Review: 'The Chronicles Of G-Land' by Dian Hadiani
What was flying under the radar is now well and truly upon it. First the World Surf League scheduled a contest at G-Land, locking it in for a further three years of maximum webcast glare, and with our curiosity suitably aroused now come the books promising to tell all about this most mysterious and storied wave.
First to market is ‘The Chronicles of G-Land’ by Indonesian author Dian Hadiani. Hadiani has many bows in her writing quiver: children’s books; copywriter; marketing; and contributing writer to many magazines, however this is Hadiani’s first time writing for a surfing audience.
She was commissioned to write the book, and others that are set to follow, by Bobby Radiasa - he of Bobby’s Camp fame - who was the subject for a magazine feature Hadiani wrote in 2011. Seven years later, in 2018, Bobby approached Hadiani to tell the real story of G-Land. In his foreword, Bobby writes that G-Land’s history is “vague due to lack of research”, inferring that it’s even vague to himself, and he was there.
What he’s done then, is not simply commission a book, but an investigation. How much you’ll enjoy it depends on how much interest you have in G-Land's history.
That said, 'The Chronicles of G-Land' is a surf book like no other. In parts it’s flawed, it could do with tighter editing, less digressions, and the leaps of logic don’t always land true, but the level of research is astonishing. After receiving the brief, Hadiani worked on the book for four years, tracking down long forgotten employees and many of the early surfers who passed through the camp.
The narrative begins far earlier than that, however, with Hadiani delving back into the various histories of Java’s eastern tip, what it represented to the Majapahit Kingdom and how it became Alas Purwo National Park - a secluded outpost on the world’s most densely-populated island.
Much of the early story is based around Sunar, who was Mike Boyum’s Boy Friday until Boyum was run out of Indonesia. Sunar has had nothing to do with G-Land or surfing since then and just finding him allows Hadiani to piece together large tracts of the story. While reading it I wondered if a non-Indonesian writer would have thought to track down Sunar, and if they had, would they have been able to coax the information out of him that Hadiani did.
Sunar, the 'jungle boy', with his Hot Buttered single fin (Rick Rasmussen)
At any rate, those stories provide a view from the other side of the kitchen: the perspective of hired locals, not paying Western guests, and that alone is a novel inclusion in any surfing book.
On the Western guest’s side: Hadiani tracks down now-elderly surfers surprised that someone's taken an interest in their misspent adventures of youth. Notably absent are explanations how so many young Westerners were able to travel without visible means of support. The answer to that may cause some readers to second-guess the timelines and recollections, yet Hadiani takes it all at face value. Much trust is placed in distant memory.
A big question is how Mike Boyum, a charismatic grifter and smuggler, managed to ingratiate himself into Indonesian bureaucracy and make money off a patch of land where even locals weren’t allowed to live. A first-rate American hustler comes up against the overly-officious Indonesians, and somehow gets his way, if only for a time.
Eyewitness stories about the early trips to G-Land criss-cross, they double and triple up - see earlier note about editing - till it gets to the point it becomes hard to follow. It wasn’t till I’d finished the book did I realise an actual timeline is included to cross-check the (many) stories.
Obviously, no investigative book is going to dodge the answer to who first surfed G-Land. Accepted wisdom says it was Bob Laverty, yet his mission always felt apocryphal, perhaps not questioned because it added to the mystery of the place - the big discovery and then the sudden death.
Hadiani’s research took her elsewhere and it’ll create more questions than it will answer. Perhaps it’ll never be settled, or perhaps the Laverty story will endure, the same as people believe Lance Knight was the first surfer in the Mentawais despite longstanding evidence to the contrary. Myths can be more powerful than truth.
The ball now falls to other writers. Later this year Jack McCoy and Mike Ritter have a book on G-Land coming out, and word is Monty Webber is continuing his purple patch of prose with an extended piece on Grajagan.
Suddenly it’s the 1980s again and everyone wants a piece of the jungle.
'The Chronicles of G-Land' is published by CV. Lit Hidup, Bali, and is available online
PS: Dian Hadiani is currently researching and writing the next book in the series and recently requested photos or stories from anyone who was at G-Land during the 1994 tsunami.
