“Last week we were empty,” says Oscar, “this week we’re full. Business is good.”

Hailing from Nabila village, Oscar - not his real name - runs a homestay and boat service catering for international surfers. Located on Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island, Nabila is the closest mainland point to Cloudbreak. With his twin Mercury’s at full throttle, the famed reef is just twenty minutes away.

“Early swell this year,” says Oscar of the premature southwest swell on its way toward Fiji. “From April we’re usually booked up but it’s March and this is the second big one.”

The early start to the season has been a boon for all the tourism operators that rely on the influx of surfers during the southern hemisphere winter.

Since last Sunday, surfers have been flying in from Hawaii, America, and Australia, to score what will transpire as the biggest swell of the last two years. Between trips to the airport, organising food, boat supplies, and a comfortable stay for his guests, Oscar has little time to talk.

It’s clear, however, that there’s a lot he wants to talk about, albeit anonymously. This isn’t surprising. A fortnight of sending emails and phone calls to similar businesses yielded many replies but few who’d speak openly about the changes coming down the turnpike in Fiji. A sense of caution pervaded all those exchanges, and with good reason.

Next week, the Fijian Parliament sits for the first time in 2024 with the findings of a long-running report finally being made public. That report assesses changes, possibly fundamental, to the 2010 Surfing Decree. In turn, tourism operators around Fiji are bracing for flow on effects to their industry.

Kiwi charger Campbell McKegg slotted at Cloudbreak back in February (Josh Bystrom)

When it was handed down in July 2010, the Surfing Decree turned Fijian surfing on its head. The objects of the Decree, as stated in the legislation, were:

• To promote Fiji as a premier surf travel destination,
• To liberalise access to any surfing area in Fiji for the purposes of tourism and recreation,
• To enable unrestricted access to any surfing area by all persons.

The Surfing Decree was part of a sweep of changes then-Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama introduced to modernise Fiji, many of which involved dismantling traditional customs. When Bainimarama abolished Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs he infamously told them to “go drink homebrew under a mango tree"

In the Mamanucas and surrounding areas, the Decree had the intended effect. It brought to a close Tavarua’s 26-year reign of exclusivity, and new businesses, such as that owned by Oscar, flourished as the number of surfers flying into Fiji increased.

“The Surfers Decree has now, I believe, motivated microeconomics for indigenous boat owners,” business owner Uri Kurop told the Fiji Times last year.

“If you look out there, in particular in the surfing space, and count the number of boats, a majority of them are iTaukei-owned [indigenuous owned] which is fabulous."

“That is the outcome of the Surfing Decree.”

A small day in the Mamanucas. Namotu Island in the foreground, Tavarua behind it, with Cloudbreak to the right of frame and the mainland to the left (Escapade Sailing)

Yet surf tourism is a very minor part of the Fijian economy and the 2010 Decree created collateral damage across the country.

“Why was it called a Surfing Decree?” Fiji’s Attorney-General Siromi Turaga proposed the rhetorical question to the Fiji Times in January. The issue was that the Decree, according to Mr Turaga, had little to do with surfing.

“It was really about the restriction of using the qoliqoli for us.”

Qoliqoli loosely translates as ‘fishery’ in Fijian, though in conversational use it refers to how a village may benefit from their traditional fishing ground - which for our interest also includes reefs. It’s a vexed issue in Fiji as in 2006 the Qoliqoli Bill precipitated the military coup that saw Bainimarama rise to power.

Though ostensibly modernising Fiji, the Surfing Decree also caused many villages to lose income previously collected via qoliqoli. Prior to 2010, the three villages of Nabila, Yako, and Nadroga had collected income for allowing Tavarua Island exclsuive access to their traditional fishery. It’s been estimated that the villages have foregone $12 million since 2010.

Examples of lost income are widespread. Fiji is a nation of 300 islands that’s popular with surfers, kite surfers, divers, and snorkelers, and wherever a waterway is freely accessed for watersports, it’s seen as a lost opportunity for income under the previous arrangement.

Two years ago, Bainimarama lost power and his successor, Sitiveni Rabuka, is repealing some of the changes made over the last sixteen years. Last week, for instance, the once-abolished Great Council of Chiefs reformed and took their place once more in Fiji’s political landscape. A move described as “looking back to go forward.”

In this context other traditional customs are being re-examined, including qoliqoli and the Surfing Decree. Worryingly, Attorney-General Siromi Turaga admitted the government at first considered removing the Decree altogether, opting instead for a review.

The review process began last August, with one of the consultants, Professor Spike Boydell, suggesting the coming legislative changes are a hybrid solution to the relationship between tourism and traditional fishing rights owners.

No-one quite knows what a hybrid solution means, nor how it will affect the current equilibrium in the Mamanucas, though Mr Turaga has said to expect, "comprehensive amendments to the law."

Politics in Fiji is no different than any country so many of the concerns can’t be judged on principle alone. Negotiations take place, compromises made, pragmatic alliances formed, and all this horse-trading makes politics opaque to the outsider. At times, it’s barely discernible to locals. Anticipating where the shift in power will settle is, at best, a guess.

Some people are optimistic about the outcome of the review. “The intent of the review is to have a fair outcome where all parties benefit,” Brent Hill from Tourism Fiji tells me.

“Tourism Fiji recognises the large contribution and ongoing benefit to our visitor economy that is and will be generated from surfing, and this has been enhanced by the Fijian Government’s commitment to the World Surfing League’s Fiji Pro – which has been signed on to for three years.”

Others don’t share Brent’s enthusiasm, including Oscar. “Yes I’m worried,” he tells me cautiously. “I watch closely. We’ll see.” He’s acutely aware that measures such as increased taxes or surfer restrictions will hit his bottom line.

And yet others are defiant. Ian ‘Kini’ Muller runs Fiji Surf Co, one of the first local surf companies to operate after exclusivity was lifted in 2010, and he’s been around long enough to recognise the pattern that’s unfolding.

“Yes they are trying,” says Kini when asked if exclusivity is again being sought over Cloudbreak.

“But,” he responds forcefully, “it will never happen.”

Billy Kemper, Cloudbreak 7th March. In an Instagram post Kemper wrote: "Yesterday was one of those days I’ve dream of surfing my whole life. Vinaka Fiji and Tavarua Island for sharing the best wave in the world with us." (Tim Bonython)

Today, the village of Nabila is bustling with surfers. Some of them, Oscar explains, are heading back out to Cloudbreak to surf the last of the swell, while others are packing up and preparing to head home. Their work is done, the footage from yesterday is in the can.

By Monday, most of the surfers will be gone. The surf at Cloudbreak will be three feet at best, and anyway, an ill wind is expected to blow, the dry season tradewinds that smooth the waters not yet established. 

Also on Monday, the Fijian Parliament will sit for the first time this year, and shortly therafter the review of the 2010 Surfing Decree will be made public. When it is, we’ll learn if Kini is right and the status quo will remain, with free access to reefs and waterways, or if a new chapter in Fijian surfing will begin.

// STU NETTLE