Surftwisted Surf Magazine

Thats our title, its got nothing to do with the Surftwisted Roving Ambassadors of Love, Fergal, Mickey or Tom gang, absolutely nothing, but the rest is just blatantly lifted from Mickeys blog, so until we hear back from WA, read Migs

Well its be a wild ride the last few weeks…
It all began with diving headfirst into a hectic journey last minute to luck into some incredible waves in Tahiti, some photos of which feature in the latest issue of Carve magazine. The first part of our stint there was really cool, not many folk around, hefty slabs, with the place looking and feeling as stunning as ever, and good vibes in the world class lineup. It was everything I remembered it to be and more, and I was buzzing to share it with my girl and my good friends Lowey and Ferg, plus some other good mates from Oz and Hawaii who turned up hunting the same swell. Gotta love the hand of fates involvement in these missions…

Then it all went a bit tits up with the hype of the first mega swell there in a couplea years, and the subsequent arrival of big wig film crews, hookers and photographers everywhere, all trying to get a piece of Chopes and a godlike Laird Hamilton. The mega swell was a non event, but as there were some perfect waves Laird merrily obliged the ogling masses with some pretty dangerous displays of blatant disregard for anyone else - by surfing all day on his SUP, taking every decent set on a very slow swell along with his buddies, not caring how frickin lethal those boards are in 1ft waves - let alone 6-8ft waves at Chopes, and especially when there’s 30 other people trying to ride them - most of whom are spending their own hard earned money camping in the valley hoping to get a once in a lifetime chance at riding a setwave out there.

Now this isn’t a direct rant at Laird. You cant take anything away from what he’s achieved for waveriding, thats a given, and it might be that he pioneered tow in surfing with those same buddies at mega Chopes, and thus they have the run of the place in some sense as a result.

Lowey ended up with a dislocated shoulder from a collision with ’something’ underwater when Laird fell off. Is it a coincidence his SUP popped up next to Lowey and his popped shoulder?

There’s a whole bunch of other things that went on during that bizarre second half of our stay in Tahits that sent me packin, but as I’m not one to wallow in negativity, I’ll leave it behind having spoken my mind about the above and be done with it once and for all…

Thus we bailed for WA. This is well and truly more like it for me. For all the dreamy perfection of Tahits, there’s nothing like the real raw chaos of waves in the wild west. We chased another big swell south with our Ozzie brother big Morgs, went the extra mile swimming the spooky depths for a few days, and were rewarded with some crazy looking slabs, one ride of which could be the maddest tech big wave sequence I’ve shot so far.

I’m buzzing to be here and am thanking the stars places like this still exist without a scene the likes of which we encountered in Tahits. Isolation and adventure are the motivation here, and I’m looking forward to more of ‘em out here with any luck…