Ben Wilson Surf

Ben Wilson is a professional Kitesurfer that does not compete, he travels the globe in search of perfect surfing and kiting locations for filming and photo needs for his sponsors. I'm sure you would agree that he has the dream job, he would too! Here are some of Ben's favourite locations and travel stories.

The Making of The Unknown Road film

A surfer's vision

Solomon Islands

New Caledonia

Bali wave camp

Namotu Island Fiji

Indonesia – The land of the perfect wave
By Ben Wilson

Rider: Ben Wilson
Photographer: Will Schouten

The ultimate reward in both surfing and kiting is the tube ride; nothing compares. Sure getting a tube on your kite may seem almost impossible and is still un-comparable to surfing, but it does have potential and the search is on to find the perfect wave to let us do it.

Indonesia is the Southeast Asian archipelago between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It is made up of 30 provinces, 18,700 islands and lies along the equator. The terrain is mostly coastal lowland and larger islands with interior mountains. Indonesia has well over 54,716km of coastline.

Contrary to popular belief, Indonesia’s waves were being surfed by both visiting and local surfers as early as the late 1930s. However, as popular surfing legend has it, Indo was not first discovered as a great surfing destination by a group of Australian surfers.
While Indo may no longer be a "frontier" surf destination, it most definitely is in the kiting world. It is the most obvious location to produce the perfect kiting wave.

Rider: Ben Wilson
Photographer: Stuart Gibson

THE GOOD WITH THE BAD:

Indonesia has an equatorial climate with two seasons that are influenced by the surrounding seas and determined by the monsoons. The dry season is from June to September and the wet season is from November to March. Seasons produce wind and swell, but here lies the major factor - because of its closeness to the equator the winds are generally light or in most locations stormy and wet when they are strong.

The terrain is what actually decides the fate of whether the endless line-up of perfect waves scattered across Indo will ever see a kite on them. Generally speaking, the interior mountains are what suck the existing light tradewinds in to produce the many epic set-ups the whole way across the archipelago.

Get a map and start looking cause there are so many options, but be warned, most spots only turn on for a couple of months a year and this can vary from year to year and, of course, from spot to spot.

Searching
Photographer: Stuart Gibson

THE ADVENTURE:

I don’t think it gets any more adventurous - first you need to find the geography that will magnify the wind enough to get a kite in the air, couple that with a wave that it blows side-shore on and then of course hope you get a swell before the world’s biggest man killer (Malaria) levels you…

Actually, I think I forgot to mention a few more things, like, don’t forget to pack your patience; most spots take days and days to get to and 99% of the time your form of transport never leaves on time (I think the longest I have waited is for 4 days for my plane to actually fly). So, just because you can track a swell days and days in advance, doesn’t mean you will actually get there on time to score it. Also, the live coral reefs do a number of things, including cutting you to pieces and the most torturing thing of all – being so sharp and rugged that sometimes they give you no option of accessing the wave or ever coming back in; not even with modern age booties. Just stop and think about it for a second. Imagine finding the most perfect wave you have ever seen and not being able to ride because you just can’t get to it. I have done it and let me tell you, it’s the most gut-wrenching thing that has ever happened to me; there is only so much mind surfing you can do. The reefs are a real love hate relationship; they are what create the most perfect waves, but don’t mess with them or they will take you down.

Rider: Marc Ramseier
Photographer: Will Schouten

THE REWARD:

The food! Yes the food; sure you may get a couple of rounds of BB (Bali belly), but come on, it is worth it. The local cuisine is so cheap and so tasty; the perfect reward to an all day affair in the waves.

The people! Come on, how nice are they? Their lifestyle is basically the complete opposite to ours, with the most obvious thing being material things. We have everything and they have nothing, so to speak, but let’s define that: we stress about what we don’t have, they enjoy what they do have and don’t stress at all. Try it for a month, you could easily lose yourself in their life and it makes it very easy to understand why they are so nice and happy.

For everyone the reward can be so different, but let me tell you this - no matter what you’re looking for, Indonesia has the potential to give it to you. What could be more rewarding than days and days of travel through tropical rainforests, pristine coastlines and mostly un-explored beaches and reefs to end up at a perfect wave that has never been ridden before and to just enjoy it with a couple of your mates. Combine that with hanging out in the local village, eating fresh seafood and doing it day in and day out. It makes you feel like nothing else exists.

Like anywhere, there are accessible name spots that you can go and enjoy with 50 of your closest mates, but, more often than not, if you put a little time and effort in, just around the corner at the end of the rainbow lays a pot of gold, which we all refer to as the perfect wave.

Rider: Ben Wilson
Photographer: Grommet

THE MAKING OF THE UNKNOWN ROAD
Ben Wilson’s interpretation of kiting with a surfboard in the waves.
A film guaranteed to make you want to go kiting – again!

