A Journey To The Land Of The Unexpected

By Dan Hutton on March 25, 2016 in Other

Photo: Dan Hutton

The biggest challenge of surfing these days isn’t learning to stand up or getting your first barrel, it’s finding uncrowded surf breaks with fun waves. As such, surfers are forced to search far and wide, often travelling to exotic destinations to get their salty fix.

For this very reason, some friends and I booked a late January flight to the seldom-travelled shores of Papua New Guinea, a largely untouched frontier in what is now a flooded surf tourism market.

What PNG lacks in wave size compared to the likes of Indonesia, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, it makes up for in glassy conditions and a complete lack of competition for waves.

We were headed to Vanimo in PNG’s Sandaun Province. Our group totalled four and ranged in age from 24 to 69, my mate’s dad, Paul Dwyer, being the elder statesman. This was his fourth trip to PNG in the last five years and his third consecutive excursion to Vanimo – for a bloke his age you just can’t beat the empty line-ups.

Vanimo is only half an hour from the Indonesian border and about 100 kilometres from Jayapura, but the most direct route there involves a stopover in Port Moresby, allegedly one of the most dangerous cities in the world, where a night in the Gateway Hotel is an unfortunate necessity.

Despite the images you may conjure when thinking of PNG, the Air Niugini plane wasn’t too bad. It was a twin-engine Bombadier Dash-8, similar to what you’re likely to find yourself on when travelling Qantas Link or Rex to most parts of regional Australia. It even came with an overtly camp flight attendant.

Unfortunately Air Niugini’s board handling skills weren’t so commendable. When I unpacked my three boards from their meticulously bound and bubble wrapped tombs, two were so badly damaged that they were unusable on the trip. One of these was an unridden Luke Daniels custom that I’d been frothing to surf. It hadn’t even felt the touch of wax, let alone water. I was devastated.

When we arrived in Vanimo, we were greeted at the airport by Tori and Manu, the friendly new managers of Vanimo Surf Lodge where we would be spending the next week.

The lodge is situated in the village of Lido, a ten-minute drive from Vanimo itself. Made up of three small wooden cabins that each have room for four guests, an undercover dining area, an amenities block and the manager’s quarters, it’s small and basic, but it’s right on the beachfront and we had the place to ourselves.

You can pretty much group the highlights of a trip to Vanimo into two main categories: the waves and the people.

The best three breaks in the vicinity of the lodge are a right hander straight out the front, a left that’s about a 500-metre walk through Lido village, and another left in the village of Yako, about a 10-minute drive away.

The right-hander, aptly named Lido Right, is a long, clean, fun wave with an end section that wraps around the reef and hollows out when conditions work in its favour. There’s a resident dugong (whom we named ‘Evonne’) to keep you company, and when the wind is down and the swell is greater than two-foot, it’s unbeatable. We only scored it on the last two days our trip, when it finally produced three to four foot of glassy heaven. It was well worth the wait.

Thankfully when the wind is into the right, the lefts are generally protected. This meant we spent the first five days of the trip alternating between Lido Left and Yako, depending on the tide.

Lido Left breaks deep over sand-covered reef, and while it takes a bit of paddle power to get out there and stay in position (thanks to a bloody strong sweep), it’s well worth the reward. We scored it up to five-foot and enjoyed many a memorable session despite the weary arms.

Yako is a different beast all together. It looks fairly tame from the shore, but breaks over a shallow rock ledge, producing perfect barrels even in small swell. It gets a bit crowded with locals (many of whom still surf hand-shaped wooden boards called ‘splinters’), but they’re more than happy for visitors to take the pick of the waves. If you want to get barrelled, this is the place to do it. Paddle, pig-dog, pitted.

The other highlight of a trip to Vanimo is the amazing people. Never will you see more smiles or receive more pleasant greetings, even if it’s just a small child screeching, “Wale, what’s your name?” While Port Moresby is considered dangerous, Lido village is anything but. Rarely have I felt more safe and secure. You really have to visit to understand the hospitality of the locals.

So if you’re looking to book a surf trip to destination with no crowds, fun waves, good people and an ample supply of Beng-bengs, bananas, bush knives, books and SP Lager, look no further than Vanimo Surf Lodge. It really is a little slice of paradise.