9075 Miles
That's how far it is from Huntington Beach, CA to Padang, Indonesia.
Click here to see a cool little map of the world showing you point A and Point B and be sure to zoom in on Padang and the Mentawai's for some fun with Google maps or try and find my house in HB :)
To put that in perspective, it's approximately 2127 miles from the closest airport here in HB, John Wayne (SNA) to LaGuardia (LGA) in New York so you would have to fly 2 round-trip flights from SNA to LGA back-to-back and then fly round-trip from John Wayne to San Francisco (SFO) to equal the distance from HB to Padang. How's that for getting away from home??
Here's a map of Indonesia (click it for a larger view). Look at the larger island to the West named Sumatra and the city Padang, which is where the boat leaves from to go to the Mentawai islands which are those little islands to the South and West of Padang. The island I will be staying on is located about 75 miles out to sea from Padang; a ferry crossing that will take approximately 4 hours.
Also, note that the Mentawai islands are located approximately 2-degrees South of the equator. (Wasn't getting a tattoo the thing to do in the navy way back when after a sailor had gone South of the equator?? I'm probably not doing that, but it was a nice piece of random trivia to let you ponder...) Needless to say, the weather should be about as tropical as one would imagine. Hot, sunny, torrential/brief rain showers, warm water, you name it. The current weather conditions look like this (graphic should be updated constantly so check back often...):
The extended forecast is for plenty of rain and temperatures in the mid-70's to mid 80's and super high humidity which is par for the course. The water temperate is around 79 degrees which you might think sounds just fabulous but I can tell you from surfing in Hawaii that it's anything but when you're riding waves. I plan on wearing loose fitting t-shirts and praying for wind to cool me down as water that warm can be a real drain on your energy level.
Indonesia is made up of over 18,000 islands and as such is one of the most prolific surf regions on earth with swells hitting it from all angles, much like Hawaii (though it should be noted that this author has no real desire to explore the aforementioned surf region and would rather venture further out to sea to find waves). A great deal of the islands here haven't been explored and I'm sure some of the world's best surf breaks are still waiting to be found in this myriad of islands spread from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. PNG (Papaua New Guinea) is also a popular surf destination though not nearly as much as the many, more famous islands in Indo like Bali, Java, Sumbawa, the Mentawai's and many others.
For more facts about Indonesia, check out the wiki entry...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia
Or, go check out what the CIA has to say about Indo...don't worry: it's actually some of the best and most complete research out there, though it's incredibly boring and just statistics...as one might expect coming from the US Government.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/id.html
Tomorrow, we're going to check out the swell that's forecasted to hit Indo the day after I arrive. This one is not for the faint of heart...
Click here to see a cool little map of the world showing you point A and Point B and be sure to zoom in on Padang and the Mentawai's for some fun with Google maps or try and find my house in HB :)
To put that in perspective, it's approximately 2127 miles from the closest airport here in HB, John Wayne (SNA) to LaGuardia (LGA) in New York so you would have to fly 2 round-trip flights from SNA to LGA back-to-back and then fly round-trip from John Wayne to San Francisco (SFO) to equal the distance from HB to Padang. How's that for getting away from home??
Here's a map of Indonesia (click it for a larger view). Look at the larger island to the West named Sumatra and the city Padang, which is where the boat leaves from to go to the Mentawai islands which are those little islands to the South and West of Padang. The island I will be staying on is located about 75 miles out to sea from Padang; a ferry crossing that will take approximately 4 hours.
Also, note that the Mentawai islands are located approximately 2-degrees South of the equator. (Wasn't getting a tattoo the thing to do in the navy way back when after a sailor had gone South of the equator?? I'm probably not doing that, but it was a nice piece of random trivia to let you ponder...) Needless to say, the weather should be about as tropical as one would imagine. Hot, sunny, torrential/brief rain showers, warm water, you name it. The current weather conditions look like this (graphic should be updated constantly so check back often...):
The extended forecast is for plenty of rain and temperatures in the mid-70's to mid 80's and super high humidity which is par for the course. The water temperate is around 79 degrees which you might think sounds just fabulous but I can tell you from surfing in Hawaii that it's anything but when you're riding waves. I plan on wearing loose fitting t-shirts and praying for wind to cool me down as water that warm can be a real drain on your energy level.
Indonesia is made up of over 18,000 islands and as such is one of the most prolific surf regions on earth with swells hitting it from all angles, much like Hawaii (though it should be noted that this author has no real desire to explore the aforementioned surf region and would rather venture further out to sea to find waves). A great deal of the islands here haven't been explored and I'm sure some of the world's best surf breaks are still waiting to be found in this myriad of islands spread from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. PNG (Papaua New Guinea) is also a popular surf destination though not nearly as much as the many, more famous islands in Indo like Bali, Java, Sumbawa, the Mentawai's and many others.
For more facts about Indonesia, check out the wiki entry...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia
Or, go check out what the CIA has to say about Indo...don't worry: it's actually some of the best and most complete research out there, though it's incredibly boring and just statistics...as one might expect coming from the US Government.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/id.html
Tomorrow, we're going to check out the swell that's forecasted to hit Indo the day after I arrive. This one is not for the faint of heart...
posted by Bryan at
8:52 AM
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