The Moslems go to Mecca, the Christians go to Jerusalem and surfers go to Indonesia. After my last surf trip to Nias I just knew that I needed to organise another trip to Indo, so there was no hesitation to accept when I got the call from Anton Hannekom inviting me on a boat charter to the Mentawai Islands.
The Mentawai Islands are located approximately 100 miles west of the Sumatran port city of Padang, the launching point for Mentawai Charters. There are four main islands in the chain, with numerous smaller islands surrounding them.
Our trip started off in Cape Town and took us to Johannesburg, Singapore and finally to Padang where 13 of us got onto the Indies Explorer, a 115ft Ketch (Type of Boat). After unpacking our boards and equipment we started our crossing to the Mentawai Islands.
The crossing can be anything from 12 to 24 hours depending on the weather. We were a rocking and a rolling non stop for 16 hours before we finally got into the smoother waters of the Mentawai Islands. On the crossing the Philippi brothers, who were very vocal at first, became very quiet. I thought they were turning into incredible Hulks, because after a while out at sea they became quiet and started turning various shades of green, then disappeared for the rest of the crossing.
The long flights, change overs and the crossing really takes it out of you, but luckily our first surf was a playful 2-3 ft at
Telescopes.
This was a good session to find our feet, and to get all cob webs and jet lag out of our systems with nice waves and warm water. “Johnny Duck Dive” was a bit unlucky and was caught behind the section on quite a few of his waves and spend most of this session working on his duck dive techniques.
That evening we enjoyed some Bintangs (Indo Beer) while appreciating the amazing sunset and sailing to our safe anchorage spot. I soon found out that most sunsets and sunrises are spectacular in this part of the world.
The next 2 days we hung out at <strong>Seven Palms</strong> with fun 3-4ft wave. We had some really fun waves here and when the tide got too high we just relaxed with some beers and excellent food, telling surf stories. Just another tough day at the office … 
I also enjoyed snorkelling in between all the surfers. I saw some amazing fish on the reef but I could also watch the surfers from the bottom. This was quite spectacular because it felt like I was in a Jack McCoy surfing film. The water was crystal clear and I was watching in awe as surfboards were drawing interesting lines through the water with white clouds of the breaking waves chasing the surfer. Every now and then the wave would catch up with the guy and I could see how his body was washed in the white clouds. It would have been great to have an underwater housing for the video and still camera because the view from under the water was spectacular.
The next morning we surfed at Seven Palm again, the waves jacked and had picked up to 5-6ft. The waves also got bigger and heavier with every new set, and as the waves picked up the guys eyes got bigger and bigger. Eben’s leash snapped after a horrendous wipe out and he became the first guy to do the reef dance to collect his board on the island. We finally left Seven Palms after our captain got a big set on the head. He promptly decided to pull up anchor and sailed South to Lance’s Lefts
Lance’s Left’s is a classic point break next to a tropical palm filled island with a classic left which demands respect from all surfers. Sailing around the point and seeing the classic setup with 4-6 ft waves rolling down the point we knew we felt like we had found the treasure at the end of the rainbow. The waves were classic but it demanded respect and you paid your dues here as we soon found out…
After a wipe out I got a really good hold down which woke me up. The wave washed me and spun me around like a rag in a tumble drier and just as I thought the wave had released me and the washing cycle was finished I got pulled into another spin and wash cycle. I finally surfaced gasping for air, very clean but with a huge respect for this amazing spot. Most of the wipe outs felt a bit like this, and if you were unlucky you would surface with some red stains somewhere on your body. Johnny Duck dive and Robby both grated their backs on the reef and Rory was unceremoniously washed over the reef where he picked up a gash on his knee which got infected later and forced him to take a few days off. He had to treat it with anti-biotics.
Wearing booties saved my skin quite a few times because it became my last defence against the reef.
During the session Eben decided to go back to the boat and felt it necessary to pull out his brand new gun to handle the challenging waves better. He waxed up the board, and promptly paddled past everybody up to the point, grinning from ear to ear. A nice set came through which he paddled for. He took off but he did not make the drop and surfaced with his board in 2 pieces. Needless to say the smile had disappeared by this time.We had fun waves here until three other boats started arrived. Most of the boats were fine but one of the boats had a Brazilian family onboard with the dad and his two sons of aged 14 and 16.They were fantastic surfers, but they were really busy in the water and had no etiquette. They would paddle up the inside and take off on the first wave that came their way. The guys started to get a fed up with this and things got a bit heated at times. This was a problem because the Brazilians seemed to follow us around for days.
