The Indonesian archipelago is a prime area for surf exploration. Leon Jamaer, Camille Juban, Flo Jung and photographer Gilles Calvet went off grid in Java and struck wave sailing gold. Read on as the crew reflect on the trip and the reflective thoughts it provoked.
Words Leon Jamaer, Camille Juban, Flo Jung, Gilles Calvet // Photos Gilles Calvet
LEON JAMAER
The memory of this particular magazine article is still bright and clear. I see Thomas Traversa placing a cutback on a perfectly shaped wave that must be almost twice mast- high. Kauli Seadi is talking about the ruthless reefs of this magical place in the Indian Ocean. Their journey only finishes once all masts are broken and there is no more spare equipment.
THE SPARK
I am a 15 year old surf fanatic reading through the paragraph for the third time. As the magazine comes only every other month, each word and picture from distant countries with foreign waves has to be absorbed and stored away. Facebook and Instagram are yet ideas forming in the heads of their developers. Sensory overload therefore is still an alien concept. It might have been this moment that the will to discover similar places inhabited my mind. I was dreaming, one day, to be riding the same waves that Thomas and Kauli found on the coastline of Java.
THROUGH SPACE AND TIME
A wave is a change of a physical quantity spreading through space while transporting energy, and yet, not transporting matter. Sources for waves can be pulsing stimulations, vibrations or periodic oscillations. The mechanism that describes the wave creation by wind, called Kelvin-Helmholtz-Instability, names three main factors for the formation of ocean waves: the wind fetch, the wind strength, and the wind time.
During the southern hemisphere winter months, deep in the Indian Ocean towards the Roaring Forties, all three factors are met regularly. Massive storms massage large parts of the ocean for days on end. The freed energy is transported by waves for over 3000 nautical miles towards the equator and arrives days later on foreign coastlines. We are standing on the shore somewhere in Java, Indonesia and watch the ocean rise and fall as if it was slowly breathing. Out on the open sea the swell is not too big, maybe two metres. However, the period between the passing of each wave is more than 20 seconds long. During the long journey through the Indian Ocean the waves have lost size, however, they have become faster and cleaner. They also didn´t lose much of their original energy, as we can see, once the waves grow higher and higher hitting the reef. The local wind is light enough to keep the wave faces free of wind chop, yet, strong enough so we can catch them with the help of our sails and attach ourselves to the pacing bundles of energy.
FASCINATION
My attempt to capture the fascination of wavesailing in words: while riding a wave one witnesses how all the energy that is transported by a wave, suddenly erupts and is freed once the wave breaks. You hear the thunder when the lip crashes down and breaks and feel the wave´s energy underneath your board. The closer one is to the breaking part of the wave, the more one can feel the power and energy of it. In surfing getting barrelled, being fully emerged and surrounded by a wave, is the closest you can possibly get to feeling the beating heart of the wave. In windsurfing, it’s doing a vertical cutback or launching an aerial. The feeling becomes the purest when you have as little interfering factors, such as wind gusts or wind chop, as possible. Skiers will walk miles or get brought by helicopters to glide through untouched virgin snow. In the same way, we windsurfers travel to remote places on our planet to find and ride waves that are uncrowded, powerful and perfect. In my opinion no other sport can match the sensation of windsurfing as we have the advantage of being able to use the wind in our sails to manoeuvre ourselves to places on the wave where others can´t go. The rig is light enough to hinder not too much. The dynamics between human, gear, wave and wind become something that feels unreal and in my opinion, is unparalleled!
HERE AND NOW
Like soldiers of fortune, Camille Juban, Flo Jung, Gilles Calvet, Pierre Bouras and myself are standing on the shores of Java and gaze intently at the ocean as there was gold to be found somewhere in the blue. Despite the fact that we all come from different places on earth, the curiosity of those special waves and the related sensation of happiness has brought us together – here and now. The moment we see the first waves grind down the reef is a dream comes true for all of us. Although a rather self-involved motivation has brought us here, we all know the moments that happened along the road bond us together as a group at least as much as the actual windsurfing. We will all return happily with different impressions, experiences and opinions. With this text we will try and inspire others to follow their own dreams and see the world with open hearts and learn what we learnt, that those dreams mustn´t be restricted to rolling cylinders, bundles of energy, cutbacks and aerials. There’s joy in every moment when you live in the here and now.
