Watch: Indonesian Motorcycle Diaries // Episode Four
Continuing his bike journey across eastern Indonesia, Tom detours to the south coast of Sumba, training his focus on Nihiwatu and the politics of cordoning off a wave that can only be surfed by rich, paying guests.
Nihiwatu wasn't the world's first exclusive wave, that title goes to Cloudbreak and Restaurants, roped off by Americans Dave Clarke and and Scott Funk. Funk and Clarke were the first to pull it off yet weren't the first to try it. It was the vision of American Mike Boyum to make Grajagan his own personal surf camp, yet a band of conscientious objectors who'd simply drive or sail into G'Land stymied his efforts, before Boyum's dark reputation caught up with him and the idea fell over.
What Boyum couldn't do, Clark and Funk pulled off, and the idea was copied by Claude Graves albeit with a shift up the star ratings: Nihi won Travel & Leisure's Resort of the Year five times.
Graves appeal to opulence funded his Sumba Foundation, a noble initiative which secured medical and education help for locals.
As well as Graves, de Souza also interviews Petu, a Sumbanese man who once worked as a lifeguard at Nihi resort but left for ethical reasons. "In my opinion, it's not good," says Petu, "and this is not the spirit of surfing. Even as locals we cannot surf there."
The experience of Petu shows that even well-intentioned plans, such as that of Claude Graves establishing Nihi, is yet more meddling in foreign affairs.
Comments
Just watched and posted on other thread. Oops.
We rocked up there in 2000 and was pretty much told to leave unless from memory we were prepared to pay USD 240 per person per night.
They only had a couple of guests that were leaving the nest day and an Aussie guy working there as a scuba guide called us aside and said if you stayed at the local village we could surf it.
Anyway checked out accom and made a truck stop toilet block in WA look appealing, reckon you could smell the malaria.
I didn't want anything to do with it and was with 2 goofys thinking they may want to stay, but na, had roughed it before but this was pretty dire.
One Japanese girl was staying there named Mumi, had a sister Momo who were pretty hard core travellers back then some of you may have come across. She had horrendous infection on her legs so I gave her my antibiotics, reckon without em she was done. Anyway spent 2 months on island, hard work back then but ended up at Miller's for a far stint and got some incredible days with just 3-5 guys except one day when indies trader turned up with nat geo crew and Strider of wsl fame.
Heard fair bit busier down there now with yoga etc.
Anyway rave over...
I miss 90's Indo....
Andy-Mac. Hi, hope you’re well.
Thanks for that insight, very interesting.
Question. Who actually stops you from surfing that break at present ?
I’d be very interested to hear from you.
Thanks again. AW
Hey AW,
Back then you just weren't allowed on beach as it was all private property, so no access. Like he mentioned in interview, there is headland on both sides so cannot walk in.
Think if on boat you could surf it, but heard local staff would come out and threaten people to move on, spears etc. Only rumour I guess but think they kept it pretty tight, only guests could surf the wave.
Know a few who have dropped the coin to stay there, nice place and good wave.
Reckon element of truth that crew who use to bag him, now if can afford it want to stay there.
Always made me feel uncomfortable, but then again it could've turned into another ghetto.
If it's helping locals and keeping nature in tact, guess that's a positive.
He use to run with Dave Wylie I believe in early days, some interesting stories.....
Andy-Mac. Thanks mate. True, probably an upside for the areas biota as you say. As surfers we don’t mean to corrupt or change environments, it’s only when the greedy few think, let’s make a buck from a camp/ villa set up and then stays increase and before you know it it’s a minor resort, I doubt that it’s ever our intention but it’s definitely an outcome. Thanks again. AW
Could have been Mumi seeing as Momo was down at the other place as usual. When we pulled up to the picturesque beach cum island's toilet this Japanese girl was there on a log (coconut - not the morning variety) dressed for Everest in the blazing sun, incoherent, semi-concious, shivering and shaking on the verge of convulsions and looked to be on the way out, with a distressed local or two in attendance not knowing what to do. Someone had a dose of fansidar or whatever the last hope for cerebral was that people carried round back in those days so we got that into her and she started to improve. Later we suggested to her that it might be an idea to curtail this bit of the holiday and get back to civilisation for a bit of R and R and god forbid medical attention but she wouldn't have a bar of it. We just left her there from memory. Don't know what happened to her. Seems to have been a bit of pattern there if it was her.
