“ The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page.”
GILLES CALVET
Originally there were no coconut trees, no pigs and no humans on the islands of Tahiti and Hawaii. The theory, mostly approved, is that migrants came from Southeast Asia around three to four thousands years ago to populate the Pacific Ocean. Why did the chief of the coastal tribes of the islands of Indonesia decide to do so? Probably because they had to face the fact that their population was growing and that natural resources were starting to dwindle.
Leon, Camille, Flo, Pierre and I spent two weeks scoring Ombak (waves), Angin (wind) and Matahari (sun) next to a fishing village on the southwest coast of the island of Java. In the shade of a forest of coconut trees at the surf camp, day after day we ate delicious fresh fish, vegetables and fruit. Food was much appreciated after all those hours spent windsurfing and surfing every day! During the evening session, while Matahari (the sun) was sinking into the indigo blue of the Indian Ocean, painting the sky and sea a unique red, each one of us was touched by the grace and beauty of the moment and place. Secretly, at the bottom of our hearts, we were thanking Mother Nature for all those turtles and colourful parrotfish sharing the peak with us and for this ancestral culture of seafaring people who had preserved their paradise throughout time. By the way, precisely at this time, the sea was sparkling with as many canoe lights as there were stars in the sky. The lights were from the small scale and sustainable fishing fleet, which will fill up our plates tomorrow.