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PHUKET: THE BEAUTY OF THE UNEXPECTED

Professional windsurfer and brand manager for Starboard, Nico Prien, shares an unusual quarantine story from Phuket, Thailand, on how he discovered a beautiful freeride spot.

WORDS: Nico Prien // PHOTOS: Remi Villa

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It’s Wednesday January 4, 8:30 A.M. as I pull my espresso out from under the coffee machine and wait nervously to see if Thailand will now go back to the ‘Test & Go’ model. Under those rules you enter the country, spend a night in a hotel waiting for your PCR test result, and ‘go’, if you receive a negative result. Like last year, I would be traveling to Thailand to the local office for Starboard to meet face-to-face with my product and marketing team, and to do the final product testing on the water for the 2023 series.

It wasn’t going to be quite that simple, however, as the Thai government decided to further suspend the easy entry option due to the Omicron variant. So I was left with two other options: seven days of quarantine in a hotel in Bangkok, or the ‘Phuket Sandbox’ option, which allows foreign travelers to visit Phuket province without having to undergo quarantine if they have a negative PCR, and then move freely for seven days on the island, after which they will then be allowed to visit other destinations in Thailand

Last-minute

After spending fourteen days in hotel quarantine in Bangkok last year as it was the only option, I obviously booked my flight to Phuket. Going last-minute, as I often do, I booked my accommodation three days before departure, got the ‘Sandbox’ permit two days before departure and did my pre-arrival covid test on the day of departure.

Actually, I would have flown in December, but Turkish Airlines simply would not take my sail bag because of its length. Any attempt to explain to the ground staff that I regularly fly with even longer bags was unsuccessful. This time, I simply registered it as a little shorter and my sail bag was checked in without a hitch. When the plane took off, I proved to them that 250 cm fits easily in the plane ….. in my head.

Half a day later I struggle through the mass check-in at Phuket airport, quickly change a few Euros into Thai Baht, get a sim card and let the hotel staff pick me and my sail bag up. That same evening I also meet our product manager and shaper Remi Vila at the airport. He brought two fresh prototypes from the workshop, but he forgot roof rack straps. So for the rest of the trip we had to use outhaul ropes to tie down the boards!

Early start

The next morning we started early. But that didn’t matter, because thanks to jet lag I was already up at three o’clock in the morning. As soon as the breakfast buffet opened, we quickly drank some fresh coconut water and started searching for a spot to sail at for the day.

So far Remi has always windsurfed on the west coast of Phuket, right by the airport. “That’s where the wind direction fits best”, says the self-proclaimed MacGyver. However, he has always been there in summer. Then the bad weather systems move over Phuket and sometimes bring good south-west winds. But now the wind was coming from the east and the whole west coast became virtually unusable for us. The high and dense palm trees just before the beach looked beautiful, but blocked the offshore wind completely. And so we had to make our way towards the east coast, where neither of us knew our way around. With the help of the map on my smartphone we searched for yellow, sandy patches with a suitable orientation. It wasn’t so easy, as it looked like a lot of steep and wind-shadowed coastline, but we found a few possibilities.

Access denied

At the first one we were positively surprised by the conditions. Solid 15 knots, onshore and moderate chop. However, the access was only via a private beach, which had just been built, and a closed gate denied us passage. After driving up and down the coast, along the hotels and private housing directly on the beach, we finally found another access point. But again, new construction was going on and our attempt to climb over the gate was rumbled by workers on the development. Apparently they did not want to be disturbed in their efficiency.

Just before we were about to give up, I found a pier. From here, boats loaded with tourists leave for popular local spots, such as ‘James Bond Island’. It was a small bay surrounded by mangroves with cross-shore wind from the right, and very murky water, as is usual near mangrove forests. We weren’t quite convinced yet, as getting in and out via the pier would have been difficult. On the map a few kilometres to the north a shipwreck was showing and next to it a tiny yellow dot, but there was no road leading there. Eventualy we found a, let’s call it, dirt road, which roughly led in the right direction and might be our last chance.

Paradise found

The rental off-road vehicle jolted through the densely overgrown beach jungle of Phuket, while my head repeatedly hit the board bags lying next to me. After backing up three times and turning around several times, a beach finally showed up. That was it – finally our access to the water!

It was a one hundred metre long sandy beach, sporadically overgrown with mangroves and palm trees, like in a movie. The wind was blowing side-shore and even accelerating into the bay. Now we were looking at a good 20 knots of wind. We could hardly believe our luck and got the 7.0 freeride sails, the prototype Starboard Carve in 119 litres and the reference board from the 2022 range through the small access area. We quickly set up, threw on a lycra shirt and sunscreen and hit the water.

It was just perfect. The two of us raced for about three minutes in one direction until we got to the other side of the bay. A controlled gybe over the chop and back we went towards the shipwreck. After a few laps we were very happy, because the prototype turned out to be much more controllable in the short chop and small waves and thus ultimately faster. It gave a relaxed carve through the gybe and easy glide through the turn. Remi had worked his magic again with a great design.

Wind theory

Just as we were preparing the second test board, the wind dropped. We had wasted too much time searching for spots and so had to hope for the next day. My theory is that the heat around noon makes the wind fade. The wind forecast website, Windy.com, was quite accurate for Phuket and I noticed in the next days that the wind was always strong in the mornings and evenings.

The following day we headed straight for the right spot and were again greeted by a solid 20 knots from the same direction. Today Remi also had his beach shoes with him, because all along the beach we kept finding discarded glass bottles, some of which were smashed. In addition, of course, plenty of plastic. There’s still a lot of work to be done when it comes to the awareness of waste disposal and plastic use.

Win, win
Since we were earlier this time, the tide was a little higher, so we couldn’t see isolated rocks and both of us cut our feet. But this wouldn’t detract from our session and the test of the 83 cm wide Futura. Once again we had quite a few fabulous runs, flying over the chop until we were both knackered. Remi again proved to have the right nose design and built a board that felt lighter on the foot and thus flew over the chop with less effort. This also ensures that you can edge the board with less force and the gybe requires less effort – win, win!

With big grins, two good new boards, collected trash in our bags and outhauls holding the whole lot onto our rental car, we left the beach again to the local fisherman who goes about his daily business there with his just-running moped. Remi left again to make the master boards pretty for production as soon as possible, whilst I served out my remaining few days in the not so bad quarantine of the ‘Phuket Sandbox’. Nothing had really gone to plan, but everything had worked out anyway – that’s the beauty of the unexpected.