Emiliano Cataldi: Surf Check From 1,000 Feet
There's much of the 18th century explorer about Emiliano Cataldi. He explores the farthest regions of the dark continent, he’s multi-lingual and comfortable in many cultures, and in the finest Phileas Fogg tradition he even pilots a hot air balloon!
Swellnet recently had a chat with Emi in between flights and surfs.
Swellnet: Where are you originally from?
Emiliano Cataldi: I am from Rome, Italy.
And where do you live now?
I've been living in Byron Bay for the last 5 years.
Occupation..?
Hot air balloon pilot, and I also dedicate quite some time to the SurfEXPLORE cause. I am also a contributing writer and photographer for several surf and travel publications, both in print and online, and I have directed and filmed a couple of short surf travel documentaries.
In another life I was also a Civil Engineer.
You just mentioned surfEXPLORE, where was the last place you guys visited?
SurfEXPLORE is a collective of surfers, photographers, writers, activists, artists and cinematographers that travel the world in search of new and unsurfed waves. So more often than not we end up in some pretty far out places, like the Turtle Islands off the coast of Sierra Leone that we visited just last month.
The waves were good over there, just these big sandbars exposed to the open Atlantic Ocean swells. The best wave we surfed was probably a bit like The Pass, minus the headland. Probably about three to four foot and offshore on the biggest days, peeling off the edge of this bank. Really unusual setups, like nothing I've seen before: big sandbars that stick out to sea from the beach, and they're not held in there by any headland or anything, they're just fully exposed to the swells and the currents. Somehow though, they just hang in there.
I had a hard time imagining the place before getting there, and I still struggle to come to terms with it. You would think the Atlantic Ocean would sweep those tiny little flat sandy islands away, but somehow it doesn't. Right when you think you've seen it all, there comes a little surprise for you.
You recently got your ballooning license - what's the attraction of ballooning?
I started working causally as a ground crew after meeting Thomas, who's the guy who owns Byron Bay Ballooning and is also a surfer, and I fell in love with the job and the environment pretty much straight away. I mean it's pretty hard not to when you're surrounded by beauty and your office is the spectacular Byron Bay hinterland. From there I became Chief Ground Crew, which involves quite a bit of responsibility on the ground setting up the balloons and driving the retrieve vehicles. After about three years the opportunity to become a pilot came up as our senior pilot started thinking about retiring, and I jumped onto it.
What did it take to be granted a license?
First you have to become a private pilot, which involves 15 hours of flight training, 5 theory exams and a flight test. After 12 months and another 75 hours of flying privately you can start studying for the theory exams, which are quite hard, and train for another eight or ten hours before the final check flight. Once you've done all of that and passed all your exams, you get your commercial pilot license for a class 1 hot air balloon, which can carry up to five passengers plus the pilot. And that's where I'm at at the moment. As you build your hours up you get endorsements to fly increasingly bigger balloons.
Of all the vehicles to get you to the surf – cars, bikes, bus, plane – a balloon seems the least likely. Can you envision a trip where you might need a balloon to get you to the surf?
Yeah! Absolutely. You still need a support vehicle on the ground, but other than that I can't see why not. I sometimes take off just at the back of Lennox Head and do my surf check from a thousand feet up in the sky, then as I keep flying I check all the beaches and see where all the banks are. Sometimes we fly parallel to the coast and get to check the three points in the area - The Pass, Broken, and Lennox - plus the beaches in between and I decide where I'm going to surf that way. Also, as a balloon pilot you have to be pretty dialled in with the wind and weather, so you have a pretty good idea of what the surf is going to be like in a couple hours time after you've finished work.
We start pretty early, about an hour before sunrise, but usually we're done by 9:30, so I still have a couple hours worth of offshore winds in the morning. So on work days I join the lazy surfers' shift, which is usually much more mellow and less crowded than the dawn patrol anyway.
What are the best conditions for hot air ballooning?