By Russell Pell
Images by Stu Gibson and Bill Crang

During the last year Ben Wilson has being travelling around the Pacific and Indian oceans scouting and scoring some of the best kitesurfing locations the areas have to offer. Together with a few mates, a film crew and a mission to produce a high quality film. Showcasing the possibilities and potential of wave riding with a kite to the masses.

Wilson attacked the project with his usual hyperactive zeal and infectious attitude. After viewing the results it seems to have paid dividends. I caught up with him as he was giving the project a few final tweaks and getting ready to put his feet up for a week or two before focusing on his next project.

Searching out new locations during the projects duration such as the Caroline Islands, New Caledonia, Peru and revisiting old haunts such as Bali and Fiji. Wilson and his crew scored epic conditions of both wind and waves. Filming from jetski’s, helicopters, water and land, all angles were tagged, logged and edited for your viewing pleasure.

There has being more than ample amounts of footage on the Internet of kiteboarding both freestyle and waveriding of late. Yet there has being a lack of a quality DVD or movie on the sport for sometime. Not since ACL’s freestyle gem Autofocus has a decent flick on the sport being released. Wilson hopes that his project may help fill the gap and help boost the sports profile in the waves “There is nothing really wave orientated around at the moment, there are a few little movies that crew have put together on the net. As good as they are, they can be hard to watch and you don’t get a true feeling of what is going on. My aim is just to show people what I am into and to get some quality footage and action out there.”

The journey began in Tahiti where Wilson had the opportunity to kite the legendary Teahupoo or Chopes. For those of you who live under moss covered rocks Chopes is a mean mother of a tube that is as thick as it is round and strikes fear even into the hearts of the most experienced watermen. A setup that Wilson found is not 100% ideal for a kite and a surf board “ The wind is really offshore and the wave raps and bends, you can sort of get in the pocket but the wave is pulling you one way and the wind the other. It makes it difficult to be exactly where you want to be.” Don’t think the trip didn’t deliver though Ben still indulged himself by scoring several pits both with and without his kite. “It’s the craziest wave I have ever seen, I wanted to feel it and experience it first hand,” laments Wilson. Stage 1 of the project in the bag, now it was off to stage 2 and new territory – The Caroline Islands, Micronesia.

The Caroline’s up until a few years ago was one of surfings best kept secrets. Discovered in the background of a photograph from a National Geographic article in the early eighties. That was the 80’s; the area is now frequented by surfers of every shape and persuasion and is also home to some of the globes highest annual rainfall. Though do not let these facts scare you off because the sweetener in the deal is the cranking right handers that skirt the reefs that surround the islands. The legendary P-Pass is a wave that has to be seen to be believed. The Pass on its day is flawless, barrelling top to bottom along the reef. The wave breaks like a grommets wet dream or real life schoolbook sketch.

Wilson travelled across the ocean to the islands with young Aussie ripper Joel Beacus. Beacus blows minds with his fluid and powerful style.

“The trip to the Carolines was insane, some of the best footage I’ve captured since Hawaii. Ben & Joel’s surfing and kiting was explosive and both surfed similar to their personalities. Ben was Mr Smooth and made everything look effortless. From his tube riding at P Pass to kiting main pass, it was radical but he made it look too easy.
Joel - I’ve never seen a 19 yr old go so hard in the surf, his kiting
was something to watch, he'd come to a section and no matter if it was 4ft or 8 ft he’d go vertical and hit it as hard as possible. Both the boys were feeding off each other. This section you will be rewinding and watching again and again”. Marcus, cameraman for this leg of the journey - Indeed kiddies!!!

Even the travel hardened Wilson called it “The most rewarding trip of my life”. “Where’s the credit card?” I here you say – but wait there’s more.

Fiji – Namotu – Wilson has spent a large part of his life on the island and rates the fishing and the surfing as world class. “ For this section I flew over and spent 5 days on the island, timing it for the swell and the wind. I scored trade winds everyday and the swell even though it wasn’t that big, was still fun”. Seems the kiting is not bad either. “ Namotu is the pinnacle for me – whenever I go somewhere else I judge by how it compares to that place.”

The biggest problem the team faced here was filming with the sun behind the waves. Wilson explains “ It’s always backlit when the wind is blowing, it’s too far out to shoot from the land and it’s impossible to shoot from a boat. It makes it difficult to get good full on action shots. We ended up shooting from a jetski and then combined this with some water shots.”

