Fire destroys Martin Daly's office including 150 boards
Overnight a fire has razed a building in Padang, Sumatra, used by Captain Martin Daly. The building stored quivers of boards left by Daly's regular guests, plus his own collectable boards, and also photos and memorobilia. Everything has been destroyed.
"There were some very collectable boards, and of course whole quivers that I was entrusted with. I'm gutted, some of my boards were thirty years old," said Daly via Facebook.
Arguably worse, at least from a historical viewpoint, are the lost photos of Daly's early days in the Mentawais. Though he wasn't the first surfer in the island chain, Daly did much of the early exploration, including photo documentation, all of which has been lost.
"I don't care about my stuff, it's my guests boards that matter and its hard to explain how bad I feel," said a downbeat Daly.
Daly attributes the fire to the carelessness of the building owner. "[At] 3am the owner of the building was there. I think he emptied an ashtray in to a trash bin and then left locked up."
Comments
Shit bad luck ...
"[At] 3am the owner of the building was there. I think he emptied an ashtray in to a trash bin and then left locked up."
Damn what bad luck that is.
Hopefully martins luck changes for the better .
ill never complain again after seeing that poor fireman wearing a plastic raincoat, motorbike helmet and gumboots.
Jeez, what a loss.
hmmmm here is one for the conspiracy theorists out there....
http://www.worldsurfleague.com/posts/260548/surf-explorer-martin-daly-ma...
Carelessness of a building owner in Padang. Noooo, who would have thought.
Not sure if Daly was the greatest surf explorer or the world's greatest surf Exploiter...
You must be a blast at dinner parties.
Have you ever posted a positive comment?
Yes, I have posted comments that are positive, but I do think Daly and "the Crossing" were a total surf exploitation scheme. which is continuing today. And look where Quicksilver is now.
If you have, I'm yet to see them then.
And in regards to the above, a man loses a huge amount of his lifes work (whether you agree with his chosen path or not) and all you can do is bag him out.
You might call him an exploiter, others might call him an adventurer, the fact remains he's brought countless hours of pleasure to, not just the pros but normal people wanting a taste of that adventure even if it's just for a week or so.
Geez man, have you ever travelled more than 50 k's to get a wave?
Yes, I have traveled farther than 60 k, usually in my Volkswagen van deep in Mex and other trips where I flew then took it on my own once I got there. I personally chose to do it my way and not on an air condition pampered yacht with meals included.
Shit where can I get that? Air conditioned yacht and meals? Count me in and whilst your at it can I unlimited craft beer of my choosing and a massage as well? Ah stuff it I will have them both at the same time!
I'm pretty sure there are numerous surf websites where you can find most of that.
Ahhh....I was having a lend of ya.
Good for you Sunshine, that's your choice. I myself have never been on a boat trip, all mine have been by air and road too. But I sure as hell don't look down on people who choose to take a boat trip, they're the smart ones if you ask me.
This might come as a little surprise to you but there are surfers out there who spend the majority of their waking hours working their arses off just to live, feed their families, keep a roof over their heads whatever. Treating themselves occaisionally to get a few waves and have a few beers at night- don't you think they're entitled to that?
Amen Zen
A 2 week boat trip with a bunch of mates is one of the funnest things you will ever do as a surfer.
Maybe sunshine, it's just not my cup of tea.
....
One vote for Exploiter
So Captain Cook , raised the pommie flag and took Australia for the Poms,hmm exploiter or explorer?
What do you reckon about Cook , Sharkman ?
Pretty much answers the question doesn't it ?
If I'd found Maccas/ HT's I'd be gutted if someone rocked up and started selling the joint. No matter how spirited the bloke is , he still fucked up .
what if you were offered $100m USD ?
a great surf explorer , but the worlds best surf exploiters would be the founding fathers of the surf industry , who have made their 100's of millions , moved onto other pursuits and left their once great Co's a mere shadow of their former glory , and we are now looking at empty shells of Surf Co's heading to the super markets!
The Surf Industry exploited 'surfing' they did not really exploit 'surf spots" It was the Quicksilver Crossing (and Daly) and also The Rip Curl Search (still going on unfortunately] that first started exploiting 'surf spots'.
ah no , surfing industry bankrolled surfers and photo crews , and surf spots were exploited.....
Was Captain Cook responsible for the near genocide of the Aboriginals?
And one for adventurer:)
Quick digression:
You fellas may remember the story we ran on Chris Goodnow, who was most likely the first to surf Macaronis. He was there in 1980, well before Daly and Lance Knight et al.
Well, recently I found an interview from about 1991 that Mark Sutherland, who was working at Waves at the time, had with Chris Goodnow. Goodnow is a dab hand with painting and he'd painted an old single fin with this beautful right hand wave. The board was bought by the guys at Surfection, and was hanging on their wall when Sutho saw it. He promptly called Chris for the interview.
Chris spoke of the early days at Grajagan, and even though he was prompted he said nothing about anywhere else in Indo. Even though he discovered one of the very best waves in the archipelago he said nought. No hints, no cryptic clues, nothing. Totally silent. The world found out about Maccas via other people.
I'll pass no judgement on Daly, but I'll pay massive kudos to Chris Goodnow and his travelling partners Tony Fitzpatrick, and Scott Wakefield.
They're the kinda guys you'd take to that mysto mid-Pacific atoll you've always wondered about.
Chris Goodnow and Finding Macaronis for those who missed it.
Any chance you could post a link to part 3 of the article, Stu? I know I've read it in the past, but would be good to read again. It probly sits in the bowels of the forum menus but I'm a lazy, yacht-favouring beer swiller.
Here you go: https://www.swellnet.com/features/finding-macaronis-part-3
obliged
Yes the true pioneers for many waves in places like Indonesia will often go unknown the smart ones learnt from seeing what happened in Bali or Nias and kept things secret, many have moved on to other things and might not even surf anymore some have possibly passed away many just don't have an interest or desire to share the story with media or be in the spotlight or don't have any proof like photos just a story.
And things like wave names in places in Indonesia often develop not from the first surfers that came along and surfed a wave and might have named it, but in most cases it's a commercial operator like a charter boat or resort that have promoted their operation with an article in a magazine or in the case like the Hole a video or some names just become more popular than others just because they sound better.
Still plenty of waves that different operators have different names for, one example is Treasure island point in the Banyaks, its also called Machine gun rights, or Whistle bird Pt.
Plenty of other examples.