Escape from North Sentinel Island
It had to be. After last week's news about the fiercely insular tribe guarding North Sentinel Island comes word that the tasty left off its southern shore - which we assumed had never been surfed - has hosted a boatload of sponsored surfers.
The following story comes from John S. Callahan, a fella who's pioneered many waves around the world, though the wave in question isn't one of them. The story was told to John, yet it's also been been verified by the photographer on board.
As perhaps the only person on this planet, Indian national or otherwise, who has been from the northern tip of North Andaman Island to the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island at Indira Point, I have knowledge of perhaps the only time North Sentinel Island has ever been surfed.
In 1999, after our first trip to the Andamans ex-Phuket, I received a request from XXXX, then working at XXXX, for some info how he could send a crew of surfers to the Andamans. I gave him the name and contact of the company we had used in Phuket for the boat charter and some tips on where to look for waves. I also specifically said not to try to go to North Sentinel, as it was off limits to everyone as the tribal people, unlike the Jarawa and Onge people, were well documented to be hostile and known to attack any visitors with spears and poisoned arrows.
From what the captain of the boat told me after the trip - a UK fellow and the same captain we had used for our trip to Little Andaman in 1998 - they did go to North Sentinel and they surfed the same pass in the satellite image, with the left on one side and the right on the other.
According to the captain, the surfers and the photographer on the trip knew nothing of North Sentinel, Little Andaman, the Andamans in general or anything else. Some of them were so clueless they thought they were in Indonesia, not India.
The captain said they left Port Blair - the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands - and anchored in the area around Hobday Island, in legal waters, with the idea of pulling the anchor at 3am and making a pre-dawn run the short distance to North Sentinel to avoid any possible early morning Indian Navy helicopter patrols.
Everything went well and at dawn they dropped the pick on the inside of the bay, with a view of both the lefthander and the right, which were head-high and glassy. No-one surfing of course and no-one on the beach. No smoke from campfires, nothing.
The crew had a quick coffee and toast breakfast and got in the dinghy, with two to three people on the right and three people on the left. I don't know why they were not all on the same wave, as that is the procedure for a photo trip, but this was not my photo trip.
The captain said there were only two people on the boat - himself and Nong, the Thai cook. The captain was in the wheelhouse and Nong in the galley, preparing the late breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage and more toast.
The captain said he had the binoculars out, and had been scanning the beach of this most mysterious island every few minutes for any sign of the tribals and had seen nothing.
Suddenly, a group of six to eight men emerged from the forest, carrying a large canoe. They dropped it at the shoreline and returned to the forest, emerging several minutes later with bows, arrows, and spears, which the captain said he could see clearly through the binoculars.
Fuck.
The captain called Nong into the wheelhouse and said something along the lines of, "We may have to move and fast. Bring the anchor up to three metres of chain" and Nong went forward and turned on the anchor hoist and the rattling noise of the chain began.
Following the canoe with the binoculars, the captain said they ignored the surfers and were headed straight for the boat.
Anchor up, Nong returned to the wheelhouse and asked who the locals were - he didn't know they were some of the world's last uncontacted pre-neolithic tribal people and considered to be extremely fragile - and extremely dangerous.
The canoe full of warriors continued to paddle with intent towards the boat, so the captain started the engine, in neutral. Boat drifting slightly with three metere of chain out on the anchor but little current present and no significant wind.
The canoe was now within fifty metres of the boat, still paddling. The captain was watching through the binoculars, ready to engage the engine if anyone stopped paddling to launch arrows or chuck a spear.
Suddenly, the warriors stopped paddling. Gliding towards the boat they looked transfixed. With no engine noise from their canoe, the captain said they could hear the music from the sound system on the boat.
Now, if you are a pre-neolithic tribal person, living in complete isolation for perhaps 50,000 years or more on a single island in the Indian Ocean, you have never heard any form of recorded music. Ever.
The captain said he reached for the knob and slowly turned up the volume on the music - specifically the opening keyboard riff from 'La Femme 'd'Argent' from Air, their 'Moon Safari' album. If you know the record, it's a compelling piece of instrumental music and if you have never heard any recorded music before in your life as a pre-neolithic tribal warrior...well, you might stop paddling also.
The canoe glided towards the boat, not paddling and not talking, just looking. They started paddling again, slowly, making a wide circle around the boat, more than six or seven metres away.
Meanwhile, the captain had pulled the shotgun out from under the bench and loaded it with two shells, with two more shells ready - with Plan A being to fire a warning shot overhead or into the water if they got too close. Plan B was if they tried to board the boat, give them both barrels.