CAMILLE JUBAN
Once the PWA event in Tenerife is finished we normally have a few weeks off before the next event starts. In the past I have gone to Peru, Galicia or Tahiti during this break in the competition calendar. This year I was supposed to go on a trip to Fiji, however the logistics became too complex and it had to be cancelled last minute. I was glad that Leon asked me at the same time to join him on a journey to Indonesia. A trip to ‘Indo’ had been on my bucket list for many years and I didn´t understand when Leon told me he was struggling to find other motivated riders. Of course it is a huge investment as it takes time, effort and money which sponsors don´t always understand or reward. As a result, trips like this, going to remote places to find empty waves, are getting fewer and fewer. Anyway, I knew the conditions in Java can be as good as it gets for windsurfing. I was hungry for waves and even if we didn’t score, it would be a great trip to gain new experiences from a different part of the world. I didn´t hesitate to say yes to Leon, let’s go!
SETTING UP
We met in Jakarta and took a crazy wild taxi drive for eight hours through the night before we reached the village that Thomas Traversa and Gilles Calvet used to come to many years ago. On the first day we were too tired from the long journey to windsurf so we rented motorbikes and explored the area. We could see a few different setups on the coastline that looked good for windsurfing and left us full of expectations. The first couple of days there was not much swell and we sailed a spot that is super shallow and only works with small waves. There was almost no Internet connection, but the word on the street said a bigger swell was supposed to arrive at some point.
After six days of surfing and sailing small and difficult waves we watched the sunset from the beach while suddenly more and more water started to push over the reef. We knew the big swell had arrived and I could feel the excitement growing in all of us, as this was what we had came for.
MOTIVATED
The next morning we packed our windsurf kit and headed to the most exposed spot on the headland. When we arrived we saw huge barrelling waves in the distance with spray coming off their tips, which means it’s windy enough to sail! The excitement was unreal. After spending so much money on flights and travelling for more than 30 hours, dropping into that first wave, going down the glassy wall with so much speed and throwing a big turn or huge air felt so amazing and such a relief! For me those are the moments why I windsurf and also why I am ready to deal with all the negative parts in windsurfing or life in general. It was pure and total enjoyment and I felt like a little kid in the water. In these moments there is such a strong and good energy coming out of yourself and out of your sailing too. People that watched from the beach later told us they could literally feel our motivation and enjoyed watching us windsurf. I always want more of that – who wouldn´t? After another great day at the same spot we saw a wave that was even hollower, faster and the reef looked even shallower! When a new swell arrived we set out to give it a go. After checking it many times at different tides and conditions, we unfortunately realized we would not be able to sail it on this trip. However, going home after two amazing weeks of windsurfing and surfing being surrounded by a good crew and welcoming locals, with delicious food and many laughs, I still have those unridden perfectly shaped waves in my mind and is one reason why I will come back one day!
FLO JUNG
What are the ingredients for a really inspiring surf journey? First of all it starts with a certain anticipation that something exciting is going to happen. You get excitement, that you are about to make exactly the right choice in terms of life experience. I often have that feeling when I go on trips where I discover new parts of the world. Most of the time these are destinations, which are totally different from European countries, a territory with other climate conditions or just a journey with a certain purpose. After endless flights and several hours in a tiny taxi, I slowly realize that our final destination in the south of Java might be one of these special trips. The bumpy road seems to get smaller and smaller into the rain forest and I am just tired, exhausted and desperately looking for a simple bed. Finally after 8 hours being squeezed together between surfboards and bags we reach the small fishing village of Ujung Genteng, which will be our base camp for the next two weeks. The mission is simple, together with Leon and Camille I want to surf as many waves as possible and discover this unknown part of the world.