Yep, we ran back into Mumi a couple of weeks later by memory after I had given her my antibiotics and cleaned up her festering legs at Miller's, her sister had arrived there.
Don't think she really understood how bad her legs were and was complaining about pain in her groin and armpits, fever etc. She really was clueless at how serious her situation was.
kamikaze mindset.
A great insight into Sumba surf from adventurers, entrepreneur & local perspective.
Thanks for the interviews, translation, editing, posting & hosting.
Malaria was / is rampant in parts of Indo/ Timor/ New Guinea and still causes severe illness to adults & death to children in poor countries at our northern doorstep.
One lady surfing & camping at Banko Banko caught malaria & had to be flown back home asap & as with many other hard core surfers when their liver could cope.
The WHO, Govt's & NGO's are trying new ways to stop the spread of Malaria, etc..
Please help, if you can, like Claude, it may help you keep surfing great waves.
Summary of projects below
https://www.oxfamwash.org/en/response-types/malaria-dengue-vectors
So you pay top dollar to stay there and $100 USD a session?
That makes me feel so grateful for what we have here- being able to paddle out and get a few without some greedy pig having to be paid for the privilege.
Freeride76.
Hi mate. I totally echo your sentiment . Thursday , Friday just gone, 6ft, good crew of guys, no fuckwits and definitely nobody with their greedy hand out.
We’ve got it pretty good that’s for sure. AW
Yeah reckon we are pretty lucky here. And if got time to travel, still plenty of uncrowded waves. Few places I surfed in SA was wishing there were more in water...
Plus you have to book your session in an allotted slot.
And capped at one per day.
Yeah, thats a hard nope from me, even if I do win the Lottery.
Absolutely love Tom’s approach to film making/journalism..if that’s the right label….
&pp=ygUUU3VyZmluZyBzb3V0aCB0cmFja3M%3Dhttps://m.
What a fkn legend, he is dialled in.
Rocking off into the unknown at a secluded spot, that'll get your heart racing :-)
The older I get, the more willing I am to pay for ease of access to quality waves.....but I have to say, home has so many quality options with minimal bodies in the water, just gotta walk a little further :-)
I have a friend who stayed at Nihi and said he enjoyed it, horse riding for the girl and surf out the front, but I don't think he will be back for a surf trip......so many better options as far as cost, temperate waters, wave quality and minimal crowds. He's in Nicaragua at the moment :-) Woot!! livin the dream
Yeah Nihiwatu is definitely no Desert Point
Undersize abs
Not in the state it was filmed in…
what state's that SF? They're 40-50mm full juvenile's.
Roe`s Ab = 60mm min size
http://rules.fish.wa.gov.au/Species/Index/3#:~:text=A%20maximum%20of%205....
Ok interesting cheers
A mate was a surf guide at Nihi for a year , he took over from Mark Healey . Another friend was there as a regular well before any camp , he used to stay with local school teacher until one year was threatened and the teacher was knee capped . Pretty fucked up .
Yeah we got heavy vibes, almost threatening until Aussie guy came over.
Claude was not a liked bloke back then....
seems like a flog even now
So who owns the camp now if old Claude sold it ?
The old catch 22
The Burch family. American billionaires.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianbarker/2019/04/16/fashion-moguls-i...
I get an overwhelming sense of nausea reading that article
Sumbanese people are so poor (but proud) I can’t imagine what they think when they hear the incredible amount of money people are paying, and as far as funding any clinics or programs sounds like the guests are doing that.
Classic comment from Claude about his desired location being "an intact culture not affected by white people."
What colour is his skin?
What ideas did he bring?
No doubt he had noble intentions, thought he wouldn't make the mistakes of other colonisers, but the anecdotes here and, most importantly, words of Petu tell a different story.
A watchdog in a nervous land, they're only there to lend a hand.
