Jim Banks Surf Odyssey Advertorial

Not too sure what you'd call them Longinus. Jim asked me about six months back to run a few stories on the odyssey so I am obliging. He's trying to sell spots on all the legs (that run up to November) and running the features helps to that end. As it happens he's scoring incredible waves (is there a better fella to have as an Indo guide?) so we get to see the photos of said waves.

hmmm is a little hard to beleive this, with the indo experience and time money and you would expect these guys have put into this project....what leg of the trip did you do?

Friend of a friend was the cook on the boat for a short period of time, her account of her time on the trip confirms everything happy valley says.When she was working on the boat it did not even have running lights.This boat does not meet basic seaworthy requirements.
Stove blew up on her and the operators showed very little concern for her 3rd degree burns refusing to shorten the trip so she could get medical attention, eventually putting her ashore a long way from anywhere, with two paying passengers who were also pretty happy to get off the boat. This account came from a very capable person, with a long history as a professional crew member.
It would be nice to see stu doing some investigating on these type of things instead of taking potshots at easy targets like KS's wavepool.

Cramski's story of the injured cook was related to us in the same detail by the operators themselves during my trip. I was amazed to hear it from them - one incident like that in any Western country would get the operation shut down. But by the end of our trip it seemed quite likely. By the way, during my trip the boat still had no running lights.

Nice to see swellnet are still promoting this venture...well done fella's

^^ Well why wouldn't we mate? Free content for us to use and for viewers to salivate over. Wouldn't mind some of those waves myself...

I contemplated doing a leg of the trip, so it's good to get the feed back on what it was really like. I agree with stunet, can't knock swellnet for the pick's. Get's the travel blood flowing!

Oh gee stu- I don't know, maybe out of concern for the welfare of the people that use your site. A boat doing open ocean crossing, at night, no sat phone, no chart plotter, no radar, is taking some pretty big risk's, that wouldn't be legal in australian waters.
And yet your happy to provide free advertising cause you get free content. One of the critisism's of the surf media thrown around in the ongoing AI saga is that they seem happy to ignore potentially life threatening behaviour to keep the advertisers happy. How is this any different?

^^ I've sent an email to Jim. He can respond however he wishes to respond (if at all).

Quick word of advice Mr Cramski: anonymous potshots are never helpful. How do I know who you are, and how do I know you aren't a disgruntled competitor of Jims? You want something done, then step up, put your name to the accusation. Put your 'friend of a friends' name in too.

If you can't even do that then I'll assume you are simply causing trouble. Wouldn't be the first time someone has aired professional grievances this way.

Island hopping through the Indonesian archipelago, hardly qualifies as "open ocean crossing". A navigator with half decent knowledge can do without all these modern day luxuries that have now made a "skipper" out of anyone. Your true skippers are the ones that can continue safely and confidently with the loss of these modern day items. Sure, they make your job a lot easier, and can be a little reassuring, but they also numb your senses and skills. I certainly do not condone the lack of nav lights.

Considering that someone's professional reputation has been attacked it's only fair to point out that 'Cramski' has made three different posts under three different usernames (Cramski, Cramsk1, Cramski11).

Unless he (they?) can explain otherwise it appears this is more than one person, or it is someone trying to cover their tracks.

Treat the information in the posts with caution.

e wrote:

Stunet: Quick word of advice Mr Cramski: anonymous potshots are never helpful. How do I know who you are, and how do I know you aren't a disgruntled competitor of Jims? You want something done, then step up, put your name to the accusation. Put your 'friend of a friends' name in too.

Exactly what i was thinking, id love to know what leg it was?....I bet it was the Java leg as there's not much between G-land and Panaitian Island, i wouldn't be happy to pay that ammount of dollars to go on that leg of the trip, and if you look at there website this year they don't do that trip.

ok! it looks like i need to speak up here!

running lights...we had running lights for the entire trip, so i have no idea what they are talking about here... and it appears that they don't either.

sat phone... we had a sat phone on the boat from day one!

chart plotter... we had two!

radar... we didn't have, we use a very precise depth sounder instead! this is totally acceptable!

internet... we had about 70 - 80% of the time!

surgical and suturing kit...we had on the boat from day one!

comprehensive medical kit... we had from day one!

