Chris Peel on outer island PNG
Swellnet readers will have seen many photos from Chris Peel grace our Wave Of The Day frame. Melanesia, East Coast Oz, Indonesia: fella gets around. However, each summer you'll find him holed up in Papua New Guinea where he works with Captain Andrew Rigby on the PNG Explorer.
It's a fascinating corner of the world, is PNG. The islands are wide open to the Northwest Pacific, an active yet inconsistent ocean basin, and though it's close to Australia the islands are hard to reach. Particularly the outer islands.
Captain Rigby and Peely Jr have stepped up their exploration of said islands with the acquisition of the Ultimate 1, or U1, a twin donk wave piercer for those who get excited by boats.
Let's hear it as Peely riffs on new waves and a big boat.
Swellnet: How many seasons have you worked with Andrew Rigby on PNG Explorer?
Chris Peel: This is my third season working with Andrew and Jude at PNG Surfaris, but it's their twelfth season operating surfing charters in PNG.
Andrew was up here originally as a lobster trader and then switched across to a more sustainable operation with the surf charters. We also do diving and fishing in the off season.
And the past surf season, how's that been?
The season just gone was one of our toughest due to lack of North Pacific storms, but there was a silver lining: it made us go look for new places and try different options. Normally once we get a spot pumping the guests are happy to just park up and surf till they are exhausted. This year we found more new waves and discovered spots that work on pretty much every size swell from 1 foot to 15.
One wave we found was actually only about 300 metres from a spot we surf nearly every trip!
I was gonna ask you about new waves as so many photos of PNG show waves that are familiar.
Yeah, nearly every trip we get asked, “Hey can we go surf a new wave". But when they're faced with driving away from perfect waves to go look for other perfect waves the concept falls apart.
We've always done a few exploratory trips each year to different waves and workout when they are going to be on. The problem is most of them are in areas that are a little too far for us to access on a ten day trip on Explorer without spending a lot of daylight hours steaming.
Is that why you're upgrading to Ultimate 1?
Ultimate 1 is not an upgrade it’s an additional vessel we are adding to the operation. We have crazy amounts of demand during the season and have to say no to a lot of people, so basically we can’t meet that demand, and anyway the PNG Surf Management Plan would restrict an increase in surfer numbers for the area we currently work in, so a bigger boat was not the answer.
The end result was that we decided to work a new region that we had been doing exploratory charters to and use the new boat and also provide a high end option for people wanting to tick PNG off the bucket list.
Ultimate 1 is basically a super yacht which is set up for six guests to do a surfing trip in total comfort. It's priced affordably considering the vessel’s standard and facilities.
I'm assuming it can travel further afield then?
Yeah, it has twin 800 horsepower donks that can push her along at 26 knots if required. This gives us the ability to reach places that we know have fantastic waves but have been too time consuming to reach with Explorer at 8 knots. We are not really going to be churning around at 26 but the difference between 8 and 15 knots is huge and puts us in reach of some reef groups that are amazing...and very seldom surfed.
U1 is also a wave piercer so it’s much more stable in all weather and able to handle weather without guests getting sick so those runs between islands don’t get nipped in the bud if it blows up a bit.
Twin donks, wavepiercer...tick off the other mod-cons then.
Ensuites, TV lounges, carpets, teak decking, hatted chef, decks on three levels, potable water on all outlets.
OK, the boss is happy, now let's get down to it. Whaddya know about new waves up there?
The treasure map, right?
Uh-huh.
Ha...there are a bunch of coasts that don’t really make sense till you understand the way swells and wind interact here and they are in wild places. PNG is not Indo and you can’t just roll up somewhere and go surfing. There are really complex processes in place that you have to follow, respect that has to be paid, traditional owners that have to be 100% onboard and benefiting.
Bottom line is the new spots are remote, they're holding, and they're a huge part of what we have planned for the coming season.
Lastly, north swells are PNG's bread and butter but what about the eastern reaches, how do they go with easterly trade swells?
The bulk of our swells are from the North Pacific lows but we get swell from other weather systems as well and there are coasts that face east that get those tradeswells. However, it’s a short narrow season due to the wind, but just like the Marshall Islands there are spots that wrap so hard by the time you get to the part of the reef that the wave is breaking on it’s offshore.
Next May we are going to hit one of those coasts on an exploratory as we have already found two sick waves there that we have surfed and know about a bunch more. PNG is not the Ments though and the bulk of our waves are fun 3-to-5 foot reef/points and while those bigger heavy spots are out there we tend to chase down the fun stuff because it’s what the guests are after.
PNG Surfaris comply 100% to the SAPNG Surf Management Plan. No matter how lightly surfers tread, tourism brings change, yet the Surf Management Plan anticipates this. The Plan distributes the proceeds from surf tourism equitably and limits tourist numbers to ensure sustainablity.