Never stayed there but got multiple friends who have with many anecdotes
1. Mate surfed it on a boat trip early 90’s and was kicked out of the water by Merchant et al to film Green Iguana
2. Same mate went back there 15 years later with his wife and stayed at the resort a few times. Stopped going when the resort changed hands and cost per night doubled
3. Different mate same deal, 3 trips then stopped going when price doubled. Epic waves, even paid for his wife to be a surfer so one less person in the line up. Aggressive Americans who were average surfers on one trip
4. Third mate went there and somehow got his way in to the Sumba Foundation that opened a few doors for him but he also had to work for it
5. Fourth mate went there for his 50th and scored epic waves
Maybe greater than $1000/per person per night now but all mates said they felt like they got value for money during their various stays
There's a lot I can excuse Claude for doing, but being an old man and wearing coloured framed glasses isn't one of them.
The same goes for David McBride. If I were the judge I'd have given him more than 5 years.
I cant afford to go there, but really dont see the problem with a private wave.
Lots of places in the world are private to go/stay there.
Anyone ever tried to ski for free by bringing your own snowmobile to get up and down the slopes at a resort ???
Sheeshus, that's a terrible analogy.
Ski resorts recoup their capital outlay (clearing land, building lifts and infrastructure, all of which costs a shit-tonne), but waves are freely available. Claude Graves may have built the resort but he didn't build the wave.
You want a ski resort analogy within surfing?
Wavepools.
I don’t think I would enjoy surfing as much if I knew I was paying a pre determined amount for a certain amount of time!
Where surfing loses it’s freedom, and becomes a restricted financial transaction.
100%- I did a few seasons snowboarding and ultimately walked away and never went back just because I got sick of the relentless commercialisation and privatisation of the space (ski resorts).
I know you can go back country and avoid that - and I did plenty of "earning my turns".
Ultimately, that freedom to paddle out where I want, when I want, for as long as I want in that huge almost limitless space of the ocean, that couldn't be fenced off and sold back to me as someones private domain, was what continues to enchant me about surfing.
Having to cash out to some arrogant prick like Claude to catch a wave, no matter how good it is, makes me feel queasy.
Yep, well put....
Spot on Steve.
100%
jeez, well done Tom, a record of archival importance. Graves, farknell.. self-aware much?
Getting Petu's views as a calm local objector who had initial love & loyalty for Claude is amazing.
Claude made out he was doing it all as a service to help the people..........sort of bribing his way into the area but then selling out for the thing he resented...........mmmm
Did he say in that vid he had malaria 34 times ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIHI_Sumba
Claude can go fuck himself. What an arrogant prick, totally exploiting what isn't his. Absolutely no fucking clue as to his extraordinary privilege!
I could see why some wealthy beginners pay to get away've...
It wouldn't matter how much money i ever had id never pay to surf there and support that shit, it's mind boggling that this is still happening today, what an absolute piece of shit.
Thank god, others havent been able to achieve this.
t'was foretold by the surfpig, many moons ago...
far out.. astonishing..
Claude wanted a private wave & made it for wealthy clients...omg... at least, he didnt ... build a mega resort, a palace, a temple or a mine site..or urban boxes & destroy... a reef, a cliff, a forest, a sacred site, a river, a creek, sand dune, a wetland, a complete ecosystem & future for ...a fast buck & flip for the next fn'flipper.
eg Koala pop is blue
https://species.mol.org/species/range/Phascolarctos_cinereus
@bbbird
Just imagine if everyone was a Claude though and wanted a private wave in Indo, or just imagine if the same thing was allowed in Australia and your favourite local wave was controlled by some greedy kunt making big dollars while you cant even surf your local.
There are selfish in Oz and O/S who think they own a surfbreak or alot worse, damage the planet for fast$ or their own version of paradise. They buy bye the bush, clear it and flip it. Often the only pockets or ribbons of bush left is marginal lands, surrounded by roads and/or urban sprawl , cattle, sugarcane, eco deserts. Then the 4WD and motorbikes plough the soil, weeds & ferals also move in...
