With over 1600km of outer reefs circling New Caledonia, this stunning French island in the South Pacific is surrounded by the largest lagoon in the world. With this huge coral boundary protecting the shallow waters within from the ocean swell, this dazzling expanse of azure is possibly the ultimate freeride windsurfing playground! Keen to test the waters, John Carter assembled a selection of lucky pros to blast around this dream location whilst he shot from the air and water. Read on as the crew recount a classic session where windsurfing proved to be the ultimate island hopping craft.

Words  John Carter, Sarah-Quita Offringa, Matteo Iachino, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, Sebastian Koerdel  //  Photos  John Carter.

 This feature originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of Windsurf Magazine.

JOHN CARTER
When I first received an email from Remi Villa at Starboard asking me to stay two days after last year’s PWA event in Noumea, New Caledonia for a photo shoot, my first thought was ‘Oh no, two more days away from home right at the end of the season.’ I assumed we would be shooting at the same location as the PWA event and I was keen to head home and spend time with my family, but since I was at the event already, I had no real excuse to turn down the assignment! By the time Noumea came round I had almost forgotten about the extra days. As it turned out there were no flights available to leave straight away after the event anyways and myself and PWA event manager Jamie Gibbs were forced to take a flight two days later regardless. As for the event itself, the trades blew every day, with wall to wall sunshine and the PWA elite went to battle with Antoine Albeau and Sarah-Quita Offringa both being crowned men’s and women’s slalom world champions.

THE PLAN
The following morning, after all the final photo editing and finishing all the necessary work associated with the event, I met with Remi to discuss the plan. First up, he wanted to spend a day testing, so I was released for the afternoon, but he then revealed a much more elaborate plan for the actual shoot on my final day in Noumea and it sounded totally amazing!

The sailors (Matteo Iachino, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, Antoine Questel, Delphine Cousin, Tristan Algret, Sarah-Quita Offringa and Sebastian Koerdel) were set to depart at 7 a.m. from our hotel and then take two RIBs loaded with all the equipment 20km offshore out to an island called Amedee. Meanwhile I would relax at the hotel, enjoy a leisurely breakfast and then wait for a taxi to whisk me to the local airport where I would fly out by helicopter to this tropical paradise and shoot the windsurfing for 1.5 hours before being dropped ashore and joining the party to explore the lagoon for the rest of the day in the RIBs. Oh wow! There was a spare seat in the chopper going vacant as no video shooting was taking place, so I decided to bring along Jamie Gibbs as a backup photographer just in case I forgot to load any memory cards! It almost sounded too good to be true! I spent the rest of the day meticulously charging batteries, formatting cards and checking lenses over as I really did not want any room for error on this once in a lifetime opportunity.

TAKE-OFF
Around 9.30 in the morning we were transported to the airport and left in the hands of our pilot for the next two hours. Due to the fact the lagoon is a UNESCO World Heritage site and full of birds and wildlife, our pilot informed us he was not allowed to fly below 500 feet, a slight issue but I was sure anything would look amazing from our bird’s eye view. Right on schedule at 10 a.m. the pilot pulled on the throttle and moments later we were soaring above mainland Noumea towards a distant atoll 24km offshore, just about visible due to the 54 metre tall Amedee lighthouse. Up in the sky was no doubt the best way to appreciate the sheer vastness of this windswept lagoon, we had the doors off and down below us were all sorts of little sand atolls and uninhabited islands. The reef surrounding Noumea is the second largest in the world behind the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and it looked like we had chosen the perfect day to explore this gem of nature. Way in the distance you could just about make out a small white fringe surrounding Noumea where the lagoon meets up with the outer reef. The coral separates amazing turquoise water inside in exchange for the deep blue expanse of the Pacific on the outside. Most of this vast windsurfing playground inside the reef was stunning azure water, but within the lagoon there were mini reefs where the water was even shallower and almost crystal clear. I thought the area around the event site was beautiful, but out in this lagoon, beyond the inshore islands, the marine scenery was even more impressive.

