I love a bizarre story.  I really do, and we’ve got a doozie out of Southeast Asia, involving a renegade longline fishing boat, suspected mutiny/murder, tuna looting, and (possibly) the ASP World Championship Tour, all at one of the world’s premiere surf spots.  

Details are at variance depending on the source you cite, but this much is known: The Ho Tsai Fa, a Taiwanese vessel which had gone off the grid some weeks before, ran aground some days ago at Padang Padang in Bali, Indonesia, wedging itself right amid the lineup of one of the world’s premiere breaks.  It is generally assumed that the Ho Tsai Fa was illegally fishing in Indonesian waters, and attempts beginning in May to contact it by radio were unsuccessful.  The ship is leaking petroleum of some sort into the water, and various people are worried that a swell forecasted to arrive soon could rise up and dash the 150-foot ship apart on the reef, unleashing very unpleasant environmental consequences. 

Other reports add some spice to the story.  News.com.au has it that the ship is now being treated as a crime scene on the report that the crewmen rose up and murdered the captain prior to the ship running aground.  EXPN reports that when the ship ran aground the crew gathered all identifying documents onboard and abandoned ship, followed by the locals going out and pulling all the tuna off the boat: “every grill on the peninsula was loaded with fish last night.” 

Now, Jon Coen of EXPN claims that the Rip Curl Search, the next WCT event, will be held in Padang Padang with a waiting period starting August 30th.  If this is true, he is the only one who seems to know it.  At any rate, the Rip Curl ISC Padang contest is definitely supposed to run there this week, and that seems to be… ah… fucked. 

So Kudos to the fishing industry for yet another triumph! Think about the images above before you shove that next hunk of Ahi into your maw, and read this, dude. 


Second photo from Luke Simpson, via EXPN.