Steve Burling’s Ha’atafu Beach Resort in Tonga no longer exists.
A long time ago, in a decade far far away, during a time called “The Nineties” SURFER Magazine did a boat trip to Tonga with Tom Carroll, Kelly Slater and your humble narrator.
At the time, Kelly Slater and Tom Carroll were two of the best surfers in the world, if not the two best surfers in the world. Incredibly, phenomenally Tiger Woods-skilled and athletic.
The crew enjoyed the hospitality of a local surf resort owner, Australian Steve Burling and his family. If memory serves he had a Tongan wife and at least three tall, lean daughters who looked destined to grow up into super models.
So what?
So it was a little shocking when that volcano went off somewhere in the Tongan archipelago and it was identified as the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano.
The Ha’apai part caught the eye and sure enough that volcano went off about 40 miles southwest of where TVC and Kelly went off, way back in the 1990s.
A massive volcano. Visible from space. The air disruption was measured in Miami Fricking Florida: More than 7000 miles away.
When Krakatoa went off way back in 1883 it released an estimated 200 megatonnes of energy – that’s 2000 pounds x 1,000,000 x 200 = 400,000,000,000 pounds of TNT.
The Hunga-Tonga Ha’apai volcano was possibly even bigger than Krakatoa.
And it shook up the world.
A displaced Californian named Tony Stincelli who lives on Vanua Levu island in Fiji “on the south side 10 kilometers west of Savusavu town, which is in the bay,” heard the rumbling from 500 miles away.
On Facebook, Stincelli said:
I’ll tell you ….. we’re 500 miles away and you wouldn’t believe the hour long explosions and shaking from it here. It was roaring thunderous ground shaking explosions for over an hour …. lots of small tsunami waves breaking across the lagoon out in front.
Displaced California surfer/coastal engineering PhD Jose Borrero was in Gisborne with his family when he thought he heard a distant thunder:
I didn’t hear the booms, but people around here did. I am in Gisborne on the east coast at the moment.
When the booms were happening I was trying to get my kids to stop talking and eat their dinner. Also, we were in a beach front house at the time and there was a lot of wind and a pretty big swell running, so there was a lot of white noise around. The people I know that heard it were a few km inland in a quiet forest area and they heard it over top of polite dinner conversation. They thought it was fireworks from a nearby speedway that does them on Saturday nights, but it was still daylight, so it didn’t make sense.
The next day we had a cyclone (Cody) spin by the coast about 200 km off shore and the swell got real big for a while (still too big now for the beaches out back). Maybe this afternoon or tomorrow morning the swell will clean up back to surfably fun levels.
But in all of that, the few people who have actually been to Tonga or know Tonga were concerned about the effect a 200 megatonne explosion 40 miles from the main island would have on the life and ecosystems of that distant archipelago.
A few days after the explosion, photos and news leaked out, showing the main island of Nuku’alofa covered in smoke and ash, and reports that the main communications cable linking Tonga to Fiji had been damaged or severed.
Your Humble Narrator was under the impression that Steve Burling’s Ha’atafu Resort was on the southwest end of the main island and so protected from the tsunami that washed ashore after the explosion.
I was wrong. Ha’atafu is/was located on the northwest peninsula of the main island, absolutely exposed to anything and everything thrown up by air and sea from Hunga Tonga.
An email to the Burling camp went out soon after, not expecting an answer because of the wrecked communications cable, but on Tuesday, January 18, an email showed up late in the PM:
Ha’atafu Beach Resort
Tue, Jan 18, 9:21 PM (13 hours ago)
G’day Ben,
Yes, I remember the Ha’apai trip with the crew from Surfer Magazine. Seems like yesterday.
Unfortunately our resort no longer exists. Totally wiped out by the tsunami. My daughter Moana and her family have been managing the resort in recent years and only barely escaped with their lives …. only got out with the clothes on their backs after risking their lives ensuring all guests were alerted to the impending danger and ushering them out of the resort. They didn’t even have time to jump in one of the 3 resort vehicles to drive to safety as the first waves hit the resort only 5 minutes after they heard the first explosion.