AMEDEE
The next hour and a half was a whirlwind of action as we shot the riders blasting around inside a tiny crystal clear atoll about 5km away from Amedee. About twenty minutes before our time was up we decided to touch down for a few moments on a tiny mound of coral poking out of the water to make sure we had the shots we needed. Apparently the guys had had some issues with the photo shoot board bags (more about that later!) so the last twenty minutes were vital to nail the final pictures we needed. The pilot eventually signalled our time was up and he dropped Jamie and I on the landing zone on Amedee where we met up with the rest of the crew for lunch. Walking around the island we stumbled on a small sea snake, which apparently can kill you in five minutes if it bites you and to make matters worse, there is no known antidote. Fortunately they are not aggressive and their mouths are so small they can only bite between your fingers or toes. Even so, I was not going to chance it and pick one up by the tail like I have seen in pictures of local hero Robert Teriitehau back in the day.

We cruised on Amedee for another an hour or so and took some more shots from the RIB before Matteo came up with the bright idea of sailing over to a shipwreck some 30km away. Next thing we know, half of us are loaded into the RIBs while the rest of the sailors blast off in twenty-five knots of wind headed across the water to our next port of call. Comfort levels in the RIB were not quite up to the luxury of being in a chopper, especially when the RIB’s hull was slapping up and down as we punched through the chop. My enjoyment of the day had gone from a ten out of ten down to about a three, but I was still high from the helicopter ride so I didn’t mind too much. At least the sailors were having a blast, burning alongside us on a huge reach towards the shipwreck. We eventually made it to our destination but it was impossible to sail too close since the rusty iron wreck was nestled on the outside of the shallow reef.

GOELAND
We dropped anchor for 30 minutes or so before deciding our next stop would be Goeland, a small sand cay home to around 4000 tiny sea birds and closed during their mating season, November through to March. By the time we had reached Goeland I felt like I’d been ten rounds in the ring with Tyson Fury after so much smashing up and down in the boat. The clouds were staring to build by this stage so we made the decision to head back which was still another 20-30km. Delphine was tired from all the sailing so Jamie Gibbs was handed her rig for the final leg of the journey back to base. Sailing alongside Sebastian, Gonzalo, Tristan and Matteo blasting across pristine waters was the final highlight of an amazing day for Jamie who had lucked out on joining us for this trip. We finally made it back to the mainland around 5pm with all the sailors pretty exhausted from the sailing but also stoked to have been a part of this amazing day exploring the islands. Personally there was only one small matter to attend to after such an incredible mission – beer o’clock! Even at £9 a pint in our hotel, an icy cold one was worth every penny!

SARAH-QUITA OFFRINGA
The Starboard photo shoot after the event was a complete adventure. We had two boats and the plan was to shoot at different islands. New Caledonia is such a unique place for that as it is surrounded by reefs. It was a great idea, but let’s just say that nothing went according to plan! First of all, all the board bags looked alike, and we brought along two bags out of Remi’s truck. One of them though was filled with test boards and not the shoot boards we needed. Oh no! It turned out Remi had the correct bags ready to go on top of the pile but somehow one of the riders had pulled out the bags looking for something and repacked them in a different order! We learned this after we did our 20 minute bumpy boat ride to the first island! Changing the helicopter appointment was not an option so Tristan and the captain had to act quickly and floored it back to Noumea to go and get the right board bags, all unbeknown to JC. Forty minutes later, just as we saw the helicopter appear on the horizon, the speedboat also arrived, just in time to get the shoot going! After this initial setback, we managed to get ourselves sorted and started shooting, sailing above this beautiful reef and swapping boards between the team riders. It was already gorgeous from the water, but became even more mind blowing with sea turtles and stingrays coming into the shot. That was actually the funniest part of the shoot. After that we sailed to different reefs and islands and made mini pit stops to shoot. It was work because it isn’t easy to swap gear in the water, but at the same time it was also vacation, because man, it was really beautiful!

