Why the Mentawai islands?
That's a good question. I chose the Mentawai islands primarily for their consistent and totally surfable waves. I'm not a big wave surfer; DOH+ ( double overhead) usually scares the crap out of me around here and this trip is more for having fun rather than pushing my surfing to new limits. That's not to say that waves in Indo are easy to surf and small, it's just that there are plenty of options. When one spot is macking and just going off, you can drive 5 minutes away in the boat and find a place that's just getting the "leftover" energy and surf playful waves. When one spot is getting onshore winds, you go to the other side of the island and it's offshore. When the tide is killing one spot, keep motoring to another spot where the tide is working with it. Everything is in such close proximity that you can find out a spot isn't working and only have wasted 20 minutes, then know exactly where will be working based on the conditions at the spot you just motored to; it really is an amazing place. I'm sure there will be a few sessions I'm really feeling it and want to push my limits and try a few waves that will be damn scary and out of my comfort zone, but why not?? I mean I'm traveling by myself for the first time, taking my first "real" surf trip, going to a 3rd world country so why not just go all the way?! HA!
There were other spots I considered going but decided not to. Fiji has always been one of my dream trips but there's not quite as many wave choices at the resorts you stay at and most of the waves are pretty beefy and not quite as fun, at least in my mind. It's go big or go home from what I've heard and the same goes for Tahiti; another one of my dream trips. The trip I had initially planned on doing a couple years ago was to Australia. Oz is great surf and very similar to here in SoCal since it's mostly all beachbreaks and pointbreaks and spending a week or 2 on the Gold Coast would be a ton of fun and someday I'll do it, but I was more attracted to the secluded and exotic feel of a trip to Indonesia and I wanted a break from surfing beachbreaks all the time.
If you want to see what the waves will be like over there, I can think of 2 films that were filmed totally in this area: September Sessions and Quiksilver's Young Guns 2; September Sessions might be my all time favorite surf film. These waves are featured all the time in damn near every surf video but those 2 are all Mentawai, all the time.
There were other spots I considered going but decided not to. Fiji has always been one of my dream trips but there's not quite as many wave choices at the resorts you stay at and most of the waves are pretty beefy and not quite as fun, at least in my mind. It's go big or go home from what I've heard and the same goes for Tahiti; another one of my dream trips. The trip I had initially planned on doing a couple years ago was to Australia. Oz is great surf and very similar to here in SoCal since it's mostly all beachbreaks and pointbreaks and spending a week or 2 on the Gold Coast would be a ton of fun and someday I'll do it, but I was more attracted to the secluded and exotic feel of a trip to Indonesia and I wanted a break from surfing beachbreaks all the time.
If you want to see what the waves will be like over there, I can think of 2 films that were filmed totally in this area: September Sessions and Quiksilver's Young Guns 2; September Sessions might be my all time favorite surf film. These waves are featured all the time in damn near every surf video but those 2 are all Mentawai, all the time.
posted by Bryan at
7:45 PM
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