Anything but a bore - Kai Bates surfs Papua New Guinea
Kai Bates is one of them, scoring the chance to fly over to Papua New Guinea with a couple of boards and a camera guy. He scored some epic conditions on the bore, and produced a cracker of a short film about it. Shame about the crocodile infested river though!
"One day we decided to travel up one section of the river that was described as being 'Crocodile infested', we knew there was crocodiles around but we hadn't seen any big ones so we weren't too nervous." Recalls Kai, as he chills out after the session. "There was a perfect little right, and we couldn't resist so I jumped in and ended up getting a sick little wave."
After that it turned a little pear shaped, falling off that wave and waiting for 45 minutes in a tree! The boats driven by the locals weren't game to drive over the face of the wave to get out the back of it, so continued driving up the river, waiting for an opportunity to cross the wave. Tidal bore waves are strongest near the shoreline, or near any section of shallow water. For the boats to cross the wave, they had to wait for the river to widen, or the depth to increase.
A tidal bore is a phenomenon that only a few places in the world ever get to see, and even fewer get big enough to surf. What happens is the incoming tide is so strong, and the river is shaped in such a unique way that the incoming sea water rises up over the still outgoing river, it forms a wave that runs slowly upstream until it eventually dissipates or the tide turns, whichever comes first.
Check out the video of Kai Bates shredding the tidal bore in Papua New Guinea this month!
Mount Coolum, QLD
