Watch: Craig Anderson And Kaito Ohashi Find (Mostly) Empty Waves In Southeast Asia

Made in partnership with Db.

There are pros and cons to surf travel in our digital age.

Bali may have changed quite a bit since the ’70s ’80s ’90’s ’00s ’10s last year. But, we now have more information than most of us know what to do with. Allow us to expand on that.

In our annual reader survey — which garnered over 7,000 responses — we learned that 76.79% of peeps plan on taking a surf trip in the next 12 months. Only 5.44% said they weren’t, and the remaining 17.77% said they weren’t sure. 

We also learned that 42% of respondents rate “fleeing the crowds” as their primary objective in surf travel. Paradoxically, over 20% said they’d be attempting to achieve that in Indo. We all know less crowded options exist, yet we seem to find ourselves incapable of pulling the trigger.

Enter: Craig Anderson and Kaito Ohashi with some inspo, courtesy of DB.

This short film — called ‘The City Of Azaleas’, made in conjunction with Wasted Talent — features Craig and Kaito on a trip to Taiwan. They explore Taipei. Eat great food. Surf fun waves. And provide a bit of a dispatch from lineups in which you’re much more likely to be greeted with a smile instead of a glare. For context, just over 1% of our survey respondents said they’d be heading to Southeast Asia for their next surf trip.

Give this film a watch, then send to it to your goofy-footed friend with generally good taste alongside some flight options.

On that note, you’ll want to avoid it in the mid-summer (we’re talking Northern Hemi). Winter has reliable surf, and fall might even bless you with a typhoon swell.

Lastly: DB is keen to help you get there. Enter a giveaway to win a grand’s worth of gear from them, right here. Note: You also have to like the video on YouTube to be eligible.