Nearly 1000 native plants and animals are currently facing extinction in NSW.
eg. Koalas are near extinct in Australia, from extensive landclearing, then roadkill or dog attacks.
The 2019 bushfires was the last straw for these little aussies, they may only have 30 years left. references
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-30/nsw-koalas-report-warns-of-extinc...
https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/threatened-...
Meanwhile, $64,762 million was invested in Oz real estate from Overseas sources in 2022. Reference;
https://www.transparency.gov.au/publications/treasury/department-treasur...
That made my day! Thanks...
from satellite the whole thing looks to be on a landslide too
Jeepers, gear up Tom
piggery at its absolute worst.
Plenty of good waves some know about & dare not tell...
tread lightly on the earth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moruroa
Really enjoy Toms take, pace and style lets the scene do the talking or in this case the main characters
Thanks Tom.
Well.....we are at 3 for 3 with the indo articles
Blood is boiling
Stuart what are you trying to do to the readers ....cook them .
Full gnar
Indo is one complicated and complexed place
What would happened if a farmer just owned the land ?
Would there be as much resentment?
You’ve got to admit the irony of the situation at the end of the movie. Battling down the cliff in “true explorer fashion” to surf the shittest right in indo….
At least it's free and uncrowded.......
Beats paying $100USD to surf a high-end kook farm
Nihi, such a grey area, a contradictory mix of good and evil. Some really interesting stories in the comments.
Divide, conquer, cash in... the whitefellas way?
Gotta say I really enjoy Tom's way of storytelling in these videos.
He reminds me of a Malcom Douglas character or someone like that. Love it.
And yeah Claude seems like a weasel of a man.
Interesting!
anonymous images
Petu coming across some troubles today trying to access Nihi surf break.
In Australia, you'll find a lot of the coastline fenced off by private properties, from farms to luxury holiday homes. Spots like south of Bicheno, the South Arm in Tasmania, much of Kangaroo Island, large parts of Cape Liptrap, and King Island in Victoria are prime examples. These property owners often use intimidating tactics to keep people out, which really limits public access to these stunning spots. It's frustrating and feels really unfair.
(https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/36806965?c=.pi0.pk232285871_121950113226...
Only switched this on today. Actually didn’t get through it all on account of that Claude bloke. Just doesn’t seem like cricket to me.
Regardless of his character, I kinda respect him. He started with nothing except a vision and combined it with determination and hard work. I think that makes him an exceptional human.
Whether he leaves this world better than he entered it is whole other discussion.
Started with a vision of illegal intimidation, that’s not exceptional!
I think he came from family oil money, from the rumour mill.
Also his ex wife was meant to be the main driver of sumba foundation etc .
Anyway maybe I'm just bitter as we got chased away in 2000.
he started with nothing? he had untouched paradise and 'the best time of his life' prior to bringing in malaria, bulldozers, and entitled dickheads. now what does he have? money? I'd argue he's a poorer man for his need to stick his stake in.
he obviously needed to prove something to himself or someone.. mug's game, that.
Totally agree with you base, one of the poorest people I know just happens to be stupidly rich and not from any hard work on their part. I also did say regardless of character.
I was commenting more on the acheievment rather than the legacy.
Actually Indo said it best in that he was surprised he made it so far.
yeh, it's an amazingly instructive and important colonialism story. Go Tom!!
Graves is full of shit. Sumba foundation was a front to funnel money into the resort and his pocket when all he did was spray sumba foundation on a few orange water tanks as billboards.
I spent a few years working in that area and caught up with surf aid who spent a week there trying to fix all the mess he created and actually help the locals and not just advertise their "non profit" business.
It was actually open for a while until a new "meeting" was organised with the local governer bupati and then it was closed again with reassurance of pressure on anyone who surfed it and the locals that used to run boats from across the bay. Very dodgy what happened there but the end of the earth so people don't really care. All the locals I worked with very upset that they are unable to access their local beach and that they have lost an increase in revenue from surfers that want to stay and surf in the area.
Similar situation unfolding in sumbawa right now. $1000 a night resort promoting exclusivity and the locals living in squalor with visiting surfers threatened and pressured
Good point re: locals not being able to access their beach. Pretty messed up in my opinion.