Comments
Having spent considerable time in PNG in the past decade, this article begs me to ask how badly the violence, corruption and wantok system effects the PNG Explorer guys. If its not too bad I will probably book a trip with them as Ive never seen the ocean from less than about 10,000 feet and would love to see more
Hey Tarzan,
We are clear of any corruption and the SAPNG Management Plans sort out anything that could cause the traditional landowners and custodians to be anything other than totally stoked with the money and trade goods the boats bring to their communities. We love PNG the local people love us and the experience is one of the best in surf travel. Andy Abel the president of SAPNG has a saying that "respect is a two way street" and we agree 100% … get up here mate and lets go get barrelled:).
Haha, Ironically enough I am sitting in my office in PNG right now, the guys I work with tell me how lovely the coastal people are, Its a bit different than the war zone I live in.... more power to you, having a job that you thrive on. I will do my best for a late season trip next year.
Two questions -
Why in all your promotional material do you use photos of the the 2 main waves you surf of the explorer and nothing from the new area ?
Are you going to be on board the new boat Chris or sticking with the old one ?
Cheers
Hey Lost,
I can at least partly explain the first question, at last as it relates to Swellnet as I choose the Wave Of The Day shots. Throughout the PNG season Chris sends me a variety of shots, many of them are the waves in question though at times there are others. I often choose one wave in particular based mostly on its aesthetics. It looks fantastic in a photograph. That may also explain why it gets used elsewhere? Along with the fact it's a reliable wave.
Recently I've run a few other PNG shots from Chris that were taken at other breaks.
This all reads like one big "advertisement". Another company exploiting some last frontiers--so they can make some bucks. I guess nothing is sacred anymore when money is involved. Seems some people won't be happy until every little nook and cranny is exploited in the name of greed. Almost as bad as the Rip Curl Search and "Destroy" missions. Wouldn't it be nice if some people just backed off and left some secrets out there....Well dudes---Rest in Peace.....
Hey Freerider,
SAPNG have actually done a lot to negate your theory on destruction, it seems they have learnt from the mistakes of others, specifically in the strict limits imposed.
I think that is debatable.
IMO it looks great on the surface but their whole management plan is based on creating a monopoly.
Basically ensure that the locals are happy so you can get exclusive rights, which means less surfers, which means less competition and can charge higher dollars.
In the long run the biggest losers are the local people because they will never be able to take the step from being employees(if they are very lucky) to being employers.
It's really no difference to how Nihiwatu in Sumba has operated, do good, so can have exclusivity which then means can keep competition out of the picture and stop the locals from doing business and doing things much cheaper.
There is actually no reason why you can't have the same type of system that ensures operators must gives back to communities without capping limits on number of business that operate, and have tourism develop naturally, there is other ways that problems associated with tourism can be managed.
Tarzan, the comment from Indo-dreamer summed up some of thy thoughts pretty well--I was guessing their might be some little kind of monopoly on charters. And maybe my comment above--surf and "destroy" was just a little off base--maybe it should have been--surf and "exploit"..
Yeah I get the logic and I understand it. The company I work for destroys and then rehabilitates the environment on a grand scale whilst providing westernized education, health and law enforcement. This often has me wondering if the people would be better off left alone with western intervention.
The other side of the coin is that money makes the world go round......
To quote an old American Indian Chief "When all the buffalo are gone, the trees cut down and the rivers dried up, what good is the paper that you people value then?"
I think PNG is different to many areas like say Indonesia because villages have rights over reefs etc.
If for example it became like the Mentawais with a resort or camp in front of every decent wave then charter boats would either need to be pay even more to surf these waves or even be stopped from surfing some waves with resorts/camps on them if thats what the locals choose.
While resort/camps themselves could barter with each other and say you guys can surf our wave if we can surf yours etc.
The natural way surfing tourism goes is.
1. Adventures surfers come in and surf waves and stay with locals, in the past cheaply by land but these days also by private boats.
2. Foreign owned commercial charter boats begin operating.
3 Soon after surf camps/resorts start generally foreign owned.
4. Surfers who can't afford resorts/surf camps or charter boats arrive and cheaper local tourism takes off.
5. The next phase can often be foreigners build private houses/villas ect as we are now seeing all over Indonesian.
6. Is the fear of Bali take 2
For commercial foreign operators running charter boats or resorts ideally they want to see it cut off just after they set up business, restrict other foreigners from doing business and restrict locals from developing business that compete with a lower price.
Although to me the management plan/ fear of crowds really makes no sense PNG is never going to be crowded like Indonesia, just because it doesn't have the consistency and its season is our summer not our winter and there is many nearby areas that have just as good consistent waves at that time of year in Indonesia in general plus, Pacfic Indonesia, West Papua, Philippines, Micronesia and basically the whole pacific just to name a few.
Anyway that's my take on it.
Chris is it possible to to turn up n in my boat and surf or do I have to pay to surf and who do I pay and if so where does the money go . Sometimes I think the surf charter industry runs on greed and ego , I could be wrong .
You need to be registered on the surf management plan seaguts. You cant just turn up and go surfing. Money goes to the locals.
http://www.sapng.com/surf-management-plan/locations-registered-surf-mana...
Does Northy still cruise around up there ? Probably not after getting done with some Herb and doing some cell time.