The chance to goto Fiji was a dream come true! As a goofy footer Cloudbreak has always been a wave i'd love to surf! Unfortunately due to the Yanks and their need to feel they control everything have made it out off bounds unless your paying $2000 a night to stay on Tavarua!! Twats!
But regardless of Americans there are still some classic spots to surf, However with only 3 breaks actually on the main island, limited access, transportation, and accommodation means you're probably as well staying with one of the Surf Camps that are springing up. I stayed at Rendezvous Surf & Dive ( see links below ) for the first week of my trip and the facilities were great and the staff we're friendly and helpful, with wonderful food included in the price.. Sometimes the portions were small, but if you were hungry after a day on the reefs there was always more available!
Little did i know what a luxury this sometimes small meal would become, as during the second half of my trip food definatley became a luxury item. It's amazing how sick of mango, papaya and coconut you can become in such a short period of time. But as the only obvious source of meat at one place seemed to the the diminishing pack of dogs that hung around the beach it sometimes seemed the only choice. If you could face eating a meal, if very really stayed down. One specific meal had me vomiting in minutes, and the exploding the other end within the hour! nice!
Take food.. As much as you can carry!!
Anyway.. Prior to my enforced diet the Rendevous camp was great.. We went out everyday in the boats and hunted surf.. From classic glassy Wilkes Passage to the lumpy nasty Desperations, 8 km off shore! wierd! We even snuck onto Namotu Lefts until a member of staff came out of a jet ski and asked us to leave! One morning as we're loading up the boats and the Womens ASP tour turned up to the small landing we launched from everyday on the way to Tavarua and Cloudbreak, which created a stir amongst the lads!! We'd pop past Cloudbreak on the way home from trips out in the boat and watch them .. errr. Surf!! =)
The only issue that ever came up with Rendezvous was if they only sent one boat out. Should someone wish to go back to the Camp everybody has to go back, they really don't like making trips back 2 drop people off. Once the boat is back at camp it stays there! This led to lots of arguements when a couple of guys got tired after a couple of hours and couldn't take the heat in the boat. There was no way i was leaving head and half perfection for some fat bloke to have a snooze! Thankfully the dollar worked it's magic and suddenly there's me and 2 ozzie's kilometers from the shore with no support while they took fat bloke home for a kip!!! Scary and very wierd! especially as i got a small cut of my leg from the reef 2 days prior, and the guide almost screamed at me to get back in the boat. I couldn't see the fuss.. it looked worse than it was with the water watering down the blood, but then Sharks were mentioned and i was in the boat in a shot! What happened if i cut myself now? with no boat in sight... Poo.. it made me very careful!
Which brings me onto Sharks, obviously there are sharks.. but i never expeted to see so many!! Mostly White Tip reef's and Nurse Sharks, but they are there, underneath you, all the time! The local guys that drove the boats always spear fished when we surfed, they fed their families that way. A perk of the job. I'd go fish with them when i needed a break, and in one 20-30 min fishing session i saw 3 white tips and 2 nurse sharks, all swimming lazyily along the reef, with the rest of the guys from the boat surfing away totally oblivious above. Non of them were aggresive or scary, but if one suddenly wondered what those feet dangling from a surfboard tasted like there would be nothing anyone could do about it!
Club Masa Surf Camp
Masa is the relaxed compound by the Sigatoka rivermouth. The accommodations are affordable and rustic. A short walk over the dunes the brown beachbreak/rivermouth barrels of Sigatoka await.The Surf: Access to Sigatoka river mouth Dormitory type accommodations.
address: PO Box 710, Sigatoka Beach
telephone: (679) 925 717
by :
Sie Baker