The volcano is located just 20 nautical miles (40km) off the Ha’atafu coast. All resorts and homes along the western coastline have been completely obliterated …. Only some foundations remain. The waves washed right across the peninsula and also wiped out two nearby villages. The western district of Tongatapu has been declared a disaster area.
All international telephone and internet communications are down due to the submarine cable between Fiji and Tonga being severed in two places by the eruption. Repairs are expected to take another 2 weeks (at the earliest).
I’ll include you in all future email updates.
Best regards,
Steve
So another tragedy from the explosion. After close to three decades and a lot of hard work and sweat equity and memories and good times, the Ha’atafu Beach Resort is no more.
All reduced to smoke and ash.
Steve Burling described the evolution and trials and tribulation and slings and arrows of Ha’atafu in an email:
Malo e lelei Ben,
The resort was established in 1979. We had a total of 12 accommodation fales. Category 5 tropical cyclones (hurricanes) seriously damaged our resort on 3 occasions … March 1982, January 1993 and the most recent was April 2020 …. but we always managed to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and rebuild.
All our family and friends are supportive of any effort we make to rebuild (again). However there are many hurdles we currently face …. the biggest being Tonga’s border closure due to covid. No international travel in or out of Tonga has been permitted for almost 2 years. Only Tongan seasonal workers in Australia and New Zealand have been allowed to travel on chartered flights. This makes any short-medium term planning very difficult as Moana and Hola will be overwhelmed at facing the challenge of rebuilding the resort by themselves …. especially after the traumatic experience they’ve just been through.
Another major issue is the state of Tonga’s tourism sector as there has been no international tourism for the past 2 years. Moana and Hola have done an amazing job of diversifying our resort operation to cater 100% to the Tongan domestic market. This has meant that we have been able to keep all 20 of our staff employed through this covid b/s …. we haven’t had to put any staff off which, for me, is the most important thing.
Our staff are the backbone of our business. They’re all dedicated hard workers and I’m absolutely gutted that they’re now facing unemployment because of this disaster.
We managed to speak by phone to Moana for the first time last night and she said that she had spoken to most of the other resort owners and people who had homes along the western coast. Like us, they too lost absolutely everything. Moana said that none of them are planning to rebuild. Given that volcanic activity at Hunga has been increasing in the past 15 years, it’s little wonder that people are reluctant to reinvest.
Tonga’s recovery? The seriousness of the disaster means Tonga will require a major foreign relief effort … this is already underway with both Australia and New Zealand sending military aircraft and naval vessels with emergency supplies of temporary shelter, fresh water, medical supplies and heavy equipment. This will be followed by aid programs to provide more permanent housing …. similar to aid that has been forthcoming in the past following damages from serious tropical cyclones.
All gone in 60 minutes. Mother Nature can’t be sued for damages.
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Hahaha, ‘the voice of someone with “No” reason calling someone a moron….
Funny!!!
Fuck I have been wondering about Steve and the resort, pretty heavy news, although I’m stoked that nobody was killed.
I am fortunate to have visited a couple times in the early 2000’s and stayed with Steve and family.
E.T’s has to be one of the least known easily accessible world class waves on the planet…
Dug this one out of the archives…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
ETs–“It’s pretty fickle and only breaks in huge northerly swells. You’ll need a boat to access it”
Ok, enough said, a lot of these surf resorts advertise waves that rarely break..
Not least known anymore now.
It’s no secret, just way off the radar and the only surf camp that took people there was just destroyed.
They’ll be back.
ETs–“It’s pretty fickle and only breaks in huge northerly swells. You’ll need a boat to access it”
Ok, enough said, a lot of these surf resorts advertise waves that rarely break.
It’s not particularly rare in season and doesn’t need a ‘huge’ swell to break either. Generally it is about 1/3 of the size of the North Shore of Oahu around three days later. If you booked a year ahead you might get skunked, but who does that kind of shit these days? You see a swell or three and you go and score, like right now, it’s going to be firing the next few days, get on it!
ETs–“It’s pretty fickle and only breaks in huge northerly swells. You’ll need a boat to access it”
Ok, enough said, a lot of these surf resorts advertise waves that rarely break.
“You better lava me now, or lava me not!?”