i'm curious to know which trip happyvalley was on because

1. We never ran out of food for 4 days! we never ran out of food for one day! during ramadan we ran low on fresh fish and meats at one stage and it was a concern, but we managed to restock BEFORE we ran out.
2. Guests were never required to clean up, although many well spirited guests liked to contribute to cleaning up!
3. Clean toilets! are you tripping? as if we would expect guests to clean toilets!
4. 2 nights in hotel at their expense? i have no recall at all of this....which trip was this....?
5. Cabins were always allotted for the best comfort of the customers. i spent most of the trip sleeping up on the deck!
6. We are not a travel agency. We advised what we found to be the most suitable flights for connecting with the boat. Sure, it's possible there might have been more suitable flights that we didn't know about.
7. Electricity: Our boat was not high tech, it was a traditional Indonesian Phinisi boat fitted out for surf exploring and capturing the true spirit of adventure. Electricity was limited... but also there was no constantly humming and vibrating generator disturbing the peace... this year we will have a 5KVA generator to give us the option of unlimited electricity if that's what people prefer...
8. Swell: we were never unable to find swell if there was swell around! finding surf is something that i do really well! we had tons of surf on every trip up until the Telos where the unseasonal poor conditions made it difficult to get waves as there just wasn't much around. But still, we made the best of a tough situation and in the end still found the best surf available. Throughout the trip we did really well at scoring the best surf available. The funny thing is, the only time when we seemed to be not getting the best surf was when we succumbed to pressure from particular guests to go to particular locations!

re gina's burns: this was a deeply disturbing and upsetting incident that occurred in a very remote area. I knew that there's not much you can do for burns and that the most important thing is to prevent infection. we had extremely good antibiotics and were monitoring her constantly. i knew that to put her ashore where we were would invite infection and felt that the safest most sterile place for here was on the boat. i was hoping to get her stabilised until we got closer to an airport before she moved around too much, but against my recommendation she chose to leave the boat where we were and undertake a long overland journey which apparently did result in her wounds becoming infected.

we have had some interesting responses from different customers... such as one customer blackmailing us that if we didn't buy his photos from him at $500 a pop (after we gave him ours for free!) that he would generate negative information about us...

the Odyssey is not about high tech boats full of gadgets and equipment... it's about going out and exploring, finding the best waves with no one around... in a low key, unintrusive manner. and we do this really well!

we do our best to provide the best service, safely, at all times, but sometimes things can get a little exciting at times... but this is the nature and spirit of adventure! something that seems to be lacking in modern day surfing...and many peoples lives....

sincerely,

jim banks

Sounds unreal Jim. Count me in for a trip sometime later this year.

Never mind caveat emptor, what's Latin for 'beware of cyber phonies'. This thread started to develop a bit of a whiff when Happy Valley wouldn't answer what leg he was on and Stu pointed out Cramskis multiple personalities. Unfortunately this is the territory we have to negotiate now; disingenuous 'complaints' from anonymous internet users.

Thanks for straightening it out Jim. You should also be aware that Happy Valley has posted the same information on the Real Surf Forum.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that there are some "operators" that use these trips as a means of spending all year getting paid to surf.

Theres basically two types of operator, the first provides a good value, quality service and grows the business by building a base of return customers and refered customers. The dodgy operators will rely on a fancy website and advertising to pull in first time customers and charge them top dollar, and then provide minimum service. Of course, knowing these customers won't be coming back means that the operators are free to compete for waves as well.

Don't write of Jim Banks based on any internet forum, there too many fraudsters with hidden agendas and grudges to take any of it seriously. By the same token, don't rely on websites, or even swellnet articles to give the full story.

Allways get a testimonial from a friend or someone you trust.

Yeah what dobsy has said is totally true...there is two types of operators in the surf charter industry in Indo in particular mentawai.

1/Owner operators like Indo odyssey work on there own boat living the dream, these guys want you to be happy, they want to get good uncrowded waves, and i was suprised to hear negative feedback.

2/ The other operators if there not totally involved hands on in there operation then a lot of the time all they care about is $$$ and you will spend most of your trip following other boats doing the chicken run, there staff often don't care how good waves you get or crowds they just have to use the minimal amount of fuel, so there bosses and investors get returns $$$.

re the Java leg... actually, there's a ton of surf in Java, but there's two problems with java- one, it's a hard sell and two, the local authorities can be really difficult in java... (re bribes etc) ..we had a lot of hassles with them and in the end reluctantly decided to drop that leg which is unfortunate as i would love to do the java leg again...

It's interesting reading this topic as I’m currently looking to book my first surf charter to the Manawa’s in May. Unfortunately it doesn’t match up with the Odyssey legs otherwise I would have considered them.

