Watch: Surviving Seroja

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
Reels

Ry Craike recalls how Tropical Cyclone Seroja laid waste to Kalbarri earlier this year, how the town rallied together in the aftermath, and how good it was to get barelled in its wake.

Short film by Scott Bauer.

Comments

Trentslatterphoto's picture
Trentslatterphoto's picture
Trentslatterphoto Wednesday, 6 Oct 2021 at 1:51pm

king behavior

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Wednesday, 6 Oct 2021 at 2:34pm

Seroja was dieing off in the Indian ocean even after the other cyclone joined forces with it. at shark bay i looked at the strongest wind speeds and the winds were only 73km an hour then it hit land in kalbarri and was only very narrow in width but increased in intensity. wind speeds reached 240km an hour..i was looking on the internet when power was still working and then bam a 40 foot by 40 foot corrrigated iron roof covered in solar panels hit my window. It came from a two story house 300 metres away.
I then went to bed, woke up and had a sticky beak around town and about 30 percent of houses had lost roof's and walls and there was no bottom carpark at jakes any more. the memoroial for one of the Carter boys i think Cody was his name, was destroyed.
The SAS crew were quickly sent out and did a great job of tarping up everyones roof including mine. Rain still got in sometimes but they did a great job. Everyone became closer as we had no power for entertainment or cooking or showering etc. But things worked out.
My real estate agent boss was pretty slack though..he didnt do a thing about anyones damaged property and 3 months later im still waiting for roof and window and gyprock repairs.
Anyway it wasnt that bad for me and glad everyone survived. Wish the tourists would piss off though.

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Wednesday, 6 Oct 2021 at 3:13pm

Also another good deed was the SAS were lending out heavy duty gen-sets to anyone who needed one which was most of the town. They then sold them at almost half price to anyone who wanted to keep one. Only about 100 hours usage or so.

nicko74's picture
nicko74's picture
nicko74 Wednesday, 6 Oct 2021 at 6:45pm

Go the SAS!!

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Wednesday, 6 Oct 2021 at 7:51pm

Koby Abberton?

greg-n.williams's picture
greg-n.williams's picture
greg-n.williams Wednesday, 6 Oct 2021 at 10:03pm

Jakes looks incredible! Best of luck to the Kalbarri crew must have been some ride that night!

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Thursday, 7 Oct 2021 at 12:06pm

SES not SAS.

batfink's picture
batfink's picture
batfink Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 1:39pm

Some of that footage has me rocked, as in how did they do that. Those shots from inside the tube but not being filmed by the surfer. Surely not drone footage?

Good luck to the Kalbarri crew though. It’s not the storm that’s scary, it’s the flying bits of roof and tree branches. Terrifying.

Blowin's picture
Blowin's picture
Blowin Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 2:19pm

It’s a special camera rig on a stick held by the surfer. The stick is removed during the edit?

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 2:22pm

Yep I think the camera software automatically edits it out.

A Cripple's picture
A Cripple's picture
A Cripple Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 6:04pm

How catchy was that tune???

Which Loose Change song is it?

Blowin's picture
Blowin's picture
Blowin Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 6:37pm

Geez….Ry Craike is an amazing surfer, a pretty chillled fella* and a perfect representation of your average West Oz character but have you ever heard of a single individual who has done more to sell out their little surf town?

It’s lucky the local boys can hold their own….and then some!

BTW…Is there a town in Australia, is there a town in the WORLD, which has the underground, unrecognised all star talent of Kalbarri? I’ve shared enough sessions with these unspoken charging talents to know that if they were from the North Shore of Oahu they’d all have their own Youtube channels. If they were from the Northern beaches of Sydney they’d be the names on everyone’s lips.

Awesome surfers. Charging at a level only comparable to the absolute elite of East coast talent. Unknown and deeply tubed.

Salute!

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 6:57pm

I agree Blowin, the ratio of good surfers here to population is remarkable sammy barton, kane jye and jake perkins brothers, bretty barrel weazel, carter brothers, rye craike and everyone else charging in heavy swells even on 2ft days the water moves heavily...east coast boards dont work here and only good surfers make the drops at jakes on good days..most underarted surfers who are anti selfy types in the world imo.

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 7:45pm

Ry isn’t exactly anti selfie type but I get your point.
Cody Carter was out at 8 ft terrifying Gnaraloo when I was out there and watching him take off on every set that came through no matter how late he was was the single best thing I’ve seen live in surfing. I was 30 meters away on the shoulder shitting myself and at one stage he took off on an 8 footer that looked like teahupoo and after free falling on take off he bottom turned around a coral head that was exposed and pulled into this fucked up huge tube.
He also jumped from the top of one that I was looking down and I swear he landed in between two coral heads. I don’t know how he didn’t die. Then he’s just paddle back out with no expression on his face like it’s nothing. Fuckin lunatic!

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 9:02pm

Fuck yeah i love hearing those stories..i never met Cody but heard a lot of good things about him. Full charger. He died in a boat disaster where the boat apparently snapped in half in heavy swells, RIP.

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 9:24pm

No that was his brother Mason

groundswell's picture
groundswell's picture
groundswell Friday, 8 Oct 2021 at 9:56pm

oops. i dont know the Carter family besides filming Liam surfing a few spots but the brothers are all talented chargers and Mason died before i lived here. All the surfers respected him a lot so he must have been a great bloke and surfer, fisherman too.

tango's picture
tango's picture
tango Saturday, 9 Oct 2021 at 11:19am

I don't know Ry Kraike, so I can't really have a punt on his motivations. He's an incredible surfer and seems like a decent and surprisingly quite eloquent character, but I'm a little bit with Blowin in questioning why he and the photog feel the need to add to the pressure on a place that's suffering from increased crowds.

Jakes and many of those waves are above my pay grade and injuries, and I'll never paddle out there now. On the plus-side, this kind of short is good to watch and conveys a sense of the carnage of the cyclone and the town's struggle and response which is definitely a good news story. On the negative side there's a whiff of keeping sponsorship exposure ratings up, especially with the Ando contribution.