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MEMORIES OF SUMBAWA
Photo: Crawford
Have been working on Surfing World's upcoming 30th issue and editor Vaughn Blakey emailed me this image today which he discovered while rummaging through the prodigous archives of the great Peter Crawford. It captures a moment from an early surf trip to Sumbawa back in 1987, I think. We were the second group into Paul King's fledgling surf camp there, right in front of Periscopes (pictured here). We didn't know Lakey Peak existed, which is now considered the primo wave in the area and where all the tourist development has been. We were just stoked to find an empty, quality right in the land of lefts. Have always felt guilty that we kinda exposed the place but as a green 22-year-old just excited to be on a surf trip I don't think I had much of an understanding of the dangers of publicising a new and pristine bit of coast. Not entirely sure the lessons have been learnt terribly well by the surf media in the 20-odd years since. Crawford was a gem of a man to travel with, always hilarious, raving in excited surf babble, hungering for the next adventure. When this shot turned up in my inbox this morning it plunged me back in time 20 years. I think it was the first time I had surfed such perfect waves without crowds for days on end, and probably one of the top 10 surf trips of my life. Funny how you never really appreciate how rare and formative those experiences are until afterwards.