In the end I think we almost sailed in a giant circle and ended the whole trip back at Ansa Vata where we had the slalom contest. I did give one of the guys my gear because I was way too powered on the 7.8m to sail all the way back! Overall, logistically it was challenging, but looking back at the pictures and laughing at the bloopers of the day, it was a truly memorable shoot!

MATTEO IACHINO
That day was so much fun. We were just a bunch of friends sailing together after the event. We headed 20 km out to Amedee and then sailed over to another lagoon where we were gybing in this crystal clear water in the middle of nowhere. This lagoon was a real freeride paradise. I don’t normally go freeriding when I sail, but for places like this it’s easy to make an exception! You can explore the reef, the lagoon and all these sandy islands just with the power of the wind. I have friends in New Caledonia that go out in groups of five or six and sail out in the lagoon for the day checking out the islands. As long as you have a phone it is relatively safe. You cannot be alone, obviously with a boat it is better. The colours are amazing, you are just in board shorts and your only worry is if you have enough sunscreen on! The boat ride is quite bumpy, but on windsurf gear the ride out there is quite smooth. You just hang on the boom and let the wind take you. The reaches were so much fun, when you are just cruising it was quite easy sailing and not too tiring on the body. If you move your feet in the footstraps then you don’t get any cramps. I had a GPS on for the day and it said I sailed more than 100km. I was on an 8.6m Severne with my medium board. It was my first ‘long ride’ on a Severne and I really appreciated the ease of use of the sail. The islands were stunning; we headed to a shipwreck around 30km downwind from Amedee. From the wreck we could reach all the way back to the main island of Noumea. As you head downwind you pass more amazing islands, some are just sandy atolls. I was so impressed with New Caledonia. If I lived there I would head out freeriding around that lagoon at least once a week. That is what is so special about being a windsurfer in a place like that! You have the perfect vessel to go out and explore.    

“You have the perfect vessel to go out and explore.”

GONZALO COSTA HOEVEL
We had a photo shoot that incorporated exploring the outer reefs. The scenery and the feeling you get sailing in that colour of water is so amazing and the location spectacular. The downwind to the shipwreck was really special. We were four or five guys sailing full speed downwind and gybing in this amazing water. That is not something you do every day. Especially for a guy from Argentina where the rivers we sail in are brown and the water is all muddy. You never see the bottom of the water where I live. I would never want to do that trip on a boat, but on a windsurfer it was so much fun.

On the boat it is fun for about ten minutes, but after that you are slapping around on the chop, poor Carter was having a terrible time. I think it would be even easier on a foil and I expect we will be doing that next year! Inside the reef you felt safe from sharks, even though they are about, there were a few times we were standing in the chest deep water but it felt ok. On a slalom board I never normally go out sailing just for fun, but in this place it was so cool just to blast around and explore. It was relaxed and just a super fun day on the water.

“ The feeling you get sailing in that colour of water is so amazing and the location spectacular.”

SEBASTIAN KOERDEL
The thing I remember about that day was how exhausting it was. I think I sailed over 100km, which isn’t so bad when you just go back and forwards at a normal beach, but we were doing these huge reaches from location to location. Windsurfing out there was amazing. We were right there in the elements, spectacular colours all around us and soaking up the incredible feelings you get whilst sailing somewhere like that. It fills you up with joy! It was just so beautiful. The water was so clear and flat it was almost white, beyond turquoise. It was an amazing feeling and I am happy I had that day to enjoy, explore and take everything in. I was on a big board with a 7.9m and it was really windy, but there were some really flat sections to enjoy around the islands. Being in the lagoon was like being in a giant bath. You feel protected, but when you are right at the edge of the outer reef you then see the vast ocean outside.

It was certainly something special. Alone I would never do it, but as a group it was amazing. There was one island with just sand and birds on it, that was cool. We saw some turtles and super poisonous sea snakes but I don’t think it is easy for them to bite you. I have never done something like this before, never mind in tropical South Pacific style. When you are on a windsurfer, I feel like there is no equipment as good as it for the feeling of just flying over the water alone. It’s the best way to experience a place like the vast lagoons of New Caledonia.

“ Being in the lagoon was like being in a giant bath. ”

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