A MAN WITH A PLAN IN PANAMA New Hampshire Native Stan Chew Clears His Own Island Path By Beau Ewan; Photos by Kristi Chew
“Screw this — we’ll break
some new ground today,” says Stan Chew, founder of Island Path Panama. “I hate
munching on the same grass as all the other sheep.”
Most surfers only dream of
discovering new breaks. But at 55 years old, Chew is living his own dream by
turning his clients’ dreams into reality. The New Hampshire native’s main base
is located in Bocas Del Toro on Isla Colón, where he and his wife Kristi
operate a small surf camp catering to those seeking a surf experience beyond
the typical pilgrimage to more common locales in Central America.
Chew stands tall at the bow of
his twenty-foot skiff, his bald head glistening in the sun as he raises anchor.
He motors the skiff southeast, away from a “crowded” lineup of six surfers.
Along our ride, we exchange smiles with Ngöbe Buglé Indians paddling their
dugout cayuco boats throughout the
archipelago, just as they did when Columbus landed here in 1502. Their
reservation, or camarca, begins
southeast of here near a small island named Cayo de Agua. Chew owns land on
that island as well. He plans to use that plot as an outpost camp for Island
Path’s “Town and Country” surf package, the idea being to offer daily surf
trips to classic waves around the main Bocas Del Toro islands, as well as
overnight expeditions to discover new breaks within the vast reef complex of
the camarca.
“For me, there’s nothing better
than pioneering a new surf spot,” Chew says. “I mean, it’s risky — it’s
not for everyone. But I want to offer that opportunity to clients who want a
high-adventure surfing experience closer to home. You don’t have to go to
Indonesia to find an empty, perfect wave that’s rarely been surfed before.”
After a 30-minute boat ride from
Isla Colón, Chew and I stumble upon a heaving reefbreak throwing overhead
barrels onto shallow, coral tabletops. “Look at that wave!” he shouts from the
tiller. All around us, empty mysto reefs are firing away, and the possibilities
for discovery seem endless. As we approach the unnamed wave, Chew maneuvers his
boat as if it’s an extra appendage, surgically inching closer and closer to the
reef while I look for protruding coral heads. “What do you think?” he asks.
“Do you think it’s surfable?”
The Caribbean soon answers for
us. A set plods in, maybe two feet overhead, peeling seamlessly along the outer
contour of the coral shelf. Chew motors the boat slowly over the wave. We watch
a barrel fold midway at the fifty-yard line, whitewater billowing out of the
doggy door and dumping into a channel that feverishly conveys back to the
outside. “Let’s pop this cherry,” Chew says. The anchor is thrown, boards are
waxed, fin keys are turned, and a prayer is whispered. There are no text
messages, tweets, or status updates. No such leashes — only the kind
attached to our ankles. It’s a moment many surfers seek but few seldom find.
The grass here is definitely greener.
While Chew’s adventures have
brought him to countless waves across the planet, both celebrated breaks and
those he’s discovered, he remains an East Coast surfer at heart. Born in
Maryland and ending up in New Hampshire after childhood stints in Hawaii and
Taiwan, Chew was part of a hardcore group of New Hammy surfers pushing
boundaries during the shortboard revolution of the early 1970s, riding a
breakthrough in board design past popular spots like The Wall to discover reefs
and pointbreaks once considered taboo. Ralph Fatello, a close friend of Chew’s,
is a luminary in the New Hampshire surfing community; he’s currently committed
to surfing 365 consecutive days no matter the weather to raise money for the
Little Miss Molly Fund, which honors Molly Rowlee and donates money to children
with cancer.
“Stan has always been hardcore,”
Fatello says. “I remember some massive swells back then when many of us
wouldn’t dare to paddle out. We’d look out to see Stan all alone, dropping in to
these monstrosities.” Chew’s Panamanian outpost has quickly become a popular cold-weather
reprieve for the Granite State surfers he grew up with back then. “The weather
has been harsh this winter [for my 365-day run], and when it’s over, I’m going
down to Panama to thaw out with Stan,” Fatello says. “The guy is just a
charger. And I mean that in every aspect of his life.”
In between his epic surf
adventures, Chew studied music in college and led a successful career in the
music industry with New Hammy-based touring bluegrass band Lunch At The Dump. He
would later form another successful band, The Drones. “As a musician myself, I
have a lot of admiration for Stan’s talents,” says Dave Cropper, owner of Hampton,
NH, retail staple Cinnamon Rainbows. “But I also look up to him as a surfer. Up
here, we have a really tight-knit community where the younger generation of
surfers always look up to the older guys who came before us. And for me, Stan
was one of those surfers. He was always a good mentor to us, and he would
always welcome us with smiles.”
In the early ‘90s, Chew took a
trip to Costa Rica and scored a massive swell at Salsa Brava. A week later,
Cropper took the same trip, and also caught a monumental swell. When the two
met back home, somewhere in a frigid New Hampshire lineup, they exchanged
notes. “Stan has traveled pretty much everywhere,” Cropper says. “But he was
stoked to have found such a mean wave so close to home. Because of that trip,
he talked endlessly about the potential for the Caribbean coast of Panama, and
opening up a operation to explore it.”
Twenty years later, Chew is
living that dream. But he had to pay his dues to get there. Following his music
career, Chew worked for a software company owned by 3M as their Director of
International Operations, a job that took him away from surfing with a
relentless traveling schedule and an eight-year stint in Minnesota. “Living far
away from the ocean was difficult for me,” he says. “Though believe me, I got
through that period because I always knew I’d one day make Island Path a
reality.”
Chew bought his first plot of land
in Panama in 2001, while still deeply committed to his position with 3M. In
2008, with a volatile international economy shaking investor confidence, 3M
sold the company. Chew and 75 employees who worked under him, including his
wife, lost their jobs. “At that point, I knew exactly what he was thinking,”
says Stan’s wife Kristi. “We packed our stuff, said goodbye to our loved ones,
and moved into a jungle to build our surf camp. It’s been pretty crazy, but definitely
rewarding. And it’s been amazing to see our vision come alive.”
Island Path officially opened its
doors in August 2010. So far, their small operation has received surfers from
all over the world, with most hoping to share in Chew’s enthusiasm for surf
exploration. “You may not be able to surf every day of your life,” he says. “Sometimes
you have to put it all on hold. But real surfers always want one more wave. And
if you can find a way to manage that addiction throughout the course of your
life, surfing can lead you to unimaginable discoveries.”
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