Changes in local law recently allowed public access to Tavarua in addition to the island's guests. Seeing as ASL had a long standing invite from World Surfaris to grab some bunks aboard the Stella, last week’s forecast was enough for them to hit the red button and deploy the troops.

Laurie Towner, Shaun Cansdell and Dean Brady packed not-quite-their-biggest boards, surf guide extraordinaire David Scard lent his services, and Andrew Shield and Talon Clemow grabbed their lenses and boarded the flight to Nadi while the rest of us watched the isobars march north.

The forecast wasn’t wrong. Three hours of flying, 20 minutes in a van and 45 minutes of leisurely boating saw the team staring into the biggest barrels seen outside of Hawaii in a long time.