a very long time ago, Tokura-san invited me on a Fiji Exploration trip presented by DOVE. we went for 2 weeks on this big boat looking for waves in Fiji that have never been surfed before. on the way out, we got to surf Tavarua when it use to be closed off just for the surfers that stayed at that resort. in fact, we got to surf anywhere we went because we were with the #1 Fijian Local Surfer who owns Fiji Surf Co. that guy that is sitting between Tokura-san and I is one of the founders of Fijian surfing. his name is Ian Ravouvou and he showed us the many islands surrounding his beautiful country. we were a group of Japanese surfers exploring some of these secluded islands for the first time so we were pretty lucky.
i labeled this map. we anchored our boat right in that beautiful lagoon that’s about 12 hours away from Tavarua. at that time, some rich Europeans just bought that island called Nagigia. they just completed their resort a week before and didn’t have any guests there. so when they saw us in the lagoon, they invited us to stay at their brand new resort for free! we were the very first guests and the owners of the island didn’t even know there was a surf break right in front. we surfed it for the very first time, we named it “King Kong,” and now millions of surfers know about it. we had kava parties, we had lobster parties, and we partied all day and all night. we even ran out of beer so we chartered a small propeller airplane to fly us in beer. i went with the dingy to pick up the beer and i remember it was a really small dirt road runway the plane landed on. it was pretty crazy. 
this wave comes in from 100′ deep water onto a 5′ slab of razor sharp reef. that’s why it’s so thick and powerful. and the nearest hospital was 8 hours by boat, or 2 hours by dingy to the dirt runway, then a hour flight on a small, cheap, and dirty airplane filled with chickens. so you better not get hurt!
i want to thank Tokura-san for inviting me on this memorable trip, and i want to thank Ian for sharing your waves, culture, kava, and aloha…
