Watch: Soli Bailey Not Miss (Again)
10 days of non-stop Mentawai perfection with a stellar cast of point break specialists.
Halfway through 2024, Soli Bailey emerged as the SSOTY frontrunner.
Just before the Southern Hemisphere’s silly season kicks into full swing, he decided to leave us with one final parting gift – BIIIG – the icing on his proverbial SSOTY cake following his performances in SEOTY: Conehead and his part in Surfline’s incredible Maps to Nowhere film.
Soli explained, “This trip was far from planned. The Rusty crew pulled out last minute, and the Mangalui informed us they had an opening.” A frenzy of phone calls soon followed. “I was spending four to five hours a day on the phone, rallying the crew and locking in logistics,” he recalls. “We weren’t making it to market a brand; it was just a bunch of mates, all grown up together, heading out to score waves.”
However, Soli’s mates just so happen to be some of Australia’s top point break specialists.
On any given east swell in Northern NSW, you can expect to find Jai Glindeman (Lennox Head), Sheldon Simkus (Snapper Rocks), Luke Condon (Lennox Head), and Zac Skyring (Byron Bay) getting firehosed out of spinning tubes at their locals and surrounding areas.
The Americans on board, Cam Richards and Layne Stratton—Cam being the unofficial MVP in the forthcoming Stab Highway East Coast and Layne having worked closely with Soli this year on Surfline’s production—were in Indo right around the same time the charts glowed up.
And the Mentawai Islands delivered in spades.
Luke Condon, who handshapes out of Ballina’s industrial estate alongside Gunter Rohn, Neal Purchase Jnr, Jack Lynch, and James Woods, said the Mangalui’s head pirate, Captain Lippy, “didn’t care about burning fuel” and put them on the button every day for the best part of 10 days.
Condon’s custom creations are a noteworthy feature of the trip. The hammer end section of Soli’s clip, which was actually filmed on the first two days of the swell, saw him riding a 6’6” twin pin of Luke’s with a wide nose and pulled-in tail after his boards were delayed. “Yeah, I was tripping on the waves he got on that board,” chuckles Luke. “Also just the way he would sit out there and wait—sometimes for two hours or more just manifesting the perfect one.”
Luke recalled several occasions where Soli’s stoicism paid off. “It was super inconsistent, so you’d end up getting desperate and going for these insiders. Then the wave of the day would pop up, and Soli would be way further out, swinging under it in the perfect spot.”
Soli laughs when asked, “Have more people wanted to go on surf trips with you since this year? I feel like you haven’t missed.”
“I’ve definitely heard that I haven’t missed all year long, but I also feel like this year has been hard work and stressful at times. Even just convincing the boys to pull the trigger last minute on this trip was hectic. I remember being so stressed in the lead-up, trying to organize everything between the guys that run the show over there, travel agents, and the boys. It was pretty full-on. So when my boards didn’t show up, I was like, ‘Yep, no good deed goes unpunished.’ Obviously, it was worth it in the end. I’m glad we pulled it off.”
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