“Surf travel” or “travel surf ”, these two action words are interchangeable. Is one more important than the other? When leaving down under to explore other cyan seas, should we prioritise “surf ” or “travel”?
If your idea of surf travel is turning up to a location and having unlimited waves on hand with a fly-in, fly-out mindset, then maybe booking a trip to your closest wave pool is a better option. Because in our experience, surf travel is more than countless waves. We marinate in the travel experience, with surfing an added bonus. Sure, heaps of waves help, but the adventure is what it’s all about. Have we got it around the wrong way? Should we say “travel surf ” with the emphasis on the right spot, like the first Aussie wave-riding pioneers?
In the OG surf explorer Peter Troy’s book, To the Four Corners of the World, he spends as much time investigating non-surf locations on his way to surf destinations as he does surfing. Peter is described as an “intrepid adventurer who surfed his way around the world” in the forward by Terry Wall—notice travel is followed by surfing.1
Generations of surfers still froth on the stowaway story of Bob McTavish illegally travelling to Hawai‘i on the Orsova in 1963 to go surfing—the things we do. Bob slept under his buddy’s bed in the cabin, which was only inches off the ground, so he could not even roll over. Bob and his stowaway partner Dave Chidgey survived on their wits, free nuts and low-price beer at the bar, and a few bread rolls brought back by their paying mates.2
With this style of adventure in mind, we agree to a trip that is not typically engaged in today’s fast-paced and tech-driven society. We slow down—not smelling the English roses—gulping in wild salty air and gazing at the four blue corners of the Indian Ocean as we visit empty surf break after surf break ... a dot-to-dot Maldivian puzzle for the ultimate surfer-cum-seawanderer.
A standard trip consists of booking the shortest flight with the least layovers and the most time at the chosen surf destination so the maximum amount of surf gluttony can be achieved. Not this trip.
