Whitney, I lived in the Marshalls for 2 years 1985- 1987. There were only a couple surfers back then. A boat is a must to get to surfspots. There is good surf there if you can get to it. Lot of agressive sharks (scarry!) But if you get a chance go. You will never regret it!! Ahui Hou- Ogre
Yes Whitney I lived and surfed in the Marshall Islands for a while but it was a long time ago.
Wood Ogre is correct, a boat is a must have, and sharks are aggressive.
Can't help you with spots as most of them didn't have names. If I recall correctly offshore of Arno Atoll was the most consistent and I seem to remember a wave on Majuro that could be paddled to.
Unfortunately I don't have any friends still over there to help you. Sorry.
etherealprodigy, there’s plenty of shapers who shape to the waves out here, mostly in the US. But AU as well. Pohnpei is the best location for consistant big surf this time of year. When its small I’ve heard its about as big as the local spots where I live. My home is Kwajalein at the moment, and its an hour or so from Majaro, and three from Pohnpei. The water is insane and lots of remote uncharted surfing locations. There arent many known beach breaks, everything is reef , fast and have small finicky pockets. Although getting here is expensive, its pretty nice. The common shark types out here are black tip and white tip sharks. Small 4 footers.
Woodogre lived here when it was relatively uncharted. I wish I could have been here around the same time. Seems like a way more relaxed place to live.
PM me for specifics if you’d like. Continental Airlines is the monopolizing airline to the Marshalls. About 100 bucks a board. Dont be suprised if you get it back covered in fish blood and beat up.
I think this year the waves are going to be good. Just a hunch, but were surfing in places that dont usually have south swells this time of year and its still ooh soo good!
i believe i would arrive this upcoming summer, say around july or august… and stay until may I believe. This is still all up in the air, but it would be a great travel opportunity & get some waves.
hopefully shipping surfboards there won’t cost more than an arm and a leg. i’ve heard that people use flat rate boxes – but then again I don’t know how big a flat rate box can get ! haha.
sad news I heard today: this American girl who was doing student missionary work over in Yap, Micronesia (one of my choices of islands) was murdered a couple of days ago. sad story. she wen’t out for a run and never came back. God Bless her family.
A little bit off topic and I’m sorry to hear about the tragic death of your friend and I hope the culprits are prosecuted.
I don’t understand why missionaries have to go around force feeding their beliefs down the throats of crusy islanders who live in parradice with religions and legal systems of their own. I’ve been to samoa a couple of times and the transistion to Christianity has caused them to loose a lot of priveliges and freedoms which they once had. Nobody can do anything on sundays, women can no longer go swimming without wearing a full length dress, not exactly olympic standard… people live in fear of guilt and sin of normal life activities ect… but the one that really pissed me off was the amount of churches in that place. There’s more churches than people in Samoa, they keep building new ones all the time, seriously they are side by side with the old ones falling down and nobody going to them. Everybodys poor but they give all their money to the church, whats with that? and the priest is the best dressed wealthiest man in town? How come mainstream religions aren’t free? How come God always wants your money and is exempt from paying taxes?
There’s a priest in a suburb near where I grew up and from being down on his luck to starting this hillsong type church he went from being a poor nobody to being a multimillionaire who drives a farrari…wtf is with that…his wife drives a Porsche Cayenne?
Gotta say, the video link took me away for a good twenty minutes… All those freakin’ right hand barrels… good loyd… I gotta get to some warm water barrels this summer…
My brother worked in the Marshalls and on Pohnpei in the late 80's and early 90's. I visited him on Pohnpei a couple of times. I think you have to pick the time of year if you're going to surf. I think I was there around July or August and it was mostly just on-shore wind swell. There was an American guy there who surfed and he said the winter months were better.
It was a beautiful place though and the diving is fantastic especially if you can get out to the atolls. There are lots of sharks but mostly not aggressive. My brother is a doctor and said the only shark bites he treated in the 10 years he was there were guys spear fishing. The locals would string their fish on a wire coat hanger and wear it around their waist. They'd get bit when the shark would try to grab a fish.
If you go you won't regret it even if you don't surf.
Even some of the most remote places in the world have had shark populations decimated (unfortunately) by shark finners - Raja Ampat is a good example.
Even if there used to be tons of sharks, I’d be surprised if it is still like that. I used to specifically travel around the world with the intention of diving with sharks (no - not baited cage dives, although occassionally people were chumming), and you’d be surprised at how hard they are to find sometimes even when you’re looking for them. Most places that now have healthy populations are areas that have remained that way because they are protected in some way or another (not sure about Micronesia). That said, there are some dives in that part of the world which are very famous for sharks - Blue Corner, Palau is one example. Close, but not exactly “next door”.
White tips - the reef kind - are like puppy dogs by the way.
Shark problem?.....everyone wants to prolong shark stories to keep people away from spots. Fair enough. Works most of the time.
If I was you I would take the chance and go. If you don't it will be an oportunity lost, and maybe you'll never get another.
Some of the best waves I had on Reunion were when people came in because someone saw a shark. If the waves were good we'd drop tools and go surfing, usually get a good hour before anyone else was game. Gotta love empty good waves.
Like everywhere known to be sharky, Reunion does have it's share of fatal shark attacks, pretty much one a year.........but nearly always lid riders.
Blah, shark problems here are bunk. So much fish for them to prey on…no reported problems in YEARS. Just respect the water. If you were coming out to spearfish then the warnings might make sense. Even then, your dealing with reef sharks, black and white tips. Hammer heads rarely make it out here, and tiger sharks are spotted like once every 10 years.
your concern should be what goes on on land where you have to live and not the ocean.
its a very very poor area
micronesians have become the new caste class here in Hawaii over the past 5-10 years. Most come here for medical needs because there’s nothing out there when you need serious medical attention. Many have stayed and built up a significant population doing most of the manual labor in the lower end of the economy and getting into trouble with the other population of samoas, tongan and fijians. Its the endless cycle of economically based population migration.
its poorer there than american samoa who also subsists on government handouts(recent CNN tsunami scandle) and micronesia is in the same boat if not worse. Tourism helps but there’s no real infrastructure like in Palua and Saipan to support anything significant. Many small island very far apart…
betelnut addiction and alcoholism are big problems in Micronesia like any indegenus population that converts to live on government subsidies that are drying up.
expect a feral existence at best and be careful as its pretty far from any real help.
On the other hand micronesians are the greatest open ocean sailors in the world.
it took an elder, Mau Pialug to come to Hawaii to teach Nainoa Thompson the art of open ocean navigation. That was the most significant event in modern time to revive the culture here in Hawaii with the ongoing adventures of the Hokulea her fellow craft. Mau is a revered elder in the natiive sailing community there and here because of it. The Hawaiian navigators even sailed there to present him with a canoe as a gift before he passed away.
thats the beauty of that part of the world, the ongoing western contamination (which will get worse as more guided surf tours show up) is where the ugliness starts to rear its head. American Samoa, the Solomons. Indo and others are text book examples of whats coming to that part of the Pacific.
Its a once in a life time experience just be prepared and understand what you’ll represent to the locals when you get there. There’s some skills you can learn there if you are accepted that very few in the world will ever master.
let me quess world teach ?? I know first hand there are good waves out there , my wife is Rimajolese & I have been to a many outer island over the past 7 years.
send me a PM & maybe ill share a spot or 2 with ya.