SR: Caroline Islands

[Superstar Punani]

Preface: I was paid hush money (in the form of a two-week bar tab spancership) to keep any pics of the interweb until the issue came out. Well it's out. As Kong would say: "Have a fuckin look at this"

"Ohhh, sweet Caroline, good times never seem so good"

Date: Recently

Place: "Kong's Island". West of Hawaii, East of Indonesia


Crew: Gary "Kong" Elkerton, Matt Archbold, Beau "Naughty" Emerton, Asher Pacey. Dylan Longbottom, Punani, Swilly, Rich, Shaun from OC, 3 Aussies from Victoria


L-R: Standing: Punani, Archy, Kong. Seated: Beau Naughty, John, Dylan

Photog: "Swilly". aka Simon Williams. I swear he and Splat are cast from the same mold.



Surfing World Issue 280
linky

Punani shot of Swilly shooting Dylan's cover shot before I creamed my pants, got the fuck out there and pulled into a few.



Anyway, looks like someone beat us to it:


The waves were ok, and ranged from Small:


...to Medium:


...to Teahupoo-like:


...and to "I WILL FUCKING CRUSH YOU"



My new surf buds weren't too bad either

Aerial pioneer, fucking ripper, all-round nice guy and my new best friend, Matt Archbold:





The best surfer never to have won a world title, Gary "Kong" Elkerton:


Mag shot (photo: Swilly):


Dylan Longbottom, standing tall on a heavy motherfucker that was about to suck dry on the inside section


Australia's most underrated surfer and fuckin sick aerialist, Asher Pacey





..and former WCT player Beau "Naughty" Emerton is the sole goofy in an all-regular cast.





To be continued....

[Zeedashbo]

you sick bastard. half a year later.

[MarsB]

FKNA!!!!!

[Agent 00X]

uh-mazing

thanks

[SkiED]

palikir pass near pohnpei, micronesia? Looks pretty sick as usual.

[SJP]

Amazing waves. How did you got so hooked up with the Aussie Rock Star trip?

[MidwayJ]

More Please.

How long of a boat ride is it from the camp to P-Pass, and can you fish (pelagics or inshore trolling) the whole way? How did you like the food/accomodations at the camp?

This place is quickly moving to the top of my "must do" list. Dylan's barrel at Apocalypse in Second Thoughts is one of the sickest ever. And he made it.

Edit to say that Rocky Lefts was 3-5 and firing today!?

[Big Tim]

Legit Rockstar shit................FKNA

[Hayduke]

hmmmmmm...interesting.

[Hayduke]

I don't know what to say? You're a fucking legend!

[Hayduke]

Sweet pics, post up the rest!


BOOOOM!

[lemon boy]

Yawn.

SuPu, a proper dick wave requires at least a little bit of erection.

[Superstar Punani]

Day 1

So where did it all begin? Each year my bud Rich and I throw darts at the world map. Past surf adventures have taken me in places such as El Salvador, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australa, North Shore, Peru, France and a few others I’m probably missing. Nothing here could compare to what I was about to score.

A couple of emails were fired, deposits were paid, flights arranged. I found myself on a redeye from SF to Honolulu with a day stopover to cruise the North Shore and say hello to Angel at Club Femme Nu then it was on a Cuntinental island hopping flight from Honolulu to points unknown.



The flight itself was fucking insane. There’s so much potential throughout the Pacific. Each time I looked out the window I saw deserted islands with ideal set-ups. Runways on the beach, landing times dictated by tide, and airports that looked like sheds.

Are we there yet?


Are we there yet?


Are we there yet?


Are we there yet?


Are we there yet?


10 hours later we had arrived at our destination. This is the first time the Cuntinental monkeys actually didn’t fuck up, and I was relieved to see my boards were the first ones off the plane





Pretty soon, we were checking into our digs. Here’s the view:


We unpacked our boards, screwed in the fins and jumped into the boat and headed out to our first session. When we pulled up to the break, it was only 3-4 foot.

“Hey Sonden!”, I called to our boatman and new buddy. “Any sharks out here?”
“No! NO SHARKS! You go surf!!!!!”


Little did I know he was shitting me, as I found out the hard way a couple of days later.

The welcoming peak:


Rich scrambling to beat me to the lineup:


I can’t believe they made us surf this shit until sunset. With all of two of us out there hassling, dropping in on each other. I hate these crowded shitty conditions.


To be continued….

[bcrider]

Good stuff Punai!

Can’t wait to see the rest of the TR. I’m jealous you got to surf those waves AND hang with the likes of Archy. Pretty cool.

Reminds me of the time I got to hang at Island Lake Lodge with Terje, Johan, the Guch, etc or the time I got to share the heli with Victoria, Davenport, Swanny, etc. Star struck I was for sure.

One question and friendly dig…

Why didn’t YOU get published in the mag article? I know the political games magazines and photo editors play but usually they will use no names if they put up. Didn’t you put or shut up?

[Superstar Punani]

A few hours of perfect little rights to ourselves was the best cure for jetlag. It was the best way to get the place wired. The reef was alive and teeming with all sorts of sealife. I felt like I jumped into some gigantic tropical aquarium. The coral was as sharp as they were beautiful, and of you milked the inside section you’d end up in ankle-knee deep razor sharp shit that would fuck you up.