TTagging the action from as many different angles as possible saw the crew employ the services of a helicopter on the film’s next stop - New Caledonia. This also proved problematic as Wilson remembers, “ The day was “all time” when we filmed with the chopper. But it was extremely expensive and you only have a limited amount of time. At the start of the session we were not getting exactly the shot we wanted and it took awhile for the pilot to get the jist of what we were after. By the end of the session though we had what we were aiming for and it was good to see it all from a different angle.”

New Caledonia was a bit of a surprise for Wilson and Moe Gould as scored both swell and wind. “ The place is amazing it was windy everyday and it’s only 2 hours from Australia. The place that we scored when the swell peaked was awesome, perfectly side-shore and clean faces. It felt like the whole setup was made for kiting.”

For this section Shannon Stent joined the team to shoot the action. Shannon has produced and shot several high quality kiteboarding DVDs based mainly around the West OZ area. Wilson and Stent soon realized that they had similar ideas of how the movie should be edited and cut. “Ben asked if I was interested in editing the film and we sat down and discussed ideas and direction. We soon realised that we both were on the same wavelength and everything else fell into place. The hardest part of the project was staying at home to edit over winter while Ben was still travelling the globe gathering more material. We are both really stoked with the finished product and there is no doubt we will be teaming up in the future.”

The East and West coast’s of OZ feature throughout the film. If you’re not Australian or have not visited here you will see why those that have and are, have a hard time leaving the place. Wilson is on a first name basis with the receptionist at the local airport and over the last year has tracked and chased every swell that has hit either coast. The footage looks inviting but try and remember to leave the country and return to your own after a year or two – if you can.

Wilson is not the only rider featured in the film and his co-stars are no slouches. West Australian Ryland Blakeney makes an appearance and shows what 200 days of constant wind and waves on Oz’s west coast will do for your kiteboarding – make you bloody good! As mentioned earlier youngster Joel Becus does his bit and is hoping that his appearance will increase his lacklustre credit with the ladies. Jeff Tobias show’s there is life after knee reconstruction and a disappointing early exit from an attempt at a career in World Series Poker. Not forgetting Josh Mulcoy’s and Mauricio Abreu’s trip to Peru. This motley crew insure you won’t just be watching Wilson’s skinny ass slashing and snapping across your screen.

Maurico and Josh traveled to Peru to give the movie a bit of a change in scenery and pace. “ We went there in May, but the place goes off all year round. A friend just opened a hotel down there and invited some riders to comedown and check out the scene. It has the longest lefts ever, with side-off shore winds. Best surf in the mornings, then best kite from 11am to 5pm and another sick surf session at dusk!” explains Mauricio. Morris and Mulcoy went absolutely berserk in the perfect Peruvian peelers. Meanwhile Wilson was enroute to Indonesia and tagging the final pieces of footage for the film.

Indonesia is like a third home to Wilson (after Oz and Namotu) and he has travelled there almost every year for the last 20 years. Surfing all over the area and gaining an impressive amount of knowledge and understanding of the islands. “ This year was one of the best seasons that I can remember, for swell especially. I spent my time travelling all over Indonesia, surfing mostly and when the wind prevailed, kiting as well. Sumbawa this year was the best I have ever had it with a kite”.

With all the footage now safely logged in hard drives it was time to head back to Western Australia and edit the hours of footage into a more palatable size. Wilson sat down with Shannon and sketched out how he saw the final cut. Then the next step was to set about seeking a suitable soundtrack to marry the finished product together. “ I would describe the soundtrack as “mellow”, I tried to keep it pretty cruisey so that it will appeal to most people” says Wilson. All wrapped up and time for Wilson to take one more flight back to his beloved Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

“The Unknown Road’’ will give the sport a film that is in Wilson’s opinion is overdue. It is a film that will provide inspiration and motivation for all of us who chase the waves and the wind with our kites and surfboards. At the very least it will give us all material to fuel our dreams during those long windless months we all inevitably suffer at some stage.

A Surfer’s Vision
Kitesurfing is what you make it, especially if you’re Ben Wilson!

Words by Russell Pell
Images by Stu Gibson, Bill Crang, Ben Kotkke and Toby Bromwich

A story from a surfer friend and a map or two. That was enough to get Ben Wilson to drop his life in Australia pack his kite gear and fly across the Pacific to an island in the middle of Micronesia. He knew he’d find epic kite surfing. I was stoked he asked me to join him here in the Caroline Islands, especially as the rain came down in sheets the first day. And the next. Ben may have led the charge in wave riding, introducing it to kiters everywhere through his groundbreaking films that have helped make him famous, but even his talents don’t extend to weather forecasting.
So I was sitting there thinking that I shouldn’t have come, that there might be no way I could write this story about him, no way I could even ride with him, if this February trip was a literal washout. My poker game was improving, though, as I played with a couple of Ben’s mates. And there was Ben, always the first one awake each morning, now leaning over his laptop to get a dodgy Internet feed. That’s when the news came: 8-foot swell on its way. “Check this out, boys!” Ben yelled. “It looks like we might need to strap those boards up after all.” He started to tap his foot like a musician picking up a beat.

