Excerpt: 'Grajagan: Surfing in the Tiger's Lair'
At over 300 pages, including hundreds of colour photos, personal anecdotes, and researched history, 'Grajagan: Surfing in the Tiger's Lair' by Mike Ritter and Jack McCoy is the most complete story of the wave ever told. The following excerpt is from Chapter 18, 'Waves and Boards'.
All captions and photos by Jack McCoy.
THE WAVE
Grajagan is never the same two days in a row. Ever. That’s because the storms that produce the waves in the Southern Ocean are moving from west to east. So as the swells are coming, the angles of the swell changes. But every day during the season you can count on the wind blowing straight offshore.
There are different spots along the reef that handle the various angles of the swell differently. Every spot has a distinct personality and an array of intenseness, you could say. The most famous spots are Money Trees and Speed Reef.
PETER McCABE: Some swells would hit Money Trees dead on. It’d be flat all the way down the reef, but it could be 6–10 foot right there off Money Trees and then it’d just end. Then sometimes you’d go down to the Launching Pad – this spot that I figured out watching Gerry coming down from Money Trees. That’s where it swings around on a south swell and comes into that big A-frame peak – I’ve seen some guys go right there. You can drop down straight; you’ve got heaps of time. Then all of a sudden it will stand up and you hit the bowl. You’re launched into that bowl and you’re on Speedies then. It’s like getting towed in. It’s massive, but it’s an easy drop and then it sets up and goes on down. Still, that all has to come together on a really good tide. Can’t be too much current. On the exact right tides, it just goes and goes and goes.
Peter McCabe late afternoon flying on his little bar of soap
TIM WATTS: Anything that’s less than from about 212 degrees is south enough to make Speedies work. And anything with south in it is better at G-Land than straight west. The west makes it section a bit.
JOE MAYOLETT: My favourite takeoff was upper Money Trees. When you can get that, it’s like a slingshot off the bottom and it sets you up into the first section at Money Trees ahead of anyone else. You could paddle into that almost like a Hawaiian wave where you’re paddling straight down the face. You come off the bottom, come off the top and you’re just looking down the line at the tube setting up.
It gets more serious as you move into the main arena from Money Trees to Launching Pads and into Speedies. There I needed to do an angled takeoff, because it’s going to start winding so fast. High tide Speedies is like three or four Pipelines in a row. It’s super long. There’s no 18th hole. As you keep going you begin to think about your exit. And the best exit is just to pull in and try to pop through the back.
James 'Chappy' Jennings was nicknamed 'The General' for his big calls and exaggeration. Although he had the physique of a skinny little kid, Chappy backed up his boasts with a charging surfing style in all size waves, from small crackers to big Hawaiian.
KONG: They were starting to call the takeoff above Money Trees the Cobra. It does have that standing up, lurching takeoff – that first real section, especially when it gets a double in it. And after that, it just absolutely winds off. If you time it perfectly, you’re deep in the barrel on the foam ball. Just when you’re coming out, it gets that next section, and you’re back into it again on the foam ball.
That can happen three times, maybe four, then you’re going into Speedies. Speedies is a whole other wave. Speedies is where the ocean just drops around the reef and it goes dry. You can’t turn, you can’t do re-entries. You are absolutely in a time-warp barrel, praying you’re going to come out. Because if you don’t, you’re going to get shishkabobed.
Kong wouold take off at the top of Money Trees and then weave his way in and out of the tube for over 275 metres
GARTH MURPHY: I remember how hard it was for a backsider to get out of the wave. I’d always end up going over the falls and then get beaten down to Speed Reef. The goofy-foots could dive into it and come out through the back.
GERRY LOPEZ: That’s section of the wave was so great for Peter and me when we would do our Blue Angels thing; we would ride the same wave together, both going full speed and not getting in each other’s way. And an interesting thing about the wave was, a lot of times you could see it was going to section in front of you, so Peter and I would kick out with speed and actually glide on the back of the wave past the section that was breaking in front of us, then we’d lie back down on our boards, paddle furiously, and catch the very next wave just past that section. It was like continuing on, because the wave behind had sectioned in the same place. You’d get these incredibly long rides. It was out of this world.
Just after this shot was taken, Michael Wichman did a big off the top and then got pitched head first into the reef
JOE MAYOLETT: You always want a high trajectory at G-Land, it seemed to me – high up under the lip. Money Trees seemed to be more of an almond-eye tube. Past the Launching Pad it starts to become a more top-to-bottom tube.
