For those following along at home, I recently returned home from an excursion of the throwback nature: surf strike to the middle-of-nowhere Micronesia to produce the first ever Natural Selection Surf event. I wrote to you along the way from planes, boats and shuttles, dispatching as best I could, bouncing between grit, grime, sweat, boat-induced nausea and (at times) luxury and perfection. A surf trip like this always walks the line between travel torture and bliss. But we made it. And it was as successful as it was a beautiful logistical mess. Most insurgent things are.

The journey to and fro saw me jumping into duct-taped together planes on coral runways, busting down doors behind @badboyryry_into airline offices to make planes, surfboards were abandoned in airports, 3 a.m. middle-of-nowhere arrivals gave way to 12-hour-plus layovers (I’m not complaining, it was fucking awesome). Nothing a couple Asahi Pacific Blues couldn’t take care of. I was back on the run.

It had been a minute since I did the surf travel dance at this scale, but it was a glorious return. I threw my affairs and any semblance of a routine into the wind for nearly 3 weeks and chased waves for the event. The trip will go down in the historic category when all is said and done. NST Surf has accomplished monumental feats and this will provide a major breakthrough in our evolution as a culture. That much I can guarantee.

I’ve spent the better part of the last two decades being a bit of a thorn in the side of the surf industry. I’ve quit, shouted, written, rebelled and “flopped around the deck of the big boat” refusing to be wrangled, often to my own detriment or setback, but it was always in the name of progression. I must say it feels good to have played even a small part of what was just captured on this trip because I’m pretty confident it will lead to a chain reaction for the betterment of surfing. Things are happening. Surfing is healing. The game is changing. We’re entering an exciting era that will be filled with creativity, authenticity and fun. We have to, or else…

As I shake out the sand I left in my 4/3 and return to the cold hard reality of the California winter (post swell bender, La Niña, inactive phase of the MJO, frozen January) I’m still pretty optimistic about the state of things. Especially for those people/brands/ideas that have been lurking in the shadows (cockroaches!) waiting for things to reach rock bottom. The tide is starting to fill in. It’s gonna be really sick out here soon.—Travis Ferré

[Above Art: Figures in a Red Boat, 2005-2007, by Peter Doig]