How Josh Ku Nearly Died Trying To Cross From Ulus to G Land by Hydrofoil
“If someone finds me dead at least they can find my phone and know what happened.”
Despite the best of intentions and planning, Southside Sydney surfer, Josh Ku, nearly came fatally unstuck during his attempt to cross the infamous Bali Strait, from Uluwatu to G-Land, by hydro foil in late June.
“I thought I was gonna be another fucken Elliot story,” he says, referencing fellow Southside surfer and friend, Elliot Foote, who was lost at sea during another bungled crossing in Indonesia last year.
“When I was in the middle of the Bali Strait and I lost my fucken safety boat, I was like, ‘You fucken idiot. You’re just gonna be one of those cunts that gets lost at sea!” he says.
The fear of death was real enough, Ku recorded a video into his phone detailing his final moments in case he drowned.
“If someone finds me dead at least they can find my phone and know what happened,” he says.
An elite slab surfer, who cut his teeth at Maroubra and surrounds, under the influence of Koby Abberton, Richie Vaculik and others, Josh spent most of his twenties rinsing his dad’s Qantas staff travel card to carry out strike missions all over the Asia-Pacific’s premiere cone zones.
During that period he also noticed a change in the demographic and decorum at many of the waves he loved.
“I just can’t stand the torture of crowded spots. I live in Sydney, the busiest city in Australia. It’s blown out of proportion how busy it is and everyone is hustling,” he says.
Foiling represented a way to ride energy and get a similar buzz to surfing with no one around. He joined forces with another former Southside slab specialist and pro surfer, Perth Standlick, to engage in a series of radical foiling missions up and down the coast; Maroubra to Palm Beach (53km), Maroubra to Wollongong (60km). Fast forward to today and Josh is a professional foil boarder who barely surfs, “unless there is a day of days.”
“Where it’s bigger and I know it’s not going to be full of kooks out there hustling for three foot shit Bondi waves,” he says.
Stab caught up with Josh shortly after he landed in Hawaii for the Molokai to Oahu paddle race to relive his sketchy, record-breaking foil crossing from Ulus to G-Land.
Stab: Talk us through the journey.
Josh: I’d set up all the logistics of this crossing and what I didn’t do was take the safety side as serious as I should have. I spoke to the guy who set up the boat and he said you get phone reception the whole way across. I took his word. When we met the boat captain and crew, they were all local guys and didn’t speak much English and we don’t speak much Bahasa. I don’t even think they’d seen a hydro foil before. I think they thought I was paddling across the channel on a stand up paddle board or prone thing. When I showed them the hydro foil they were like, ‘Oh, what?’ You could see they were a bit confused about what was going on.
I took off from Uluwatu following the boat, and the boat was taking an inside line because it’s not as rough following that inside line where the islands are closer together. Maybe after 30km my buddy filming was yelling at me trying to get me to come closer to the boat, pulling up his phone, going, ‘Dude we are nowhere near where we need to be! We gotta be way further out to sea.’
The boat must have been going a safe line. I think that’s where the miscommunication of what I was doing got lost in translation. But what happened, I hopped back on the boat, they brought us back out to the line. I must have been on the boat for 15 to 20 minutes. And dude, it was so wild. There was water going up and over the cabin, over the back of the boat, it was crazy ocean. They dropped me off back where I looked on the GPS thing. I was like, ‘Ok, this looks like a better line’. I hopped in the water got going for ten minutes and looked over my shoulder and that’s when I was like, ‘Where the fuck is the boat?’
I kept going, looked over my shoulder again. Another ten minutes passed and I thought, this is fucked. I was 40km into the crossing, dead center of the Bali Strait. No Bali behind me, no Java in front—just ocean. And now the safety boat that was supposed to be tailing me had vanished. Maybe it capsized, I thought.
I had no radio, no comms—didn’t think I’d need one with the boat following me. All my food was on board too. I’d planned on them tossing me supplies as I went. All I had was a litre of water in my camel pack, and still maybe three hours of foiling left. I started freaking out. Checked my watch: six hours of daylight left. If I nailed it from here, it’d take three.
I waited a bit. But if I couldn’t see the boat, there was no way they could see me. I hope they’re alright, I thought, but I just have to go. So I picked the direction I believed Java was and sent it. The new plan was: as soon as I spotted land, I’d edge in hard because I wasn’t sure my body would hold up. I’d never done anything like this. My longest prior run was Maroubra to Wollongong—60km. This was 90km, in way gnarlier conditions. No food. One litre of water left. I just hoped I wouldn’t cramp, or hit plastic or a log and break something.
I switched into full survival mode. No panic, no stress—just efficiency. Get there. I settled into a good rhythm, stayed smart. And once I saw Java, the nerves eased. Worst case, I can ditch my gear, hit the reef, and walk along the sand.
I was foiling along the reef toward G-Land, maybe 15km from the end, when I heard the roar of the boat behind me. They’d finally spotted me. I was like, What the fuck happened?
Turns out, they’d hit a floating bamboo log. It wrapped around all three motors—they had to kill the engines and clear everything. While they were dealing with that, I disappeared. The captain had no clue where I’d gone. My filmer said, “He’ll know where to go,” but the captain insisted on searching the nearest point of Java. They planned to get to G-Land, find reception, and call a rescue in. On their way there, they spotted me—15km from the finish.
Wow, that is so fucken psycho but so hard to plan for.
Thats where I felt guilt a few days later when I heard that tragic news (of a passenger ferry capsizing in the Bali Strait, killing 12). Even though you can’t plan for that shit, I could easily have had a walkie talkie, an EPIRB or a personal locating device. I should have had food on me.
Talk us through that moment you arrived at G Land?
As I caught up to them, about 15km from the finish, the conditions started to line up. The swell must organise itself as it hits the point, because it got clean. You’ll see it in the film—we’ll release that later—but I started to relax and actually surf the swells, doing big cutbacks and just enjoying it, as opposed to the previous 60km where I was in full efficiency mode, just beelining to the finish. It was super nice to finally enjoy it for what it was.
When I hit Kings and got a bomb set that linked all the way through to Money Trees and Speeds, I saw all the surfers in the lineup. I reckon they were thinking, Where the fuck did this cunt come from? It was hilarious. I came in that day and Chinese whispers started circulating between the camps. The next morning, I pulled out this single-fin Gerry Lopez Lightning Bolt, and I bet all the old boys were like, Who the fuck is this cunt?!
But it was pumping, and that’s when I love it. I was sending it on all the bomb sets, and people were like, He foils from Ulus and now he’s sending it on a Gerry Lopez single fin?! It was sick. After that first day, we came in, had beers at sunset, and the word got around—people were frothing.
What’s it done for you moving forward?
If anything it’s given me a lot of confidence to do these crazy ideas. The next one I won’t do one that could end up so sketchy like this but the planning, the logistics, trusting in the skill and my equipment, it gave me a lot of confidence. When I was doing the fun thing, surfing G Land the next day, it felt so minor. The previous day was so gnarly with so many emotions and the next day just pulling into tubes was just so fun. It felt like the pressure was off and I could just enjoy myself for what it was.
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