Ideally light winds and a good inversion, a layer of still cold air near the ground topped by a faster moving layer of warmer air above the inversion. If you live on the east coast a typical example is when on a winter morning you have the cool west or south west wind near the ground and south or south easterly up high. You know how sometimes the clouds move in a different direction than the wind you feel on the beach? That usually happens in the early hours of the morning and tends to disappear as the land heats up around mid morning, when the heat dissolves the inversion and the upper wind descends onto the ground. That's when the onshore kicks in. We're lucky that in Byron we get good ballooning weather year round.
How many flights a week do you do?
On average we fly three to four times a week.
How much control do you have when operating the balloon? Forgive my ignorance but can you steer it?
That's the question we get all the time! We don't have a steering wheel in the balloon, but we can make the balloon climb or descend and in doing so we ride the different winds at different altitudes. Say in the example I mentioned before when you have a south westerly near the ground and a south easterly up high, depending on where I want to go I can fly low and drift to the right or go up high and drift to the left, or a bit of both, while still flying in a northerly direction. You kind of spiral it down to your intended landing spot, which can be a paddock, a park or any other nice open space.
Comments
Classic stuff, love it.
Geez strong Westerlies and old mate could give me a report on the waves back home...!
Does he have an assistant named Passepartout?
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Ghana, Korea, Sierra Leone, Haiti...not too many locals there to complain about crowds. I can understand the loose lips syndrome in some parts of the world, however where those guys is so far off surfing's beaten track the criticism itself seems off target. Also, they've done some pretty good stuff in terms of offering assistance, even creating rudimentary infrastructure for regions that desperately need it.
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Some of the barrows they push are super fickle and if publicised will never be crowded due to that fickleness and the bloody mission to get to them.
That said, I feel ya blowin. I am not sure why they need to name the locales. They could, for example, crop and write in such a way as to inspire exploration and go to outta the way places to surf without actually doing any revealing. My guess is, the $ are sometimes coming from certain commercially interested parties.
They run the "development" discourse but I am suspicious of that. Where are the rigorous evaluations of such developments? Any evaluation of "benefits" tends to predominantly be anecdotal or even as bad as wishful thinking. It's a not uncommon part of the justification of the tourism industry.
Surf tourism (even if people run the sustainability discourse) can very easily become colonial and there is no real evidence that I know of that it brings substantial benefits to a region beyond a small cohort (maybe others know?). Is it the feel good white-saviour industrial complex in full effect, albeit dressed up in a boardshorts and holding a surfboard?
They could offer assistance AND not reveal a location (e.g. school resources, fresh water) by establishing ties to domestic initiatives to foster agricultural or aquacultural assistance, etc.
Anywayyysssssss ... those balloons look bloody fun.
I wasn't going to say anything but as you well know I don't know when to shut up, Stu I've noticed a recurring theme with your interviews, they are all sponsored by Patagonia, I know you have denied any connection with this company and fair enough, I believe you, your an honest man.
So maybe you should ring them up and ask for a few freebies, I think you've done more for the brand than any of people that you've interviewed, mention my name if you like.
Jeez, if it is anyone who deserves the freebies from Patagonia it would be you Shaun. The vast majority of us would have no idea who is sponsored by Patagonia or not if it weren't for you repeatedly bringing it up in the comments of the article. Why do you know and care? Do you have ties to Patagonia? Are you and Stu in cahoots? Is Patagonia linked to Scientology business interests? Are you and Stu scientologists? Are the stars and planets aligned right yet for the aliens to return? Is your house connected to Stu's and the scientology HQ via an underground labyrinth of energy flows that also connects other important sites of cosmic future teleportation of the powerful in the sixth ring of insight such as the pyramids, the eiffel tower, the white house, windsor castle, the kremlin, machu pichu and the penguin colony on heard island? What do I have to do to get beamed up to the space ship that will be in the tail of the upcoming asteroid so as to hide from radars? Is it a special handshake? I have a tin shed and a tinfoil hat all ready to go. I'll even wear my red leather shoes and click my heels three times. How long do I have to get my shit together? 1 day? 2 weeks? 6 months? or until 2020? I think the two 20s back to back are the signal, right? I read that in the Dan Brown book and he heard it from the pope who is now locked up in vatican city (they ran the cover that he was naughty but the truth is he KNOWS).