At that moment, I had to wonder, was that swell heading to the Caroline Islands anyway or did Ben make it come out of his sheer force of will? Because that’s the impression you get from Ben, especially after being on several trips with him from Indonesia to Western Australia like I have. He is a man on such a mission that he makes his own reality, come hell or high rain water. He was about to transform this trip, just as he transformed the sport itself. Getting to know Ben Wilson, though, requires a lot of energy. Believe me, this energetic Australian is like a ricocheting cannon ball. See if you can keep up.
Before I let anyone else, including Ben, weigh in, let me start it off. Ben has one of the most fluid and explosive riding styles in kitesurfing – period. The kid kills it on a surfboard and his entire attack reflects his surfing roots. He is at the forefront of pushing surf style riding to the next level. Pro kiter Martin Vari agrees with me. “Ben has made a picture in his head on how kitesurfing can look and he is working hard to bring it to reality,” Vari says. “We all know how good he rides, but I know his vision is way beyond what we see today.”
What we see today of Ben actually had its roots years ago. From age 8, he enjoyed free air travel courtesy of his father’s job with Qantas airlines. As a result he spent more time travelling than attending school, surfing the reefs of Indonesia rather than struggling with algebra. Years later, he was fresh off a chef apprenticeship when he was surfing in Indo with his dad and got a job offer on the island resort of Namotu to be a fisherman and lifeguard. Yes, the same Namotu with the world-class waves and wind. He stayed for four years. “In the last year of all this, kiteboarding started to kick off and all the guys started arriving,” Ben says. “I only had to work a few hours a day and apart from surfing in the morning, I didn’t have much else to do, especially when it was blown out in the afternoon.”

What a perfect answer kiteboarding presented itself as. “When I was growing up, the next best thing to surfing was travelling,” Ben says. “Now kiteboarding is the ultimate extension to surfing when you go on a boat trip and you’re sitting around waiting for the wind to swing. If you know how to kiteboard, you could be having the time of your life. All it takes is throwing in two kites that take up as much room as a small backpack, use the same boards and suddenly you can make the most from what the ocean has to offer.”
It wasn’t that easy when Ben first started though. Some of the guys going to Namotu included Brett Lickle, one of the first Maui kiters, and Dano See, fellow Namotu lifeguard at the time“Brett gave Ben a two-line Wipika and rumor has it on Ben’s first try he ended up clinging to the lifeguard tower at Cloudbreak,” Dano says. “The wind was north and if you can’t make it back to the island the only landmark before Australia is the tower on the cloudy reef. Ben ditched his rig and swam to the tower where he clung for hours until rescued just before dark. With no money and one kite between us we learned the sport taking turns. We would go out, try a jump or do something, eat it, swim in and swap. After Ben’s incident and a few myself it became compulsory to have a boat watching at all times. We could jump and do all sorts of things before we could go upwind.”
Ben got better fast. And he started channeling his party-boy antics and Jackass-style pranks, which often involved fire, into a commitment to travel to film and promote the sport. (His girlfriend, Lauren, helped to temper him, too.) He also signed up with Slingshot in 2000 as an admittedly calculated move. “I feel if you build up a relationship with a sponsor it improves your profile in the media and in the eyes of the public,” he says. “It definitely helps to make you more recognizable.”
It also helped him get his films off the ground. A few years ago Mauricio Abreu showed Ben the unstrapped section in Ten4 in which he smashes several waves on his surfboard. Inspired, Mauricio and Ben turned off the DVD, grabbed their gear and had a session. Ben put a proposal together to push the waveriding side of the sport to Slingshot and they backed it with a 4-year contract.
As Slingshot designer Tony Logosz says, “The most significant thing about Ben is his surfing history and talent, which has helped to bridge the gap between surfers and kite surfers. This is great because the surfers see that Ben is not a person who just kites, but this guy is a solid surfer as well. Surfers are learning to take kiters seriously thanks to guys like Ben. He rides the same surfboards to surf and kite strapless. It makes for a strong statement to surfers about his ability.”