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
The eruptions were definitely caused by the Rothschild’s with the help of Mossad, just like global warming, famines, the ice age, BLM, extinction of the wooly mammoth, every war ever fought, rising numbers of close shark incidents, and the killer flu etc etc etc.
The U.N. and W.H.O. are involved too, bribed with gold stolen from the Nazi’s, and laundered through companies owned by Epstein, Maxwell, Weinstein and Ziff.
All part of the plan to continue their long-held political/financial/military control over the whole worlds beef bone broth supplies and wave pool longboard contests.
Beware the ides of March…
You joke but it didn’t take long to see some posts in the anti vax surf community on Insta questioning whether it was a real eruption
Anti covidvaxx surf community.
Get it right.
doesn’t take much to trigger
I knew it!!
Fast Eddie’s fault!
That explains alot.
For all da guys he pounded.
Disappointing that Ben didn’t mention Musk’s embarrassing and unfulfilled offer of Starlink support in Tonga
One of many many disappointments to befall you.
Honestly curious if Mr Cat Fingerer is capable of writing anything that doesn’t involve some statement trying to show that he knows people. It’s fucking abhorrent.
And I thought Chas claiming he’s going to be around more meant we wouldn’t have to deal with Cat Boy anymore. Sadly, I was wrong.
Agreed, and then we have Chas who thinks anybody gives a shit about his vacations to Italy and what he eats for dinner.
You forgot to include Whoop.
I think we’ve seen the last of that hopefully. Seems like they got paid to do ads for a year and it’s over with. Fingers crossed.
congrats on the win last night…. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wasn’t expecting that. What a great finish. They played so shitty the first half I didn’t think they had much chance to pull it off.
Deebo Samuel is really good. Good luck with the Rams if that’s your team.
Fuck the Rams. Go Niners.
Can’t believe the Bills went zone with 13 seconds. Fucking lost. Morons. What a weekend.
All four playoff games were good. Stoked the Niners beat “America’s” team the cowboys along with Aaron Rogers who lied about his vaccine status. Should be a good game next week.
True true, I’m so over people taking vacations to Italy while I’m stuck at home, aren’t those for the Noueva Rich.
Isn’t that a yuppie or Val destination?
Do you have a clear picture of what a vulgar wannabe dork you are?
Interesting dichotomy.
Natural disaster made worse by human stupidity (‘Rona Rules™️)
On another note, I just read the below that about sums up how I feel at this point.
“I am done with masks. We’ve been idiotic about them since the beginning”.
David Mastio, USA TODAY
Sun, January 23, 2022, 5:00 AM.
“Who knew that little pieces of plastic or cloth worn over the nose and mouth could turn people into complete idiots? Masks have led us astray since the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Over 2 years now and more strains popping up everywhere, I’m sick and tired of this crud.
Anybody remember that scene from “The Treaure of Sierra Madre” with Humphrey Bogart where da Mexican bandit shouts, “Badge?badge?, I don’t need no stinking badge!!”
I thing the next time someone tells me to put on a mask I might have to borrow his line and somewhat yell–Mask? mask? I don’t need no stinking mask!!
This whole Covid thing and the way its been handled and if it’s even real is a bunch of crud I think.
Time to revolt maybe.
Such a small ask to wear a protective mask to incite such petulance Sam, most people are ugly anyway. Try to have some empathy for the victims of this natural disaster. Youre inserting your ignorance as deftly as Ben inserts himself from a distant trip paid for by someone else.
And Astro, i expect you to deliver a full unleashing of the compromising information contained within the commenters report…..swell and the name of a town everyone knows has no surf and a completely worthless visit like i learned many hard ways. Ball in your court mate.
Said it earlier on another article, hip – Cody was a flop. I didn’t even bother going to the beach.
But did you wear a mask when you checked it on surflie.
Had a voice from your north who enjoyed that cyclone.
Fucken busy up that way this time of the year. Lunatics everywhere.
Like sardines, hip. Fuck that.
so many nooks and crannies.
PS
Actually, everyone is beautiful.
No. Everyone is not beautiful, and I’m specifically referring to moral / ethic standards.
I was replying to Hippy’s comment.
