Description
Are you ready to get off the beaten track? We’re going to leave Bali’s safe, and dangerous shores and head off into the unknown, out to where the majority of surfers may never pull on their wettie socks. With Australia’s media focusing on what can go wrong in Bali, we’re going to show you what can go right in the rest of the archipelago. We want to inspire you to get out there and get the best waves of your life, and we give you advice on how to do it.
Some of the Surfing Life team tracked the Indonesian dream from where it died in Kuta, to find it again right out to the edge of the archipelago. We went to where foreigners rarely tread, to ride waves that we think people haven’t surfed before. We won’t tell you where it is, that doesn’t matter, what matters is that we took our time and went on a crazy drive with volcanoes and earthquakes and crazy truckies and certain-death drops through mountainous regions on remote islands, until we found what we were looking for – perfect waves. We did it with modern Indonesia explorers, Brad Masters and Mikala Jones, as well as Mikala’s brother Daniel, Bol Adi Putra, Riley Laing and Asher Wales. We went right to the edge and we discovered that the more difficult it was the more we enjoyed it.
While this was happening Surfing Life’s hard-working and always awesome photographer, Andrew Shield, went in the other direction with SL favourites Soli Bailey, Jacko Baker and Kai Hing. The boys scored some crazy barrels, and went hard outside of the tube, and we used the shots to accompany Jed Smith’s words on his time living in Indonesia. It’s a cautionary tale about Justin Beiber and Indonesia’s surfing pioneers, and everything in between.
Far away from the Beebs, Masters and Mikala do another surf trip, to somewhere you’ll never get to, with Luke Davis and Cooper Chapman. We sat down with Brad and Mikala and got them to talk about the trials and tribulations of doing missions like these. They give us some very sage advice about planning our own missions to the extremities of the surfing world. “Always check around the corner, the next point and the next point! Keep going.” Seems easy enough, right?
We’ve got a profile on Indonesia’s first real WCT hope, and our cover star, Oney Anwar, and followed him home to Lakey Peak, from his other home on the Gold Coast. Oney’s a great mate of SL’s, and his surfing is hitting another level. Check it out, that’s how he got the coveted cover. We also caught up with Noa Deane, surfing’s newest superstar, and spoke to him about his rapid rise to surf-fame. What’s Noa got to do with Indonesia? Well Shieldsy (we told you he is hard working) travelled with Noa to the Telos Islands earlier in the year, and the pair of them absolutely nailed it. No one in the world does aerials like Noa, and we’ve got all the irrefutable proof in issue 311.
To round this amazing jaunt through our nearest northern neighbour out, we follow Lance Knight and sons back to the wave he discovered – the oft photographed and filmed Lance’s Right, and we catch up with Diah Rahayu, who could be the best female surfer Indonesia has seen.
There is so much out there for you in the Indonesian archipelago, and while this magazine is as packed as a bowl of mie goreng, we’ve only just scraped the surface. Hopefully this Surfing Life 311 gives you the pioneering spirit needed to get out there and chase perfect, uncrowded surf and the adventures of a lifetime. All you have to do is get to Bali and turn either left, or right, after reading this magazine, of course.