Old Guys scores, four longtime South Bay surfers embark on one final surfing adventure

Or maybe not the last trip

by Tom Horton

President of the South Bay Boardriders Club

Greg Armer, Raydy Landis, Michael Lee and I took a trip to Asu Island last summer for what we thought would be our last surfing adventure together. We are between 65 and 72 years old.

Asu Island is located west of Nias Island in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The tropical paradise is protected by a staggering left-hand bend.

Getting there was a challenge. It required a flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo, then Tokyo to Singapore, then Singapore to Medan, then Medan to Nias, then a three hour drive via Nias and finally a 40 minute boat ride to Asu Surf Camp. The total travel time was a strenuous 40 hours.

When we arrived, 12- to 16-foot long lefties were darting over a sharp coral reef.

Everyone agreed that we would have preferred the trip to have started with a swell building so we could acclimate, rather than a swell that was at its peak. But at our age, we take what we can get.

Surfing three times a day helped us feel good. After a few days the waves showed some mercy by dropping to just above us.

Between sessions we recovered with massages and yoga. And food and drink.

I had a scare when my line wrapped around a coral reef head in the impact zone. I escaped, but without my 7-foot board, so I had to finish the trip on my spare 6-foot board and was pitched a lot.

The younger Asu surfers showed respect for the older ones and even expressed their admiration.

They said we assured them that they had many more good surfing sessions ahead of them.

One day a charter boat anchored offshore and to our delight four well-known South Bay surfers paddled in: lifeguard Tom Seth, former South African pro Warren Kushner, Warren’s son Kai and Kai’s friend Cole Saffel.

Both teenagers grew up competing in the South Bay Boardriders Club’s Subaru Pacific South Bay Surf Contest Series.

Seth broke his board after breaking another brand new board at a different location the day before. Luckily he had three boards with him.

At the end of the trip there was a conversation about whether we would return to Indonesia. There was some deep reflection that ended with a lot of maybes.

But when we returned home and saw the photos, we quickly started making plans while there was still time.