Easter was fun a time in Tahiti. We all painted real boiled eggs from the chickens in our garden. Sunny and mum had been taught basket weaving and they made these really cool easter baskets out of recycled magazines. They turn out super strong. On Easter Sunday I hunted for chocolate eggs in the garden with my Mum, Dad and Sunny, and then I chased the chickens with my drone again.

My Grandparents from Thredbo came to visit for a few days. They are both over 80 so it’s a pretty good effort to be cruising around Tahiti. My Grandpa is still an amazing skier, so maybe I will be surfing Chopes at 83! It was great to hang out with them. We showed them the reefs and passes in my boat and we played games of Bananagram together at night.

School was done on the balcony and it went fine most of the time. We had school holidays when my Dad visited which meant we could check out some other islands also.

We visited two other islands. We flew over to Huahine and got some sick waves. It’s a heavy local spot. So you show respect, you don’t talk about the waves. No cameras allowed, so you don’t take photos. It’s the original home of Polynesian Royalty and it has ancient ruins all around the island. It’s like no other place for natural untouched tropical beauty.

We had been warned to be careful. When we arrived on the wharf with boards we spotted some big boys cruising the main street on the island in a big black Hummer with a Da Hui black shorts sticker from the famous Hawaiian Surf Gang on the back of their truck. They gave us a shakka which felt good. We met some cool locals on a random reef pass on the second day. They knew where we had surfed the day before even though there was only three of us in the water and it was the opposite side of the island at an offshore reef. Pretty cool how the bush telegraph works.

We also hung out and surfed with Keoni Yan. Keoni is half Tahitian but born in Hawaii and his mum is Japanese. He is 21 and is surfing on the Qualifying Series. Keoni stays with us when he comes to Manly. Keoni introduced me to Raimana Van Bastolaer who took me out to an outer bombie on his Red Bull jet ski, which was so sick. We did some step offs that day.

Keoni also took us swimming in the fresh water springs. They have eels in them but they don’t bite. It’s so cool on weekends. All the locals all go and sit in the springs, pump out some tunes extra loud on beat boxes and cook a BBQ.

 On Sunday everyone goes to church dressed in white. Most people seem go to local churches and walk. The local community all seem really happy on Sundays. On the way home everyone is carrying baguettes and food. We had so many baguettes in Tahiti. They cost around 50 cents each and you can buy them everywhere. They are so good!

We also visited Moorea and surfed every side of the island of Tahiti. We met heaps of great people around the island. One rainy day we trekked in the jungle. Soaked in rain and mud. I think my sister and I complained a bit on the trek up the volcano. Matahai’s sister Cindy was our guide and she just laughed at us. It was pretty funny I suppose.

It’s off to Indo next. I was sad to leave Tahiti but so pumped to be going back to Indo for almost two months.

“This is my first trip to Tahiti. I don’t know much, except it’s a French speaking country, has black sand beaches which you can’t walk on in the middle of the day, heaps of old extinct volcanoes, AND we are headed to one of the scariest waves on the planet. For the next month, I am staying right at Teauhpo’o – the end of the road. I am stoked I have my trusty boards from Hawaii! I am scared but I will give it my best swing and try to learn stuff for the future”

We lived in a cottage in a massive private tropical garden on the edge of the lagoon that feeds Teauhpoo. The garden is hidden behind 8 foot high walls. They had a guard dog. It’s called “IT” and Its owner said it would attack you AND eat you if you looked into Its eyes and challenged IT. So we didn’t do that.

They also had chickens and roosters running free. I chased them with my drone but they just bolted for the jungle.

 At the end of the garden was the lagoon that leads to Teauhpoo. I anchored my tinny out there. We rented the boat from Matahai Drollet and his sister. They were so helpful getting us set up.

Matahai is one of the best surfers at Teauhpoo and he is a Hurley team rider. He took me out on his jet ski to watch and taught me some tactics on how to read the wave. Matahai  also called me into waves in my first real scary session. I learnt about the west bowl and how to start reading it. I got some amazing waves and got barrelled but it was probably only in my last session after a month that I started to get better.

I also got cleaned up within what felt like an inch of my life. Everyone scrambles for the horizon and when you are behind the pack bolting for a shoulder you know you are done. This was my turn and I got it not on the head but about a metre in front of me. I had been washed through the lagoon before but this was new.  A boat from the channel went over the falls on that wave. Two people fell out and lost all their stuff.

Matahai also taught me how to drive his boat. It’s a 12 foot tinny with an outboard engine. He showed me all the tricks from starting it to the reef formations and how the boat markers work for reef navigation.

I loved cruising the reefs and surfing the passes. We watched dolphins, turtles and spotted some scary big sharks. You need to wear shoes or “slippers” in the water when you are getting the boat ready because they have stone fish which are camouflaged. If you stand on one, the poison can kill you.

I became good friends with Eimeo. Eimeo is French, he is two years older than me and is also home schooling with his family. We surfed most days with his Dad who also filmed us.

My sister surfed the Teauhpoo River mouth every day. It is the sickest 1 foot cobblestone set up just like a mini right hand Trestles. All the local kids are out. They ride anything from boogie boards to kayaks and old snapped boards that pros have left behind. It’s a collection of locals, French and some Aussies who now live in Tahiti. All the kids have heaps of fun. Freezing fresh water comes from the volcanoes down through the river. The fresh water kills the coral reef which makes the natural passes we surf.

