The Search: Pale Aliens (Part 1)

Like some of the best stories, this one began with a whispered rumour of some far-flung islands.

It sounded a bit tenuous, to be honest. The remoteness, and the vast distance of the islands from home, exacerbated the sense of doubt. However, whereas some rumours degenerate and trail off into farcical gossip or even downright apocryphal myth, this one took on substance, became full bodied and real. New waves, never before surfed. A true Search.

The different pitches of the horns, commensurate with the size of the vehicles they are attached to, bestowed a surreal sense of animation to the traffic. It was like an eerily industrial conversation between alien metallic creatures, made stranger by the presence of unfamiliars such as the little three-wheeled tuk-tuks.

By the third day on the ground, I was starting to wonder if the permits would be granted. The government people here are tragic bureaucrats, but late in the afternoon they came in and the next morning we squeezed onto a little prop plane for the flight out to … who knew what?

“Clean arcs and a damn good air game characterize Dillon’s surfing, but on rare occasions like this it’s about going with the flow.

Captions from a full feature by Dave Sparkes. Photography by Dave Sparkes and Ted Gram beau. Video by Scott Mclimont and Tom Jennings.