"I’ve always said when you feel like you have to go to the beach, then you should be doing something else with your time and your talent."

So says John S. Callahan, photographer and chief coordinator of surfEXPLORE, a team of writers, photographers, and surfers who do just as their title suggests, they surf and explore rarely surfed (sometimes never surfed) corners of the world.

John spent a decade contributing surf magazine staples - pro contests, sponsor trips - to the American and Australian surf media before he decided a shift in direction was necessary. He began "doing more projects in remote and exotic locations, looking for new waves, new cultures and new experiences." He found like-minded travel partners in Erwan Simon, Emiliano Cataldi, and Sam Bleakley, and thus surfEXPLORE was born.

Swellnet recently spoke to John about surfEXPLORE, the methods and ethics of 'spear point' travel, plus the odd travel-gone-wrong story.

Swellnet: More people seem to be interested in finding new and unsurfed waves out there in the world. As your surfEXPLORE crew are very experienced in this sort of thing, do you have any practical advice for The Searchers?
John S. Callahan: Yes. To put it simply, do your homework. Research is the key to finding new waves in new locations. Go over the obvious sources of information, like Google Earth or Wannasurf and then dig a bit deeper to see if there is any anecdotal information out there in cyberspace. 

An important factor often overlooked with potential new locations is bathymetry, or near shore ocean depths. Bathymetry can make or break a potential wave, so it is well worth digging out as much information as possible before declaring a new perfect point of reef break and spending thousands of thalers to go and check it out.

One travel factor we as surfers have no control over is politics and its extension by other means: war. Potential surf destinations can slide into near-anarchy and become off-limits to everyone, like the current situation in Somalia and Libya. Other places experience an outbreak of peace like Nicaragua and El Salvador, which are major surf destinations today but were almost unsurfed from the late 1970s to the early 90s because of proxy-fed civil wars.

It may not relate directly to surfing, but finding a cryptic phrase in a random historical text like “The waves swept around the point into the bay with metronomic regularity, with a stiff wind blowing spray from their crests. It would be difficult to anchor the ship safely in these conditions, so we followed the Captain’s orders to proceeded to the next bay” can tell you all you need to know.

Part of surfEXPLORE’s ethos is to encourage economic development through surfing, yet often when surfers - particularly those from Australia and America - think of ‘surf development’ they think of Kuta and other surf ghettos. How do you defend accusations of being the precursor to profligate coastal development? Do you even need to defend it..?
Unless we are directly involved in the economic development as investors or consumers, we don’t need to defend anything.

Surfers, like divers, climbers and other adventure sports practitioners are known as 'spear point' travellers, in that they are the first to get to difficult to access locations, in order to do what they do with obsessive zeal in primitive discomfort. What happens afterward cannot be their responsibility, unless they are directly involved in a development initiative. 

It is true in several instances, like Hainan Island and Algeria, we have been asked to specifically promote their locations to surfers worldwide in an effort to attract more visitors. We take the general attitude that it is up to the local surfers, if there are any. If they want us to name it and promote it we are happy to do so, if not we don’t disclose the exact location.

It is understandable that people are upset and angry about the desecration of formerly pristine surf enclaves like Kuta in Bali, Tamarindo in Costa Rica and Tagazhout in Morocco, but much of their distress is based on self-centred sentiment. 

“It used to be so nice here in the 70s/80s/90s/00s. Now it’s ruined” growls the grizzled Bali veteran while looking around at mobs of tattooed hipsters, surfers from Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany and fleets of buzzing motorbikes carrying gainfully employed local residents to jobs that did not exist when it was “so nice”.

It is true there has to be a better way than massive, polluting and visually offensive coastal development, and we are starting to see a degree of foresight and planning that was not possible forty years ago. Exploring new waves is certainly fun, but it does involve a huge responsibility towards the local communities in the area. This is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of surf exploration.

As Joni Mitchell sang, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone”, initiatives like the Surfing Association of Papua New Guinea’s Surf Management Plan, which is in place at several locations in that country are a way forward as are the cultural tourism initiatives in places like Haiti, India and Morocco, which make positive interaction with local residents a priority. 

You’ve mentioned surfEXPLORE’s main detractors are from Australia and America yet rarely from Europe, Japan, or Brazil. Have you about thought why the cultures react differently?
Yes. Americans and Australians have seen the effects of massive coastal development in their countries and in nearby locations that were previously uncrowded and cheap, like Bali and Mexico and assume that more is to come in other places. Think of the massive amount of coastal development that has occurred since the end of World War 2 in places like Southern California, the Gold Coast in Queensland and the now paved-over concrete jungle of Waikiki and the south shore of Oahu in Hawaii.

Europeans, Japanese and Brazilians have not had quite the same experience, so it is up to them to learn from the mistakes of the gringos and incorporate sustainability, waste management, culturally sensitive practices and even a limit on surfer numbers to avoid another Lagundri Bay or Puerto Escondido in new surf travel areas that are gaining popularity.

How long does the usual surfEXPLORE mission go for?
It depends on the location more than anything else. With a large crew including two video cameramen and a Director, strike missions are difficult to plan so we try to access a location in the statistically best time to score a swell or two and the best possible conditions. 

As anyone involved in surfing for any length of time knows, this statistical method is not always reliable. Pipeline can be flat in December and G-Land can be flat in June, so we try to stay as long as possible. I like to tell people “You can always score, in any location. You just have to wait long enough”.

If you stumble across a secret spot - which you guys appear to do frequently - do you feel you have a moral duty to keep it on the lowdown? Where do the group’s ethics lie?
Each new wave is different, for different reasons. The secret spot philosophy is deeply rooted in American and Australian surfers, but the truth is every spot used to be a secret spot.

