Phuket, Thailand Surf Trip

Temples and Waves 

Thailand, the land of coconuts, spicy food, amazing people and, above all, there are the waves. Oh yeah, there are the waves!  I spent 2 weeks in the Phuket countryside at a place called Nai Thon Beach! Nai Thon is a quiet little beach town in the middle of nowhere. Really, in the middle of nowhere! If I were a tourist, not a surfer, I might have been scared. But hell, I am a surfer and we find the stoke everywhere it is. We hear all the time how ‘amazing the locals are’. Have you ever wondered about that statement…wondered if it were true?

 


OHM catching a wave.

Well, if you surf with locals around the world, you know it’s true. The locals at Nai Thon Beach actually take turns acting as lifeguards, not just for the locals, but also for the foreigners coming there to surf. They take turns when the waves are up and are always on it. I had the pleasure of spending most of my time there surfing, making friends, eating local food and sharing waves with some amazing and generous people.

The first day I went for a swim with my camera I met a guy named OHM. A Nai Thon resident, with roots going back generations, he is as inventive as he is fun to be around. OHM makes his living renting boards and selling a tasty homebrewed beer and freshly chopped coconut. What more could a hungry, tired surfer ask for.

I gotta tell you, chilling with OHM was a real pleasure. Over the next few days, he showed me the local surf scene. He seemed to have as much fun showing me the local life style as I had rolling with it. It pretty much consisted of surf all day, eat some spicy Pad Thai, cool your burning mouth with OHM’s homebrew, then do it all over again the next day. Oh, and don’t forget, listening to some locals playing guitar while your belly is still rumbling from that amazing, spicy as hell, $3 Pad Thai. Kicking back and looking around, all I could see was Stoke!!!

 Surfing Local 

To be a surfer in Nai Thon, or anywhere in Phuket Province, you need the right storm to get things moving. Sometimes that means you also need to have some patience. August is their low season and I came at the right time, having surf almost every day!!   

The water was so clear I got some amazing shots.
This is OHM taking a break.

 When the surf is down, you run to one of the other local gifts from Mother Nature, PHI PHI Island (Say Pee Pee), but that’s another story. And, yeah, we will tell it. It’s enough right now to say I had the pleasure of being in the middle of the surf culture in Phuket, Thailand. A place that will always make me grateful for what is given to us if we just open our eyes and look. The people there are rich and warm and welcoming.  If you ever need a stoke recharge and you are willing to embrace the local culture, not the tourist culture, head for Phuket and Nai Thon beach. Have a local brew with OHM and tell him Cory says hey.

 

For the full photo essay of our surf trip to Phuket/Nai Thon beach visit www.corypphotography.com .

  

A Man Walks Into a Surf Shop....



Over a year ago, I walked into this surf shop down in Carlsbad, CA, not knowing what I was in store for. My name is Cory Patterson and I’ve been surfing my whole life and I’ve been filming and photographing surfing for years. Walking into RW Surf, I was met by Cory, who I learned was the oldest son of Rusty Whitlock. I was given an introduction to the Whitlock’s by BoardWarrior, who I do some filming for.  My friends at BW thought I might enjoy getting some pics and catching some waves with their old friends at RW. It was an amazing day. We went out and shot some pics, went surfing and shared stories.

 


Keith Halterman, Cory Whitlock,
Cory Patterson, Rusty Whitlock
 


Well, mostly I just listened, absorbing story after story of all this surf history, like I was reading a book. On my surfed out drive home, back to LA, I called my friend Keith (BW’s videographer). Stoked about the day, I told him we need to start documenting this shop immediately. We need to get the history recorded before it’s lost. So, over the course of the past year, I have been shooting with the Whitlock’s, while working with BW to develop a great story we are calling 50 Years of Shaping; The Story of a Surf Family.

The stories this family shares, about living and growing up on the North Shore, pro surfing careers, tragedy and rebuilding, injury and unbelievable comebacks, both inspire and amaze. Through it all, never forgetting that Rusty keeps shaping one of the best surfboards out there. He has been innovating and creating boards, with his own hands, since 1963. Not in a big production factory, but in a one man shop. A shop that has surfing in the corrugated tin walls, shavings on the floor and the smell of resin and fresh salt water in the air.

Rusty and Cory working in the shop.

Through a lifetime staying true to the soul of surfing, Rusty is, to this day, one of the nicest most stoked out dudes I have ever come across. The whole family lives for surfing, doing what they can to keep themselves surrounded by surf culture and the ocean, no matter what life throws at them. But never losing the kindness and the ability to be a real human being in and out of the water. You won’t find flash or trendy here. They are just who they are and that is it.

With Hollywood and corporate surfing trying to sell an image of what a surfer should look like and surf like, Rusty and RW Surf live their own truth. Surfing is freedom. A way to express yourself as a person, as an artist and not giving a flying fuck about what the next 30 dudes in the lineup think of you. Remember earlier on I said "They are just who they are and that is it". Cory said in one of the 50 Years interviews….’we live a million dollar lifestyle, without the million dollars.’ That, my friends, is the soul of surfing. Well, at least in our eyes.

Rusty has been shaping boards for 50 years!

 Documentary in Development

The Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to complete this documentary will be live in late May. Watch for it. You’ll be able to see a short trailer of the documentary that we hope to release by early next year. We’ve said from the beginning that this is story that needs telling, and we are going to tell it!, So, keep your eyes peeled and keep your stoke.  

  

RW Surf Board

Cory Patterson filmed the 2014 Mavericks Invitational for BoardWarrior. This is his account of  the day. See the video at  BoardWarrior.com

 

Mavericks Invitational, keeping his eye on a building WNW swell. With it peaking on January 24th, Mavericks was called, running at 12 ft at 19 sec, and wave faces running between 25 and 30 ft. It was on. Loaded up all my gear and jumped in the car and ran up the coast. I hopped on a boat at 6:00am, on Friday morning, the 24th, taking off out of San Francisco Bay. The boat was running with energy. Rollers so big we had to hook out over 5 miles just to get around them. As we wrapped around Pillar Point around 7:30am there was Mavericks in all its glory, pumping with rocks, great whites and peaks pitching so hard. 24 of the best big wave surfers were called and put on one amazing show.

Lets pause here and tell a little back story for those of you who don’t know about the history of Mavericks. Mavericks is located at Half Moon Bay a half mile out off of Pillar Point. It has the potential of reaching heights of 60 ft. In 1975, Clark was the first person to ever paddle out to Pillar Point and ride Mavericks. The Mavericks Invitational was founded in 1999.

The contest was stacked with some of the best big wave surfers in the world, with names like Greg Long, Peter Mel, Shane Dorian and Grant “Twiggy” Baker. In the end Twiggy dominated the final heat to pull off the win. Mavericks is a one-of-a-kind place and when it’s pumping there’s no place gnarlier than that. To witness that first hand was incredible. Thanks mother nature for an amazing show. See you next year. Mavericks 2014

Cory Patterson

http://www.corypphotography.com/
    

 

Feb6

- See more at: http://www.boardwarrior.com/blog/#sthash.VLjQDwOE.dpuf

What is BoardWarrior?

 Think about the origin of surfing, or he'enalu,

as it was known to the Pacific
Island warriors who created it, possibly as a fishing technique, then later as a tactic of warfare. Picture them, proud, strong  and  fearless, riding a hand-hewn plank of wood in treacherous surf, braving sharp, rocky shores through violent currents, prey to strong, fast and mindless predators. This was the origin of surfing, created by men and women with a powerful physical and

spiritual connection to the mighty Pacific Ocean.