I started trying to collect surfboards. I was hoping to get 10, however, I didn’t expect to receive that many. I used Instagram to get my message out there. I wanted to teach some Papuans to surf and if anyone could assist in any way possible, I would really appreciate it. The response was extraordinary. It was shared by mutual friends and then by people I’d never met. There were so many people that were willing to donate I had to turn people down because I couldn’t guarantee that I could get all the boards there!

The total we took was 27. And then the extras; wetsuits, rashies, wax, leg ropes, fins, board repair kits, fibreglass…whatever we could think of that they might need. When calculating the cost of the excess baggage, we realised that it was cheaper to buy a second plane ticket and take the extra boards as normal checked luggage than to pay for the excess. So we planned to do two trips, the first in November 2018 and then a second trip in 2019.

November came, we boarded the flights and miraculously, all of the boards turned up intact! When we arrived at our destination, we eagerly made our way to the beach to see if there were waves. Not only did they have waves, they had world class, empty perfection firing all day with no one to surf them! Paradise. [Continued below]