Privatising waves is not surfing. Macaronis Resort has been trying for years to do the same thing. Full ponzi scheme. Such a mess and shitty vibe in the water.
To be fair this is very different nobody can surf this wave, locals or other business local or foreign owned, Maccas resort doesn't stop or limit local surfers or even other surf camps from visiting it only limits the number of charter boats that can visit at a time.
And it's not actually that unusual, there is other spots in Indo that will move on charter boats after a certain period like at G-Land, Nias.
Apples and oranges mate. Nihi, Macas and Tavarua are the projects of white rajas. Cashing in on a locally owned resource. And playing the we give back to the community card to justify it. At least Claude had the nouse to find a place with 'cliffs to keep everyone out'.
@ Zen the one thing that interests me about Graves is that he appears to have survived business wise in Indo.
That's extremely rare outside of corparats , ask any expat from any western country living / working in Indo (how many times have you been screwed over?) anecdotally my own observations over the years is its about 8 or 9 out of 10 get done, a lot recover many don't.
Rule of Man dominates.
Indo would have a better view on this.
Big bribes to local government and police force paid for by donations to non profit ngo's
A lot of money flowed into sumba in the early days from Christian organisations.
Ofcourse he also developed a very profitable resort marketed towards big money that led to flow on effects to all his income streams...
Im honestly surprised he has survived, many of these guys end up paying authorities and locals etc but eventually they cant keep everyone happy and they get run out of town.
Yep lost count of how many times I have seen that 1st hand.
Edit: corparats = corporates
The Ments is probably an outlier most seemed to have hung in there for some time.
except for the wavepool they're putting in the new sipura airport.. locals are quoting an australian surf site, saying we all think tubs near airports work!
Comments here are all generally of the "who the hell do they think they are". Not lost on Indonesians that in one of the poorest islands in the poorest regions of their country, only the wealthiest are allowed access.
I wish I was so poor as to have the lastest phone, a rubber inflatable boat and time to post about the surf break being taken over by wanna bee's... while the earth is slowly cooking in our juices.
the best local break here is taken over monthly .....horns, megaphones and loud 80's chugalug
I could be wrong, but the wave doesn’t seem to compare to some longer faster hollower waves on other islands.Maybe that’s how he got away with it, not that many people turning up to surf it!
I went there in 2002 (July or August) was 5 of us all Aussies, we stayed at the end of the beach in a small local homestay on the cliff, you could walk to a clearing on the edge of the cliff and see the wave but it was very far away. The local guy who ran the homestay said he had been hassled for housing surfers. So 1st day we all walked there down from the homestay and along the beach it was a long way from memory and we surfed alone was small and fun, the resort seemed closed saw no activity on land, 2nd day we did the same but after 30 mins or so 2 americans paddled out and started calling us barneys (which to an Aussie is just comical) and kooks and to f**k off and if we don't get out there's locals on the beach with machetes who would f**k us up etc etc etc as we were trespassing as the entire beach was owned, the waves were small again one of the guys i was with wanted to stay and fight these guys i guess the older guys in our group just said lets go and we should check on one of our guys who was on the beach injured and not surfing, from memory we stayed out a bit longer just to piss these guys off and was hassles and more verbal dribble from the "enforcers" haha, so we get to the beach and our mate is smoking cigarettes with the local guys with the machetes haha they didn't wanna chop anyone up and i think found the whole thing stupid that foreigners come all this way to play in the ocean and fight over it. Also i remember a solo traveler girl from South Africa maybe at the homestay she was on a dirt-bike alone traveling Sumba and she got malaria, after a few days she was so sick she couldn't walk so we put her in our car and took her to some hospital. I've been back a few times to Sumba, tricky place to get proper world class waves, for such a big island it doesn't seem to have any consistent A+ spots, is deffo a few when the stars align, overall interesting island, cool people lot of development happening the last few years.