// STU NETTLE
Comments
Sounds like too many fingers in the G-land pie! More rape and pillage for a few bucks. Nothings changed then really.
Phil Jarratt would like this book.
It's a well done book, look's good, reads okay, mice layout, but she failed to say who put the 130k up that MIke Boyum and his brother Bill to build the first bungalows in g-land and she failed to mention that it was my hard earned pot smuggling money!!!
I have heard so many stories about M.B over the years i wonder what is fact vs fiction.
Anyway what ever the truth be told, I can only assume the adventures and company he kept in the hedonistic days when Bali was but a story/adventure that one heard of at your local break or surf shop.
I wish i was there.
According to Joe Turpel the history of G Land begins and ends with Quiksilver’s involvement in the place. Those waves didn’t break until surfers who were paid to put the Quiksilver sticker on their boards breathed life into it through photography and hagiography*.
Just like the WSL gave birth to wave riding despite only being granted permit as a limited liability company in 2017, Quiksilver retains ownership over all intellectual property rights to the G Land Lineup.
On a less cynical note…..the place is superb and it’s attraction is the very wildness humans have somehow managed to not tar over completely. A history is a nice touch but essentially meaningless. A story about fleas on a dog.
I noticed that book for sale in Bali when I was there in May. Had a flick through it at Drifter. It was a weighty book! Was surprised how long it was.
Would love to get my hands on that Hot Buttered single-o.
How's the flat deck??!!
One should never take foam from the deck !
Any hand shaper worth his salt knows to leave it the hell alone ......
That thing would look like an onion nowadays. Alas.
Thanks goodness it took so long for decent naval maps and google earth etc.
That fact that Dian sought out and interviewed, extensively, INDONESIANS like Sunar, who were involved in the early days at G-land is what makes her book remarkable and likely to be the standard for years to come, as the contributions or involvement of locals in this context is usually a footnote or ignored completely.
She also debunks the blatant lie that Bill Boyum had anything at all to do with the discovery of G-land, as he apparently inserted himself in the narrative in place of his brother, but wasn't actually there at all.
On the subject of discovery myths - is anyone interested to track down the group of French sailor/surfers who supposedly anchored in the bay at Lagundri on Nias for a month in 1971 and were the first people to surf the wave?
They supposedly signed the guestbook of a village in the area en français before disappearing from history -
I'm interested in the alleged French surfers. How did you hear about them?
Coincidentally, Kevin Lovett - who's credited as being one of the co-pioneers of Nias - edited Dian's book.
It was actually a comment on Swellnet - someone mentioned they had seen the comment in the guestbook around 1978 on the trip to Nias.
Not the Soarake village guestbook, but another nearby village where the French sailor/surfers would buy vegetables and other food at the market.
I made an image of it, I'll se if I can find it -
Kevin Lovett who ended up on Siargao Island?
I think you mean Mike Boyum, who died on Siargao in April, 1989.
His hut was still on the beach when myself, Evan Slater and Taylor Knox were there in September, 1992.
It's in here - Original Cloud 9 on Azylo
https://azylo.com/story/10502/
No, there was a Kevin someone (Aussie) who had a camp on Siargao late 90's.
Larry ?
Pretty sure it was Kevin.
maroubra guy.
Davidson..
Thats him.
As far as I know, Kevin still has his place on Siargao -
Good surfer but a strange guy, a real prick in my opinion, but I still sell images of him once in a while, ha ha.
Kevin Lovett was one of the partners in Hot Tuna I believe (going back a few years there). There's a feature in surfers journal about his early trip to Nias, it's a great read. I don't think they claimed to be the first but they were definitely early and parked up for a good long time. https://www.surfersjournal.com/product/custodians-of-the-point-the-story...
I always find claims by people that they were definitely the first to surf a wave or area pretty hard to back up. My old man was in Nias surfing in the early 70s. There were five or six surfers names in the chief log book before him. The two immediately before him were the Aussie guys who claim to have found Nias. Three years before them (think it was '69 or 70') there were three French surfers who had visited Nias on a yacht. Interestingly they had written in the log book that there were good waves around southern siberut in the Mentawaiis. So these French guys possibly may have been the first to surf both Nias and the Mentawaiis but who knows.
rhys1983 wrote:
I always find claims by people that they were definitely the first to surf a wave or area pretty hard to back up. My old man was in Nias surfing in the early 70s. There were five or six surfers names in the chief log book before him. The two immediately before him were the Aussie guys who claim to have found Nias. Three years before them (think it was '69 or 70') there were three French surfers who had visited Nias on a yacht. Interestingly they had written in the log book that there were good waves around southern siberut in the Mentawaiis. So these French guys possibly may have been the first to surf both Nias and the Mentawaiis but who knows.