Was just about to post a reply when I saw your post Clif. Prior to the interview I had no idea who sponsored Emiliano, didn't even consider it. Doing a quick search I see he receives Patagonia gear, but shit, who knows this stuff? I've never met Emiliano, don't know what he wears...how are you so aware of this stuff Shaun? It's friggen spooky.
...anyhoo, I've got no idea what the bloke above me is talking about - cuckoo, cuckoo - but the wife has gone out, the kids are in bed and I'm slouching on the lounge with my feet on the table. Next to my feet is a half-drunk bottle of Cab Sav, 'Pig In The House' it's called and I bought it as a larf for the wife 'cept now I'm drinking it with mucho gusto.
So I tell you what Shaun, before I get bawdy or unintelligible, throw me a few names of people who should be interviewed. Lads and lasses with stories, smitten with joie de vivre and up for a chat. Email me.
pig in the house. pig in the house. ho ho the bottle's all drunk and a dancin' we go ... a pig is in the house.
bloody catchy toon. i'll sell it to the vineyard. i think they have ties to patagonia, though.
*OINK, OINK*
The surfers I know with the good stories are nobodys, but way more interesting than any of your pro's or legends.
Did you ever watch front up on sbs, that guy new how to interview.
Loved that show.
Did you know he inadvertantly interviewed the guy that killed Daniel Morcombe?
Well if you go to cactus or the NW for your holiday go to the carpark, avoid the temptation and walk straight past caml cause we know about him and he's on the Patagonia freebie list and do a few front up style interviews with some of the old salts that are not trying to sell something, or have a kickstart campaign.
Your a cruel bastard Shaun , my god the blokes going on a family holiday and your setting him up for a good old fashioned stoning in the carpark. Not in front of the kids mate!
Stu what about Zeph...! The poor fella who was shot at down the wild South...?
I think Udo or someone mentioned it before.
I agree, Emiliano Cataldi and is blabbering butt buddies at SurfExpose can go and eat a giant bag of dicks. WORST..IDEA..EVER...
Someone should invite their whole crew to Reunion, or the canaries, or kauai and see how that works out for them.
Reunion, Canaries, Kauai? SurfEXPLORE? That's just completely incongruent, an utterly nonsensical post and I mustn't waste anymore time replying.
The Pig In The House beckons!
Yeah I know all about Zeph. Doubt he's full of joie de vivre after almost being killed by a madman impersonating John Jarratt from Wolf Creek, but shit, it's a hell of a tale. I'll see how I go - cheers Welly.
Jeeze Clif, sounds like you need to wash your face and go for a walk and get some fresh air??!!
i haven't washed in weeks. just like the founder of patagonia didn't when he went exploring ... well ... patagonia. i am in cahoots too. all aboard. toot. toot.
Stu, it's great to see a few reds has rejuvenated your sense of humour. The link you gave to the guys website has list of sponsors
Do you have bloke above you that talks to you too, I have a leprechaun that sits on top ofthe fridge, ddon't worry it's pretty normal. Most people call their man above God.
I don't think so Welly, I ddon't think zeph is sponsored by Patagonia
Cuckoo, Cuckoo , Cuckhold most certainly .
From Surf explore site: "surfEXPLORE presents an unparalleled opportunity for media exposure across multiple platforms including print, digital and social media"
So Surfexplore , by the looks of the website, is a group of surfers that pitch for sponsorship in exchange for media publicity to pay for their surf travel, which they dress up with a few noble sounding causes.
Calling it a cause is a bit rich. More like a scam or a lark.
Fair work if you can find it I spose, but why the need to rat out spots?
Shaun, Front Up ,brilliant show .
