Earl Sullivan

Here is an update from Earl over at Asu Camp. Super stoked to see all the progress he has made as he works his ass of in the jungle. Check out the photos as well. If you are interested in heading over to Asu please let me know, I would love to make that happen for you.

Hey Josh,

The new camp is coming along really well. We’re done with the Big House and received our first 2 guests from West Australia already. The new digs are so comfortable, spacious, and just so nice to be in a clean new space.

It’s so quiet at night with the new generator house so far away in the back of the property, just the sounds of the waves out front and the breezes through the coconut palm leaves.

The new bed frame designs with the fans inside the mossi nets is great, with shelving right by your head to keep your stuff at easy access. Sleeping is a dream.

The new land is amazing and it’s already starting to feel like home. Picking out new coconut trees for hanging hammocks. Just beginning the big job of landscaping, planting new trees and flowers, making new paths, just letting the way we live on the land direct the flow and adapting to the new space. That goes for furniture too, we’ve moved in the bed frames, but we’re just working out what we need and where, so we’ve brought out a furniture maker to do some custom shelves, cabinets, tables, and chairs.

The new kitchen and dining room are almost ready too!! So stoked!! We got a 50” TV for the new space to be able to put up the days pics over dinner or watch a movie, got a computer hooked up to it too with a hard drive full of movies and a speaker system flowing tunes all day and the same great food, cold coconuts, and fresh juices.

Building in Indo has been full of lessons in patience, new techniques of building, challenges, obstacles, and successes. We have been pretty blessed with good weather, so that’s been great. We’ve had 4 different teams of builders on the site so far, the Nias culture is super family centric and a bit transitory, so it’s hard to keep Nias people out here on Asu for a long time, they long for home and family, get cashed up, and flick off for a new scene… It can seem challenging at first, but it keeps bringing in new crew and fresh energy which has proven to be a good thing too.

We’ve been scoring some early season waves. January was exceptional with great weather and back to back SW swells. I spent February in Bali looking for furniture and finishing products like window coverings and light covers. There’s nowhere in Indo like Bali for finding creative home furnishings, everything the people make there is inspired with love, art, and craftsmanship. It’s just another level beyond the poverty and necessity that inspires most things here on Nias. And March has been pretty flat, some small waves out front and now that I have guests we’ve been getting really fun waves over at Bawa. But the flat spell was good for me to put my head down and get the camp ready for the first guests.

We’re optimistic for a great season. So far the weather has been really nice with light and variable winds, lots of sun, and just a bit of rain now and again. We’re anxious to see the Indian Ocean light up with the first swells of the season.