PLASTIC PROBLEM
With a population of 260 million people, Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world. Within a short time, it has grown from a developing country to an emerging economy with huge potentials. However, there are numerous problems that come with this progress. Indonesia is the second largest polluter of plastic waste in the world’s seas. While visiting the capital of Jakarta, we were more than shocked to see a city where up to 10,000 tons of waste is produced on a daily basis, piled up along the road with a disgusting smell and a terrifying example of how we slowly destroy our planet. It also shows the importance of education and how much the conscious use of our natural resources will be in the future. Each of us can contribute to avoid this problem. Little changes can have a huge impact. If every person on this planet has access to knowledge about what they can do to have a positive impact, or on the other side, what they shouldn’t do, it would be a big step in the right direction. We don’t have to be perfect human beings to change things. To sit in an airplane once in a while is part of my job and I might not be the perfect role model for being eco-friendly but I can do my best to be carbon neutral at the end of each year by planting trees for every trip. Right now, around 7.5 billion people live on this planet and countless other creatures depend on this place that we call home for a certain time. All together we could move mountains if we use our natural resources a bit more carefully. We could start by using less plastic in our daily routine and realize the power each of us has to work for a better planet or against it.
SIMPLE
In contrast, Mother Nature seems to be still in place on the south coast of Java. “Simplicity” is probably the best word to describe the situation. A reliable Internet doesn’t exist, our shower consists of a water bucket and every meal is rice with fish, or rice with meat or vegetables, depending on what is available. We adapt to the rhythm of the locals and leave the loud, fast life behind us. Between surf sessions we read books or explore the area with bikes. It feels good to just switch off and only dedicate my energy to each session, each wave and each turn. For sure not all of these waves are converted to sweet memories, but with each mistake you get closer to this state. After countless hours surfing and windsurfing each day, in pretty much perfect conditions, our stock of equipment finally fades away with each visit to the razor sharp reef. At the end of our trip, all I have left is a board, one sail and a boom. What remains are invaluable memories of a journey to new horizons, which showed me how important it is to simply go out of our comfort zone once in a while and discover the world we live in. As the poet Saint Augustine sums it up:
“ The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page.”
GILLES CALVET
Originally there were no coconut trees, no pigs and no humans on the islands of Tahiti and Hawaii. The theory, mostly approved, is that migrants came from Southeast Asia around three to four thousands years ago to populate the Pacific Ocean. Why did the chief of the coastal tribes of the islands of Indonesia decide to do so? Probably because they had to face the fact that their population was growing and that natural resources were starting to dwindle.
Leon, Camille, Flo, Pierre and I spent two weeks scoring Ombak (waves), Angin (wind) and Matahari (sun) next to a fishing village on the southwest coast of the island of Java. In the shade of a forest of coconut trees at the surf camp, day after day we ate delicious fresh fish, vegetables and fruit. Food was much appreciated after all those hours spent windsurfing and surfing every day! During the evening session, while Matahari (the sun) was sinking into the indigo blue of the Indian Ocean, painting the sky and sea a unique red, each one of us was touched by the grace and beauty of the moment and place. Secretly, at the bottom of our hearts, we were thanking Mother Nature for all those turtles and colourful parrotfish sharing the peak with us and for this ancestral culture of seafaring people who had preserved their paradise throughout time. By the way, precisely at this time, the sea was sparkling with as many canoe lights as there were stars in the sky. The lights were from the small scale and sustainable fishing fleet, which will fill up our plates tomorrow.
CONTRAST
And then came that famous river in Jakarta where 30 million people live, the most polluted river in the world. The idea (Flo’s of course) was to take a few photographs of it and give our report an ecological dimension. Words are not enough to describe the horror of the scene. An unendurable foul smell of chemicals and excrement, a thick and oily green liquid where only floating plastic bags were surviving and all this in the middle of the city. It was the sight of schoolboys buzzing happily near it that scared me the most though. Their classroom was right beside it and it looked like they weren’t smelling anything and were unconcerned with the piling up of plastic bags and used packaging which surrounded them. For them, it was like that in their suburb and that was it! According to some scientists our planet is overpopulated and, as Jakarta’s problems show, we have to restrain and manage demographic increases. But what about if we consume less?
REVOLUTION
Flying round the world to windsurf may also be seen as a pollutant and these are all factors we will have to consider in changing our lifestyle and needs to ensure our planet remains a home. But what would occur if we reduce our consumption? And, if instead of living the dream of a materialistic and capitalistic life, which we now know inevitably frustrates, we would turn ourselves towards a new ideal: a world of equality between people and in harmony to our relationship with Mother Earth? A love based on sharing and respect for others and for our environment. Because, as I see it, we are the others and we are our environment and the time to act is now.
