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BEST OF THE WORST ROAD TRIPS EVER! (PART 1)

If there’s one thing all professional windsurfers have in common, it’s travel…lots of it. But with constant travel comes inevitable chaos. As any seasoned rider knows, not every trip is sunshine, perfect waves and dreamy sessions with a tight crew. But, sometimes, the wheels come off the wagon. We’re not here to sugarcoat it. We asked the pros to dig deep and relive the moments when their road trips went horribly wrong! These are the stories where optimism got tested, where glasses half-full were knocked over and shattered, leaving behind more than just bruised egos. We had so many epic stories we have split this feature into two parts so buckle up…Windsurf brings you the best of the worst road trips ever part 1!

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JOHN CARTER

“Well, I don’t want to steal the thunder of the pro sailors but do feel I have the right to be in here amongst the other people that have suffered. I think my part of this story is all about consistency. Maybe I have not had the worst happen to me but instead I have a steady track record of travel mishaps. My trip to the Masters of the Caribbean event in 2010 kicked off with a bomb scare in Paris airport. We were all evacuated onto the roadside before our plane had even taken off while the French police did a controlled explosion on a left suitcase inside. I worked like a dog for eight days while we were there and then the organizer never paid us for the job, plus I had to pay for my flights upfront so actually lost money! Grrrr.

Then there was the time back in 1999, when I had £30,000 worth of camera gear stolen (as well as a rental car) in Maui and my camera insurance never coughed up. That was a definite low point!

Looking back, I have missed more ferries off the Isle of Wight than I’d like to remember. I lost my car keys and phone in the x ray machine at Bournemouth airport. I got stuck hitch hiking in one spot in Australia for 23 hours. I was mugged in Poland …ended up with a black eye, smashed camera and lots of cuts and bruises. Oh, and another mugging I Cape Verde where my three attackers ran off with my I pod while I was out jogging one morning. Every van I seem to go in breaks down…or if not at least gets a speeding ticket.

Then our plane got diverted on the way to Bonaire for one of the PWA events…we had to make an emergency landing for a sick passenger. I’d already been charged £1200 for excess baggage so wasn’t happy. We had to wait four hours on the runway in the Azores while they refuelled. When I finally made it to Bonaire my bags never turned up anyways. I also had developed a huge boil on my nose. To make matters worse there was no wind and some stupid cretin knocked over my 600F4 lens which cost me £600 to repair. The final straw was around 80 mosquito bites on my legs, which then became infected, and I had to go to hospital to get them sorted.

And then there was Cape Town in 2021 when I was shooting for North. Two days into the shoot Omicron broke out, the last major wave of Covid. Within hours all flights back to the UK were cancelled and so was our shoot…South Africa was immediately put on the UK red list! The crew had to get a negative test to fly home but mine tested positive. All of a sudden the whole crew were gone and I was left in Cape Town in a house on my own and I had to stay inside and quarantine. Eventually about a week later I was finally managed to get a negative test and then had to buy a new flight home (£1000) and book into a London Hotel at the airport for ten days which cost £2500. I eventually made it home three weeks after I left, I had done two days shooting and the other nineteen in Quarantine. Crazy times…and crazy expensive!”

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SARAH QUITA OFFRINGA

“I was in Brazil when I realized I’d lost my yellow fever vaccination card; something you’re required to show when flying into Aruba from South America. I knew the rule, but since I’m from Aruba, I assumed I’d be allowed to enter without it.

Things started to go off track early. One of my connecting flights through Colombia got delayed by 24 hours. Instead of waiting around, I decided to skip the first flight altogether and enjoy an extra day in Jericoacoara (Jeri), booking a new route through Panama, my usual way home.

That extra day in Jeri was amazing. But then it was time to get moving. I drove five hours to Fortaleza airport, where I already ran into some minor issues, but eventually boarded my flight to São Paulo, three hours south. In São Paulo, I had an exhausting 6-hour layover before my 3 AM flight to Panama. At boarding, I waited till the end of the line, as I always do. When the agent scanned my passport, she asked for my yellow fever card. I explained I had lost it but emphasized that I was going home. I thought that would be enough….It wasn’t.

She denied me boarding because I had no proof of residency in Aruba. I tried to explain that ALL Arubans have Dutch passports, and our birthplace on the passport shows we’re from Aruba, but it didn’t help. No amount of reasoning worked. I was exhausted, heartbroken, and stranded in the middle of Brazil at 4 AM, after already traveling for 14 hours.