Malibu was a secret point to the north of Santa Monica. Noosa was a secret spot, to the north of Byron. Uluwatu was a secret spot. Tavarua Island was a secret spot. Desert Point and G-Land were secret spots. Secret spots have never worked for any length of time, as nothing is harder to keep than a good secret.

The secret spot ethos has in several cases, directly contributed to the destruction of world-class waves, such as Petacalco in Mexico and Jardim do Mar in Madeira. Petacalco was a gringo sanctuary in the early 1970s reputed to be - and ferociously defended as if it was - the best wave in all of Mexico, but was largely destroyed by the La Villita hydroelectric dam built on the Rio Balsas in 1973, only 15 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean. The dam shut off the flow of sand and gravel to the river bar which then washed away, taking the waves with it.

Jardim do Mar was a secret spot for more than 15 years, one of the world’s best big-wave point breaks, then fatally disfigured by a hideous breakwater project in 2003 that may not have happened if surfing and the associated economic value of surfing visitors were more integrated into the local community and important to the economy of the island of Madeira. 

These kind of projects don’t happen to waves that are not 'secret spots', like Margaret River in Western Australia or Sunset Beach in Hawaii, do they? A development proposal that would destroy the waves at either of these locations would never get off the ground regardless of the amount of money involved.

A recent proposal to dredge sand and gravel from the river at Mundaka that forms the world-class rivermouth waves there was met with ferocious local and international opposition, which would not have happened if Mundaka were still a “secret spot” ridden by very few surfers.

Our philosophy on secret spots is flexible, and most of the waves we find on surfEXPLORE projects are not secret spots in the traditional sense - there are no other surfers, local or travelers. 

For example, we have found several good and completely unsurfed waves in Haiti, on both the Atlantic north coast and the Caribbean south coast, but there is little in the way of tourism infrastructure in the rural areas where these waves are located. There are no tourists nor are there any local surfers at all.

There are at least 500,000 surfers in nearby Florida and on the east coast of the US, quite close to Haiti and regularly surfing some of the world’s worst waves. 

A sudden tsunami of surfers would bring money to impoverished communities, but be a disaster to their limited accommodation, food, water and waste treatment facilities. They simply aren’t ready for even 100 additional visitors a year in these rural areas, so a gradual escalation in surfer numbers is much better than a sudden uncontrolled influx.

The images you project back to the world are of great waves and vibrant cultures, but surely it can’t be that simple. Got any particularly hairy travel stories?
Ha ha. Yes, there are times when things don’t go according to plan, at all. They say, “It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong” and that is very true.  

On our second trip to Haïti, we made plans to take a boat and explore some of the many offshore islands on the theory there could be good unridden reef waves out there in the Caribbean Sea. Everything went well, as we looked at a number of locations and found an offshore left reef, long and hollow, much bigger and better waves than anything available on the Haïtian mainland. 

We had a great session and got back in the boat as it was getting dark. We were an hour or so from our base at the Ile a Vache, the largest of the islands in the area. After a few minutes of the return trip the 200 hp outboard motor suddenly seized violently and the boat came to a complete stop. Floating along in silence, we were without an engine in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. 

Some engine work followed but the motor was frozen solid - an oil leak had drained the lubrication without anyone’s knowledge. A number of rather loud phone calls in Haïtian Creole followed as we were still within cell phone range. It was now completely dark. 

We made contact and a boat used to bring guests to the hotel on the Ile a Vache was now looking for us. We had a GPS coordinate, but nobody on that boat understood GPS. They only used compass bearings to motor back and forth to the mainland. So they had to spot our light, and we had one tiny flashlight to signal our location!

After several hours of drifting and many phone calls, in what must have been a minor miracle, the hotel boat saw our fading flashlight and arrived on the scene. A rope was tied from their stern to our bow, and we set off again. An island appeared an hour or so later and we prepared to disembark, but as we got closer it became apparent – it was the wrong island!

A stern conference with the hotel boat driver followed and along with the confused and seasick guests he had picked up in Les Cayes on the mainland before rescuing us, we set off again to find the Ile a Vache. After another hour we finally arrived at the hotel dock at midnight, congratulating the boat captain for finally getting it right and looking forward to a cold beer.

Artificial waves are back on the agenda in a big way with the revelation of Kelly Slater’s phenomenal wave pool. Will the development of more waves of Slater quality affect the search for new ocean waves?
Not particularly. Kelly has produced an incredible artificial wave and we know what he’s done and where it is, but we don’t know how he’s doing it, or even if this kind of facility will ever be a commercially viable alternative to ocean waves.

I personally think it will, as there is a market and the technology clearly exists to produce good artificial waves. With investment and engineering, the waves will get better and the cost per wave will decline. The reason previous wave pools like the famous OceanDome in Japan were eventually closed is they were too expensive to run, with enormous electricity requirements and limited revenue.

As interesting and exciting as the recent wave pool developments have been, people go on surf trips for more than riding the waves they might find. It’s certainly the major motivational factor in the whole experience, but it’s only a part of the experience. 

Something tells me buying a ticket, putting on a wetsuit in a changing room with a dozen other fellas, then waiting in a chlorinated lineup for wave number 17 to arrive in precisely two minutes isn’t going to be quite the same experience as finding the small village on a map, parking in the dust, greeting the local headman and about two hundred excited children, then hiking a long track through a steamy tropical forest to emerge at a perfect offshore beachbreak with no one around and paddle out to surf waves no one has ever surfed before. 

That kind of experience is still out there and not available at any wave pool.

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