Zen the Morecombe killer interview Urban and Cowan where can I find that? which episode.
Cheers Shaun, nice way to spend 20 or so mins before heading off to the salt mine.
Udo, can't help you with that one, was just a 30 second screen grab I saw on the MSM while following the trial recently.
stu and the professor, never get between them and a bottle ...
Good morning everyone,
just wanted to clarify a couple of things about the SurfEXPLORE and our modus operandi when it comes down to naming specific spots or region.
First off, setting up a commercial operation is NOT what we do or aspire to. We stay with locals wherever we go and 100% of our money goes back into the communities we visit. And we don't have any affiliation, partnership or financial interest of any sort with any commercial surf travel operation.
We do believe that locals (whether they are surfers or not) are the only ones who should have a say over naming and/or exposing an area, so we always check with them first on how they feel about the matter and let them and them alone make the call. On many occasions we have be welcomed to surf, shoot and film in areas that the locals wanted to be left unnamed, and we happily obliged.
When we happen to visit a "sensitive" area that other surfers have been going to (sometimes for years) and decided to keep quiet, we stick to that etiquette and are more than happy not to mention any specific geographical reference. As I said, we do not benefit from naming any areas and we have no obligation whatsoever to do so.
With this in mind and in response to "blowin", that specific location you refer to is home to a thriving community of local surfers, who have put themselves on the surfing map (and on the web) long before our visit. Personally I think what they're doing over there is an initiative worth supporting (read: naming in a story after their specific request), as it's one of the very few examples I've witnessed where locals have set up a remarkable community based initiative to host visiting surfers. If they want to open up to more visiting surfers it's entirely up to them and them only.
So, with all due respect, I feel it is rather specious to use that specific instance just to shed some criticism.
Hope that clarifies and you all enjoy your weekend.
EC
EC, jump in your balloon and don't turn off the hot air.
thanks for responding, ec.
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Lucky you took that last line out Blowin...
I'm putting on my James Earl Jones voice and saying the thrust of your post only just excuses the pointed profanities. Only just.
...and back to being me: have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe tourism can provide a lifeline to people who live in poverty? A very strong argument can be mounted against people such as yourself who'd rather keep people down and destitute as long as it serves them and the frivolous activity they partake in. What's more important: gringos scoring uncrowded waves, or locals rising above poverty?
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Like the way Bali rose above poverty?
Pointing out failed attempts doesn't address present issues. Sounds more like a perverted attempt to do nothing.
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I agree with blowin and everyone else who thinks exposing surf spots is as good as a toilet seat with no hole. A few years ago we a had a classic swell on one of our fairly well known left hand points, blue sky 6ft Gland impersonations. It took one out of town surf shop owner to post photos of that day online and whammo , next good day at that spot there where fuckin seppos with jetskis and a US surf mag documenting them. WTF.!! Upon passing said seppos we pulled over and gave them a spray about how we felt about the situation in a very impolite manner. To the credit of the US mag they didnt "name "anywhere ,but from that "one"day when one fuckstick from outa town posted those pictures, the joint is being overrun by 'new' locals, tourists in vans shitting behind every fuckin bush, and this is now EVERY good swell.
The way that surf tourism got the mentawaii people out of poverty?
Yes, the way that surf tourism has aided the villagers around Katiet, Pasongan, and other places in the north of the Mentawais. And the way it has reduced malaria and infant mortality, and also started to introduce clean drinking water. All those things.
Stu the people of Katiet are still bitterly poor, village people eat rice with sugar and ditch weed 3 times per day whilst 7-9 charter boats park in the channel, their collective guests forking out maybe $30k plus daily to be there. Now theres HT's resort too, most of the land in front of the break has been bought by westerners and the local losmans are run by family's from Padang, sibolga or Medan.
Surfexpose, ego trippers...
Considering the massive amounts of money flowing into Indo from white, western surf tourism and the tiny fraction of that which goes back into local communities and considering these guys are soliciting corporate dollars in exchange for media exposure based on these benefits I think it is morally incumbent on them to explain themselves a bit more fully and transparently.
