A Prelude to Somewhere in Outer Space

THE GOAL

Safely move a currently broken Escapade, a 51ft. Outremer catamaran, on yet another wave-centric escapade through remote Indonesia and explore the waves yet to be touched by floating surfboards, butterfly wings, and slippery hydrofoils. Oh yes, all while documenting the two-month trip and creating a film to share the journey.

THE TEAM

Jonathan Pooley: captain, owner, the only guy crazy enough to support such an adventure, professional Bintang purchaser, amateur surfer.

Jack McCarthy: first time deckhand, freshly graduated film student, history buff, editing wizard, semi-professional Bintang opener, amateur surfer.

Trent Carter: first time deckhand, freshly graduated bio engineer, pro foiler, limitless ball of energy, semi-professional Bintang refrigeration manager, amateur surfer.

Myself, Bryan Metcalf Perez: first mate, content producer, mechanic by necessity, pro foiler, semi-professional Bintang distribution manager, amateur surfer.

THE TEAM ASSEMBLES

During an impromptu photoshoot in Maui, Hawaii, Trent Carter and Jack hopped on an inter-island flight arriving in Kuau alongside a well-aligned incoming swell. Jack, armed with swim fins, a scrappy wetsuit, freshwater housing, and what seemed to be a spit rub shoot and spray technique, was fired up and ready to kick one flipper at a time until he resembled no less than Aquaman himself. Like the first day of kindergarten soccer practice, the new team was running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Trent was off doing what Trent does best, one million sweet, smooth, swoopy doopy turns, a true style master doing his thing as far away from the lens as possible, as if he was afraid capturing those moves on camera would steal the soul of those sweet swoops. JP showed up in a timely fashion with last year’s gear and did his best to tarnish as many shots as possible with outdated equipment, and I was practicing my best impression of an underpowered tugboat heading to windward with Jack in tow, holding a back foot strap. “Almost there buddy.” We were not.

Julian from Ride Engine was in the spot catching waves and smiling for the imaginary camera. By the time Jack and I arrived, he must have been back in the car designing next year’s photoshoot wings.

In case you missed it, day one was a complete shit show.

Luckily, we had almost a week of wind and waves to dial in communication, secret water housing techniques, lighting, nearshore hydrodynamics, timing, and safety. I knew for sure Trent and I were on the same team after snapping a leash during a whitewater hold down. By the time I popped up from the beatdown, the wing was flying itself to Kahului Harbor. Trent was on point, ready to assist. Thinking on our toes, we decided that Trent would get up on foil with the power of his wing and then drop it to me, sitting dead in the water, he would then stay on foil and pump his way down to the misbehaving wing. If he wasn’t able to pump all the way there, we would trade off doing this until one of us tackled the wing. Kid nailed it on the first try.

As for Jack, we had yet to see any editing wizardry or even any of the footage he shot for that matter. His old college computer was on its last leg, too slow to play 4K 120 without transcoding, but honestly none of that mattered, as he had already showed up for our newly curated team with positivity and a strong work ethic that I’m sure Aquaman himself would be proud of. By the end of the week, it was safe to say our team dynamics were on track. The experience of working through a task and accomplishing a common goal had blossomed new friendships and a team I could actually count on when the real adventure began.

Three days after arriving in Indonesia, Escapade was still two motors down after spending god knows how many hours doing what we have come to call engine room yoga. It’s like yoga but has the opposite effect on one's wellbeing and psyche. With only two days left before a tidal window would force us to stay put for two weeks, we needed those D2-40 diesels purring and ready for action. With the crew assembled the cameras were rolling the countdown was on!

Watch Somewhere in Outer Space on YouTube.