Well, duh…
I was somewhat happy to go along with the mask bit for the first two years–(count them–2, two full years now–24 months), not so happy now, and much talk now about more strains and multiple shots needed and that there’s no end in sight.
And da Chinese getting off Scott free, no accountability and won’t release their records and Bidens too afraid to call them out on it. Oh ya, and something about Fauci directy or indirectly maybe getting money from dubious sources.
And you trust the government to tell you the truth?
It’s playing out in real time, shit we don’t know. You can’t emote off the cuff with world peace so you have no idea whats going on.
Virus happened under Trump. No response, pin the Governors was his defense. Now HIS vaccine is liberal? Why take credit for it?
Bush started a war with a country that didn’t attack us on 9/11. Trump admitted that and didn’t end the war, no political gain for himself. Toxic, why touch because his motives are not the countries best interest. Biden had to do his job and let him have the America first Cred that he abdicated.
Trump let both China and Russia off scott free.
Is it too hard for you to wear a mask Sam? It’s a lot harder for immunocompromised people to feel a little safer out there if you don’t. Don’t be a cunt. Everyone’s over this shit, but it’s not finished just cos you’re sick of it.
Up until 6 weeks ago or so, I was somewhat happy to go along with the mask mandate for the first two years–(count them–2, two full years now–24 months), not so happy now, and now the news is saying we need ‘multiple’ jabs, and that this ‘may never’ go away–these two ‘recent’ ‘announcements’, have ‘honestly’ changed my whole outlook now!– I was ready to go along with maybe one jab and your done–and this thing is gonna be eradicated,
But seriously, in the last 6 weeks they are now saying ‘multiple’ jabs now and that this may never go away!
Even people who got the first jab–are pissed finding out now they need more jabs–and many have now said ‘no’ to ‘more’ jabs.
These 2 new factors have totally changed my whole view of it and I’m about ready to agree with my wife that this is some type of conspiracy.
And the fact the Chinese have no accountability and won’t release ‘their records’. And also the facts about Fauci directy or indirectly maybe getting money from dubious sources. There’s just too much shady stuff going on ‘now’ for me to accept what the government is telling us — as the truth.
I understand where you’re coming from though, but in light of these ‘two recent developments’ –in just the last 6 weeks–its pretty much totally changed my outlook and pushed me over the edge in my views on this so called Virus.
Ben’s cat –
https://encrypted-tbn0.gsta…
No update on the sandbag burrito protecting Kelly’s Oahu pad?
I will be in town on the 20th of Feb and will report immediately.
As far as Tonga is concerned, my heart goes out to them. Lucky they have a real sense of unity and community.
THEY HAVE SOME CLEANING UP TO DO, BUT THEY’RE TOUGH PEOPLE, THEY’LL GET IT DONE.
As for this article, Ben seems like he is trying way too hard to weedle his way back into the mix.
THE MIX? WHICH MIX?
Humble pie right up your ass.
WHO’S HUMBLE?
But I mean who can blame him?
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
BG commentary crew is as real as it gets,
REAL WHAT?
REAL KNOW-NOTHING, SIDELINE SITTING DORKS?
YEP, THEY’RE REALLY THAT.
and he seems to desperate to shock and awe his percieved
I BEFORE E EXCEPT AFTER C YOU ILLITERATE DORK.
SHOCK AND AWE?
EDUCATE AND ILLUMINATE.
peers with street cred and kmowledge, even though he has been shut down and ostracized by most of them.
NONE OF MY PEERS COMMENT ON HERE.
THE PEOPLE WHO COMMENT HERE ARE IDIOTS
I KNOW TWO PEOPLE WHO WROTE FOR BEACHGRIT WHO QUIT, BECAUSE THE COMMENTERS ARE SO EMBARASSINGLY STUPID AND VULGAR AND PETTY.
Nice to see Chas has a soft spot in his heart, that or he enjoys seeing heads explode.
IT’S NOT CHAS, IT’S DEREK
One can never be sure about that one.
DAMN YOU ARE LAME.
SO HERE YOU ARE.
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All cutting C02 efforts wiped out in a flash, shine on you crazy humans!!
Nate Burleson is an ex-NFL player now doing the CBS morning show.
He actually tried to blame climate change for the volcano blowing up.