I had to collect my three heavy board bags and find a place to store them. I ended up spending 36 hours at São Paulo airport, trying every option to get home. But without a physical yellow fever card, no airline flying through South America would let me board. A photo of the card wasn’t accepted. The only other option was to fly to the Netherlands, but that would cost me over €3,000, not including excess baggage fees and nearly 48 hours of travel.

At one point, I was even paying for a hotel by the hour just to get some rest. Eventually, I flew back to Jeri with all my gear. I was the running joke in town for a few days haha.. My mom managed to get a new yellow fever card and FedExed it to me. But even after eight days, it was stuck in customs. It was December 22nd, and all I wanted was to be home for Christmas. So, I decided to try one more time to travel without the card.

There was a new direct flight from São Paulo to Aruba with GOL. I called the Aruba office and asked them to add a note to my ticket confirming I could fly. I made the five-hour drive back to Fortaleza, got through check-in smoothly, and made it to São Paulo again. After a brutal six-hour layover and a nerve-wracking wait at the gate, I handed the agent my passport; she didn’t even blink. Just like that, I was on my flight home. Ten days and about $2,000 later than planned, I made it back two days before Christmas. The extra time in Brazil was fun, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes you just want to be home, even if you’re in paradise!”

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MARCILIO BROWNE

“The first one I can remember was coming back from the Canary Islands when I was sixteen. It was really long trip with some horrible long connections (I had a terrible travel agent back then) and then finally I was sitting in front of the gate for my last flight. Right before boarding I accidentally fell asleep! I woke up an hour later, the gate was totally empty, the flight was gone. I Had to wait in Sao Paulo another full day before getting home, that one stung …

The other recent one was coming back from Cape Verde in 2022. I had gotten stomach sick there during the event and was feeling terrible, lots of vomiting, diarrhoea you name it. So, the last day we finished the double elimination, I went straight into packing and rushed to the airport. By the time we got to Lisbon I was feeling totally exhausted but also very sick and had an overnight there at the hotel. About midnight I started feeling the worst I had that whole week and my fever started getting really, really high … So, I decided to go to the hospital by myself around midnight. Once I got there, they got me straight IV, antibiotics … and I was there until about 5AM. That time I left, straight into hotel, grabbing the board bags again to check in (which they charged a bizarre amount for the boards) and made my way back to Maui. I remember when I got home, I was about 7 kg lighter than when I left!”

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KEVIN PRITCHARD…A psycho girlfriend!

“I was headed to the London Indoor one year and my girlfriend at the time freaked out on me. I had already checked in all my gear, and she was driving me down to the airport and went crazy and wouldn’t let me get on the plane. She was so mad at me, that she threw my passport into the gulch, never to be found again. Then when I tried to kick her out of my house, she wouldn’t leave. I ended up calling the cops, missing the contest, losing the ticket and excess baggage, having to get a new passport.. It was a mess!”

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SCOTT MCKERCHER…Gnarloo Madness!

“Inspired at 3am walking out of a nightclub in Geraldton, convinced the swell was building at the end of the session that evening, Aussie mate Michael Barton and I decided to drive up to Gnaraloo. (It’s only 8 hours from Gero)

We were optimistic until we hit the blowholes. Not a whole lot going on there, but the sea breeze was kicking in so we were still hopeful. Then pulling into camp it was still dead offshore, about 40’, the flies were insane and there wasn’t a wave to be seen. (To coin a phrase from Lensmen Carter, “Oh no. What have I done”)

As we drove up to the car park, the only thing to do was to catch up on sleep and hide from depression. Perhaps 2 hours later we woke a little cooler thanks to a sea breeze that seemed to have come in. It was weird. But the water still looked completely glassy. The tide had dropped to reveal a head high swell, so we rigged up to get wet and give it a go.

We ended up fully planning out the bay, and were actually over powered, in what was still glassy water. This was due to some oil slick on the water, making the waves incredibly smooth and somehow the whole deal even more surreal.

So, from depression to stoke, we were all smiles, but it was short lived. The sky had this perfect trough cloud moving down from the north and it was clear there’d be no wind the next day, so we decided we may as well drive back, the same day. No drama. Click, click ……. Someone had left the radio on…. dead battery!

We had one chance at a push start into the little ravine, which thankfully worked out, and we were off into the night. Barton had this ingenious cruise control in his van, which consisted of a mast extension wedged to the accelerator, so he could have his feet on the dash.

