Weekend at Cloudbreak

This last weekend I went on a surf trip with Tim and two of his friends. We stayed with a friend that Tim had made who owned a resort the Beach house, which is on the coral coast. I was closed at the moment due to renovations however we were allowed to stay. It was a sweet experience being the only people in a huge resort. From the Beach house we did several day trips to go surfing. The first couple of day we went to Sigatoka which I have already told you about; didn’t see any sharks but is was always in the back of my mind and made surfing there not really enjoyable. It was fun doing missions there getting up at five o’clock and bussing it there with all the locals going of to work.
The real experience was surfing Cloudbreak the most famous wave in Fiji if not in the world. It is where the pro surfing events are held and a very elite wave. To surf it you have to stay at the Tavarua Resort for a minimum of seven days at a cost of $200 US a night. There is a change over period when the guest leave and the new ones come in which happens on Saturday morning. In this time they allow the general public to surf Cloudbreak in this four-hour window but still at a cost and a quite large one mind you.
On Saturday we arose at 3.30am for the three-hour mini van drive to where the boat was arrange to pick us up. The picked us up at 6.30 and after a 45min ride we arrived at the island of Tavarua. Upon arriving we are told that we can’t use any of the facilities or even venture of the beach to look around. The most elitist place I have ever been. We waited till about 8 o’clock for some other people to arrive who were going to surf the wave as well before we caught the boat out to the wave. There were about 10 people in all; most just like us stoked to get the chance to surf this famous wave and without this window period would never be able to let alone being able to afford to stay on the island.
The surfing was awesome. One of the best waves I have ever surfed. Having said that I think that Australia has plenty of waves that are just as good and it has made me realize how good it is in Australia. Made me miss home heaps this week. Though I think having a chance to surf this wave this weekend has given me the energy to get through till I go home. In the four-hour period we got to surf I think I caught about 50 waves. It was so fun even managed to get a couple of really sick barrels. Everyone out there seemed to have a great time. At about 12.30 we left and on going back to the island we passed the next lot of people staying on the island going out to surf. There is some thing really wrong when someone has control over a wave and exploits like they do. It is the only wave in the world like this. There was about two hours in the morning when no one was surfing it but because they own it you can’t go out. The locals can’t even surf it. However it was a great experience and one I will never forget.

Surfing Cloudbreak

Covered in Sand

Hanging after an awesome day! After about an hour I got the hang of it and managed to stay on the board. We used a snowboard and a boggy board; heaps of fun. I managed to get sand in crevasses, cracks and holes that I never new I had. Kept finding sand in strange places days later. I should probably have a Shower. Na!

Get ready, get set, go!

At least half the way

The Sand Dunes

Running from the shark infested water

After a hard surf

Words can't describe it

Another Dawn Patrol

We score some epic surf on this day. I was a little tired after not much sleep but this was only my sixth surf in Fiji. It is so hard to get waves especially as good as we got it this day.

Going out to the reef

What a mission. I have told you about the surf in the harbor and that you need a boat to get to it. It is really hard to find other people going out surfing and getting regular boat rides is almost impossible. Tim and I decide that we would take matters into our own hands and set out to find other means of transport. Near the uni there is a lady who rents canoes for $10 bucks for the whole day; what a bargain. The canoe was a wooden boat without the motor like the one in previous pictures. Tim and I together couldn’t even lift one end of the boat out of the water; the thing weighed a ton. We were given a really long stick and two oars that were really just two planks of wood cut into the partial shape of an oar. There were no life jackets but there was a coke bottle cut in half to bail the water out. This seemed important thing in the boat too have because the boat was already half full of water. We figured it was because it had rained the day before; at least that is we told ourselves. So we stood there with our surfboards in hand and debated about what to do and the outcome of course was to go surfing.

The surf break didn’t seem that far to row to. We rowed out to the reef and across the channel were the ships come through to the break with relative ease; most likely because we had a fairly strong tail wind that pretty much propelled out there. It was a little longer than we thought taking about an hour and a half. We tied the canoe to another ship that had been ship wrecked on the reef and hoped that the wave that were crashing against it wont fill it with water to the point that it would sink. Just the two of us in the surf that day it was pretty fun being out in the middle of the ocean surfing with tankers going past sporadically. Surfed for about two hours until it got to shallow on the reef to surf. Upon returning to the canoe that we couldn’t see during the surf since it was on the other side of the ship wreck brought a huge sigh relief seeing that our boat was still afloat; only half full of water. With the water bailed out we set off.

