Stab Exclusive: Soli Bailey, Indonesian Insight

This is Soli Bailey’s Indonesian offerings after spending two months in the archipelago with filmer Kaius Potter. The gent sure is rising fast, winning the ASP Australasia Pro Junior Series this year and consistently dropping bangers like this. There’s no shortage of fine barrels in this clip and Soli’s rail game is awfully precise for his 19 years. Stab sat down with Soli for some of the finer details of his Indonesian trip…

Stab: Your Indo quiver… go!
Soli Bailey: The biggest board I took was a 6’6” but I didn’t ride it til I broke all my other boards at Deserts on the last swell. I had a bunch of shortboards around 5’11” and a dumpster diver 5’7” five-fin. I really enjoyed surfing that and rode it the entire Super Sucks session in this clip.

Why such short boards in solid Indo juice? The way the waves slab you can get away with riding a much shorter board. They’re more manoeuvrable but still wide with all the foam under your front foot. The shorter boards are easier to take off under the lip, especially on your backhand. It can be bouncy on the foamball sometimes but slabbing waves allow you to sit deeper.

Your 6’6” would’ve felt SUP-esque. It felt longer but that’s how big turns begin, surfing bigger boards, and it teaches you to draw lines out. You’ve got to put it in the right spot for the board to work.

Where’d you stay when you weren’t chasing swell? Fortunately, the swell was running the whole two months. I spent five days in Seminyak then bailed out from there. If I had to post up I would’ve gone out to Canggu, f’sure.

Being on the move didn’t leave any time to meet gorgeous women at Single Fin? Yeah. That was the good and bad thing, I ‘spose. If it was flat, we’d be getting massages, eating food and partying. So it was rad to be on the hunt constantly.

Accomo in Indo. Elaborate. Oh man, there’s so many pit joints. But if you stay in the worst, it can’t getting any worse than the worst. Go with the expectation that you’ll stay anywhere to get good waves. What comes with it is worth the waves.

What’s your worst? I went to Nias with Dad when I was 11 and it scarred me. We stayed in this place with a hole in the floor for a toilet, a tap that shuddered mud out of the end and the beds were concrete slabs. I got real sick… mess all over the floor. Gross. It’s gotten way cleaner, though.

The best session you had in this clip? For perfect waves, it’s got to be Super Sucks. It was a little slow, you weren’t getting every wave you wanted but if you sat and waited you’d get a really perfect wave. For fun and a good vibe is the little right Kaius shot from the water. We were the only ones out.

Dane told Kai Neville he doesn’t wan’t one air-reverse in his section. Thoughts? I reckon that’s where surfing’s going. If your airs aren’t high and tweaked out or inverted there’s no point. A big rail turn still has a lot of appeal.

Who taught you to surf on rail like that? Dad always said surf top to bottom. He’d always put me on big boards to learn to use a rail. Watching guys like AI I’ve always enjoyed doing carves, it feels amazing. It’s where the core of surfing is. No matter how advanced it gets, the guys who are labelled the best surfers in the world won’t ever forget the value of a rail turn.

You’re a good looking young cat, Soli, where was your call-up to Kai’s movie? (laughs) I dunno, mate. Maybe the next one.