Stupidly I trusted him and drifted off to sleep. My eyes opened to the windscreen parting bushes as Barton had fallen asleep at the wheel. We both grabbed the wheel and somehow made it back onto the road without any damage, or killing ourselves. Or no Damage we thought. A couple of hours down the road and the gearbox of the van had fallen apart. We’re in the middle of the desert at 2am, and I was wondering what on earth we were going to do.

Then Barton yells “I reckon I’ve got 4^th gear”, and again I’m pushing the van trying to get it over a mound, which we manage to do and drive the rest of the night at 80 km’s an hour, limping into town around dawn. One of my loosest 24 hours and one which I’ll never forget.”

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JASON POLAKOW…Boat trip mishaps!

“My worst trip was a travel story to New Caledonia. We had a reliable report that the waves were going to be massive, so we decided to go. We arrived at the main island only to find out that the swell was too south so we had to quickly rent a sailing boat and sail about 10 hours to another island to catch the swell. Once we arrived, we found that the swell was crossed up and the only place to get shots was impossible for a photographer to shoot.

So, we decided to sail to the small ocean port about two hours away and tried to board a passenger ferry that was heading back to the place we just came from. At first, we were not allowed to board the ship until Robert Teriitehau negotiated with them and they changed their mind. By then it was too late as the ferry was pushing back so we each grabbed 1 board and sail and literally ran and made a jump for the ferry. This ferry took another 10 hours to get back to the place we had originally came from.

By now almost two days had passed and the swell was gone but we tried one more time and rented a fast speed boat that took us out to the outer reef to find if there were any waves. We also rented a jet ski which followed the speed boat only to find that the conditions were very small. We tried to sail but it was shit. I also cut my foot open during the 1.5 hour bumpy speed boat ride out there and then had to drive the Jet Ski back on my own, which took about 2.5 hours.”

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PHILIP KOSTER…Australia shocker!

“I think the worst trip was last year to Australia. It was January 2009, I spent a lot of time was preparing my stuff, windsurfing gear, clothes and my I phone with my best music, applications and videos. The iPhone took me a few days to load my best music on, but it was essential for me.

My father and I flew from Gran Canaria to Barcelona, where we had a six hour wait before flying to Paris. We the did the long flight to Singapore and then on to Perth. With my new music I felt good and relaxed at the airports. I just lay just lay on seats and tried to sleep. My father walked around. He can never stay still. When he came back, I woke up and my first movement was natural to reach for my iPhone and headset in the ear but there was nothing! Can you imagine I felt nervous and started sweating.  Where was my iPhone? After looking for ten minutes around I realised it had been stolen. I felt naked, sorry, angry, stressed and ALONE! My iPhone was stolen. What a disaster, all that excitement to fly to Australia was gone!

The photo shooting started with freeride and slalom, it was ok, but I wanted to rip the cool waves from Margaret River and sail there with Scotty and Jaeger. We finally hit the waves after waiting four days. It was the best conditions, wind and perfect waves, what a joy to be there, jumping, wave riding, shaka, everything wonderful! Then I had one bad wave… washing machine in the white-water, water start… Oh what’s that! Something with my wrist is not ok. I can’t use it! I had to surf with one hand and the elbow. At the beach the bad news! My wrist was broken. I can’t tell you how bad I felt! All windsurfers had been super nice to me but that did not really help, sitting at the beach and watching the others in the best conditions I have ever seen. We flew home early!”

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BEN SEVERNE…Desert disaster!

“We ran out of fuel when we were taking a shortcut from Geraldton back to Adelaide – there’s some dirt roads that cut a few hours off the travel time, but the tracks are way out in the bush in the middle of the outback.  Only problem is there’s no petrol stations on these roads, and we’d forgotten that we used the jerry cans already…  So, I was asleep in the back when I heard the swearing start from Luke and Ty. It was about 8pm at night so we just crashed out.  Next day we did as you’re supposed to do when stranded in the outback and just stayed with the vehicle and tried to conserve water.  We had no water.  That day was hot.  45 degrees plus! It was hell!  By 8pm that day we still hadn’t seen a single car go past, and we weren’t really seeing the funny side anymore.  I was thirsty, hungry, and extremely bored so decided to disregard protocol and walk.  About 5min down the road, around the first bend was a house with a friendly old man with fuel.  30min later and we were back on the road!  Pretty happy we didn’t stay with the car and die of thirst…would have been pretty embarrassing with help so nearby!

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