"We could see them clearly and they could see us," the captain told me. "Nong now knew they could throw spears or shoot poisoned arrows at any time and was scared shitless. But they did nothing, appearing to be listening to the music. After three slow circles around the boat they paddled in the direction of the beach, reached the sand, carried their canoe up past the treeline and disappeared into the forest"
The surfers were surfing the entire time, oblivious to this encounter with one of the last uncontacted groups of tribal people anywhere on earth.
Crisis averted, they dropped the anchor, had breakfast and a second surf and did not see any of tribals again. They pulled the anchor after lunch and headed off in the direction of Little Andaman, to make it there before nightfall.
// J.S. CALLAHAN
Comments
That's wild!
Awesome.
Far out. What a story.
If only Air was around when Germany invaded France in WW2.
Ripper story!
Epic track!!!
Have a think about that for a minute or more. A bunch of sponno surfers disregarded the laws and rights of the native owners of an island. To go for a surf. And subjected them to what amounts to an overkill of our culture and a great disrespect for theirs. I fail to see anything but arrogance and disrespect in this
scenario
If La Femme 'd'Argent was the first song I ever heard I would be tranfixed also. Great album- Big up the Sentinelese!
Sounds like the natives liked what they heard....epic tale.
Any chance one of these pros was Jack Johnson? Holes to Heaven is about surfing the Andamans and was written in the early 2000’s
No - Jack was on our first trip to the Andamans in 1998, not this trip.
He brought an acoustic guitar and wrote the basics of several tracks on that project that later appeared on his first release, "Brushfire Fierytales" in 2000.
Thicker than Water was a Surf Movie featuring Nicobar Andaman areas ?
Yes - Little Andaman Island was in "Thicker then Water" with Jack Johnson shooting the footage.
If they didn't watch the guys surfing or pay much attention to them, maybe they had seen surfers before...otherwise you would have thought the act of surfing would have blown them away.
Maybe they had seen surfers before - maybe they hadn't
Everyone should just leave them alone i reckon. Their right to not engage with the modern complex fast world should be respected - and sure as hell beats any surfers rights to a few waves. Cultural and racial arrogance I reckon. If people come at you with spears and arrows the message is not really ambiguous. If you know this and still go - then its just a modern version of good old white colonialism. We want something - you don't - well we know better so we will still take it anyway. ESPECIALLY if you are like that recent missionary trying to convert them to Christianity. The arrogance makes me want to puke.
well said.
wouldn't mind putting a resort on it though
Leaves you wondering still..... is the wave any good? I guess it can't be to specail or we would all know by now
Putting questions of morals and motives aside- you've got to admit it's a classic yarn.
Wonder if it was the recorded music in itself that did the trick or whether the artist had a bearing. Maybe if they had some shit '90s pop song going the outcome would have been very different.
It's undoubtedly a great story, but should you be publishing it? What worries me is that some dick-headed missionary full of evangelist zeal is going to read this and follow his corpse of a friend to North Sentinel, but this time armed with a bluetooth speaker and an iPhone full of Air and other music from the same genre.
Oh well, it's only 50,000 years of uninterrupted culture. Nice while it lasted. At least now they'll have Facebook, coca-cola and kidney disease...
if they do, hopefully they keep getting speared.
I thought about not publishing it but not for that reason. I don't think what happens on a niche surf site is going to influence a wilful missionary fuelled on by higher powers. Besides, it appears the Sentinelese can look after themselves.
The issue I had to think through was that left becoming a sought after wave. The original party can at least claim some ignorance, as in 1999 the internet was still the domain of commerce and nerds. What's easily accesible information now, wasn't back then.
Modern surfers can't hide behind that defence, so anyone looking to surf it as a trophy wave - if they got past the Indian Government defences - would be condenmed by the wider community as both insensitive fuckwits and cavalier risk-takers.
See the latest report of the stand off with police trying to recover the body?
Efforts funded by??
Leave it there I reckon.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-26/police-struggling-to-remove-body-...
Where's Elon Musk when you need him? A submarine would work wonders.
"Modern surfers can't hide behind that defence, so anyone looking to surf it as a trophy wave - if they got past the Indian Government defences - would be condenmed by the wider community as both insensitive fuckwits and cavalier risk-takers."
Are you suggesting that the Madhuey's are gonna surf it?
......
Spot on....I reckon its only a matter of time before someone tries again. Based on the media around the last missionary I cant help but feel it was self promoting narcissism not the divine light leading him on...."guess I'll go and convert people who dont want to be converted and post in on Instagram...how divine of me..."
