There and Beyond – A recap of the March 2019 #MIKiteAdventure
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Words: Evan Netch | Photos by: John Bilderback
The Marshall Islands have been at the top of my dream list before I even knew they existed. If I was to close my eyes and envision that perfect location beyond a reality that I knew existed, the Marshalls are that place. Coming from the east coast of the US the Pacific Islands are a place of mystery and beauty, and the utter remoteness combined with the history surrounding them makes them a place I could only dream about having the chance to experience.
Growing up I would watch surf movies and see glimpses of perfect waves without another soul around. I remember Quicksilver sponsoring a surf exploration to go find the best uncrowned or unknown waves in the world back in the early 2000’s. For me all of these locations were so unattainable I did not even consider them as a possibility on my list of locations to visit in my lifetime. Then in 2011, I remember Cabrinha releasing a video called “Drifting” where the team went to some tiny island in the Marshalls and between the insanely clear water, pristine reef, empty perfect waves and being in one of the most remote places imaginable it immediately went on my dream destination list. I have never been a city person so for me to go somewhere and be 100’s or thousands of miles away from any civilization is what really makes me feel alive. Being out in the raw elements of the world as it is meant to be, untouched by other humans, totally alone and exposed.
My first opportunity to ever experience my dreams of visiting the Pacific Islands was onboard the Discovery, also known as the Cabrinha Quest, a sail boat on a mission to explore some of the most remote locations for their kiteboarding and surfing potential. I was lucky enough to go on a 10-day trip to Tonga and the next year again to Micronesia. While we didn’t get epic conditions on either one of these trips, sitting out in the middle of the Pacific Islands only with the people with you for me is the most peaceful yet exciting feeling in the world. Traveling for multiple days to get to the location, cut off without internet or cell service allows you to fully enjoy the present and gives a glimpse to what much more of world was once like long ago. To be sitting in an empty surf lineup or kiting alone off an island just long enough to lay out your lines without another person or boat for hundreds of miles gives a sense of freedom that otherwise I find impossible to get in the world I live in today.
I never really knew where the Marshall Islands were until this trip to Micronesia when the island hoping flight was on made two stops through the Marshalls on it’s way from Guam back to Honolulu linking many pacific island nations together finally giving myself a clear mental map. I remember stopping in Majuro (the capitol of the Marshall Islands) and we all got off the flight to take a break and grab some food. We walked off the plane into a 1-room airport where a local vendor was selling tuna sandwiches. They were about $4, and there were enough for about half the people on the flight, and could have been a $20 sandwich anywhere in the US. Fresh as could be, and when they ran out, that was it, and we boarded the plane and continued on our way. Looking at the islands from the air all I could see was shallow reef surrounding the atolls and what looked to be endless potential for amazing surf and kite locations all of which impossible to get to without some serous exploration and a boat equipped to do so.
Ever since peering out of the window of that flight through the Marshalls I knew that before I die I had to find my way back there beyond the airport as unattainable as it may have felt in that moment.
After the trip I spent a lot of time exploring on Google Earth. I saw and learned a lot of about the tragic history of many of the Pacific Islands. Physical and economic scars from war and nuclear testing earlier in the 20th century still clearly evident today. I walked right past the closed Bikini Atoll town hall; an atoll that is still uninhabited after it was evacuated and contaminated with nuclear radiation. Amongst environmental tragedy are some of the most alive waters I have seen in my life. Water so clear that you can see a small reef fish on the bottom 50 feet down though a sun glared surface, reef so alive that if you dare scrape it you will be fighting infection for weeks and so many sharks that you are not even phased by seeing them after the first day.
I had a glimpse of this while in Micronesia in 2016. Sunken merchant and war ships and gun turrets littered one of the main islands, Pohnpei. Local supplies were stamped with “US Aid” as continued to attempt to pay repentance for the damage the US had done to the islands. Meanwhile islands in another atoll just hundred miles away may not have a single person living on it making you wonder when the last person set foot on it’s beach there. Was it last month, last year, or on some islands, perhaps never?
When Reo Stevens called me just a couple weeks before his trip to the Marshall Islands I was prepared to drop whatever was necessary to make it happen. This was my chance to finally get to where I saw as the most remote and pristine kiting destination on the planet and I didn’t hesitate. I wouldn’t fully understand the extent to how untouched and amazing so many of these islands are until I got off our last connecting flight 2 days after leaving the east coast a few weeks later.
Leaving from Florida I had a standard fairly quick and easy day of travel to get to Hawaii. From Hawaii there are only a few flights per week that go through Majuro, our first point of contact with the Marshall Islands. From Majuro a second flight has to be booked with Marshall Air, the local inter-island charter company. We would be flying into the Atoll a flight that is held just once per week. From what I understand Marshall Airlines has just 2 planes, both fairly small island hoppers and with many little islands and so few people there is not much of a need to make more than one trip with 15 or 20 passengers per week. Majuro airport is pretty relaxed. Once the big commercial flights comes and goes airport security and pretty much all the employees are gone as we wait for our little local flight to arrive. At this point it had been a couple days of traveling and I decided to go for a quick swim while we waited for our plane. I casually walkout out of the airport, and across the road and was welcomed by water that felt like it matched the air temperature degree to degree. After washing 2 days of airport travel off I walked back into the open terminal and we boarded our last short flight to the Atoll. After a minor mechanical mishap, and a quick mid flight U-turn back to Majuro, take two on the final leg on our journey and we finally touched down on the Atoll.
We had a short drive through the local village to the other end of the island where a cut in the reef allows a small boat to get into the beach. Here we loaded our supplies and made our way out to the Indies Trader, and what would be my home for the next 2 weeks.
I’ve seen plenty of clear water in the Caribbean, Hawaii and other places around the world but in the middle of the Pacific Ocean it is a different version of clear. The Islands are Atolls, which is essentially just the rim of a volcano that just barley breaks the oceans surface. Around the rim are various islands and passes in the reef, and in the center a big lagoon. The steep sides of the volcanic rim drop off quickly to thousands of feet deep maybe not more than a couple hundred meters outside of a surf break. Fresh ocean water is constantly cycling in and out of the islands and with no sizable land mass or development to create runoff and any type the water is clear and clean. Boarding the boat fresh from multiple days of traveling we waste no time pulling a few boards out of bags to get back in the water after an initial welcoming swim. With a world-class surf break sitting on the end of the runway we just landed on we were immediately sharing waves with only the friends that we brought along for the trip.
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After a fun couple hours in the water we still have an hour motor to the island where we will base ourselves for the next few weeks. As the sun begins to get low we wrap it up to make navigation a bit easier in the last light of the day. After we enter the reef pass as there are many coral heads that jet up to the surface like a pyramid in hundreds of feet of water, and without quality charts of much of the area the best navigation is the captains own eyes.
Over the next 2 weeks we would kite, surf and explore this gem of a location discovered to the surf world by Martin Daly. Martin is the owner of the Indies Trader and the captain during the Quicksilver crossing, a 5 year exploratory trip to find the best untouched waves in the world that many of the best surfers of the time and today were part of, from Kelly Slater to Bruce Irons and many more. After a lifetime of exploring in some of the best and most remote locations in the world Martin finally chose the Marshall Islands to set up camp. It is unspoiled, uncrowned and home to some of the best surf and diving in the world. While kiteboarding was likely on his radar, the Marshall islands have some of the most consistent a winds I have every seen making the location an absolute dream for almost any kiter.
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