Sailing Tonga | We found waves!
A big part of the surf for me is to discover and surf empty waves. This week Tonga produced the goods!
We had heard rumours of waves in the Tongan islands and had spent many hours on satakite images scouting out potential spots. It is rarely easy to anchor near good surf and since being in Tonga this has been even more true. The winds have been relentless, blowing 20-30 knots most days. For most of the waves around here they are quite exposed and require calm conditions. After a couple weeks of sheltering in beautiful bays there was a calm in the forecast. We took our moment and put our bets on this one spot we had spoken to a local about. 24 hours later we were anchored off a remote Tongan island with a perfect left hander not far away. The next few days were spent surfing as much as possible. It was a powerful wave breaking over shallow reef, whales breaching outback and yje occasional turtle surfacing for air. Perfection. On what would be the last day of surfing (for me) the swell really stepped it up a notch with solid double over head waves rearing up from the depth of the pacific. On one of the bigger sets I took off in a nasty set and got thrown by the lip into the flats with the lip piling down on top of me. As soon as I surfaced, with the wind blown out my my lungs I knew something wasn’t quite right.
My diagnosing… Bruised ribs / muscles or a minor fracture! No surfing for the next few weeks, but it was a session I will remember forever!