Interesting how music has the capacity to transcend. The only feelings that come up for me when listening to that track is a sense of calmness & beauty, I can't envisage any other naturally occurring response. I wonder what extent the calmness and beauty of the music changed the course of the interaction/intervention of the tribe.
Fair point surf starved- But I'd reckon that music/technology would already be well known in the missionaries brainwashing bag of tricks. Hopefully the illegality of it and the poisoned arrow talk is enough for them to pull their heads out of their arses.
It would have been a blood bath if it was boy band music.
The sea has stories ...and this one is a good un! thanks
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Pull the other one! No froggy electro noise would put these guys off a tourist kill. Fake.
The alternate ending to the story:
"After three slow circles around the boat....... "
.... the tribesmen proceed to pull out a Ghetto-Blaster and play ABC's "Poison Arrow" from 1982... then attack the boat! :)
Glad they weren't playing Barry Manilow or something....good reason to be speared !!
Isn,t this the place where The Phantom lives? Bay of Bengal. Even looks a bit like skull cave covered in overgrowth in that original pic with the natives out front. You can't blame the Ghost who walks ,man who cannot die trying to keep those perfect waves to himself
https://au.news.yahoo.com/search-missionary-killed-remote-island-may-aba...
What happens if a boat load of refugees wants to seek sanctuary at North Sentinel island ?
Is everyone good with them being speared ?
Yeah, I'm fine with that.
They are actually a bunch of surfers who have taken localism a bit far. When they see a boat coming they head to makeup and get dressed up, grab the spears and bows, then head out and scare the crap out of visitors. Everyone racks off and they go back into the bush where they wax up their latest boards for the next session with their favorite album "moon safari" pumping through the trees. Those guys were lucky, they only let them off cause they liked their taste in music.
Haha
Bloody good yarn guys. Again
In the previous article about this location I thought I may have been a little harsh in my comments. Obviously not harsh enough. Absolute selfcenteredness.
There're bunch of religios idiots on facebook with group name Mission to Bring the Gospel of Jesus to North Sentinel Island are hopping to bring their stupid religion to the island, what the f@rking muppets!
Did they do 3 circles around the boat so as to get more inspiration from the tunes, or were they contemplating whether the double barrel shotgun would 'out-gun' their spears? My guess is they chose wisely.
I hope they keep attacking and killing any arsehole that steps foot on their island. Leave them alone!!
I think in their case it would be called defence.....if people are surfing or surfed the wave and do not enter the island....
They would not be actually trespassing. So I do not see a problem then.
Great story !
Such a terrible waste of human life. Why not have simply sauteed him in a mild coconut curry and enjoyed him with a fruity pinot gris?
Complete ignorance from the surfers, many of whom thought they were in Indo? (Can that even be believed). And plenty of willful ignorance from the boat captain. He knew he was in dangerous, forbidden waters, that's why he snuck in overight to evade the Indian authorities, and why he was always scanning the beach for hostiles. And it is not plausible he sailed the Andamans a year before, and in the year intervening learned nothing of the North Sentinelese tribe's reputation. This was perhaps the most boneheaded, self-serving and reckless surf safari of all time, with the easy potential to wipe out the entire surf crew and one of the last remaining non-contact tribes on earth, all for the sake of a few waves, a photo shoot, or the thrill of the adventure? Rather pathetic is it not? Had deeper contact with the tribesmen been made either via hostile or peaceful means, any number of viruses could have readily been transferred to them by the Euro-Caucasian surfers, wiping out the tribe. If you think I am sounding sour or like a party pooper, you know nothing about the history of this tribe and ongoing efforts to forbid all contact. But the captain evidently knew, and was even ready to blast two holes through natives who might be trying to protect their people from foreign contact/extermination (such as the preceeding British colonisers had brought them). And why am I not surprised that John Callahan, the proud king of spot and culture exploitation, loves this story? He will stop at nothing to get his surf photos with his name attached, and like two face will play both sides of the coin (surf promotion in undeveloped areas / protecting undeveloped areas from exploitation) depending upon the group of people or tenor of magazine he is pandering to. My suggestion: send him to North Sentinal Island to start a local surf team to coach for the Japanese Olympics, like he promotes in other lesser known developing countries in the name of cultural "progress." He will need to bring his own shovel I am certain.
Nonetheless it was a good story.
Tha waves and surf that far away from the roaring forties and dry season is our summer...not very consistent id imagine...leave it to the tribe(s that)live there imo.