Side note: same trip we went to Kalala and met the infamous Dave Wiley, i remember the waves were really small, and was 3 Aussies who were very good surfers who paid for 3 weeks and were leaving after 10 days or so, no refund they just wanted out. they said even when the swell came up and wind was good the spots were just s**t ahha, i remember Dave would walk down to a flat ocean in the morning and say yep it's coming up today, the 3 Aussies were over him completely haha, the most memorable part is him telling us a story at dinner about Gerry Lopez doing 360s in the Barrel at one of the waves out the front
Cheers for the good tales
Thanks blgr for the informed opinion.Thats what I thought searching it up,Nihi looks just like an average Sumban wave that you’re not allowed to surf.
We never got it good at all but ive seen video of it really good, i do think its a proper good wave based on that, Pero left is a good wave, the indicator at Millers when stars align, Ngedo has a right that can get really good, east sumba looks to have some good waves from video ive seen, its too big of an island to not have some really good secrets that im sure some know about, dry season wind limits options a lot.
Every video I’ve seen there’s been kids and women and long boards, short and full, so chances are you pay thousands for an hour of that , not at its best
There's old footage of Banksy getting some good ones out there, obviously Occy and more recently Rob Machado, i don't think many really good surfers go there, for the price you'd be better off at cloudbreak,so probably why you very very rarely see clips of it when its firing
You’d think if he wanted to promote it he’d put better promos out, maybe they’ve got enough bookings anyway, and doesn’t want to disappoint anyone
I reckon they've figured out that their major clientele aren't the best surfers in the world (though Rasta just paid them a visit it seems), it's really wealthy people. Most of their guests probably don't surf at all judging by all the other things they have going on. They've shut down comments on their socials now that Indonesians are up in arms about the privatisation of their coastlines.
That’s good ,because every guest is funding the intimidation tactics. Looks like a good wave for David Beckham!
I don't think it ever was a surf resort, i think it was just one more activity the resort offered but more so surfing was what he wanted to build his life and resort around, as he said he made sure to find a spot where access was difficult and also exclusivity with local enforcement, what he's achieved is impressive business wise which is true for many in Indo who've made it as there are far far more broken dreams than success stories, always made me wonder what the desire was for westerners to go thru all the dramas of establishing anything there, it's so much easier and free to earn money outside and surf and travel in Indo, i can't imagine building a house or business in front of a good wave in Indo only for the humidity and dodgy construction to destroy your dwellings and earthquakes and theft and bribery etc etc etc to deal with and then your spot out front can get packed and no matter what you'll always be behind every local surfer out there in the lineup, i can understand why he's done it the way he has and the foresight is pretty impressive for the time he started implementing it all, i don't necessarily agree with wave exclusivity but thats life
Good point,yeah I started building a beach front home in another country, beautiful location,great waves , no surfers, but lost it all when my wife’s family wanted us to go back to Australia, work and send them money. Then my marriage broke up in Australia and that was it ,all in her name .Not bitter though, had lots of great experiences ,and waves over 5 year’s!
Dave Wylie RIP passed away 2012 from cancer.
Pardon my ignorance but who was Dave Wylie?
Name rings a bell.
https://tracksmag.com.au/remembering-indo-pioneer-david-wyllie-423939
Mate, I didn’t watch this, was triggered by the mention of Claude’s name. Tom needs to ask him what became of chief Metebulu who ran the hamlet on the hill above nehewatu and welcomed surfers to stay in his little place, sharing what he had and giving us a real introduction to life for the Sumbanese . We traveling surfers paid directly into the local economy not a bullshit organization that some bule invented to greenwash his exclusive resort and pay off everyone in the area and beyond to control access.
Rumour is Metebulu died in a tribal fight that may or may not have been started over land disputes. Such lands and access to the beach of nehewatu thereof would have been very important for Claude to hold sway over. Anyway what’s done is done and that old kook Claude bribed and bullied his way to controlling the beach. I hope the local Sumbanese and all Indonesians see who really gained here.
there are plenty of better waves elsewhere in 3rd world; indo, etc ....
Stay year around & invest to surf great waves and help the locals for ten years, ....
then post you successes & or failures on swellnet, for perseverance, posteriety, tribal knowledge, ffs.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/perseverance