From: https://www.swellnet.com/features/finding-macaronis-part-1
http://aotcpress.com/articles/return-field/
love it if you could post the links to parts 2+3...
https://www.swellnet.com/features/finding-macaronis-part-2
https://www.swellnet.com/features/finding-macaronis-part-3
Udo coming in with the goods again. Thanks for the effort of finding that, awesome stuff.
Lots of people think Duke was the first surfer in Australia, or brought surfing to Australia. They are wrong of course and perhaps the first to surf GLand just did it, told no one and wants no recognition, fame or the place to be named after them.
WHY WHY WHY???… It’s a story everyone has heard over and over
Yes who knows . And does it really matter? l was travelling through Indo in the mid 70,s , and there were many others at the time , as well as many before me. And also expats with yachts living in bali. It was already a well worn trek. Bali up to Thailand, via java, sumatra, where one had the cheapest ticket out,.. Medan to Penang. (necessary for an indo visa back then ) . . Then the train up to Bangers... l explored and surfed Phuket on that journey, none of the locals had seen a surfer at the time, But it doesn't mean "there was not others before me". Golden years for sure. And I,m still here in asia surfing.
I’ve done that route a couple of times. Fly to Singapore, train to Penang ferry to Medan, then the usual route to Nias. (Lake Toba for the weed pickup then onto Sibolga-Nias). Then Visa runs back to Penang for another 2 month visa. Singapore was a extended stopover then onto San Francisco so I could work in Canada, cash up then to Mexico. Fuck I miss my twenty’s. Disclaimer, I got married and it took 2.5 years to get to Mexico.
cool salty, ya for sure they were golden times, no tourists just surfers, freaks and adventurers. was never fan of Medan. couldn't get out of there quick enough. Had a run in with Charles Sobhraj in singapore trying to scam me. l was lucky to escape from him and fled in a taxi up to KL from johor bahru. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sobhraj
Whoa, I was a few decades after that era Cosmic. And never a brush with death in the form of a serial killer. That’s loose mate
Yes soggydog, as the documentary "sea of darkness" Suggests those days were full of adventure , mystique ,and intrigue. No internet, H phones, etc. so it was normal not to have contact with friends for even weeks or months. the only way was mail , which was very slow, and poste restantes was the address of choice at the next destination, wherever that may be.. it wasn't a 2 week holiday back then It was a journey until your money ran out..I think l was on the road for 15 months that trip in 77, which took me from aus to bali on a a ship via papuan new guinea. (cheaper than an airfare to jakarta as no direct flights to bali then), then overland java, Sumatra, Malaysia bangkok, changmai, burma, Phuket then to the philippines. . Wild and free times..
May i ask, Teaching English? i mean what you do for a crust?
has anyone seen the secret film "sea of darkness" ? surely has to be on the internet hiding somewhere youd think ? I heard there trying to release it to the public still anyone know about it?
I've got the unedited version on DVD, though not sure if I even have a DVD player anymore.
It used to pop up on YouTube occasionally, but I just checked and it's not there now. I've never been 100% sure who wanted the film censored. Martin Daly? He's not heavily implicated. More likely Quiksilver for keeping Mike Boyum on their payroll while he was serving a home sentence. Still, I don't think that's ever been confirmed, though happy to be corrected.
Seems strange that the film is still censored as there's nothing shocking in it; we've heard all the rumours, most people assume they're true, all the film does is confirm it.
Weird that it's been thirteen years since it was made.
Shane Peel who im sure you're friends with Stu, knows all about it. he rarely talks to me but quickly wrote to me after i shared the link on facebook. I wouldnt mention anything about this thread to him either since udos post, Shane will crack the shits and tell Martin.
