Tom de Souza is quite simply a core surfer doing core things. He stands up to the knocks of life and has a healthy thirst for adventure. That’s everything we stand for at CREATURES. He’s one of those rare people who actually follows through on the wild ideas most of us only talk about. Tom has already packed a lifetime’s worth of experiences into just a few decades—battling meth addiction and time in juvenile detention as a teen, before completely turning his life around. Since then, he’s built an impressive career as an award-winning journalist, contributed to the West Australian, worked with BBC Indonesia, and had his photography showcased on ABC TV and in major ad campaigns. Tom recently travelled through Indonesia solo on a motorbike. We helped him out with some essential gear build to stand up to the test.

We talked with him about how the adventure came about, along with his biggest challenges along the way. Interview below. All captions by Tom de Souza.

CREATURES OF LEISURE: What surf equipment did you bring along?

TOM DE SOUZA: "I took two boards with me: a 6’5" Jim Banks twin fin and a 6’9" Phil Myers ten-channel single fin. Jim was actually an inspiration for the trip; I met him in Bali a year prior and he insinuated there were still uncrowded waves in Indonesia, if you were willing to put in the effort to find them. He suggested heading east from Bali on a trail-bike would be the way to do it. That planted a seed.  A year later, I came back ready for the trip. I asked Jim to shape me a board.  He suggested that a 6’5" would be the perfect all-rounder in everything from waist high slop to double overhead tubes."

"CREATURES also kitted me out with a board bag and a heap of surf gear. When I was leaving Bali to begin the trip, I was trying to minimise all my stuff, and was almost going to leave the boardbag behind and just take board socks. I’m so glad I didn’t! That board bag was probably the most useful thing I travelled with. It doubled as extra storage on the side of the bike and I slept in it a bunch too. Other than that, yeah, just all the usual, coupla leggies, few blocks of wax, first aid kit. I feel it’s Murphy’s law with the first aid stuff; whatever you don’t take is what you need. I had a fairly comprehensive kit with bandages, sutures, disinfectant, sea ulcer cream, Stingose, and fortunately I didn’t need too much. Besides that it was just bare minimum. Rain jacket, hoodie (gets pretty cold on the bike at night), few t-shirts, boardies, computer, camera gear, notebooks, and hammock, which I didn’t even use. The boardbag was way more comfy."

COL: What is the importance of travelling light?

TOM: "Oh, man. It’s everything on a trip like this. It’s pretty rough travel going over land like this and you want everything to be as light and easy as possible. Bit of a metaphor for life, really. The less baggage the better. I found a lot of things had multiple purposes and there was always a way to improvise too. It’s part of the reason I wish I took one board too; with two, I had to pull the fins out to pack them away, and there was no pulling up and just going for a quick surf. Life on the road is tough enough as it is; it’s pretty exhausting just trying to find a place to stay and figure where you’re going to eat and sleep. You want to simplify things as much as possible and preserve your energy, ideally for surfing." 

COL: Was there one thing you wish you brought that you didn’t?

TOM: "There is a huge gift-giving culture in Indo. Gifts are called oleh-oleh, which is basically a souvenir from your home country or a place you have visited. I had a bit of Australian tobacco that I gave out to Indo crew as a gesture of good-will, people really appreciated that. But I kind of wished I had a few more souvenirs I brought with me. I dunno, maybe real classic little Aussie trinkets. I saw the other day in a souvenir shop there was these little pouches made in the shape of a kangaroo’s testicles. Haha, that would’ve been classic. The Indos love a bit of innuendo. Humour and cigarettes are the key to making friends over there."

COL: What was the most uncomfortable moment on the trip and what did you rely upon to ground yourself?

TOM: "There were definitely a couple. My mate, Webby came and joined me for a stint on the most remote leg of the trip. On one mission we loaded our boardbags up with enough water and food for four days and rode down a really rough track to a beach where we heard there were waves. It took us five hours to ride 12km. Webby sheared the bolts holding his boardrack on the way in. We managed to strap it up with a leggie and some rope. The track was so rough, we both went down a handful of times trying to ride with all the weight in our boardbags pulling us to one side. I stalled going up one really steep hill. It was so steep that there was no way I would’ve been able to hillstart." 