We learned you could walk south along the reef at low tide up this little point later named The Cove. McCabe called it the keyhole leap. Even if it was 10 foot as soon as you busted past the first bit of foam and turned right you’re already outside and in the Money Trees line-up. Or you could turn left to this other break. Peter named it Upper Jakes in my honour, because it’s where I liked to surf and the Balinese called me Jake instead of Jack. Mostly I was by myself and it was pleasant to surf.
In 1984 I took Kong to Upper Jakes. Bobby was running the camp. On the last day of our stay, Bobby arrived with a fresh group of surfers. Because it was low tide the guys were able to walk right up the beach to the camp. All the while they see Kong surfing up there. When he comes back to camp they ask, “What’s the name of that spot?” He turns and shouts, “Kongs!” He stole my spot.
The further you go up the reef, the mellower it is. The place way up the point above Kongs, we called Kasims [to honour Made Kasim]. It’s almost like a south-shore Hawaii wave. When it was small and nothing at the camp, you’d go up there and it would be like the best day ever at Mala Wharf.
Comments
Ftf Chappy Jennings dead?
Good question.
Does anyone have a copy of Jungle Jetset with Chappy and Peter McCabe @ G'Land and Kong at Padang with Gerry.
Mostly average movie with some Epic scenes. That shot with Chappy is from it.
Interesting to spend so much time on one surf break and engage in a deep, intimate understanding of its unique behaviour characteristics. What a wonder it must be to look back at how much human time was devoted to its discovery and unravelling. I think that the meaning of life is impossible to answer as everything can be interpreted in an infinite amount of ways, such is that every atom in the universe is unique, so is every moment.
Never got to G Land. Speedies sounds heavy.
No need for the past tense, Flow. It's still there for the visiting.
Thanks for the encouragement Stu. 18 months post surgery and I'm getting there. Could be the carrot I need.
there's some exaggeration going on as per usual with g-land stories , famously crazy wild dreams blurred with reality...
Should be an interesting read, 'tall tales and true from the legendary past'. Bill Finnegan and Brian De Salvadore (spelling?) spent time there in the period between the different camps (from Boyum's to Bobby's and others), writing about it in Tracks in 'Notes from the Paradise Trail' (or similar name, from admittedly vague memory). Their thesis was that, at the time, G-land had avoided the normal trajectory of excellent surf breaks, from initial discovery to word-of-mouth 'in-the-know' to more widespread exploitation - hotels etc., as it had returned, albeit briefly, to the uninhabited jungle. I'm guessing that plenty of crew got across there and surfed it during that period, but not me. I was a late starter, in early 90s, but had the pleasure of surfing with a crew of Hawaiians including Lopez and Mike Ho, along with McCabe. Swell was solid throughout, mean on the biggest days with big sections shutting down, but Speedies turned on. Lopez and McCabe were the standouts, unsurprisingly. I remember Lopez getting 3 long tubes on one, near double-overhead wave. Surfer mag had a photog. there, with story a few months later.
Memories of G-Land
1) Drinking too much and being on a jungle path when they hit the generators for the night- pitch black, drunk and thinking about the bloody huge lizards. I crawled on the ground back to my hut
2)Rats, rats and more rats…..every night in the walls of my hut scurrying around. I used to beat the walls to keep them quiet.
3)Leaving what seems to be a civilised card game and coming back to my mates nose pissing blood and angry foreign words being spoken….the jungle sends everyone crazy
4) Someone taking the spark plugs out of the tender when the surf was pumping so they couldn’t fuck the waves ferrying people out….apparently it was Camel but I dunno his name got thrown around a lot whenever there was a story.
5) two guys breaking their legs in the same session- heavy day. Insurance is worth it.
6) watching a guy get stuck on speedies impact zone at dusk…..leash wrapped around a coral head…..was asking for a torch to go back out and recover his board……must have been some board.
I saw a guy get a 13 second barrel at Speedies. At dead low tide only one guy out at Kong's just killing it in maybe a foot of water on the reef. And two Brazzos got kicked out of camp for knocking over a 55 gallon barrel of water because it wasn't perfectly clean. This was in '93.
Anything on Chappy's rumoured demise? He was in my year 10 class... wasn't interested in learnin.
My most vivid memory of Gland is pulling out of a long runner from Kongs Only to turn around and have a solid 8ft bomb land right on my head at Money Trees Long hold down but absolutely pumping surf
Ha! Similar... had been surfing and enjoying Kongs at 6ft with a mate, all to ourselves, when we decided to head further down. At that outside point where you start to see the Money Trees crew a set approached. My mate was on a mini-mal and took the first. I paddled for the 2nd but just didnt dig deep enough. But the third...wtf. Im not saying it was but it looked like a 12 foot peak charging at me. Knowing all eyes would be scrutinising me I just went for it, and involuntarily scream yelled FARRRK all the way down into the bottom turn. On my backhand, not used to such behemoths, well to me anyway, i rode it all the way down until i could see reef about a foot underneath me and tried to bail out the back. Whack! Turns out my mate didnt make his drop and was told "what a waste" when he got back to the lineup. Although i hit the reef it was the best left of my life. What a wave! What a place!!
