How long have you lived in Northern California?
12 years.

How long have you been surfing?
22.5 years. I grew up in Oxnard.

How have you seen the surf scene change in San Francisco since you’ve been here?
It’s definitely gotten more crowded. Cams and reports take some of the knowledge out of it, they make it easier to know when it’s going to be good. Surfing has become way more of a fashion. There’s so much more exposure of surfing—more exposure for contests, contests are online now. It’s also become more of a social activity. Lots of people are learning later in life. The downside is that a lot of the newcomers don’t learn the pecking order and hierarchy.

How’s the local vibe in SF?
Overall, pretty good in SF. There are certain spots in SF that have gotten worse. If you want to surf at these spots, you’ve got to swallow your pride to a certain extent and respect the local order of things. Overall, the waves are more crowded everywhere and that effects the vibe in the water. The local factor in Oxnard was really bad growing up. Overall, localism seems to have gotten better for a while, but it seems like it might be regressing to something similar to what I saw growing up. With the increase in popularity, people really WANT to hold on to their status and contain their lineups so badly, and sometimes they’re not against resorting to old school/barbaric tactics to enforce it.

How did you get involved with Sumatran Surfariis?
I started doing trips to Indo with Scuzz (business partner) for several years. In 2001, Scuzz offered the opportunity to buy into the company. I was working at a start-up and burnt out. At the same time, mom had suffered a brain aneurysm and was in a coma. Going through something like that helped me realize that you need to be around good people and that life is about maximizing the good.

I took my life savings and invested everything in the company. I started off as a partner booking trips, moved into updating the website, and then moved into doing all the U.S. bookings. I was waiting tables on the side to make enough money. Now I handle all the worldwide bookings and front end, promotions, and customer service. In 2004, I started doing it full-time. It’s turned out great and affords me a great lifestyle.

How long do you get to spend in Indo on boat trips?
I usually go twice a year for a total of 1.5 to 2 months. I usually do a peak season trip (May to September) to Northern Sumatra. In the early or late season, I’ll do a trip to the Ments.

Is it hard coming back to NorCal after a trip to Indo?
It’s gotten easier because I know what to expect coming back. You just have to bite the bullet and get back in the water when you get back. Otherwise, I get in this place where I want to avoid wetsuits and cold duck dives, and before you know it you’ve been out of the water for three weeks and it’s hard to get the ball rolling again. Once you’re acclimated to it again, it’s all good. It’s all still surfing.

I read that the Sumatran Surfariis was heavily involved in the relief efforts after the tsunami in December 2004.
My partner Chris “Scuzz” Scurrah was there, in the water in the Ments when the tsumani hit:
www.smh.com.au

I immediately started getting calls from all over the world. All the AID was going to Aceh, no one was going to the areas where we run our charters that were also hit hard by the tsunami (the smaller villages and cities in the Telos, Hinakos, Nias, Banyaks, Simeulue, etc.)

Scuzz took one of our boats and filled it with as much stuff as he could and went on a survey trip. I was providing info for the rest of the world about what was going on there in the islands around where we operated, on our website. I was getting inquiries from all over the world, major media outlets like NBC were calling me. Our website was getting 600,000 hits/month. I got so many calls from people who wanted to help in any way. We took donations and gave receipts and updates on how every penny was spent, and provided updates on our website with photos, maps, relief plans, etc. We got so many calls from random people, people crying and wanting to do something to help. All we could suggest was to donate or just go over to the area to help. Bigger aid groups started to get involved in the area as well. We also were able to work with Timmy Turner (filmmaker) on his relief trip.

The second round of quakes were much more destructive to the infrastructure of the islands.

We invested so much in the efforts and didn’t recoup a lot of what we spent, but were happy to do it; it was the right thing to do. It was a way to give back to the people who live on the islands. If we didn’t have these islands, we wouldn’t have careers. The locals over there are so warmhearted. They’re always smiling and happy to see American surfers. It was great to be able to give back.

Scuzz was voted Surfer of the Year by Tracks Magazine (Australian surf magazine) for 2005 because of his efforts and selflessness in helping.

Some of the areas were hardly affected at all, while others changed so much (Asu and Bawa). It was a real challenge getting the boats and relief supplies to the locals because the areas were so changed, the GPS and depth charts were useless in some of the areas.

The whole experience restored my faith in a lot of people. So many random people were concerned and wanted to help these people they knew nothing about. I got so many calls from people all over the world just crying.

What was the response by the rest of the surf charter industry?
I was actually more impressed, at least initially, by the charter operators than the aid organizations, who seemed to be caught up in dealing with a lot bureaucracy. Scuzz laid the groundwork and coordinated with 7–8 other boats without wondering whether they would get paid back and without worrying how we would get PR for it.

You and other charter operators were instrumental in drawing attention to these areas and the people affected.
I would say our website was instrumental in getting the word out, yes, as were those of other charter companies. How would the Red Cross know about these tiny villages of 500 people on these islands? It was up to us to take care of the villagers who had been so generous with us over the years, and basically provided us with our careers. We know the areas better than anyone and because of that we could deliver the aid much faster than anyone else.

It seems like it was a great opportunity to give back to the locals.
Yes, it felt really good to be able to give back to locals and just do something unselfish. It really helped define who we (Sumatran Surfariis) are and how we are involved. We really owe something to the locals for being so cool about letting us use their land and waters.

It’s sad how much money has gotten involved in the thing (the surf charter and trip industry) and how people get involved in fighting over waves that really are not theirs in the first place.

There seems like there are some big issues in the Ments right now with the surf charter industry.
Right. There are a lot of operators over there and it’s become crowded in addition to the land camps. (Since this interview, there has been the emergence of the MMTA (Mentawai Marine Tourism Association), which basically is trying to give all the rights to the waves to the land camps, though it was the charter operators who helped create the traffic for such camps in the first place. It’s still a while before anything like that will be enforced, and the charter operators are fighting it, but there’s definitely some battling going on.)

The area has really blown up. There are now six land camps in the Ments. There’s a surfing camp/dive resort. It’s really become a multi-million dollar industry. There are speedboats and jet skis zooming around everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a roller coaster in the middle of The Playground within the next five years.

Are there any proposals where surfers and locals can benefit from the resources there?
There’s one to limit the number of boats that get licensed to operate in the Ments. This risks are creating a monopoly and limiting competition. It’s complicated, there’s a lot of money tied up in the whole issue. The licensing issue isn’t always because they want to limit the negative impact to the areas and benefit the locals. Some of the operators don’t want any more competition.

It’s generally ridiculous for people to be claiming rights on islands over there that they don’t and can’t own. (Again, this refers primarily to the MMTA. In essence, they are trying to mask their intentions by making it seem like they’re doing this all for the locals. But of course they will all be making money on this, and the limiting of number of boats has two major benefits for them. One, it requires all the charter operators to pay the MMTA. And two, many of the MMTA brass are also boat owners, so it will limit the number of boats out there and thus increase the likelihood that their boats will be full).

Are there efforts to make this a resource that people can and will continue to enjoy?
Christie’s camp (www.wavepark.com) has been there for a long time and done everything to try to do things right when they probably could have grabbed wave rights and exclusivity and staked their claim. But most camps have emerged within the last 3–5 years and have done what Christie did not: basically trying to pull a Microsoft and take the groundwork others have laid, and sort of bulldoze their way into the land camp thing. They are the newcomers to this whole process, yet now they want to claim ownership of the land, and the waves. Seems a bit odd, no?

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