer. This opens up so much ocean territory it’s frightening. Newcastle-based Gabe Davies has recently returned from a boat trip to the Solomon Islands and trying to get him to take the grin off his face when he described it was impossible. “We just discovered waves everywhere we went - and quality waves at that. We’d be in the middle of the ocean, surfing off a coral atoll, with no land in sight, definitely no other surfers in sight, just a handful of us taking turns to ride warm, perfect waves way out in the middle of the Pacific.”

Sure, this kind of thing costs money, but a year of getting your head down should bring in enough dollars to pay for it, and to surf waves like these whilst travelling in such style is, for many surfers, well worth a year of dish washing or brick laying six or seven days a week.

And if you want something a little more obtuse, you could follow in the footsteps of Argentinian surfer Edwin Salem, who for his own reasons prefers colder waters for his surf trips (maybe it’s because he lives in Costa Rica). I’ve spent many a night drinking beer with Edwin whilst he’s described his surf trips to Alaska and Patagonia and encounters with killer whales instead of sharks, grizzlies rather than tigers, hypothermia and not sunburn. But for him, as for the guys and girls out in the South Pacific, it’s all done for the same reason. “Everything is getting very crowded so that makes me want to get out of it. For me the ultimate challenge is surf exploration, to be able to surf where people haven’t surfed before, to be able to have the pleasure of charting places, getting there and actually surviving them”.

Which isn’t quite what Manly or Newquay are all about.

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