Ian Hockey is a 57 year old former NSW State and Australian Longboard divisional title holder, a surfer for over 46 years.
What Mr.Ian says..........
" Now back in our Southern Philippines home and I’m still feeling the tingles of excitement as I relive the last few days that was centered on Sri Aman, Sarawak.
Not just a wonderful place with wonderful people but here is housed an actual wonder of our planet.
Tucked just out of sight from the regular tourist trails this ever so pretty little town offers not just an upclose and personal encounter with an ethnic diversity in a thriving, well governed and organized community, and not just an encounter with genuinely friendly locals who are really proud of their town and not just a place where one can find a multitude of hidden away eateries serving a huge variety of fresh tasty food. One will find all of these, but it is only here that you will find the Mighty Benak!
Sri Aman is one of only a handful of places on earth where nature has allowed all of the required elements to produce a daily phenomenon of a tidal tsunami that is actually rideable for watercraft. And it goes on for miles! Right past the purpose built viewing platforms and wharf areas where it is possible to sit and have a drink or a snack while experiencing it.
Indeed it is more than simply viewing the wall of water where earlier in the day an ocean going ship may have been berthed , it’s also about hearing its approach as if there is a distant locomotive about to appear and then to feel the raw energy that follows which carries far beyond its tidal boundaries.
My primary purpose in coming here was to go to the next step in the experience and ride that wave! Not in quite the same manner that has been done for eons by the locals in their streamlined canoes, but in a manner I’ve been more accustomed to for nearly the last half century, on my surfboard.
Not for the faint hearted as the Lupar River is also home to the largest flesh eating amphibians still inhabiting the earth ….The Saltwater Crocodile!
However any wave rider will tell you that surfing is constantly about weighing the odds against survival, whether it be dry reef, sharks, wave size or in this case crocs and in taking that chance it led an almost surreal experience for me.
The anticipation of the wave’s approach gave way to butterflys in the stomach, and then to catch it and feel the energy of an ocean of water compressing its way between meandering banks, it’s shape and size continually mutating into something different, and all whilst negotiating this, travelling past picture postcard rural scenes, left me in a state of semi euphoria!
The skilled boatman did his stuff brilliantly as I think I rode that same wave six times over I’m not sure how many kilometers. Whether it was from pilot error or simply the wave becoming lazy as it at times entered deeper waters, each time he would pick me up and after a bone jarring race around or over the swell he would deliver me back in front to start again.
Eventually I succumbed, my legs feeling like jelly, not a turn left in them and I had to let this magnificent beast go, onward out of sight, still throwing up long glassy walls as if to just taunt me.
This was the glide that will be forever etched in my memories, and in helping to make this at all possible I sincerely thank The Resident Office of the Sri Aman division, in particular The Resident Mr. Abdul Rahman Sebli Bin Senusi, the Vice Resident Ms. Felicia Tan, the Administrative Officer Mr. L-Fizan Paukan and the Resident Tour Guide, the lovely Ms. Magdelene Rinya Tenny all of whom went far beyond the call of duty. I feel nothing less than respect, gratitude and friendship for you"
Yours Sincerely
Ian Hockey
Not just a wonderful place with wonderful people but here is housed an actual wonder of our planet.
Tucked just out of sight from the regular tourist trails this ever so pretty little town offers not just an upclose and personal encounter with an ethnic diversity in a thriving, well governed and organized community, and not just an encounter with genuinely friendly locals who are really proud of their town and not just a place where one can find a multitude of hidden away eateries serving a huge variety of fresh tasty food. One will find all of these, but it is only here that you will find the Mighty Benak!
Sri Aman is one of only a handful of places on earth where nature has allowed all of the required elements to produce a daily phenomenon of a tidal tsunami that is actually rideable for watercraft. And it goes on for miles! Right past the purpose built viewing platforms and wharf areas where it is possible to sit and have a drink or a snack while experiencing it.
Indeed it is more than simply viewing the wall of water where earlier in the day an ocean going ship may have been berthed , it’s also about hearing its approach as if there is a distant locomotive about to appear and then to feel the raw energy that follows which carries far beyond its tidal boundaries.
My primary purpose in coming here was to go to the next step in the experience and ride that wave! Not in quite the same manner that has been done for eons by the locals in their streamlined canoes, but in a manner I’ve been more accustomed to for nearly the last half century, on my surfboard.
Not for the faint hearted as the Lupar River is also home to the largest flesh eating amphibians still inhabiting the earth ….The Saltwater Crocodile!
However any wave rider will tell you that surfing is constantly about weighing the odds against survival, whether it be dry reef, sharks, wave size or in this case crocs and in taking that chance it led an almost surreal experience for me.
The anticipation of the wave’s approach gave way to butterflys in the stomach, and then to catch it and feel the energy of an ocean of water compressing its way between meandering banks, it’s shape and size continually mutating into something different, and all whilst negotiating this, travelling past picture postcard rural scenes, left me in a state of semi euphoria!
The skilled boatman did his stuff brilliantly as I think I rode that same wave six times over I’m not sure how many kilometers. Whether it was from pilot error or simply the wave becoming lazy as it at times entered deeper waters, each time he would pick me up and after a bone jarring race around or over the swell he would deliver me back in front to start again.
Eventually I succumbed, my legs feeling like jelly, not a turn left in them and I had to let this magnificent beast go, onward out of sight, still throwing up long glassy walls as if to just taunt me.
This was the glide that will be forever etched in my memories, and in helping to make this at all possible I sincerely thank The Resident Office of the Sri Aman division, in particular The Resident Mr. Abdul Rahman Sebli Bin Senusi, the Vice Resident Ms. Felicia Tan, the Administrative Officer Mr. L-Fizan Paukan and the Resident Tour Guide, the lovely Ms. Magdelene Rinya Tenny all of whom went far beyond the call of duty. I feel nothing less than respect, gratitude and friendship for you"
Yours Sincerely
Ian Hockey
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