Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula sia tribies!
There was recently a question on the forums concerning surfing on the island. I just returned from an attempted (and failed) surf trip to Vorovoro and although I was not able to get my board to the island, I did take some notes and made a bit of a surf map for the northwest side of the island.

I was able to get my board as far as Nadi, but when I went to check in for my Air Pacific flight to Labasa, I was notifed that they do not take surf boards to the “outlying islands” (without previous arrangements). So I lugged my board to Fiji to pay for it to vacation in the Nadi luggage room. I believe Chief Ryan had a similar experience.

There are two boards on the island, but these are in dreadful shape – especially due to the fact that the coral is about 12” deep during low tide, and they are used as pool toys vs. surf boards… but there isn’t much surf around anyway and they see alot more smiles with this usage… so it is for the best. If you plan to use them, bring some epoxy for repairs and a bunch of tropical wax as the water is so hot it goes away quick. Both of the boards are hybrid short boards, having minimal thickness and aggressive rocker, but much more length – I think 7’6”. Being used to a 6’3” fish and a 9’3” longboard, I couldn’t ride them, but I’m not an allstar by any means.

The optimal place to ride would be the outer reef, but alot of work has to be done here in the way of even finding a ridable wave… I have some good ideas from studying swell direction (ENE) and the shape of the reef, but it is rare when we have the ability to go out to the reef with a boat and actually check. This also would include finding optimal times for the best waves – high tide, low tide, making tide, etc… It is just going to take alot of eye-time on the waves out there, but based on what I saw, there are easily some 20’ giants waiting to be slid.

I did make a pretty decent surf map for the spots near the village and threw what I thought were appropriate names onto the breaks. Ben was able to get a short ride on the shallow reef just west of the village and I believe it was the only wave ridden so far. This is super shallow and could be pretty gnarly in a fall, but seems to work best when the tide is on the make, just before high tide on taking off at the farthest out point of the reef, and then breaking left to the village side. The reef out in front of the village may have some small potential, but the only times I saw this even think to work was when a big ungle storm was about to hit – probably mostly wind generated stuff here. There is a pretty nice break with a long, occaisionally clean wave just to the west of the waterfall. There is a big rectangular rock that has a flat top and just sticks out of the water at high tide. If you line up straight out from this or a bit west, and then ride left to avoid a couple of shallow rocks, you should be able to ride up to the beach. The reef stays about 3’ to 1.5’ deep here, so still not a place for a wipe out. The take off zone is where the water comes up from a bit deeper to about 3’ deep, and although I could just touch the reef with my feet if I tried, I never hit it while paddling for a wave. Again, high tide and especially right as the tide is about in, still getting the benefit of the quick tide. (The tides played a big part as I was there during the new moon and they were quite big). However, if there is the right wind, and the current is coming more from the north than normal, you won’t sit there for long – because just to the west there will be super clean wrapping lines disappearing around the curve of the island. It looks super hairy, as the waves crash straight into a bunch of huge rocks and there are some poking out of the water just to the west, but it actually isn’t too bad. Just be careful about getting pushed into the impact zone while you drool over the potential. This only worked for about an hour while I was there and I regret not building up the courage to check it out a couple sets earlier. While everything else had the occaisonal knee to thigh wave, this puppy had a couple 4 or 5 wave sets roll through at neck high… super clean and steep. If you make it around the rocks, there is a hidden light-sand beach on the far side that you can ride right onto – definitely recommend scoping it all out at low tide and flat water though as there are a couple of big barely submerged rocks. But this is a point break, probably feeding off of unbroken waves that make it through the Mali Passage just to the northeast. With an offshore wind, it could be amazing… especially if you were able to smuggle in a floaty board and get in early. On my long board there would easily be enough to get a 300 yard ride out. Take off about 150 yards out from the shore, at about the center of the point (it is a point break wrapping around the island). The best (at least safest and longest) would be to ride right, and aim for about 25 feet into the hidden beach. The reef here is quite deep (at least 3.5’ or 4’ deep so wipe outs shouldn’t be a big deal and the beach is really steep – I was able to paddle onto the beach directly without hitting anything with my hands. This is the cash money spot, if you can find it breaking – which might unfortunately take the perfect combination of events. When I was there, there were some really big storms up to the NNW.

So yeah, this is my “little” Vorovoro surf primer, and if you are disappointed with what you find, remember that I am a lake surfer and you can come surf 0 C water for waist-high (shin high in Hawaii waves?) and I’ll let you borrow some stoke. Warm water rules.

The pictures are a bit hard to see, so here are links to them on flickr:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/2245485502_a80f8ce70d_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2097/2244691375_b38116cac9_o.jpg