It's been said by others above, but I'll try and say it with a level head and a considered angle - 'exposing' surf spots is serious business.
I've been doing research on the peripheries of surf tourism for about six years now. I'm an anthropologist and my current project has been running for about three years now, looking at power and multiculturalism in rural Java. It is no coincidence that the locale I chose to base my study is/was an emerging surfing hotspot. Essentially, I have spent the last three years and will spend the next two years charting the changes taking place in an area (mostly in regards to authority, attitudes and culture) that is rapidly changing due to surf tourism.
Though it is not a 'social impacts' type of study, I can certainly point out a handful of things that are relevant to this discussion. This will likely be way too long for you to bother reading, but if you do, keep in mind most my understanding on the issue comes from places that people once called 'too remote to become crowded, too far from civilisation for people to want to travel too, too heavy for kooks, too fickle to bother' etc. etc.
1. Surf-tourism is almost always foreign-led.
This much is usually clear. Very few surf developments in 'virgin' areas have been initiated by locals. At face value, this means very little. But in most cases, and particularly in the case I work in, the future of a village of 2000 people is very much in the hands of a handful of foreign developers. These are people who speak little Indonesian, no Javanese and are for all intents and purposes, completely culturally illiterate. What they do have is capital, and that has allowed them to move ground on small-scale developments that have forever changed the village. The agency of the local villagers has been almost entirely removed. An industry now exists in their home village that is completely alien; groups of men arrive throughout the season with scantily clad girlfriends, do strange things out on the water during the day and carry-on in foreign tongues during the night. It's harmless, compared to Bali, but as jolting as it would be if your house was surrounded by Mandarin speaking ping-pong enthusiasts without any input from you.
2) Local is an almost meaningless word.
A lot of these developments talk about being on side with the locals, supporting the locals, being led by the locals. But what do they mean? Either they are doing what I did, which is to use local out of laziness, or they think that one local equals all locals. This is particularly true in the area I study. There is a group of surfers in this area that are intent on 'exposing' (this is the word they use) the area. This is as much for cultural gain and financial gain. They are in position to make some very small income out of a stronger surf industry, but it is mostly for fame. To be 'the locals'. This is something that, in typical Indonesian fashion, they readily admit; they want to be famous and want all the famous people to stay with them. They see the Mada Lana's and Rizal Tanjung's and they want to emulate that. On the other side of the sand you have a much larger cohort of surfers, who surf noticeably longer and better than the former, who have recognized that a stronger surf industry means less waves for them. They have moved passed the caricature of the needy local that many Western surfers have of Indonesians and have become just like us; ordinary blokes who want to go for a surf before and after work without 40 Euros panic-paddling around the waves they have surfed quietly, shared willingly, for the last decade. In their case, foreign-led developments have combined with 'local legitimacy' to dramatically change their lifestyle - something any of us who have seen crowds grow at home can relate to.
3) Surf tourism is nearly always rapid and poorly regulated.
When a surf boom hits a town, there is usually a period of two to three seasons where it really takes off. I have witnessed this in a handful of locations and the chronology of development is almost identical. First the spot is discovered by the adventure-surfers, then the expat-photographer brings along a handful of pros. They keep it quiet enough for a few seasons, but mags can't help but do things like name airports, or distances from big cities, or leave giant signs in the background or number plates on motorbikes. Eventually we all cotton on to where a spot is, and are swept away with the uncrowded beauty. "It's like Bali in the 70's" someone says, and they decide to stay. They set a place up for them and their mates, then decide to make some cash. Then another bloke thinks 'well there is room for another hotel here too', and by the end of that season three or four others have been swept up by the lack of crowds, the 'traditional village' and the dirt cheap land prices. Locals start to see their neighbors sell unused land, and they cash in too. Three seasons down the track and the land price has gone from $100 to $10, 000 and all of a sudden an illiterate former fisherman has $100K sitting in the bank account he just set up for the first time (true story). But now the problems come. The fishermen's son has a set of twins, while his daughter has two of her own. Their little house is no longer big enough for them all and it's time, as is custom, that they build another house as they have always done as families expand into another generation. But with their land gone and the land price all of a sudden 1000 times higher than it was four years ago, they neither have their own land or can afford to buy land in their village. It is decided, begrudgingly, that land will be bought over the hill, some 25 kilometers away. Land there is cheaper. And all of a sudden the social fabric of that family in that village is torn and a family is forced to make a small, but influential, move into a village that is not their own. That is also a true story, and it is as true in Aceh as it is in Krui, Bali, Kuta and Lakey.