Close to sunset around 6pm, Sonden motored over and picked us up kicking and screaming, breaking the #1 rule of surf trips, which is to not leave good waves behind.
“We need to be back before dark so I can see where we’re going. Too many reef and if I hit it, boat fucked!”

When we got back to the resort, the bar was brimming with activity. “Hey guys! I’m Matt! Good waves huh?” Archy introduced himself. Holy fucking shit! Here was the guy I’ve looked up to since I was a grom. He and Christian Fletcher pretty much revolutionized surfing with their aerial antics in the pre-Slater surf era.

“G’Day boys! Me name’s Gary!” Kong said in as he walked up to the dock. Then there’s Dylan Longbottom, who was from the same general area as I was back in Australia, who was also a bud of one of my best mates in Oz. A shitload of beers and shots later, we were heading off to check out the island nightlife.

MC Kong takes over the bar at the local Karaoke joint


Dylan and Benny Boy sing a duet:


It soon became evident that hot chicks were non-existent here. Pretty soon our crew had to constantly dodge the unwanted advances of the large ladies who were more than eager to eat us alive.

A Micronesian hottie on the prowl:


We ended up at a dive bar frequented by the Peace Corps, expats, surfers and divers. Markers were on hand at the bar so the walls were decorated.



I added some words of wisdom



The rest of a night was a blur. Jetlagged, surfed out, drunk of my ass, and we’d only been here for 12 hours. By 6am a rampaging Kong was pounding on all the huts waking everyone up. Daylight showed small waves so they went on a fishing trip while me and the non-pro crew checked out another break called XXXXXX’X XXXXX.

I waxed my board and prepared to jump ship. As I stepped off the deck I heard Shaun “Hey! Check out that HUGE SHARK!!!”. It was at this point in time that I wished I was a Looney Tunes character with the ability to levitate in mid-air and quickly scramble back onto the boat, but no.


SPLASH!

I opened my eyes as a 7 foot reef shark was cruising at arm’s length from me, takes one look at me, swims towards me then continues on to the deep. At this point I pretty much kicked so hard and practically jumped back into the boat to the amusement of the crew. Good thing my black trunks hid the brown shit I just shat.

File photo: Fucker that buzzed me


“See?” Sonden mocked me “He no eat you! Now you go surf!”
“Fuckin’ Hell! You told me yesterday there’s no sharks here!”
“Bullshit!” yelled Rob, “How can you tell if there’s sharks in the water?”
“Uhhhh….how?”
“It’s salty! Right?!?!?!”

A quick scan shows no more sharks and we all paddle for the lineup.


Continued....

[comish]

Wow, fkna schweeeet.

Sitting here, waiting surgery, the coolest thing I have done lately is watch a shit ton of WC while drinkin... Keep it comin.

[Superstar Punani]

With 5 of us out, I figured that if the man in the grey suit comes back to collect rent it's a 20% chance of being chomped.

The waves were fun and were worth the risk. The set-up is similar to Sunset. Deepwater take off, a North peak and West peak to pick from, as long as you don't get cleaned up by the west peak, mellow drop, long carvable wall, and a racy inside section with coral heads to dodge.

Took off on the first wave of the set and had a long insane ride all the way to the inside section. I ended up the channel not far away from the shark zone and paddled as fast as I can to get some more. the swell picked up with the incoming tide.

It was about half this size. Second day here. It was a good spot to warm up before attacking the shallow OTHER break.

File photo of XXXXXX'X XXXXX


It seemed like the swell was picking up and changing direction. After a few hours I paddled back to the boat for a much needed beer and donut break. I came in my pants when I scoped out the G-land like lefts of indeterminate size breaking across the channel.




At high tide there wasn't much action. Sonden motored over to the marine sanctuary. We changed into the snorkelling gear and checked out the pretty bottom.

Sonden at the helm, Rob, Shaun and Rich lookin for some action.




It was freaky at first swimming in the coral reef, and watching it drop off into the deep blue sea. Snorkelling while buzzed was an insane experience which pretty soon we felt like one of the millions of tropical fish enjoying the view. Further down below we saw a lot of reef sharks minding their own business. Pretty soon we felt comfortable hanging around these guys along with huge manta rays, moray eels that looked big enough to bite your arm off, and all sorts of sea creatures that looked like they can tear you a new one.



We cruised back to base later in the afternoon for a bunch of drinking. It looks like the pro surfer crew caught a lot of fish. All you can eat sashimi was the call for the evening, followed by more partying at the local bars.


The next day was to bring a bigger hangover and smaller surf...

[truth]

Awesome SuPu...just awesome.

[skierX]

nice report.
there are rumors of non-life threatening surf


http://www.globalsurfguides.com/micropsc.htm

[DocChronic]

f'n sick.
can't wait to see more photos.
archy rules. i grew up around San CLemente.
It's funny to see him surf with Ford at Lowers. Ford has the same front teeth as archy had as a grom. It makes me laugh.
But I wish my dad surfed like archy.