Great story.
Yes HarryCooper the ride and thrashing of your life all in one session - they’re the best days
Haha yeah! A memory not even dementia will dull!
Biggest wave I have seen caught at Gland was a right.
Went on a solo trip there in '94 combined with a tour of Mentawai's, it was just after the tidal wave. Shredded boards stuck high up in the headed tree-line was just as much a memory as the immensity of that long wall that awaits you as you slide in. Befriended the Hawaiians after they had words with the Brazilian pack for their repetitive drop-ins on my line. Ended up befriending the Brazilians after that anyway. Felt like one big family out there in the jungle. After a week there, Eric (Bones) this Hawaiian guy came up to me & said to expect to see the real grajagan in the next couple of days. Sure enough the next morning the signs of the swell were truly visible, each hourly set seemed to be increasing in size. I had my 7'6" & I felt under-gunned. I think I was in the money trees zone when 3 or 4 other guys a bit further out from me started paddling with intent for the horizon, I did the same. Scratched over what was the first wave of this set with a long period for the next. Instant mistake made was to pause & assess & then hit the hard paddle button. In that pause of assessment my view of the horizon was a raised black line. My heart was pounding as the approaching moving mountain was jacking. I did make it over backwards, lip launched for what seemed a very long time. Compressed on the reef on my back felt like a giant had it's foot all over me, when it let go of me it kind of sucked me into the spinner where it did a strip show ripping off my vest around my head & not knowing which direction was up. Pulled on my leash to surface, board snapped in half. That day eight other boards got snapped & one that washed into the village. The sounds of that swell hitting the reef was an experience in itself. There was an American guy called Gerald (goofy) he seemed to thrive the bigger it got, not a youngster either
Never forget it....beautiful day - good solid 6-7 foot. Jagged a decent set - out where the take off is pretty cruise - deep bottom turn and racing then looked down the line over my shoulder and the whole ocean seemed to be rising up and extending impossibly away from me. Growing up in Sydney you never see that shit...way over head, blue wall stretching to the horizon. Every fibre of my beach break raised brain screamed "straighten out!!!!!!" but there was this weird conscious over ride and I thought..."pull up, stay high, go fast". I just hit the accelerator and went, just pumping and focused. I remember the lip throwing over me but i was so focused it almost didnt make sense. I remember someone duck diving through the wall in front of me, and just high speed roller coasters as fast as my legs would go. Then suddenly there was sky again and I was just racing over the back of a safe shoulder.
I paddled back out and this lovely Brazilian guy just paddled up in my face - frothing - "Aaarrgghhh!!!! The leeeeep - so theeekk!!! Just.....rrroooaarrrrr!!!! you!!! just going and going and going!!!!! YYYeaahhhhhh!!" and he paddled off....
Have to remind myself of that next time I go back!
That’s epic bungan
When you watch these vids you realize nothing fuking matters except a good board and being on the spot when it is firing.
Postie dropped it off today. What a beautiful volume. First the Cactus homage now this classic. Reckon the next will be on Middleton Point!
But seriously, you never forget the "bus" ride cramped as all fuk, the ferry over, trying to sleep while the rats plot to eat you, the pre-dawn calls to Allah through the villages, stopping to piss in the jungle and the growing anticipation of first laying eyes on the break after a night of no sleep... the sweet air, the reef, everything!
Got mine yesterday, pretty excited to sit down tonight and get started on it.
Some GR8 memories of the best left in Indo that I've experienced! 1st trip was in '83 with 10 of us in Bam Bam's camp(not there anymore). We had perfect 6 to 8ft G-Land for 10 days straight! Came to grief on my last full day @ Speedies locked into a 6ft+ tube backside with a NO EXIT sign flashing in my mind as I got deeper & deeper, pushed the eject button & popped up out the back to see the boys looking at me & I'm thinking I'm sweet but then I'm sucked back over the falls to bounce off the reef like a sinker getting dragged along! Survived to surf the nxt morning (patched up with a bit of reef rash down one side of my body) & departed on the slow boat to Grajagan village after lunch& then the long drive back to Legian & civilisation! Been back several times BUTT never had as good as that first 10 days in backsider heaven!