“Lost and alone” Surfer Josh Ku reveals harrowing details of history-making Bali-Java crossing

“There’s actually a crazy twist to the story.”

It sure did warm the cockles of the heart yesterday when news came that Josh Ku, a kid from Maroubra who grew up slugging big waves alongside Koby Abberton, Richie Vas and Evan Faulks, had made the ninety-two km crossing from Bali to Java on a foil, the first surfer to do it.

Josh Ku, who is thirty-four and lives in Sydney’s east, is part of the new phenomenon of high-level surfers who, for the most part, have hung up their six-footers and the crowds for the speed runs of open-ocean foiling. 

I called Josh up a little earlier today ‘cause I wanted to hear about his, like, transition, from regular boards to foil and about what a torturous mission it was to pump a foil ninety-two clicks. 

First thing, says Josh, is there’s a “crazy twist” to the story about the crossing.

See, he didn’t take the safety part of the game as seriously as maybe he should’ve. Josh threw three-gees at a boat and a driver and took the guy who organised the boat’s word that cell reception was available all the way across the channel.

“And what I didn’t take into account was the trade winds are going the right way but the swell is going perpendicular turning the ocean into a washing machine. There’s all these crazy currents between the islands and we got going and, what I did, was I trusted that the captain knew which way to go.”

The captain, as all good captains do, sure wasn’t into no direct route between Jiimbaran Bay and Grajagan. He navigated his boat through a longer, mellower trajectory. Certainly not the way Josh wanted to go unless he was happy to do a ten-hour foil through the night.

Josh followed the boat for thirty k’s until, maybe it was the filmer who looked at a map on his phone, he ain’t sure, said, ‘Dude, we’re going the wrong way. There’s no way we’re going to make it.’

So they turn around. Josh heads off. Ten minutes later, he looks over his shoulder and there’s no boat. 

“I’m thinking, ‘Where the fuck is my safety boat? I didn’t have a radio, phone reception didn’t fucking work, I had no food and only a little water. Throughout the run I figured I could stop, I could get some food thrown at me from the boat, refuel, go again. Within ten minutes I’d lost the boat. I started stressing and sat in the water and looked in every direction. I couldn’t see Bali, I couldn’t see Java. I was in the middle of the ocean. I thought something had happened, the boat had capsized.”

As Josh is sitting there, a whale breaches next to him and a fin, maybe a real big shark, swims by. He makes the call. 

“I’m fucking going.” 

He’s got six hours of light. No real point in drifting in the Bali Strait. He knows the wind will take him to Java eventually. 

Throughout the journey he marvels at the yellow and blue of mahi mahi and what seemed like endless schools of fish.

“It definitely is an alive ocean out there.”

But, still, he’s never done a distance like this before. The closest he came was when he foiled was the sixty clicks from Maroubra to Wollongong. 

“After that I was fucked, cramping, tired. And this is ninety-two ks with no food. But I had to make it. I was prepared to get to the tip of Java, fucking ride a wave to the reef, bail the board and swim to land.” 

He got within fifteen km of Java when he heard the safety boat roar up behind him. 

“Fuck! Did you tell my wife I was lost?” he asked. 

“We haven’t had reception,” they said. 

“Thank God!” 

After Josh had taken off, the boat had hit a log and bamboo was sucked up into the motor. By the time the prop was cleared, their foiler baby was long gone. For hours they zig-zagged through the Strait. Three hours later they had him. 

Great for the movie, I say. 

“Great for the movie but a lesson for next time. Don’t take safety shit lightly.” 

As he rounded the corner into G-Land, Josh pumped into a wave at Kongs, scooped up another without stopping at Money Trees and got this third connection right through Speedies. 

“The guys in the camp were tripping,” says Josh. “Like, where the fuck has this guy come from? I had the full adventure kit on, water bladder on the back, a hat, a paddle.” 

On shore he washed a few anti-inflammatories down with Bintang and the next day surfed perfect eight-foot G-Land for four hours through the high tide on an eight-foot Gerry Lopez single fin. 

Why the Lopez? Here’s the hook for the movie Josh is making. It’s a story of those early Bali, Java pioneers Gerry Lopez and Peter McCabe. The plan was to foil across the Strait then surf the Lopez through what they hoped were all-time tubes.

Josh has spent a little time in Ulus recently and he ain’t impressed.

“It’s completely cooked. It’s literally the polar opposite of why you’d wanna surf. Everyone is eggy and hustling for waves. And the story I wanted to tell was to find your own adventure and give praise to those guys who did it back in the seventies.” 

Also, “I really want to speak to my surfing background and the surfing community and try and get a little respect. It’s still the culture where foilers are treated like boogieboarders. I want to prove to people that foils can be used for cool shit. 

“I mean, look at (former WQS surfer) Perth Standlick. He’s one of the best surfers from Bondi ever and he doesn’t even surf anymore. Once you get over the hard learning curve, there’s so much more you can do on this canvas. Every day is six foot and pumping for us. We can go so fucking fast on these tiny waves.”

He says he takes his inspiration from Weird Waves creator Dylan Graves. 

“He’s not the best surfer in the world but he’s doing the coolest shit,” says Josh. “That’s someone I’d like to be in the foiling world.” 

Movie is out September. Premieres in Oregon, early September. We’ll kick a live link when it hits YouTube.