Ben realized that he could make that statement through film, which led to the Spare Change DVD, released in 2005. He produced it with good friends MartinVari and Jeff Tobias. It gave the kitesurfing world a taste of what was possible in waveriding and as a result saw the popularity of kiting in the waves on a surfboard increase dramatically worldwide. Ben has also complemented that push by generating photos, footage and articles that showcase wave riding. About the only thing he hasn’t done is enter many contests.
After all, he doesn’t want to be judged on his style, in a contest or otherwise. “If you’re having fun, then you’re killing it,” he says. He feels strongly about riding unstrapped and kiting on his backhand. “It really annoys me when people say, ‘He’s a kook for riding that way’ or ‘That style is wrong.’ There is no right or wrong when it comes to kiteboarding and it is the one thing I really hate about the scene.”
One highly volatile and controversial topic is riding switch or backside. It seems obvious to most that if you come from a windsurfing background then you are going to use the skills that you already have to interpret kiteboarding in the waves by riding switch. Wilson is doing the same but using his skills as a surfer and as a result riding on his backhand. “Backhand kiteboarding is the hardest thing I have ever done,” he says. “I think we have got a long way to go before we make it look good but I have had times when I have felt it. I know it might be 2 months or 2 years before I totally get it dialed but that is my challenge at the moment. My main aim is to find ‘flow’ just like in surfing, not to be riding against or fighting the wave or the kite and for it all to come together smoothly.”
Ben is passionate about pursuing this style of riding and finding the stoke that he gets from surfing. His quote is still going, so let’s get back to it: “The learning curve of kiting opposed to surfing is not comparable but if you want to push something like backhand riding, then it becomes comparable because you have to spend a lot of time to crack it and make it work. Just because it doesn’t happen the first or second or even tenth time doesn’t make it wrong or mean that it is not going to happen. How long does it take a freestyler to learn to do a powered handle-pass?”
That’s a rhetorical question. Right about now, you probably want to ask me a real question – what happened next on that Caroline Islands trip with Ben? I’m about to get back to that. But first, let me include one more quote from a kiter about Ben. Freestyle ripper Andre Phillip says, “Ben is always amped to ride. He has the most fluid, progressive kitesurf style out there. He’s real down to earth and the man can cook gourmet meals. If I were gay, I would probably try to hook up.”
As great as Ben is, nothing of the sort happened in the Caroline Islands. Rather, the predicted swell started to appear. After sitting around for several days in the camp the crew was amped to get in the water and not surprisingly Ben was the first one out. During the day the swell built to a solid 8 foot. Paddling out, I saw Ben catch an absolute smoker, driving through what seemed like an endless barrel, weaving and holding an impossible line and just making it out cleanly. As he paddles back out the smile on his face told it all. He stopped and sat in the channel for a few minutes. Later on he told me that he had to calm himself down after the barrel as he was overrun with adrenaline and totally stoked to the point of losing it.

The wind came in and we motored to another right hand reef break further along the island. The wind was perfect, cross-shore and the lads were frothing at the opportunity to kite on their forehands. Being the token journo on the trip I sat back and let them go for it. This trip was part of Ben’s current film project, called The Unknown Road, so the video guy set his tripod up and began filming. It was Ben’s Aussie mate Joel Beacus who took the first wave and went to town, hacking the wall to bits. This place was starting to deliver the goods, awesome waves to surf and perfect cross shore right handers to kite. Now where did they put that pump?
    Ben’s kite career is just as fired up these days. The Unknown Road and his new sponsor deal with Boarder Patrol will take him from New Caledonia to Indonesia to Fiji for the rest of 2007, kiting with the likes of Beacus, Vari, Moeahu Gould, Mauricio Abreu and Jeff Tobias. They will attempt to smash as many waves as possible. DHD surfboards, famous for shaping boards for top 16 surfers like Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning on the Gold Coast, is working with Ben on a pro model aimed at the kiteboarding market.
    But back on the boat in the Caroline Islands, the wind had backed off and everyone had returned from the arvo session with face-splitting grins. As it was starting to get late we decided to head back to land for a well deserved meal and some rest. Ben had other ideas and quickly set up a couple of rods. While he was organizing one of the boys to man one, he got a hit on the other and almost lost the entire rig overboard - almost. After a bit of a fight and the others assisting to get it onboard we now had an extra passenger for the ride home – a rather unhappy looking tuna.
    Ben couldn’t have been happier: “This trip gave me some of the greatest days I’ve had since I've been into kiting – epic surf in the morning, epic kiting in the arvo and all
time fishing just before dark. These are the three reasons why I love the ocean.”
    Packing our gear to leave the island, I knew I had seen Ben’s vision become reality. Surfing in the mornings and kiting with our surfboards in the afternoon, it truly was like having twice the fun for half the price, like the theme park you went to as a kid staying open an extra few hours. The Caroline Islands had delivered the goods and we had gorged ourselves until we could take no more. As for Ben, it was time to go home to his lovely lady Lauren, their new Labrador and some much needed rest. I looked down the plane aisle to where he was sitting and noticed him tapping his foot, finding the rhythm for the next adventure.