We set goals of getting from maker to maker. The first goal was to get through the channel; this was easier said than done. After an hour of paddling we were only half way through the channel; something that took only fifteen minutes to get the whole way on the way to the surf break. We were traveling straight into the wind and tide was making things pretty hard. If we stopped paddling even for a few seconds we would loss ground due to the wind blowing us back. At this point things got even a little worse with a tanker about to come through the channel and we were right in the middle with no way of it seeing us. We had a little while before it would be near us and we had to choose whether to keep going or go back with the wind to the other side where we had come. Thinking on this it could have been a life and death decision. We paddle back to the side we just come from. Even with the wind behind us again the tanker came closer to us than I would have liked. If we had decided to try and keep on going we would have never had made it. A life defining moment. At this point we have been rowing hard non-stop for about an hour and a half and we had barely left the surf break. We are a long way from were we need to be let alone land. An interesting moment almost getting run over by a tanker, in the middle of the ocean holding onto a marker, physically exhausted and I just lost the bailer after I accidentally through it over trying to get the water out of the boat.

Another decision to make was whether to try and make it to where we came from or just head to the nearest land; this was a simple one head to the nearest land. Three hours later just as it was getting dark we reach land. I have never been happier to not be in the water and have my feet on firm soil. We were both at the point of physically not being able to row any more. We had only had a bottle of water each that day and after surfing two hours and about six hours of hard rowing we could not move any more. We came close to spending the night in the boat although this might not have been possible because by the time we reached the land it was already half full of water again. We caught a taxi to the place where we were meant to be and surprisingly they quite understanding about the fact that their boat was about fifteen minutes drive away. They had actually been out looking for us, which was nice to know. We only had to pay an extra ten bucks and they would go and get it for us with a motor.

Despite the almost getting ran over by a tanker, the exhaustion and many blisters it was still a fun trip; one of the moments in life that you never forget. I most likely won’t try and row out to the reef to surf again but you never know.

Surfing Sigatoka

The dawn patrol in search of some excellent waves at Sigatoka sand dunes. Scored some really fun waves over the four days that I was there. I went with the other Aussie Tim on a little break in search of surf and we got blessed with beautiful weather and waves. Surf more in the four days than the whole time in Fiji up until this point. The sand dunes were one of the most surreal places that I have been to. It is the only beach break in Fiji. However it is also one of the most shark infested waters in Fiji. The surf is at the river mouth and the water is really murky so much so that you can’t see your board when sitting on it in the water. During three separate surfs we saw a Shark. On one occasion during the surf what we think was about a two-meter shark jumped straight up out of the water only meters from me. That ended the surf for the day; pretty scary. Tim saw one swimming in the wave and yes we are one hundred percent sure that they were sharks. After talking with the locals they told us about a local surfer only a couple of months ago getting his arm torn apart by a shark and they have had many boards with shark bites. We were told that they are bull sharks or tiger sharks; freaky. Still the surf was excellent and will most likely continue to surf; I mean they have always been there just now I really know since I’ve seen them nice and close. However the trip was a lot of fun though I need to take warm clothes for the nighttime. We slept in a tent and I thought that just shorts, a t-shirt and jumper would be fine how wrong was I; I think it was the worst few nights’ sleep I have or lack of sleep that I have had. It got so cold at night. The surf and sand boarding more that adequately made up for the lack of sleep which it an awesome trip.

Dawn Patrol

Nice tourist pose

Rain Forest

I took this photo myself with the timer. I think it turned out really well. It is in the rain forest, which is a beautiful place, and only about half an hour out of Suva by bus quicker when you hitch hike. A great place when you need a break from uni or for a picnic. Been there several times now.

Hanging with the locals

Hitch Hiking

Hitch hiking to the rain forest outside of Suva. Got picked up by a whole rugby team; all 25 of them and me crammed into the back of a truck. Seemed like a good idea at the time but must admit it was a little intimidating being the smallest guy in the truck.

The Street Sweeper

The street sweeper in Suva; there is no trucks that do it only by hand. I think it would be one of the worst jobs in the world; you would know what I mean if you saw the condition of the streets and the amount of rubbish. On top of that he probably only gets about $2 dollars an hour doing it hard.