Just Passing Through: Russia, Episode 8 - video

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
Swellnet Dispatch

Cyrus Sutton leads a small team of surfers to a "pot of gold wave" spotted on Google Earth. There are many hazards to navigate, from bears, dodgy ex-soviet helicopters, and suspicious frontier poachers. The allure of isolated perfection butts up against real world realities in the wilds of Kamchatka.

Comments

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Wednesday, 7 Sep 2016 at 8:53pm

it's great adventure, all these cold water locations, but everyone seems to get totally skunked for surf.

tonybarber's picture
tonybarber's picture
tonybarber Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 4:43am

Makes the local look like gold.

Sprout's picture
Sprout's picture
Sprout Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 8:11am

So they spent all that money to leave a day before the swell was due because some poachers said g'day. Healthy slabs of artistic license in that commentary.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 8:12am

Amazing story. Though it's kinda dampened my previously unbridled enthusiasm about searching for waves in that region.

Sprout's picture
Sprout's picture
Sprout Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 8:42am

Due to the lack of swell or that clearly all Russians are ex-military with intentions of rape and murder?

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 8:57am

Don't know about you mate, but if I stumbled across a bunch of blokes systematically breaking the law while hundreds of kays from help in a country I didn't speak the language, I reckon I'd get out of there too. I'm sure the suspicion was mutual.

maka2000's picture
maka2000's picture
maka2000 Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 1:00pm

hahaha exactly, all males between 18 and 27 must serve in the national army for 2 years and if you don't you go to jail for the same period of time , so most of males choose army and they become ex-military after that time .

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 8:48am

Combination of everything. Tricky swells, dangerous environment (bears, poachers etc), difficult access.

Unless you had a chopper at your disposal for a month - the costs of which I can't fathom - you'd have to do what these guys did, and aim to camp at one break in the hope it comes alive. 

Big risk for a small rivermouth wave.

Then again, as a consumer I'd much rather watch documentaries like this instead of two and a half minutes of hi-fi action from the latest sponno'd grommet. Getting to the surf is more than half the fun (though, it would be good to score waves, obviously!).

memlasurf's picture
memlasurf's picture
memlasurf Saturday, 10 Sep 2016 at 8:24pm

Great call Ben. Those 2 whatever minute grom vid's are really boring despite the prowess of the individuals involved. This was a good flick bummer about the waves. Freeride is right everything is against you at this place plus it is freezing. I too have never seen flick where they get waves in this region. Amazing landscape though.

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 10:46am

The problem for the Kamchatka is always going to be that it faces the wrong way......unless you get a very rare west or north-west moving typhoon it's going to be flat.

I think I've seen half a dozen trips to the Kamchatka so far and nothing over waist high.

You want uncrowded surf there are so many islands in the Pacific reeling off unridden day after day. Danger is shallow reef and no medical help.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 11:07am

Better setups in the region:

screen_shot_2016-09-08_at_11.00.08_am_0.png

maka2000's picture
maka2000's picture
maka2000 Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 11:31am

what a pile of crap, i'm sure he wrote that " nearly got killed by poaches" just to make your attention to the failed surf trip and nothing else to write about. he's got more chances to get killed in the middle of Sydney city rather than somewhere on the coast of east Siberia. no one want to kill anyone in this part of the world, the people are rare there and not many foreign tourists you can meet on the coast at all, so the "poaches" the fishermen and hunters who get fish the fish for its caviar and shoot bears for their fat and then sell to china and japan were curios people. i know that because i was born and lived half of my life there .

zenagain's picture
zenagain's picture
zenagain Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 11:46am

I kinda felt the same way. Bit of artistic license taken there.

Would be a hell of an adventure just getting to and from there though. Scoring waves would be a bonus.

Open ended credit card doesn't go astray either.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 11:54am

Really? Kinda hard to think that two days out from a new swell they'd can a long held ambition for the sake of drama. Also, there was a local in their party, you'd assume he knows the state of play and could give advice.

Wonder what the woman on the trip had to say about it?

zenagain's picture
zenagain's picture
zenagain Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 12:04pm

You know, i was going to mention that. But in this age of empowerment and all that I chose not to. I will say however now that having a gorgeous blond in that kind of environment might somehow 'complicate' things.