There is mountains more I could write on the matter, and have written for journals/thesis if anyone is interested, but it should either re-iterate for some of you what you already know, or wake some of you up from your slumber. Surf tourism is a big deal, and we all talk about it far too lightly and with very little understanding of what it means for the areas where it takes places.
Well said dandan, in simple terms even I can understand, wonder if ec will.
You could quite easily insert Streaky Bay and Smucko into the quote above for the more western version.
Excellent post DanX3 and some serious food for thought.
I think DanDan has given proper academic shape to what anyone who has travelled a bit has witnessed with their own eyes.
Well said DDD, makes sense all too well, especially with this ever growing population of greed and hunger.
Interesting job you have pursued DDD, not to be rude at all but who funds this line of work...? Yourself, private companies or the Government..? Just interested, Cheers :)
It is an interesting job, and it's great that surfing has been able to be a big part of it. The first three years were self-funded, the coming two years are funded through my university in Aus/Indo and the government. That said, I just lost my actual job at the university and am now relying on research funding to get me through the next few years.
It should be stressed that I'm not saying that exposing surf-spots or that surf-tourism are bad things (although on a personal level I disagree with much of what I have seen in the last few years in Indonesia), but I am saying that statements like - "working with the locals", "with the support of the community", "preserving the culture and environment" are pretty shallow statements. All the Western developers I have met in Indonesia giving the surf-tourism thing a crack (and most of the photogs as well) have had great intentions, but in the 15 odd years I've been lurking around Indo I am yet to meet one who speaks good Indonesian or any of the local languages, or has much experience in tourism or knowledge of best-practice. More often than not, at least outside of Bali, they are just surf-addicted blokes trying to live the dream. It often backfires, and we've all seen evidence of that.
DDD- Forgive me if I'm wrong but was the last sentence in the first paragraph edited since this morning......! If so sorry to hear and good luck in the future, all the best ;)
Quote DDD- "but in the 15 odd years I've been lurking around Indo I am yet to meet one who speaks good Indonesian or any of the local languages,"
I think that is quite rude and disrespectful to the locals, I'm sure if I was to do some kind of venture like that (not that I would), speaking the language and learning their culture would be of upmost importance, if not No1.
Haha no. I lost my job a few weeks ago (hence my G-Land post last week). Losing your job in my field is so common that it doesn't upset most of us anymore. I'm pretty grateful to still have some funding to finish what I have started.
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Wonderful posts dandandan, thanks for your perspective.
Look forward to reading more.
Thanks for posting dan3x, much appreciated.
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Now from my understanding from what Stuart informed me one day, you have totally ruined this thread blowin, I think he used the word idiot(that is not my opinion).
Has ec threatened to throw you out of a balloon from a thousand feet for pointing out that he is a self centered yuppie?
Blowin, why did you delete all of your posts?
Two reasons Ben . Firstly even though I don't agree with Surfexplores entire raison d'être and wish they would come to their senses and disband , I also believe in karma and don't believe that belittling anyone , regardless how misguided I think they are, is going to make my life any better.
Secondly, I don't want to get sued. Whether that's possible or not I'm not sure as I'm not a legal expert . I just don't want to find out the hard way.
Was it the bottle last night that made you
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Negative Welly.