"We hadn’t seen anyone else all day, but as if by some kind of miracle these four guys just appeared over the hill. One carried a rifle, two had eight-foot spears, and one had a big machete. I spoke to them in Indo and gave them a ciggie each. They were walking back after two weeks out deer-hunting. They all put down their weapons and held the bike while I hill-started. Speaking Indo is an absolute necessity out there; it was, by far, the most vital tool I travelled with. Finally, when we got down the beach, we opened our food packs, which I had asked the cook at a homestay to pack us. She said she was gunna make enough chicken and rice and veggies for four days, but when we opened them all we had were four tiny packs of rice and four boiled eggs."

"Luckily, there was a fishing camp up the beach. I had brought some local alcohol and a handful of chillies, which we swapped for some smoked fish. After a couple of days in, a big charter boat rolled into the bay. We cursed them for having the red carpet rolled out for them, but Webby ended up surfing with them and hit them up for some food. Later that arvo they came in on the Zodiac with tuna steaks cooked in bolognaise sauce, chips, chocolate, cold beers, the whole works. We couldn’t believe our luck. At the fishing camp, they gave us a couple big mud crabs too, which we cooked on the fire."

"After three days we ran out of food and water and went to ride back out. I got a flat tyre riding back up. Webby freaked out a bit, he wanted to ride back down and paddle out a couple miles out to the charter boat and try get a lift to the surf camp a couple bays back over, try to organise another boat to come and grab us and our bikes and all our gear. Eventually, we agreed he should just go back down to the fishing camp and see if they had a repair kit. He came back three hours later, also with a flat tyre, but the guys at the fishing camp had helped him strap it to the rim with rope to stop it from rolling off. He gave me a length of rope and we strapped my bike tyre up too. Man, it was so hard riding up that hill. I fell a fair few times and ended up snapping the front brake handle. I stalled so many times that I flattened my bike battery from restarting. So yeah, no brakes, no electric start, a flat tyre. Then I ran out of fuel. Webby was freaking by this point. It was really hot, we had no water, no food, no fuel. We ended up dumping all his gear in the bush and leaving my bike there. I wrote him a note in Indo asking for help and he rode off back to the village while I started walking. A couple hours later he came back with a local villager and fuel and water. I was so glad to see him! But yeah, definitely the two most important things in that situation were language and positivity. There is always a solution if you remain calm and positive. A huge part of survival is attitude. Positivity will always carry you through any kind of crisis. If you’re determined to find a solution, you always will."

COL: What moment on the trip did you feel the most detached from normal life?

TOM: "Hmm. I dunno if there was one particular moment where I felt detached, but over a while the sense of alienation definitely started to wear me down. The Indonesians are incredibly friendly and welcoming people. Once you get to remote Indo there are no hotels or restaurants, I had to go into people’s houses and ask if they could cook for me. People were almost too welcoming; they would want me to stay for like a week and wouldn’t understand when I wanted to leave and continue on with the journey. Their reality was also so different from mine.  After the initial curiosity and the same list of scripted questions, there were no real grounds for connection. It started to get pretty exhausting after a while. I kind of craved being back around what I knew." 

COL: What’s your inspiration in doing this?

TOM: "I have some heritage from the region; my grandfather was born in a Portuguese colony in Malaysia, and that has always intrigued me. I also think anyone who spends any significant amount of time can’t help but feel at home in Indo, it’s so warm and friendly and welcoming. I began spending a bit of time there from 17 years-old, when I first started travelling after school. I loved Indo: the waves, the warmth of the people, the incredible diversity you find across the archipelago. I made a few little trips back in the following years, and then in 2018 spent four months interning with the BBC in Jakarta, writing news stories in Indonesian. The editor, Rebecca, mentioned that it would be pretty cool to travel around as a westerner and really explore the culture and the archipelago and make videos on it. Then, when I met Jim, that really planted the seed. A lot of stuff had changed in my life at the time, and I didn’t really have anything holding me back. So, yeah. I thought, why not. It was a dream I had held for a long time. And it just felt like the right time."

COL: Where to next?

TOM: "I’m stoked to be back in Western Australia, place I know and am surrounded by friends and family.  It’s really nice having a sense of stability and routine too and getting stuck into some work and really committing myself to my chosen path as a writer and journalist. There’s definitely more travel ahead, but for now it’s nice just being stable. Bit of a factory reset, eh. Wipe all the data clean and start over."