More than a decade on, the final section of Galactik Tracks is still the gold standard for filmer Tom Jennings — the benchmark he subconsciously measures every swell, session, and strike mission against. Back in 2011, Rasta, Ozzie, Ando, Ry, Dingo, Chris “Morat” Del Moro and Ben Godwin set sail on what was meant to be a stock-standard Ments trip. It was the classic surf-mag formula of the time: load a boat with the world’s best free surfers, shoot them for a few weeks, and come home with enough to content to fill pages and produce a film.
Instead, after a few bold calls from legendary Mangalui captain Matty Cruden, the crew ditched the usual circuit and motored for days toward a rumoured, barely-charted right-hander.
The arrival was underwhelming. The pros were restless. The waves looked sub-par. Then the ocean flicked a switch.
For two days straight they scored 10-foot plus, ruler-edged tubes without a soul in sight — the kind of Indian Ocean freight trains that feel less like a surf trip and more like stumbling into a different universe. While big Indo days aren’t rare, it was the isolation, the journey and the randomness of the call which made the trip so special.
With the rerelease of Galactik Tracks, we caught up with Tom to see how “Rasta’s Right” stacks up against the years of slab hunting, swell chasing and heavy sessions that have followed.
To this day, are those sessions at that right still the best surfing you’ve ever seen?
Well, that was a fair few moons ago and I’ve been chasing swells almost continuously for over 15 years but that swell was right up there.
Are there any sessions that even come close?
I have had a couple of similar session in Indo over the years that have compared in some ways, the odd nuts swell at home, a huge swell at the right or the back ledge out at Cloudbreak in 2024. Those big sessions always have some element that I draw comparison to. So yeah, quite a few, but they have always been personally scaled off that session.
Have you ever tried to go back there?
I think Swilly went back there a year or two later with Rasta and a few other crew. That right didn’t line up for them but they got a bunch of other waves there, or maybe they didn’t. haha
I’ve reached out to a few crew about trying to do a strike there but I’m useless at trying to organise a crew outside of West Aus. So I’m basically relying on some one who knows wassup and has the budget to pull it off. I don’t think it would be cheap.
In addition to the waves, what made the Galactik trip so special?
Hmmm, that’s a strange one. It was an extra long charter with a very full boat that could quite easily result in tension amongst the team but to every ones credit there were no real major discrepancies.
I believe the goofy’s may have been a tad ropable at one point as we knowingly sailed away from what would have been undoubtedly cooking Greenbush but everything turned out for the best. Sometimes the captain knows best, the risk pays off and all is well.
Honestly, the trip was so long ago that my memory tends to blend days and events into more condensed and simplified snippets of memory.
I’m glad I still have the film as a reminder of the little parts that go down on a trip like that.
It’s pretty rare to fill a boat with that many surfing personalities these days, how was the vibe on the trip and how was it with so many different types of surfers?
To be honest I’m pretty socially blind so I’m probably not the best to ask about that kind of stuff. I’m sure I missed a lot of it but my memories are overwhelmingly positive from the trip. It’s cool that a traditional boat trip can bring such a random bunch of crew together. It was a pretty interesting cross section of modern professional free surfing for sure.
Who was the standout surfer of the trip?
We ended up referring to the right as “Rasta’s” as he completely demo’d the joint but to be fair so did Dingo. Every one got one or two worthy ones out there and we’d just come off a fun swell where Ando, Craikey and the other goofies took turns teeing off out Maccas. The trip had a really good mix of rights and lefts and every one had a sort of stand out session or moment where they carried the cape for a while.
How did the process for the artwork of the trip come about
Haha, that would be because we had an undisclosed amount of time sailing beyond the sight of land. We had already burnt through a number of seasons of underbelly and almost melted the surf film hard drive.
This was before Starlink so we could just put in a request for another series to plunder.
I think having Ozzy on board just motivated the lads to turn their mental scurvy into a more constructive outlet and channel their inner (sometimes limited) creative drive towards something positive.
Do you think you’ll ever do a boat trip of that magnitude again in your lifetime?
I’ve done a fair few boat trips since and I always compare them. Some have been flops but I’ve had a couple of other good ones.
The Interlusion trip I got to do with Billabong was right up there. A different boat but a similar vibe and we scored a really good right and a bunch of other solid waves.
I also have vastly better cameras these days so it’s nice to have a good result and be happy with my work.
That was such a rad trip to be a part of, so all in all I’d call that a win.
