Aussie boys facing the music in PNG.

Guess they're gonna also have to pay him to cop the charge too. Hope they scored some good waves before this happened.

I just read the artical in tracks about this whole sorry saga, what really got my heckles up was a comment from tracks with a picture of the captain "an incredibly good surfer and skilled sailor, the jailing of the free spirit Micheal "Northy" Northcote is a real life shakespearean tragedy". FUCK this guy just shafted his paying customers big time and tracks reckons he's a good bloke???????????

What a cock. He's probably scared to go to a PING jail on his own too. They're rank as, recently there's been mass break outs and other things.

This is anonymous internet drivel of the highest order.
How do you know what happened dolphin?
The bloke has a young family at home and is doing time in a third world jail (for something that most reasonable people would not consider a crime) and a bunch of clue-less anonymous internet heroes are sinking the boot in.
Classy.

Internet drivel maybe, but you know, when in Rome. I always find it hard to feel sorry for people who flout the laws of other countries knowing full well how terrible the consequences are. PNG has every right to have such strict penalties on weed and as a visitor to that country you have the responsibility to respect that. Typical of Tracks to support him though. He is Aussie, He is a surfer, therefore he must be a champion!

Fuck mate, who died and made you moral Emperor of the Universe?
If every-one who smoked Pot in PNG was in jail there;d be a handful of free people.
Same goes for most of the South Pac.
He's fucked up and now will have to pay a very heavy price, as will his innocent family.
Tracks isn't condoning his behaviour, just saying it's a tragedy he's ended up in the pen.
Thats fair enough.

Hey Freeride, as the editor your response seems a little biased towards the man in question. Have you a personal intrest in this case? Dan is only stating what most sensible travellers know, in that, if another country abide by their rules or suck it it up if you get caught doing the wrong thing.Smoking pot is one thing but smoking it where you know your in deep shit if you get caught is just plain stupid. Sure I feel sorry for his family but a lot of weed smokers only think of themselves and not those that their habit affects. And no I'm not a moral wowser either, just stating the plain truth and sick of seeing people fucked up because of a little high that brings big problems to others around them.

Haha settle down Freeride. This is the internet, where everyone is Moral Emperor. My argument is simple. He shouldn't have been so stupid as to take weed into a country that didn't want him to. The fact that he has a young family at home doesn't change the facts, it just changes the amount of people he has affected by choosing to flout the laws of PNG. Having spent a month in PM and 6 months working in Oro, I know I wouldn't be fucking about with the law there. And I also completely disagree with you in regards to how prevalent weed is there. Sure you can get it and in PM you can get alot worse, but it's no more common there than it is here. Same goes for the rest of the South Pacific I've spent time in (Solomons, New Cal and Fiji) A tragedy indeed that he has ended up in the pen (albeit completely avoidable) but if there is any truth in him refusing to own up to it and taking down some paying customers with him, a shake up in prison will probably do him good.

Seal, I don't know the bloke personally but know people who do.
They vouch for his character, take that for what it's worth.
I just don't like seeing internet lynch mobs get a taste for blood and start ripping a bloke apart who's already in enough caca.