Too many huddles
Ok, (first, I’m glad no one got killed there by da Tusami), so throw some rocks at me, but I’m of the opinion that the surf world would be better off without any friggen surf ‘resorts’.
What da heck is a surf ‘resort’ anyway.
Seems like they are for the not too hard core and wealthy type.
I did use to pay da guy at San Miguel 8 or 10 bucks sometimes to sleep in my van there, or I’d just park outside the gate and cruise down in the morning, and pay some renegade guy a couple dollars sometime to camp on the bluff at k-55.
I also paid one night to stay inside some gated restaurant type area by Todos Santos and felt like they locked Mexico out and me in.
You surfed Mexico ? wow hardcore
Well, yes, amongst other places, and I did have guns pulled and pointed at me a couple of times.
Accidentally interrupted a little robbery going down on some young surfers about 2 am in the morning by Rio Nexpa.
Jeeps there were some loose types down at nexpa circa 91/92 when I used to go there on leave from seismic in the chiapas mountains. Super basic facilities then, some good sessions.
Jorge will never let Sam return to his surf resort, eh Ape?
It seemed hard to get banned, but was possible. This older non surfer gringo called Tarzan did get run out of camp for attacking the owners daughter!
shit happens
Northern baja, gringo pussies. Run home in an hour after an embarrassing night on the town at a scummy bar and terrible surf at a “point” that only wishes it could be a surf resort, but close enough to Orange County for comfort
Totally kinda agree, if you haven’t driven to the tip, then maybe taken the ferry to da Mainland, have you even really done Baja.
Why do you keep insisting on using “da” as if you are attempting to imitate some surf-adjacent form of Hawaiian pidgin in your typed comments? It’s embarrassing to read.
I don’t know Brah, it just started coming out lately, I kinda like using pidgin sometimes.
Just the way I like spam musubis and ono grinds.
Does Jebus like you trolling and appropriating culture Sam?
I think Sam’s trying to give da writer from Scotland a brain aneurysm.
The cognitive dissonance of the Jebus crew is enough to do that to me anyway.
He quit already. No more stress.
Not long Tom, J.P Currie.
JP is a pro quitter.
Tomorrow I’ll ask you or somebody what book I should read. I tore a muscle in my back and gotta kill some time. My friend has at least three different books about surfing.
I’ll check back with somebody tomorrow.
Hey C4, you awake?
Yea
cool
Cool thanks.
haha i chuckled…
Zzzzzzzzzz
Thank you Ben Marcus for the quality reportage – if it had been Chas Smith he would have been talking about his fucking shoes or something equally irrelevant.
Your personal experience with Steve and his family at the resort makes it sad to read their working efforts dating from 1979 have been wiped out – along with the other resort owners in the area. local and expatriate.
Pinatubo in The Philippines in 1991 was a more powerful eruption, but for an eruption of an undersea volcano, Tonga 2022 is the closest thing to Krakatoa since . . . . Krakatoa itself, in 1883.
Man, whilst a grande event it ain’t got shit on Krakatoa. That shockwave went around the world. Twice.
I read somewhere they heard the Krakatoa blast … in London. LONDON.
So crazy hey. Although tired from their journey odd waves washed up there too after making there way around Africa and refracting north. Tides affected also.
Ben Marcus no longer exists in the comments section.
That’s a good first step
Wiped out by tsunami of hatred?
a mob of insecure middle aged men masquerading as social justice warriors
You know B__ doesn’t really believe in all the garbage he wrote in the comments?
He was given enough rope and hung himself.
No cat fingering dog fisters allowed
Why do you guys hate him so much? Need more backstory please
He made fun of them for being wannabes and it struck a nerve
He’s like Kelly slater, but can’t surf. I. E a completely talentless cunt.
True, Ben really isn’t that bad, nice to have a little different perspective sometimes, kinda entertaining.
Read back over the last 2 yrs of his comments (the ones he didn’t immediately delete) and how he’s presented himself here and acted. You’ll end up in the same space as us.
hes sort of a more pretentious joiny/less caothic cavvy kinda mix, click magnet tho…
too bad now we have visual of his goldylocky stupid baby face thumb ingrained in our collective retina…