G-Land: Surf and spirits

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Off the coast of Java, Indonesia, lies G-Land, one of the world’s most legendary surf breaks, framed by a dense forest that was once home to the now-extinct Javan tiger. Alas Purwo (which literally means “Ancient Forest” or “First Forest” in Javanese) is considered one of the most mystical places in Java, with deep ties to Javanese spirituality and legend. Despite Java being one of the most crowded islands on Earth, this sacred jungle has remained largely untouched. In the 1970s, surfer Bobby Radiasa arrived from neighbouring Bali to visit American surfers who had set up a remote base there, hammocks and tree houses, what some say is the world’s first surf camp. He discovered both myth and magic in its waves. Also features an interview with Jim Banks, an Australian surfing legend known as a pioneer of big wave surfing and among the first group of surfers that arrived in Bali and later to G-land.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:12.0	It's Bali in the late 1960s.
0:16.5	And Bobby Radiasa is with friends on the beach outside his village of Kuta.
0:21.5	And my grandpa, my father used to be a fisherman, and then I love the oceans.
0:28.9	Well, I love the beach, I love the sea.
0:31.1	So he spends a lot of time here playing in the white sand.
0:35.1	But his mum has told him never to go swimming.
0:38.2	The way she taught us is medical or other mothers would say
0:43.3	because it's a black demon, you know, like at the time, the early days,
0:48.4	you know, they tell us it's a, they believe in the black and white magic.
0:54.0	So they never go in deep. No one in his village goes swimming. tell us it's a belief in black and white magic here.
0:55.7	So they never go in deep.
0:58.1	No one in his village goes swimming.
1:02.7	But on this day, they see people far out in the water.
1:07.1	We thought it was like white people for us.
1:08.6	This is white magic.
1:12.3	We see them swimming and we go, wow. And as they look closer, it's like, wow, this is white magic. We see them swimming and we go, wow.
1:17.4	And as they look closer, it's clear these foreigners are not just swimming.
1:20.4	Well, all the kids just come and just to watch,
1:23.1	and we were like blown our mind.
1:26.4	Like we go, wow, these people can fly.
1:30.3	Or for us, it's like, wow, we've never seen things like this before.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.