What?! Another Detour!!!

So, Phileas has been a bit quiet with Mar Jeffrey struggling to find waves that were either worthy of sharing or not mountainous! He and a few friends finally managed to score... In Indo!

"The continuing journey of Phileas around the globe found it heading to an out of the way Island in Indonesia with a big collection of surfers and a couple of support crew. 

The group, called Inner Groms, is predominantly from the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne Australia and is one of the larger group of Kneelos in Australia at around twenty five. This was the fifth surf trip the group has undertaken in consecutive years. On this trip we did have an American affiliate from San Diego. 

The visit coincided with some of the biggest swells to hit the archipelago in years. With 20+ foot faces common the mats stayed in the board bags for a number of days until it subsided a bit. 

When the swell did finally drop the Groms had an opportunity for an inflatable day!!

Five of us including Merv, Ben, Chugga, Brad and myself hit the surf with a wide variety of air bags. Possibly the highlight was watching Chugga paddle his donut backwards over the falls. 

I took out Phileas and had a great session with heaps of great rides including stalling into a barrel and making it out clean. A few had there first exposure to mat riding. 

But the common denominator was everyone had a ball!!"

Everyone had a ball... Mission accomplished.

ONWARD!!!

G

Back to Oz

So, after a diversion to NZ and then on to Sri Lanka, Phileas is heading back to Oz to hook up with Mark Jeffrey.

James has been hard at work adding his mark to Phileas and I'm sure you'll all agree that his work here is great! 

I love the way James has added a touch of colour to the existing artwork.

Don't forget, you can keep an eye on the journey on the Google Maps page:

https://goo.gl/ab6fJa

On she goes!!!

G

Sri Lanka Update from James

Stoked to have word from James Tanner and Phileas who have been keeping themselves busy in Sri Lanka. Here's what James had to say:

Hi G

It's Lazy Left / Midigama / Sri Lanka. Photo cred Martin Dahlgren

Striking up conversation w. a holidaying Swedish family. The two excited boys shared a unusual story - unexplainable flying objects - a few days earlier, they observed a young couple, flying prone on waves, on couch cushions... Strange but wonderful.... At that moment Natalie and I brought out Phileas and inflated it for them.... explaining they'd in fact been watching us ride those waves on the 'surf mats'.

On that hilarious conincidence and the boys curiosity, we offered to help  them into a couple of waves. While Martin, the father, offered to take a few pictures for Natalie and me. We all had a terrific time. Especially seeing the photographic outcome. Everyone got some memorable rides.

Thanks G-force, Dahlgren family & Welligama for your hospitality.

Looks really fun! Fin free ain't for me but James and Natalie seem to be going OK with it!!!

Many thanks to Martin Dahlgren for the photos. More to come from James hopefully!. 

Cheers

G

On to Sri Lanka

Sooooo. James still has Phileas but unfortunately hasn't been able to get footage or pics to date. He's off to Sri Lanka with her and a promise of pics and tales for the blog so another country will be ticked of the list! 😍😍😍

 Can't wait to see what James sends us! 

Cheers

G  

NZ with James Tanner

So, it's been a while due to this and that so time for an update. Phileas is currently with James Tanner on the North Island of New Zealand. James is currently making some plans: 

"The salt water circus is here next [this] weekend. An alternative surf fest. so ill grab some photos of Phileas down there. 

Meanwhile Im heading to Sri Lanka end of the month. Where I'm going with another mat rider. So if you want me too, i can take over there...

Peace

James

Yes! Yes! We do want that!!!

So a detour before heading back to Oz. Sounds good to me!

Cheers

G