The Last Day at Frigates

Bede Durbidge
25 June 2010 -

I just arrived home from a epic trip in Fiji. It was sad to leave the rest of the crew there. They had plenty more cool dives to go for and they were going to surf Cloud break which is one of my favourite waves in the world.

The last day of the trip for me was a wild day to say the least . It had some massive ups and downs . We left the Tui Tai super early in the morning and headed for Frigets which i was really excited about. I loved all the cool dives we went for but i was pretty frothing for a surf . It was a long and rough trip out to Frigets on the boat . It was really choppy and windy so we weren’t sure how the waves would be . I was kind of freaking it would be terrible but as we got closer to the break you could see these lefts just barreling down the reef . Instantly everyone was just frothing and was so keen to get out there as quick as they could .It was firing 6 foot with the odd bigger one . We couldn’t believe it no one out and perfect barrels .
We were all having the best surf taking turns and getting pitted off our heads. It was almost to good to be true then i caught probably the biggest wave i had in the session. I got a good pit and pulled off and I'm thinking where is the filmers boat and i look in and its up side down with all this gear floating and everyone swimming for there life to get out of the impact zone. It was so heavy. Greg and Mike lost all their gear but lucky no one was hurt and everyone made it back to the boat with Greg coming out the worst with a few cuts. It was a shame that the day had to end like that, but you can never underestimate the ocean.

So after all that i had to say my good byes and head home . It was a great trip i had some amazing dives and scored some perfect waves . I was stoked to be apart of such cool trip with really nice people . I look forward to the next Drop Zone .

Bede

Mother Nature Won

Alex Gray

24 June 2010-

Hello world. Planes, trains and automobiles today. After 18 hours of exhausting travelling, we were greeted by 8 foot freight training lefts at Frigates. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we rocked up to the wave and it was offshore, “teahupoo like slabs”, and nobody out!!!!!! Bede was screaming like a baby. It seemed as mother nature was showing off for us with a conveyer belt of non stop, below sea-level tubes. After kicking out of each wave, I would see Cheyne, Bede or Maria pulling into to another flawless shack. This was the reason we had come to Fiji to surf. Or so we thought….. I knew something was wrong when an open pelican case came floating by me in the lineup. Then, I really knew something was wrong when I saw the dinghy was upside down on the inside of the reef. I thought Greg was just having a cackle, so I told him to stop playing with his dinghy!!!! Turns out the worst had happened, and the media crew had been caught by a 6 footer. Everybody but Greg had bailed when they saw the wave about to annihilate them. Greg, being the lion tamer he is, thought he would just try and ride it out. Mother nature won, and he now is littered with cuts like Zangief from Street Fighter II (the best video game in the world). Even though camera gear was trashed, I would like to thank little 5lb, 10 oz baby jesus for keeping my friends alive.1 P2,5000 dollars………1 dinghy, 20000 fijian dollars…….. Greg living through it to have the best story ever for the rest of his life, priceless!!!!!!!!!

You stay naked……….WORLD