SOLOMON ISLANDS July 2008

Words by Matt Tobin

After a brief three to four hour flight from Brisbane we land in the thriving capital of the Solomon Islands, Honiara. The idea was for an adventure trip to a remote untouched location in search of new kitesurfing setups, in and around the Marovo Lagoon, in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. We quickly load our luggage into the unsuspecting taxis and head to our motel for a meal and some sleep, ready for an early flight to our final destination.

Of course not everything goes as planned and due to some excessive celebrating we cut a fine line getting to the airport. A severe lack of water had me nearly drinking from the air conditioning outlet. None-the-less it’s OK and we make check-in but soon realize that this place runs in a slower time dimension commonly known as `Solomon Time’, due to the laid back approach to life Solomon Islanders’ possess.

The flight was an awesome experience in the 18 seat twin engine plane packed with our gear. As these planes are rather small our larger surfboard bags had to ride up front with us on laid down passenger seats. No worries - Solomon style! There are so many cool island setups to check out along the way and landing on the grass runway in Ramata was a real experience. Soon we were powering in long boats through the world famous Marovo Lagoon. This 70km long stretch of flat water littered with islands possesses the perfect setup for massive downwinders.

The first stop for this adventure trip was the Uepi Island Resort, which sits on the outer reef edge of the Marovo Lagoon. The resort provides great accommodation in traditional bungalow style units with power, amenities, and balcony views over the lagoon; they also lay out some really 5-star food! With the world’s best coral reefs on offer, there’s great snorkelling, diving, world class fishing, plus daily shark feeds and consistent trade winds through the winter, which means you won’t get bored.

Uepi was to be our hub for all our exploration adventures and owners Jill & Grant, along with son Jason, made us feel more than at home in this family style resort. One of the benefits of staying at Uepi is the ease of access to other great areas to the south and the east as well as Grant and Jason’s passion for many watersports like kitesurfing, surfing, diving and fishing.

From Uepi we travelled by boat to the eastern side of the New Georgia Island where there were stronger tradewinds with great flat water and wave spots. Launching is from a boat or, on your own personal sandbar out in the middle of the ocean. The wind and waves around the Hele Islands are well worth the 40min boat ride. Open to the south, swells come up from our Australian winter east coast lows and provide some decent ocean movement with waves wrapping around many never ridden islands.

When travelling to the Hele Islands it’s a must to stay at the Matakuri Island Eco Resort run by local Ben and his family. Their hospitality is very welcoming and the open rooms with decks onto the water make for a real natural experience. After a late surf Bill and Ryland decided to take advantage of the glassy water and go wakeboarding. We soon found ourselves eating awesome food again with something for everyone, including crayfish for dinner and breakfast if you liked. The locals say that if you eat barbequed crayfish more than three nights in a row that you will have psychedelic dreams. But the nightly crayfish was too good to resist for many and they gave the rumour a nudge!

Always keen for another adventure and in search of greener pastures, we travelled an hour south of Uepi to the Wilderness Lodge on the southern tip of Gatokae Island. The Wilderness Lodge is run by Gold Coast ex-pat Corey Howell and his wife Waelinah and is located in the Peava village. Corey is a mad free-diver and loves to hunt HUGE pelagic specimens off 30m drop-offs. He shoots fish most people can’t even wind in. Corey had us dialled in with all the best fishing places in no time, so there was no sitting around waiting for the wind to get stronger. Yellow fin tuna, spanish mackerel, wahoo and GT’s were frothing on the boy’s lures. Most of these places have never been fished like this and the boys had a field day. Tobes smashed the GT of his life, while Shannon got the wahoo of his. Sashimi was a consistent appetizer for all the amazing food; our favourite being the local massive chilli mud crabs.
The accommodation is right in the heart of a village; this being the place to get your real Solomon culture. The village is full of history and famous for its wood-carvers, wildlife and rainforest. The Lodge is situated right on the beach with a great little flat water lagoon with a sandy beach launch and it is sideshore in the SE trade winds. An island upwind called MaleMale provides a sick fast grinding left hand wave with winds onshore; great for huge round house farm turns and lip smacks.

We were the first to kite the lagoon and island and chose to boat launch instead of tacking upwind. The island is harassed by south swells and the SE trades, which seem to funnel through the channel around the volcanic mountains. The winds blow consistently in the winter months of July to September but like most tropical locations the wind can blow at any time of the year unexpectedly.

Fact File:

Getting There:
There are direct flights from Brisbane three times a week to the capital Honiara.

Money:
Solomon Island dollar; rate is 7:1 AUD. ANZ and Westpac ATMs are located in Honiara and all resorts support VISA and MasterCard facilities for the bar tab.

Health:
Malaria – use common sense here and lather up with replant around dawn and dusk. Also sleep in a mozzie net during the night.