I have a copy in mp4 format. Have no idea where I got it from and no idea if it's the unedited version. Runs for 1hr35mins. I'm thinking maybe I should delete it or risk a visit from the Quiksilver mafia.
From what I heard, the withdrawal of "Sea of Darkness" was entirely due to legal considerations - the Producers were amateurs and failed to clear any copyrights or trademarks or include a disclaimer.
It is also a law in the US people cannot profit from films about their criminal activity until they have been convicted of a crime and served a prison sentence, or been acquitted of the crimes for which they have been accused -
It wasn't the Director's fault, Michael Oblowitz told the story very well, it is the Producers responsibility to clear any and all copyrights, trademarks and legal considerations before release and include a disclaimer, etc
That's why films this type, unscripted and based on actual people and events carry the disclaimer "People and scenes in this motion picture, etc"
Otherwise, the Producers are very much exposed to legal action.
Martin supposedly bought the rights from the original Producers and is planning to re-edit the film and make it suitable for release, but once all the libellous parts have been snipped, what's left?
That's why stories like "Sea of Darkness" are presented as scripted entertainment - with a disclaimer.
There is one very prominent surfer of the era who does not appear in "Sea of Darkness" - no images no footage, no interview, nothing.
Who is it?
https://flic.kr/p/2nAUJMW
According to Shane, (who im starting to have doubts about) it was a $150 000 or way more fine for sharing the link. Now i dont think i believe him and think the upload will be deleted instead.
Great film, i really liked it but knew most of the story from indo guide books etc in the 90's anyway.
Groundy - SP is talking Garbage..!
Not sure of the answer, however I'm gonna have to watch it again for some context around your claim RE producers' oversight.
McCabe went to jail, Chitty too, Boyum is dead, and as I mentioned in an earlier comment, I don't recall Daly being heavily implicated. Guilty by association?
Hard to imagine that after thirteen years of silence it'll ever see the light of day.
The Quiksilver legal people apparently wanted the film entombed under six feet of reinforced concrete, never to see the light of day again -
Wether we see an edited version suitable for general release is an open question and if so, what will be left of the story after the recut?
From what ive heard from Hawaiians in the know, the movie didnt go deep enough into the big three surf companies operations.
Thanks for the review Stu, really appreciate it.
Dunno who tried to sue Martin Daly for Sea Of Darkness, but from the research I did, the claim that G-Land was used as the drug smuggling place is not proven. It mention in The Chronicles Of G-Land.
yep I viewed it a few years back, l,m not sure how I found it. It was a little disjointed and not really much revealed . you not miss anything.
It was posted here a few months ago and i shared the link on facebook but was warned by a friend that what i was doing was retarded.I was about to get sued by Martin Daly and others if they find out. Lucky i dont go on ments boat trips anyway so dont know any of them...But glad he warned me. Its still on other sites like surfer i think.
Surprised its still up - Mr Daly usually gets it taken down asap
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10YnrhYHeVHbAPic_MNme4SM4wXD5u3B2/view?f...
Wow, quite a story - another world - dark tracks indeed.
What happened to the rest of the 2kg of coke left in Jakarta?
The jail terms for smuggling a ship full of hash was pretty minimal back then. War on drugs ay.
Watch on YouTube The Golden Pig
Kevin Lovett returns to Nias
Peter Troy also wrote a book but I haven’t read it.
Love the comments thread to this article, gold! And some great links too.
I'd definitely hesitate to claim being the first person to surf a wave.
When grandad died in the 1980s, an old cruising yachtie mate of his visited our family to give his condolences, had a few drinks and started telling some tall tales. One was that he'd cruised fairly aimlessly throughout the Pacific and surfed a lot of places, I'd estimate in the late 1960s or early 1970s. My brother and I immediately rushed to get dad's navigation charts and stood there wide-eyed as the old salt proceeded to put some Xs on them.
Not realising the significance at the time, the charts got long lost over the years but I occasionally wonder where those Xs were. I can recall there was quite a few and they were scattered across a fair bit of the Pacific - north, south, east and west.
I'd suggest most of surfing's most fabled waves were surfed well before people would like to believe.
Think I've mentioned before that when I was in Taiwan circa 2000, some of the local guys just starting to learn to surf tried to convince me I was the first to surf a certain wave previously believed to be a bit shallow and dangerous. I wonder if john.callahan had already been there...?
