Let's face it, the islands of Seychelles don't exactly rank up there with elite surfing destinations like Indonesia, Tahiti, or the North Shore. In fact, I had serious doubts that there would be any surf here at all. A glimmer of hope emerged when I met Johan, one of the two South African pilots. He has passed six whale shark seasons flying for David and the MCSS, and has accumulated a bit of local surfing knowledge during those years.
Seychelles is composed of one hundred and fifteen islands. The inner islands of the Seychelles (forty-one of them) are unique in that they form the only granite archipelago in the world.
Johan enlightened me as to the dynamics of the bathometry around Mahe. Although plunked in nearly the middle of the Indian Ocean, most South West swell is blocked by Madagascar, so we would often head to the South East side of the island and try our luck there.
My first two sessions were rather unsuccessful and left Johan boardless and sand-locked, as he only had one board and was gracious enough to lend it to me. The waves were pretty much closing out four inches above urchin dotted reef. Promptly after catching my third wave, I ended up flat on my back scraping along the reef nearly all the way back to shore. As I had miraculously avoided becoming an urchin pincushion, I figured it was time to call it a day and not tempt fate any further.
Third time's a charm. A Kiwi named Glen, one of Johan's flat mates, and their French friend Aurelie both came along, too. I instantly liked Aurelie. She body-boarded but had an extra surfboard to loan me. A solid swell had shown up, and we were off to check out a new spot.
We pulled up to a stunning bay that dwarfed the distant reef break peeling left and right at least half a mile offshore. We were in for a long paddle. The distance actually seemed to grow as we continued paddling, but once there it was clear the effort was well worth it. What followed was one of those rare sessions forever etched onto the folds of my brain. Just the four of us trading long rides, gliding over an aquarium full of curious fish and coral, every now and then being enveloped into that sweet spot, where the wave allows you to enter its belly and feel time suddenly halt.
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