No Wind Activities:
Fishing, diving, snorkelling and surfing.

Tips:
Take heaps of sunscreen, snorkelling gear, a fishing rod, a raincoat and mozzie repellent. Pack light - 30kg max - and avoid French tourists wearing full length Columbia trekking clothes. When kiting make sure your equipment is boat launch ready at all times, as you never know when you might find a new reef spot or glassy sandbank in an unsuspecting wind.

Interesting Experiences:
Beetlenut, Sol brew, mud crabs, crayfish, sharks, waves in absolutely nowhere, reef drop-offs to 100m, 37m boat on its ass…

Links:
http://www.uepi.com/
http://thewildernesslodge.org/

SURFING THE WIND IN NEW CALEDONIA
By Jon Imhoff
Images by Bill Crang

I’ve heard it said that the value of a thing is equal to what it cost you to get it. What comes easily, we value little. What takes effort and sacrifice we treasure? On a recent trip to New Caledonia it was pay day. After weeks of planning and hours of traveling the dream we were pursuing unfolded before our eyes. As the boat approached the reef we could hear the size of the surf way before we could see it. The ocean this morning was that texture of oily glass that inspires awe. We knew we were headed for one of those sessions you dream about your entire life until you get it, and then reminisce over the rest of your life. It becomes the standard all other days are measured against and raises the bar considerably. Every other day pales in comparison.

As the waves slowly started to come into view words seemed out of place. This moment was sacred. We watched one flawless left after another until finally someone couldn’t hold in their excitement any longer and a loud “Waaaahoooo” ensued. Like the parrots that greeted sunrise half an hour earlier we all seemed to wake up and joined in. Soon the boat was full of hooting, laughing and chatter as we fumbled with leashes and did some last minute grooming of board wax.
I won’t bore you with a blow by blow account of each turn. That’s not what this story is about and to be honest, we are all just average surfers and it wouldn’t be that exciting. But for each one of us this was an epic day. A couple other boats arrived but there were plenty of waves to go around and the mood in the water was friendly.

We were on this trip with Ben Wilson, a professional kite surfer making a movie about kite surfing on waves. Ben proceeded to paddle right past where we were all lined up as if he saw something the rest of us didn’t. He did. As he reached a point about 50 meters down the line and outside a rouge wave just appeared out of nowhere to greet him. He proceeded to slide easily into a backside barrel as if it were nothing. For any of us it would have been the wave of a lifetime. For Ben it was just a warm up.

We surfed for an hour or so in what could only be described as perfect conditions and I was just starting to feel comfortable and get into a groove. Then it happened: At first it was just a small gust that came out of nowhere. Everyone felt it. No one spoke but we all knew it was the beginning of the end. You could see it coming as the glassy surface slowly started to pick up texture.

Surfers have a sort of love-hate relationship with the wind. Unless it’s light and offshore we’d prefer it to just bugger off. Off course we love to hear about it in some far off place. Preferably destroying and causing mayhem. Admit it. You don’t think of the victims. When you hear of some island being devastated by a storm you are silently calculating the size and strength of the swell it’s generating and how long it will take to reach your favorite break.

Well, we hated the wind at this particular moment. It was about to steal this session. The waves deteriorated quickly as the chop picked up and slowly the pack thinned out as more surfers left the water. Ben was back on the boat and while the other surfers hung their heads and moped about he seemed animated and was busy moving around the boat organizing something. Soon a kite was launched into the air and Ben set off on his surfboard towards the break. Most of us have seen kitesurfing and to be honest it usually looks more related to wakeboarding or snowboarding than surfing. Sure it looks like fun but it’s not surfing-WRONG! Ben demolished that argument on his first turn. Ben uses the same board to kite in waves as he does to paddle surf. He uses the power of the wind to tow him into the wave and then trims the kite so it is no longer providing any power. At that point he’s riding the wave just as though he paddled into it. That day as dejected surfers watched from the boat and Ben’s surf session continued we all silently vowed not to let the wind ruin another surf session again.

ACCELERATOR WAVE CAMP - BALI - JUNE 2008

By Bruce Exton

It’s the middle of winter in Australia and most kiters are praying for an early summer. Meanwhile a group of kiters are hanging out with Ben Wilson in Bali, scoring warm water, good surf and wind. Here is their story.

Just over 12 months ago I sat down with Ben Wilson and we kicked around the idea of running a wave camp to help experienced riders get more out of their wave riding. Choosing a location that was going to be user friendly, not crowded and an interesting travel destination was not easy. We finally settled on Bali and spread the word. Bali has had a bad rep for not producing wind and many sceptics doubted our choice of location. This trip would prove them wrong.

Getting into Bali is pretty straight forward, so long as you don’t have a boogie board bag full of the green stuff. Be aware though, if you take more than 3 surfboards in, you will get hit for extra tax of about $100 per board.