Can anyone recommend some of the better charter companies or owner operator charters out there? Jim you must have some first hand knowledge of who is good and who is shit? Keep living the dream!

...Manawa’s...should read...Mentawais...

Jim, Java's all yours, my wifes from Solo so have surfed most of the java coast, but now i just quickly see her family and im straight on a plane heading west.

Sent you a message Zero...

Wow. Always amazed by the danger of the cyber world and people spending time destroying other peoples worlds. As for the Odeyssey I am booked and will be on deck in a few months and more than happy to clean the toilets if it means uncrowded indo perfection. Any surfer worth their salt knows the best waves are the ones you find yourself and wonder if they have been surfed before. If you enjoy crowds and worry if people are watching you surf then I think you have missed the essence of riding waves.
Looking forward to meeting you Jim. You just spent Christmas with one of my good mates and his report about what you discussed has me frothing. Can't wait!

Jim you may like to take a look at the Realsurf travel forums - Happy Valley has posted the same report and then appears to have followed up (possibly by himself another first time poster ) with another comment by corroborating his own story
The telling thing is the lack of replies from the originator

I pasted a link of your reply above - the internet forum pages are a lot like the ocean at the moment, some great entertainment and experiences to be had free of charge, but a few turds floating amongst it

Cheers and thanks for the pics and videos

Sounds unreal Jim. Count me in for a trip sometime later this year.

By: "thermalben"

Can anyone recommend some of the better charter companies or owner operator charters out there? Jim you must have some first hand knowledge of who is good and who is shit? Keep living the dream!

By: "8zero"

Haven't you idiots figured out that you can't trust anyone on this forum. Asking Jim to recomend a good charter company? Wonder what his answers gonna be?

You just spent Christmas with one of my good mates and his report about what you discussed has me frothing. Can't wait!

By: "pete-b"

Thats more like it. The only way to be sure is to get a first hand referal from someone you know.

I see there is some discussion about the Indo Odyssey so for what it’s worth I’ll share some of my own experience on the Lambo with Jim Banks.

I was a full fare paying guest on the first leg of the Indo Odyssey in 2010 around Rote so I can comment at least on that section. I knew that I was being a crash test dummy on this trip, the first leg of a trip that had never been run before, and I think it’s fair to say that for the paying guests as well as the operators it was pretty much as the promo blurb says, a journey into the unknown.

Not everything went smoothly. They were certainly feeling their way on a brand new venture and there was a fair bit of learning on the job, but overall I have to say that for me it was an excellent trip. I have lived and worked for several years in Indonesia (‘98, ‘99, 2000) and been on many surf trips around the Indonesian archipelago starting in 1974. The Lambo is not luxury afloat, so if that is what you want or are used to, then it may not be the trip for you. Having said that, the boat was roomy enough, comfortable, the crew was good, food was excellent and there was plenty of it, including plenty of fresh fish and lots of cold beer at the end of the day.
We didn’t get the epic swell we were hoping for but it was early season and we did get surf every day, almost always to ourselves, including a couple of days of glassy double overhead. I had never met Jim Banks before this trip but it seemed to me that he was totally committed to finding surf. He’s had a zillion barrels and surfed hard for a long time, but he’s still hungry for waves and that was the number one focus for the two weeks I was on the Lambo. He wanted to find waves at least as badly as anyone else on the boat. I can think of one impossibly fast looking hollow left hander on a shallow no-name reef that I would have written off as unrideable and wouldn’t have surfed if I hadn’t watched Jim jump out of the boat, paddle straight into a fifty metre barrel and get blown out with the spit. Surfing there ended up being a highlight of the trip.

Jim has at least a dozen of his boards on the boat, so a bonus for me was to be able to try a bunch of different boards in quality surf. I must have surfed six of Jim’s boards and in the end more or less monopolised his 6’2” twin keel.

I see that the Indo Odyssey copped some flak about their first aid gear and level of equipment generally. I travel with my own pretty comprehensive surgical kit. On most trips it goes unused but for the odd bit of bandage and antiseptic, however on the leg I did we had to break it out on the last surfing day to stitch up one of our number who came unstuck in very dramatic fashion. There is a photo in the Odyssey blog of the makeshift operating theatre on the dining table, accurate except that I refuse believe I’m nearly as bald as I appear in that shot. I used my own sutures, anaesthetic etc, but I became familiar with what they were carrying on the boat and at least at the stage of the journey that I was on, they had a good medical and first aid kit of their own. I was able to give some advice as to how it could be improved.