I surfed the river mouth a few times. Then one day it was about 2-3 foot and it is just so rippable. Maybe three or four fast turns. But I also destroyed a board on a finish turn on the cobblestone end section. The next day the swell hit and shifted the whole cobblestone bank. 

Being on the North Shore for a month meant that I got to make some good friends. I surfed and skated with Makai most days and his Dad took me to cool secret spots. Sunny hung out with his sisters every day. They skated Banzai skate park every afternoon, it's about a 3 minute walk from our house. All the kids go in the arvo when it’s not so hot. The girls dominated the island drop in along with John John’s mum who rips with no helmet or pads.

I also had a bike and would cruise around on it. After skating or a late surf we would all ride down to Sharks Cove to the food trucks for dinner and watch random old surf movies about Pat O’Connell who runs Hurley. They have the best hot dog trucks.

I did the Hurley Surf Club with Joel Centeio and a bunch of groms at Off the Wall. It was sick fun until one of the groms got cut up a bit. But he was looked after and he was fine. Joel rips and he took me surfing at Haleiwa a few times. I am going to surf it more next time. I also watched my mate Eli Hanneman come second at the Pipe pro junior. That was very cool.

I buried myself in the sand one morning while watching a huge 20 Foot + messy swell hitting the North Shore. A life guard on a quad bike came and told me it was too dangerous. Instead of getting annoyed he told me to jump on the back of the quad bike to do his rounds with him.

His name is Johnny Love and he has been a life guard for 25 years. After that most days he would come along pick me up and we would power up and down the beach doing a surf check or he would just stop and watch me surf for a bit then wave. His Dad, José Love, was one of the most famous life guards from the North shore. He was best mates with Eddie Aikau and José died free diving for black coral in 300m of water when Johnny was young.

I did all my school work on a bench in the garden under a palm tree. Sunny did too. Sometimes we got distracted but we got it done sitting in board shorts with wet hair mostly. I made a bird feeder out of a coconut that had been chewed open by coconut rats for my woodwork project. Coconut rats destroy heaps of palm trees. Who would have thought rats in paradise!

I love the North Shore and the place we stayed. Hanging out with Arjuna and Mel Mel in their beach pad was awesome. It was hard to leave Hawaii. After a month it felt like home. I can’t wait to go back and hope like hell that Arjuna doesn’t rip the old beach house down any time soon.

We are heading to Tahiti next. We have been away 2 months. That’s my longest time ever but I’ m not really missing home yet. I have a photo of Manly and all my Manly Village school friends next to my bed. 

“I have been to the North Shore of Oahu a couple of times before. I first surfed the south shore in summer when I was 7 years old. I was 9 when I first surfed small Pipeline. V Land was my favourite back then and I was stoked to go back.”

I thought I knew what to expect in Hawaii, but I was to learn that spending a whole month on the island late in the season is a whole new game. We got so many changing swell and weather patterns. It goes from rippable to barrels to heavy to “sit out and watch” and then back to rippable. You don’t get that amazing variety on short trips when it might just be sunny for 7 days with 1 swell that comes and goes.

Mum, Sunny and I lived on the beach at Log Cabins. We arranged to stay with two friends that we met in the Mentawaii Islands in Indonesia last year. Arjuna is a Pipe and Waimea guy. I got my worst hold down ever in the Menatwaii’s with Arjuna and his wife Mel Mel last season surfing Niapussi. Arjuna promised me at the time that it was nothing compared to a North Shore hold down.

Arjuna and Mel Mel have an old beach house. Arjuna built it from recycled stuff he either found or bought. It has cool art, surfboards everywhere and an electric massage chair. You eat all your meals outside on a park bench. It was also my class room desk. At the end of the deck is a round wooden swing seat hanging from an old scrapy rope attached to a coconut tree.

They live with three rabbits and heaps of random cats. Sunny was stoked. One cat called Pirate has no eye, just a hole in his head which freaked out Sunny and my Dad when he visited. An old dude called the Captain lives out the back with the pirate. They think the beach shack is their ship.

I don’t think I have ever lived closer to the surf. You could see all of Pipeline and Backdoor and Off the Wall from our outdoor shower in the front yard. John John lives about three doors up. When a swell hits it sounds like thunder, all night long,

Log Cabins can be such a heavy wave and the shore break is next level because it’s a short reef. Its maybe two turns in deep water then a closeout section that you can get either barrelled on, or huck or get destroyed. I broke two brand new boards in one session.

I got a couple of local boards made on this trip. It’s the first time I have done that. They are amazing boards made by Carl Shaper. Mitch Ross from Hurley introduced me to Matt Biolis a legend shaper. Carl does Matt’s boards in Hawaii. It was so good to have a Hawaiian shaper. He helped me a lot with boards, fins and meeting people. Carl introduced me to a local family with kids who became good friends. It was an important lesson, always learn from locals.

Lost surfboards also shipped me 2 custom boards from California shaped by Matt Mayhem Biolis. Carl gave them to me in the Foodland Carpark where everyone meets. Even Carl was amazed how these boards felt. Carl made me another board, a copy of one of Matt’s but glassed for Hawaii. It became my magic board for Hawaii, Tahiti and Indonesia until I was to get smashed again at Niapussi again 2 months later!!!

On a duck dive I got pushed down into the reef hard but held onto my board. One of my futures fins hit the reef and actually got pushed all the way through the deck of my board!!