Most of the crew arrived the day before the camp and with the wind picking up we rallied the new arrivals and headed to a nearby surf location, which produced a great session with side shore winds and waist high waves. This proved to be the perfect warm up for the camp which officially started on Monday.

The group (6 from Australia and 2 from Japan) had all come to improve their wave skills and learn from Ben how to take their riding to the next level.

We assembled at the meeting place where our bus arrived and we managed to fit the mountain of kites, boards and gear in the back and head off to the camp venue. We arrived at the location with the wind already kicking in and the waves begging to be ridden. The accommodation was in a family style resort with a true Balinese flavour and the wind was already up to 18 knots side onshore. After lunch we hit the beach and rigged up. We had to wait for a few surfers to get off the break but soon had the crew ripping the A frame break. Waves were around 2-3 feet but perfect for the start of the clinic. This place always has waves that don’t get smaller than waist high. By 5pm the wind died and it was beer o’clock. We had filmed everyone, done an assessment of their riding and Ben then set out an action plan for each individual to work on during the week.

Each day blended into the next but the basic format was…
6am - The keen crew hit the surf for a glassy session.
8am – A leisurely breakfast followed by another surf or a massage.
11am - Pump up and get ready for the wind to fill in.
Lunch and kite all afternoon.
The majority of the week we had 15 - 20knots sideshore with waist high waves on most days, although on one day we had overhead on the sets. The left here is so long and rippable, it gave everyone a chance to sort out their new skills.
6pm - Video feedback

Dinner was different every night and the highlight was the pig on a spit ceremony. Bintang seemed to soothe tired and aching muscles and most of the crew hit the sack early. This place certainly got a big rap from everyone.

Stuart from Brisbane was amped when he got off the water on day 6, “That was the biggest surf I’ve ever been out in!“ he said with a massive grin on his face.

In all, we had 7 out of 8 days on the water kiting. Everyone seemed pretty stoked with the week and their progression on the waves. They each achieved their own personal goals from getting comfortable unhooking or riding unstrapped, to linking turns and riding long walls.
Mark from WA summed up his week, “Getting to ride with Ben and getting instant feedback really progressed my riding. On top of that the food was great and the location was awesome.”

Bali Accelerator wave camps
Camp 1: 20–26 July, 2009
Camp 2: 27 July - 2 August, 2009

Namotu Island Fiji

By Ben Wilson
Images by Gabi Soos

I have said it before and I will say it again – Namotu island in Fiji is my favourite travel destination for so many reasons, epic surf, warm water, consistent trade-winds, great fishing, cool people, huge parties and of coarse world class Kitesurfing, not to mention that when your there it’s your own personal frickin island to do what ever the hell you like, whenever you like – hence no rules Namotu!

You would think after living there for 4 years back in the day and countless trips since that I would have seen it all and had it all, well let me tell you a little story about this trip – 6pm Monday 7th July my phone rings, I answer and Scotty O’Connor (resort owner – best mate) says “Ben, where are you? I reply “just got in from the Solomon’s!” Scotty comes in over the top of me “Perfect you flying here tomorrow to tow with me, it’s going to be classy for a couple days and then the trades look to come in and the swell holds for 6days, best it’s looked for months!”, “Perfect I’m in see, see ya tomorrow!”

I jam home from Brisbane for the night, re-pack my boards, pick up some new ones and drive back to the airport first thing the next morning to catch my flight! I can never tell weather it’s a good thing or a bad thing to arrive onto the island late afternoon because they have already been drinking cocktails for hours, so you miss that part, but you can’t say no I’m not drinking to a bunch of frothing animals that are already well intoxicated, so you just have to cop it sweet and hope they have drunk heaps and can’t last, cause all you have to do is make to the end with them, then your home free!

The next morning I awake to insanely classy conditions and a pulsing 4-6 foot swell, we surf the left on short boards only for the ocean to start unleashing solid 8ft monsters onto us as the tide fills in! Time to get the ski and commence what turned out to be 4 solid days of towing and surfing in perfectly classy waves with 5 guys out being the most crowded it got during the swell. Every break was pumping and the biggest issues we faced, was weather to tow or to surf or to go right or to go left? Hell should we surf peelers or barrels….

After the 4 days of sheet class and some of the best waves I have ever had there or anywhere for that matter, the trades finally kicked in and it was time to go to work – Slingshot had just sent me the new ’09 Rev’s to shoot, plus my new pro model boards to finalize the construction and the conditions were perfect! After pulling a few strings and getting a helicopter last minute we decided to shoot the left in flawless conditions! This was a perfect way to finish a perfect trip!

Every time I go to Namotu I never want to leave……