I think the Indo Odyssey is the trip that you make it. For me it was a very positive experience, an excellent adventure surf trip. I didn’t have to clean toilets or clear away dishes. The captain was a very experienced Indonesian sailor who usually skippered cargo vessels and I felt perfectly secure with him at the helm. We surfed breaks that don’t have names (yet), scored countless remote long silky walls without crowds and some full on barrels. The sense I got was that the operators are committed to the idea of surfing breaks that are off the beaten track, and keen to make the experience a good one for the surfers who join them. I was well aware of a number of teething problems although none that I saw proved to be insurmountable. I can’t comment on problems that may have appeared at later stages of the journey, I’m sure there were some, but from what I know of the operators, I’d be surprised if those issues aren’t resolved for future trips.

What I love about this discussion is no one has actually asked, you book to go one a surf trip with one of Surfings most respected journey men and your whinging about not having internet and enough electricity to charge your f*$#n phones?

Am I the only person that sees the irony in this? isn't the whole idea of surf travel to escape and detach from everything in the pursuit of waves and experiencing other cultures and destinations??

But this got me thinking about the trips themselves, I think the problem lies with the fact that the people see the perfect pics from their computers and get the idea that you hand over some credit card details then slot in to a 200m baz.

It seems even Banksy's tours which from my understanding are what you would expect if you have a clue who Jim is, are falling into the mainstream buy a barrel culture, that I think has a lot to do with our current surf media.

But such is life in Business, how many Soul surfers have a lazy 2g's to drop on a boat trip?

Pffftttt…bwaHAHAHAHA! What a couple of Stu-pid bitches… seriously! Go get implants ladies.

Just kidding.

I’m sure being illiterate isn’t really your fault…it’s probably someone else’s fault. I mean reading isn’t fun right? Like law and stuff? Listening to your Ipod all day must be so much more fun. And being chauffeured by the banners on your website that will replace your worthless asses as soon as they think their “relationship with you” is over must be a blast of relief to your menstrual cycles.

What you can’t see right now is the clit sized violin I am playing in your honor.

Cheers!

*bump… bump… bump… ba-dumpedum bum bee bum…*

dee21 good read great to hear the other side of the coin so to speak.

Chiaz...ha ha...yeah great point sbout the mobile phones.

yeah sad in many ways to see where the spirit of surf travel has gone, but sadly theres no turning back...great thing is you can still do it cheap and get the true Indo experience and make 2g's last you months...only bummer is more often then not your out in the middle of nowhere and theres 3 boats parked on a break, but what can ya do.

Stay at home and go to the desert.

Stay at home and go to the desert.

By: "freeride76"

Yeah, get eaten by shark.Cheapa to go to indo.

How thin is the line between an adventure and an ordeal, escape and exile?

@freeride76- nah can't beat Indo, cheap, perfect waves and heaps of culture....plus theres so many options, im not really complaining theres so many uncrowded waves if you know where to look.

@ batfink_and_karate- yeah thats true..and sometimes things that don't seem so great at the time in Indo end up being, amazing experiences and great memorys.

A good (in understanding) read. I started thinking what the fuck? I’m glad Jim responded.

Possible conclusion? Take 'opinions' on board, but make the decision yourself. Access as many opinions as possible to contribute to your decision and accept the experience of your decision i.e. take responsibility of it; good, bad or otherwise.

Although Mario I don’t know what the fuck you're on about ...

Jims Banks 'odyssey' journeys 7 years on .........completed.

udo wrote:

Jims Banks 'odyssey' journeys 7 years on .........completed.

I saw that too, what does he mean by completed?….completed means there is an end to something done?

And if its based on the Greek poem "odyssey" it should be ten years.

Yep, exactly what I was just thinking.

I'm a bit sad that the Odyssey trips are winding up coz it was always something I had dreamed about. I've always loved the feeling of exploring and hoping you stumble across something new, and these trips seemed to be the perfect thing for that.
However, in reality, I have never had both the money or time to be able to take the plunge, and chances are I never will have both at the same time, so I guess it was always going to be one of those "gunna" things.
Still, it never stopped me dreaming. Thanks Jim for keeping my dream alive for so long, and congratulations on doing something that seems to be so rare in the surf industry now - exploring.

Had a mate who went on one got really sea sick and couldn't wait to get off. They dropped him off on land somewhere so he got home via land and air. Old single hull boat rocked all over the place need to have good sea legs for it me thinks.