July 25th 2017: Fiji: Zoomady

Zoomady has been good to us. She is a Fijian long boat with Felipé at the helm and a hull full of surfboards belonging to Jonas Tawharu, Kaya Horne, Caleb Cutmore and Elliott Brown. They're some of the most promising junior surf athletes in New Zealand right now and they're in Fiji to fast track their careers. Zoomady takes us from our camp at Vunabaka to the waves around Tavarua and Namotu each day. Every trip is an adventure in a building swell and through a maze of coral.

Like a well-planned surprise, the first few days have been idyllic Fiji: crystal clear water, reefs full of fish and fun waves above the gardens of coral. It's a great introduction to the reefbreaks when you can swim around them and explore the nooks and crannies before the swell fills in. And for the surfers, it has been about finding some ramps to boost off and some sneaky barrels in the swell on hand. Here's a little teaser film from Day 1 and Day 2.

But that is about to end. Tomorrow the swell jacks and the serious business of tackling Cloudbreak begins. We're all going to be forced out of our comfort zones, but that's probably exactly where we should be when we're surfing in boardshorts and roasting in ridiculous sunshine as we adjust to island time. All the surfers have hit the reef at some stage and Elliott has a chunk of coral embedded in his board. But Jonas and Surfing New Zealand president Chris Fougere take the battle scar title, with a good rub each on the reef that will leave them with a permanent record. But none of the adversity is enough to wipe the smiles off their sunsoaked, salty faces.

Somehow we've lucked into the dream forecast for Fiji – it just keeps getting better it seems. And right now I'm just one bumpy commute in Zoomady away from my dream workplace, somewhere on a reef in the Mamanuca Islands. Vinaka!

See you on the reef ... Derek

PS We have a winner for week five of our Treble Cone TC Pass. Congrats to Chantin Keung. We've sent an email to the lucky winner.