Surfpolitik Passing an Amendment

In: Surfpolitik by Stu Nettle 19 Comments Fri 5th Feb '10

Tags: Palikir Pass , P-Pass , Micronesia , Michael Kew , Allois Malfitani , The Surfers Journal

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Stuart Nettle
January 5, 2010

I subscribe to The Surfers Journal, as I have done for many years.

In a sea of mediocre magazines catering to the monthly gossip cycle and the fashion whims of fifteen year olds The Surfers Journal stands as a paragon to the combined arts of writing and photography. It's a publication for the discerning surfer.

All photographs are of the highest quality and the layout and presentation are of equal grade. The written articles are usually essay length allowing the author to comprehensively analyse their subject. The combined effects of serious discussion, elegant design and limited advertising create an air of import and influence.

If, in the past, I was to find fault with The Surfers Journal it would be due to their propensity to place Southern California at the centre of the surfing universe. To their credit they have, in recent years, begun to expand their horizons and turn their eyes further afield. The cynic in me thinks that after running features on every single SoCal surfer of note the journal has been forced to look elsewhere for content. Whatever the reason, the surfing world no longer begins at Point Conception and ends at San Diego.

In their most recent issue they've run a story titled 'The Taking of Pohnpei' written by US surf journalist Michael Kew. The tagline to the story is: 'How a secret spot gets revealed'. The secret spot being P-Pass, or Palikir Pass, on Pohnpei, an island in the Federated States of Micronesia. It is a 10 000 word article which, even for The Surfers Journal, is an epic. In their own words it is the 'anchor feature' of this issue and, for Kew's part, it is well researched, constructed and written.

However, by running the article The Surfers Journal are showing a large degree of inconsistency. Further, I believe the cause of this runs deep.

The article is particularly damning of Brazilian, Allois Malfatani, the fellow who runs Pohnpei Surf Club. The main thrust of Kew's argument is that Allois used underhanded tactics to beat Mike Sipos, an expat American living on Pohnpei, to create a surf camp and expose Palikir Pass to the masses.

But for those that don't read The Surfers Journal I should back up a bit and provide some context...

In the Fall 2002 issue of The Surfers Journal (Volume Eleven, Number four) forty pages are devoted to the Indonesian resort of Nihiwatu and the American fellow who built it, Claude Graves. There are three seperate stories on the resort and the wave that breaks out the front. The final one even written by Graves himself.

Nihiwatu is a luxury resort on the south-west coast of Sumba. The wave in front of the resort has, erroneously, been called Occy's Left. The correct name is simply Nihiwatu. Before Graves arrived Nihiwatu was known amongst the surf-travel underground and anyone was free to surf it. Graves however, came along and claimed exclusive rights to the wave and now only paying customers can get barrelled. Single-share occupancy starts at $420 per person per night.

In the forty page spread terms such as 'realising a dream' are dropped regularly. The piece that Graves pens about himself is titled 'In Pursuit Of Dreams'. Many of the photos have captions pulled straight out of Gourmet Traveller: 'You wonder what's going on in the real world.' In three stories and forty pages a wholly uncritical picture is painted of a tough but canny entrepreneur making good on an unforgiving coastline. It's the American Dream triumphing on the Mosquito Coast with waves.

Similar favourable sentiments are shown by The Surfers Journal toward Tavarua and it's owners. The resort has featured heavily in the journal over the years. Like Nihiwatu, it is American-owned and, like Nihiwatu, it is an exclusive resort; unless you are forking out wads of greenbacks you cannot surf there.

This fawning over ventures in surf-rich but dirt-poor countries is in stark contrast to the latest offering in The Surfers Journal regarding Pohnpei.

On the premise alone Kew's article sounds like a good read: how a secret spot gets exposed. I have an ongoing interest in the media and it's dynamic nature so consider it a worthy subject to investigate. I also have an interest in Pohnpei. And here a disclosure is in order. You can make of this what you will...

In 2001 I was living on Oahu and, to earn a bit of coin, was helping Allois spruik his Brazilian BBQ at the North Shore Backpackers. I didn't know Allois very well but was invited to his house a few times. There I saw photos of a perfect righthander on his wall, though no amount of prodding would get Allois to disclose it's whereabouts.

It wasn't till a few years later, after Rob Gilley, Ted Grambeau and a smattering of other photographers had travelled through Pohnpei that I found out a camp had been established there. Photos of a perfect right were increasing in frequency in the surf media so I did a bit of internet research to trace the location. Narrowing it down to Pohnpei I clicked on the camp's website and Allois' cheery head appeared on my monitor. He owned the camp - that wave on his wall was P-Pass.

Last year I hooked up with Allois again. However, instead of handing out BBQ flyers to Norwegian backpackers my job was to surf the waves of Pohnpei and write about it on the website I edit. I paid my way there, he had me as a guest. So my impartiality in this matter might be called into question.

But despite my bias, I contend that The Surfers Journal article would never have been published if Allois was American, and that it's inclusion is racially motivated, even if unintenionally so. I contacted the editor of the The Surfers Journal, Scott Hulet, to voice my protest and he regarded my claim as 'preposterous'.

Besides the inconsistencies that I've already pointed out, Kew's article includes a chapter about Allois simply titled 'The Brazilian': no name, no title, no descriptor...just a nationality. It also splits the picture into a simplified good guy/bad guy dichotomy. The good guy being American Mike Sipos who went to Pohnpei two years before Allois. Kew's line of argument - not only expressed in the story but implied through a notable lack of questions or research on Sipos' character - is that Sipos had more of a claim to establishing a resort.

Yet the simple facts are these: Allois stumbled across Pohnpei on his own; the wave is only five kilometres from an international airport; interest in the place was reaching a tipping-point, and there was no existing surf camp. The opportunity presented itself and Allois - a Brazilian! - jumped first.

Considering the treatment he is receiving, perhaps Allois should've gone for exclusive rights in Pohnpei? That way the secret spot of Palikir Pass would only be exposed to those with money or industry sway. Or perhaps he should've been a silent partner and had an American front the operation?

Because it appears to me that when an American builds a surf camp in a foreign land The Surfers Journal considers it an example of entrepreneurial spirit, yet when foreigners do the same thing they are ruining the surfing world.

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