Some places stay with you for the rest of your life. For me, Fiji is one of them.
I was lucky enough to go a few times back in the '90s and stay on Tavarua. I was hired to shoot video, I had a little SONY Hi-8 in a water housing and a Canon L1 for the land footage. In those days the island was just a handful of bure, the little traditional houses, tucked in under the palms. No fuss. Just the reef, the ocean, a little restaurant, a ping pong table, great food, and a group of people who had come a long way to be there- we had the island to ourselves.
The first day
I'll never forget the very first day. The waves were pumping, 4 to 6 feet with the occasional 8-foot set rolling through. Blue skies. Glassy. The kind of morning you see in photos and never quite believe is real.
Jon Roseman, the owner of Tavarua Resort, was out there on his red gun snagging unreal barrels all day long. I remember standing there on the boat next to Warren Bolster and just getting sick footage. Some days you surf, some days you shoot, and some days you mostly take it all in. That one was all of that, except the surfing for me. Since I was hired to film, and it was the very first day, I didn't surf. I just figured that I would get my chance the next day and it would be perfect waves like that the whole 2 weeks- it wasn't. I did surf during the trip and got some great waves, but nothing like that big perfect day.
Decades later, Roseman in those big blue tubes is still the picture that comes to mind when someone says "Fiji."
Small islands, big ocean
Fiji is more than 300 islands scattered across the South Pacific. Tavarua and its neighbor Namotu sit in the Mamanuca group off the west side of Viti Levu, the main island, not far from Nadi. They're tiny, ringed by reef, and sit right where long-travelling southern swells finally run out of ocean.
The famous waves out there are lefts. Cloudbreak is the big one, a long reef pass out in the open that can be one of the most serious waves on the planet when it's large. Restaurants is closer in, a perfect, mechanical left wrapping along the reef off Tavarua.
The main season is usually the Southern Hemisphere winter, roughly May through October, when storms far to the south send swell north. The water is warm all year.
Bula
If there's one word every traveler brings home from Fiji, it's Bula. It means hello, but it carries a lot more than that: welcome, good health, life itself. You hear it everywhere, and it's said like it's meant.
That feeling is a big part of why Fiji is in our WORLD SERIES. The Surf Earth really comes from that simple urge to travel, see the world and meet the people and places at the end of a long road. Fiji was one of the first places that showed me what that could feel like.
If you go
Go with patience. Wait your turn. Respect the reef, the locals and the people who look after these islands. Leave it the way you found it, or better.
The Fiji tees
Our Fiji designs are a small tribute to the place:
- FIJI Vintage Washed Oversized Tee, heavy, soft and made to look like it's already been on a few boat trips.
- FIJI BULA, The Surf Earth Society Tee, a classic fit with the word that says it all.
- FIJI Kids Snow Washed Tee, for the groms who are already dreaming about their first big trip.
You can see the rest of the places in our WORLD SERIES collection.
Have you been to Fiji? I'd love to hear your story. And if you haven't, I hope you get there someday.
Bula.
-C.R. Hoffmann
Founding Member of The Surf Earth Society