As for the old bloke going missing? Who's to say he wasn't out taking his dog for a walk.?

PS I still enjoyed the vid though. Agree with Ben's sentiments above.

frog's picture
frog's picture
frog Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 12:26pm

Crikey, if it was Skeleton Bay type stuff you were fining up there it might be worth it.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 12:43pm

How about if they found Keramas type stuff?

You'll never know if you never go.

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 2:53pm

no but in this day and age it's pretty easy to know what kind of exposure to swell a coastline gets.

If it gets over 2ft only once or twice a year it's always going to be odds on you'll get skunked.

Lanky Dean's picture
Lanky Dean's picture
Lanky Dean Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 3:12pm

Interesting,

Firstly , pure speculation about the local party's intentions(scapegoating) and where -abouts of the only resident and his dog.

Traveled thousands of miles to complain about a surf breaks over exposure. Then shows the viewing audience the EXACT location, and how to find it using Google Earth.
Then continues to complain about overexposure.(oh the irony.)

Fills story with old footage to justify required film time frame, travel budget and show that said waves are actually half decent.

Uses the local as a translator to full advantage, with the promise of exposure ( my favorite part).Rather than doing the hard yards of spending the time to understand/learn the local language and culture.

So many broken rules in this one.

memlasurf's picture
memlasurf's picture
memlasurf Saturday, 10 Sep 2016 at 8:32pm

Ahh Lanky you are not going to learn Russian overnight and the number of people you would meet here to practise it would be few and far between. I don't think surf wise this area will ever suffer from overexposure it never gets any waves. The only thing that always amazes me about the yanks is the gear they have.

simba's picture
simba's picture
simba Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 4:39pm

Lanky nailed it alright,just another wanker trying to make money out of selling something out,sorta glad they got spooked and left with sweet fukall...a movie about a previous movie.......anyway a good adventure i suppose.

scroty's picture
scroty's picture
scroty Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 5:34pm

Unless... they actually scored and made up the other stuff to scare other western scumbags off. That shotty might have come from the old mans cabin, and there were only sketches of the "10 scary dudes".
I will accept that truth as it makes me feel kind of good.

happyasS's picture
happyasS's picture
happyasS Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 6:58pm

geeeeeezzzzz. tough crowd. margaret pomoraz and david stratton eat your heart out.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 7:11pm

Ain't the internet unreal? Whenever I feel I'm a negative bastard I simply log on, read stuff, and find out I'm really not that negative at all.

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 8:18pm

That was so neg

Lanky Dean's picture
Lanky Dean's picture
Lanky Dean Friday, 9 Sep 2016 at 2:28pm

The whole film had a negative vibe........now where did i leave that satellite phone................oh that's right, Anton's calling the chopper.

simba's picture
simba's picture
simba Friday, 9 Sep 2016 at 5:50pm

Still chuckling over your comment Stu

upnorth's picture
upnorth's picture
upnorth Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 9:43pm

I love the adventure in these videos which seems like 80% of the reason for the trip, imagine if they did score the swell they hoped for it'd be the trip of a lifetime, worth the punt I'd say.
Bit of naivety involved though - being advised not to take a gun as it makes bears angry? I'd take my chances and just keep it out of the way, would've helped with the anxiety over the poacher situation as well. Not checking the bear proof fence until you arrive? Taking an attractive lady? Would've defo taken the gun then, for the poachers or her if she wants to call the chopper early.

benski's picture
benski's picture
benski Thursday, 8 Sep 2016 at 10:13pm

I reckon I'm not a negative guy but that vid did bug me a bit. Mainly because I've wanted to go there for years and have no intention of telling anyone about it. I agree with Ben that these kinds of things are more interesting than the latest grom with a sticker on their board but when it's all about exposing a remote region I can't get on board.

Not to mention the narration. Gees man give us some energy! At least try to make it interesting. We went to this place we got no waves and no fish, met some guys we didn't trust so we went home.

tonybarber's picture
tonybarber's picture
tonybarber Friday, 9 Sep 2016 at 5:34am

Strange vid. No adventure, no local culture, no gun, bears but no bears, surf but no surf. Where ? In about the remotest place on this planet. Don't worry, we'll show you, if you want to give it a go.