There aren’t many surfers who can say they’ve lived both sides of the dream. For Soli Bailey, his journey as a professional surfer has come full circle in recent years. After grinding on the QS he eventually earnt his stripes as a Championship Tour competitor. However, he has not pulled on a WSL jersey in over two years. The stamps in his passport are now a result of strike missions and various pins dropped on Google Maps, chasing waves that most people don’t even know exist.
In the past couple of years, Soli has become one of the most tubed surfers on the planet. Through O’Neill and Surfline’s Maps To Nowhere series and his own YouTube channel, he’s built a reputation for finding mechanical tubes in some of the world’s most remote corners. He’s also been front and centre for some of the most talked about moments in surfing including a standout performance at Cloudbreak in 2024 and a win at the first Natural Selection contest in Micronesia.
For Soli, the best trip of his life wasn’t winning a heat or standing on a podium. It came on a newly formed sandbar, sharing four days of ruler-edged tubes with less than a handful of crew. His worst? A Morocco mission where everything that could go wrong did, just not in the dramatic way you’d expect.
Good Trip – Four days at a unicorn sandbar
Few surfers have spent as much time threading sand-bottom right-hand tubes as Soli. Growing up around Byron Bay, the 31-year-old cut his teeth on the points of northern NSW and the Gold Coast, becoming well acquainted with the organised chaos of Snapper and Kirra.
Ironically, the best waves of his life came nowhere near either of them.
The wave, surf and trip of his life came when scoring a more unfamiliar stretch of sand with only the Simmers siblings and Matt Rode for company. The crew scored a newly formed sandbar at a remote location while exploring unchartered territory. What proceeded was four days of 20-second plus, girthy, grinding, mechanical right- hand tubes.
The sessions would eventually feature in the Maps To Nowhere series and become one of the project’s defining episodes.
“I’m so grateful for the opportunities Maps To Nowhere has given me,” he said. “It’s definitely allowed a softer transition from being a comp surfer to a free surf guy, but it didn’t happen overnight. I’ve worked to get into the position where I can chase the best swells around the world.”
The episode has since clocked millions of views online. Soli described it as a ‘once in a lifetime unicorn swell’.
“It was mad because for the first couple of days we thought we’d been skunked. Caity and Timo seriously thought about leaving before the swell came,” he said.
“That’s the thing with these types of trips, you’re running a big risk on whether you’re going to score. That element of exploration is part of the adventure though and it makes it all the more sweeter when you do score.”
Soli said there was a moment during the trip where he was questioning whether it could turn into his worst trip ever.
“At first we thought it was just a closeout, the waves were breaking so close to shore but it ended up just getting better and better over the four days,” he said.
“By the end of the trip I was genuinely exhausted. I could hardly get to my feet, I was fully burnt out.”
Soli compared the experience to an ‘amazing hallucinogenic trip’.
“It literally sent me into a trance. It’s completely warped my perspective on what I consider good waves now … maybe not for the better,” he laughed.
“You sit out at Kirra and you’re fighting against the crowd for a special wave. There are so many factors that play into whether your surf is going to go great or terribly.
“But on this trip, every set gave you the opportunity to get the wave of your life. That’s so rare and may never happen again in my lifetime.”
While others have since found the wave, Soli believes no one has scored it quite like they did.
“I haven’t been back yet, but I’m always keeping an eye on it,” he said. “It’s a long way away and it’s expensive, so I need to be absolutely certain before committing.”
“If I get the opportunity to chase something a little more unknown, I’ll always jump at it. I hate crowds. I just want to surf the best waves possible – anywhere, anytime. That’s all I really care about.”
Bad Trip – When nothing clicks in Morocco
Considering how much time he spends travelling to remote corners of the globe, you’d expect Soli to have a horror story or two.
Surprisingly, he doesn’t
“To be honest I haven’t had too many bad ones,” he said. “You always get little things that go wrong or you get skunked every now and then, but that’s just part of chasing waves.”
If one trip stands out, it’s his first visit to Morocco.
“It was my first ever time to the country. I think I’d been in Europe doing some QS events and decided to do a quick trip to check out the place and film for a project I was working on.”
Despite high expectations, from the outset nothing seemed to go to plan.
“I remember the filmer’s tripod disappeared, so we went surfing without being able to shoot anything. Then my board bag got run over and damaged a bunch of my boards.”
“The tripod eventually turned up, but then the swell never really arrived.”
After a few frustrating days, Soli pulled the pin.
“I ended up leaving early because it just felt like nothing was clicking,” he said. “Nothing catastrophic happened, but I just knew that trip wasn’t meant to be.”
Ironically, Morocco has since become one of his favourite destinations.
“I’ve been back a few times since and loved every trip.”
These days, however, the pressure that comes with strike missions feels different to the pressure he experienced as a contest surfer.
“Definitely more so now that I’m free surfing,” he admitted. “When you’re chasing these unicorn waves there’s a huge risk involved. If you don’t score and you’re left with a massive bill and fuck all footage, it can be hard to justify it to your sponsors.”
Despite that, Soli tries not to let the outcome dictate the experience.
“You’ve just got to relax and go with the flow,” he said. “If you get too tense, it shows in your surfing. Eventually everything falls into place.”
For Soli, has journey has come full circle. He now spends his time rolling the dice on swells, rather than hedging his bets on his ability in the rashie.
His gambles now lead to trips that produce four days of flawless tubes that redefine what you think is possible. Other times they leave you with damaged boards, missing camera gear and nothing to show for the effort. That’s simply the trade-off. As Soli sees it, if you’re willing to embrace the uncertainty, the rewards are unlike anything else in surfing.
