Island Thanks

Huge thank you to Craig from Amara Watersports and Dr. Sam for all their hard work and preparation, for their constant encouragement and tireless dedication, and for being so much fun to surf with. Learned a lot from both of them during this trip, cheers guys! Thanks to Starboard SUP for producing the awesome board designs we got to try out, and thanks also to Nok and her mother from Ao Yai Bungalows for looking after us.

Island GoPro

Must admit, not having a huge amount of success with the GoPro so far. It's prone to fogging up quickly, water dropplets stick to the lens housing and the head mount makes the waves look smaller. Further experimentation with placement and angles much needed.

Island Vista

A tropical island, quiet beaches, warm water, empty waves, what more could one reasonably ask for.

Island Surf

We were lucky to score consistent clean waist to head high waves for the duration of our stay.

Island Life

A few grainy stills taken from video footage of a recent island surf trip...more to follow.

Beware of this man and his 'bear hand'.

Island essentials, board, beer and bike, in that order.

Craig with Starboard's cool new 7'4 Rush compact wave SUP in AST construction.

Sam with Starboard's 9'0 Hero SUP in AST camo foam deck.

The stars of the show, Starboard's SevenEleven, Hero and Rush stand up paddlesurfing boards.

Kae's Cover Up

Kae only started surfing five months ago and surfs alone usually. He seemed pleased to have someone else in the water to share waves with.

Gold Skin

Swell's dropping off a bit but still rideable.

 

 

South Side

Nang Thong south's been producing some nice waves over the past few days. Super shifty, don your peak hunting cap.

Mid September

A beautiful sunny morning, clean fun waves, no one out.

Twilight Surf

Less light, longer exposure, blurry waves.

Secreted Cove

Beached here before on the SUP but never surfed it. Looks like it could have potential on a bigger swell or a higher tide?

Surfing Fishermen

A couple of the locals have sourced themselves a rescue paddleboard and have been using it with increased frequency for their daily fishing escapades. Sure enough, if there's a swell running they can be seen belly riding their catch back to the beach.

Timber

The coral cape constantly shifts and changes with the high tides, moving and depositing coral rubble in different places which means potentially, the breaks could also change for better or for worse.

Swell Run

Surf has been dismal so far this month but it looks like we could have a strong finish to the season. Small waves forecast from tomorrow through till next weekend. Showing 180hr forecast, promising swell, ETA Thursday 23rd, fingers crossed.

Mae Ramphung Pier

Got to paddlesurf a bit on the gulf coast with Craig, Bo and Jimmy from Amara Watersports as well as try out some of Starboards new SUP shapes. A strong onshore wind and choppy waves made balancing quite the challenge but Bo and Craig now seasoned gulf surfers made it look far easier than it actually was. Jimmy, a keen beginner blagged a day off school to join the guys and was up riding even in the difficult conditions. Big thank you to Amara Watersports for organising the trip, the equipment and the photos.