Surfing in Taiwan had a much later beginnings than other areas in Asia, like Japan and The Philippines, because of the constraints of martial law, which was in effect from 1949 to July of 1987.
During this period, most of the coastline of the entire island was off limits - no fishing, no beach combing, no surfing, nothing as the military had total control of the coastline out of consideration of an imminent invasion from the PRC to reclaim the island.
So, other than the Sun brothers at Honeymoon Bay near Taipei in the north who had a beach concession and did surf in that area, no one surfed at all as it was not possible.
We have made several projects in Taiwan ROC, it gets great surf on both the east and the west coast, but not before 2000 - there have been expatriates surfing in Taiwan since the lifting of martial law, so you may not have been the first, but it wasn't us!
Thanks for the reply.
Honeymoon bay was the first place I surfed. I camped in a tent under that concrete structure for a few nights at the very start of the trip.
I also surfed some waves on the mainland China side, including a certain grinding left you pictured at your flickr page, which I found using navigation charts and a scooter.
That's not the wave I was talking about above though, which I didn't notice on the flickr page.
I think the reality is that the Phillipines has much better and more surf than Taiwan. I really don't think you'd go to Taiwan unless you had some other additional reason.
Ok, good - yes, our published Taiwan materials as posted in the surfEXPLORE archive on flickr is from both the east and the west coast - the west coast can get very good, but is less consistent than the east coast.
I don't know, there are long-term expatriates and local Chinese surfers in Taiwan who say they surf all year - NE monsoon on the east coast, typhoon season on both the east and the west coast - plenty of swell according to them.
Locals told me and my best foreign mate we were first to surf this joint:
But i dont know, maybe someone else did as locals thought the area was haunted by the devil and ghosts so rarely went there and warned us not to surf there as some fisherman sometimes died by freak waves.
One 8-ten foot day a kid was fishing and got swept out so we paddled out to rescue him and heard him scream but the swell suddenly got so big we couldn't see him. His body washed up a few days later.
Heres a 6-8foot day and it gets heavier
as mentioned the indo's are part of the best experiences. helped fikki with some reading and writings part of the Bobbys camp and sent some money home, only to be back at bemo corner and drop into the office to get the feel again and its fikki running the show and calling on me as old times. unreal one of many who make you feel so good there
Sea of Darkness......
Don't Know if the transferer of info works ...from my Word Doc/ carnt send screenshots
But smart people will work it out ...
It's part of recent messages in sent to my inner circle ...
Here is the link.
Sea of darkness.mkv (dropbox.com)
Or try this one ….
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6dili5b8tf4heye/Sea%20of%20darkness.mkv?dl=0
1 Enter Sea of darkness.mkv (dropbox.com)
2 It will show
3 Scroll down a couple of entiries
To this one
4 Will come up
Just scroll down little
5 And choose this one
6 This will come up
Download it to computer
Its ok…
7 Then just open it to view (after download )
or store for later.. You will find it in your download folder
8 Pull a beer fix yourself to the couch and go or a ride !
Q? ..So why didn’t you pick some a couple of kgs of Hash and stick it in your petrol tank when you rode the Honda 4 overland from England to Australia 1972 !!!!????..
Lost Opportunity …Bro (Thats my older Brother What a legend ! )
My Best 10......
G land
Bells (Golden mile/The Rock)
Bukit Peninsula Ulw Padang & others
Kirra (old days)
Angourie
Pipeline Hawaii / Oz
Desert Ptwowie...
(Portland when it pumps) ha ha
That crazy place in Africa... (Diamond Desert) ..
maybe Noosa in 1970s cyclone swells ..empty lineups???
Ad your own list ...
I'd be placing my $$$$
...on ...Martin Daly
Rader/ Quicksilver Explorer
...Hero ...No 1 ...
To be a good surfer ..
...You have to understand where you have come from,
...where you have been ..
...And where do you want to go in the future...
Thats why heritage is important ...
When you understand the path of the forebears...
You get to deeply appreciate where you are now ..
They made the paths ..we all just followed.....
Ahmen ...
For those interested ...
..You should start here ...
https://darkpolitics.wordpress.com/cia-involvement-in-drug-smuggling-par...