I realised on this trip that Brazilians are loved and respected all over the world for their skills in soccer and their good looking girls, but absolutely hated by surfers everywhere for their bad manners in the surf. Say “Brazilian” to surfers and everybody would react as if a bird flu patient had just walked through the door.
The visiting charter boats are a big part of the local economy because as soon as a boat stops, it would get surrounded by locals in their dugout canoe’s trying to sell all sorts of carvings and souvenirs to the visiting surfers. The boat men at Lance’s and HT’s definitely had the best and most colourful souvenirs from all the spots we visited.
During the night the swell dropped and our captain decided to sail further South to Thunders. This is the wave magnet of the Mentawais. I don’t think Thunders ever gets under 6ft. It is a fairly heavy Outer Kom type of spot. We got it at 6-8ft but the line up was quite busy, with some other boats including our Brazilian friends. Not everybody on our boat was to keen to surf here but everybody that got into the action got some great waves.
By now Eben’s board had been fixed by one of the boat’s crew. He was super stoked and paddled out but snapped it again on his first wave. That was officially the end of this board. I would have enjoyed this spot a lot more if it weren’t so crowded. We stayed there for two days until the swell jacked again.
We sailed across the bay to a small island with Rags Lefts on the one side and Rags Rights on the other side of the island. We decided to stay at the Lefts because the wind was favourable on this side of the island. Rags Lefts is quite a heavy left. Needless to say, not everybody surfed here. I went out, paddled for a wave and got pitched with the lip. I did not think it was such a heavy wipe out, but after I started spitting up some thick blood, and imagining that I was getting dizzy and feeling paralyzed, I took the rubber duck back to the boat.
(Doc) Gary had the wave of the trip and his life here. They surfed the peak further up the point where he took off on an 8ft+ wave. He pulled into a stand up barrel with his arms raised into the air, the lip not even close to him. He was screaming his head off and after coming out of the first barrel he went straight into the next barrel further down the line after which the wave slowed down a bit and opened up, and after doing a few carves he kicked out 800meters down the line with an almighty howl. He was actually shivering with adrenaline after this wave. When he finally got onto the boat we could not wipe the smile off his face.
By now the food was becoming fairly ordinary. We were keen for some fresh fish, so Harny, Willie, Marty and myself took the speedboat and went on a desperate fishing trip. The conditions were pretty rough for this little boat, but we were desperate and trawled for almost three hours with no luck. The only thing we caught was a terrible sunburn. That night we had to wash our deep fried food down with a couple of Bintangs.Some evenings got pretty festive on the boat. The more Jack Daniels Ewan had, the more it oiled his vocal cords, the louder his Karaoke singing got, and the more Vodka Willie had the more he smiled and the wilder the music got. One evening Willie was grooving on Marilyn Manson. Willie must have had a whole case of Vodka. The indo crew must have thought that this bunch of guys were from Mars. Some evenings we got into some serious poker games with Mario and Carlos taking everybody’s money.
The swell picked up again and we sailed back to Lance’s where we scored even better and bigger waves than before. This was definitely my favourite spot on our trip. The surf was 6-8ft and the wind that pestered us earlier on the trip died down and we had classic glassy conditions.
I had some of my biggest and best waves of the trip here.
I lost my board once after diving off my board on one of the bigger sets. I dived down but the lip hit me so hard it almost folded me backwards. It was a good thing that I’d bailed because the lip would have pushed me right through my board if I tried to duck dive it. I got a lift on the rubber duck to the beach where a friendly local returned my board to me. I was lucky because some of the locals pick up the boards and run into the forest never to be seen again.
Doc also broke his board during this session, and Willie tried to plough through the reef with his board and surfaced with a board without any fins and a squashed tail.
Lances claimed some broken boards and skin, but Anton Hanekom’s faceoff with the reef (literally) was definitely the worse surfing injury I have seen. Ouchhh!
It wasn’t a pretty site, but a case of Bintangs later and he had no more pain. Anton is a great surfer and a hardcore veteran with three tours to the Eastern front under his belt. A bit of a Jack Russell in and out of the water.
The last day we spent at HT’s (Lance’s Right’s). This a beautiful but hardcore, unforgiving right with a reef named “The Surgeons Slab” that doesn’t take any prisoners. Ewan (Knee boarder) was in the zone on this day and scored some great waves with some deep pits. Doc paid his dues for the wave he had earlier that week at Rags. He got the beating of his life and was very gratefull to get out of there breathing and with no permanent damage.
That’s the thing with Indo. She gives lots of pleasure but she makes you pay for it somewhere down the line. If you get away today, you will pay your dues tomorrow. After our surf we had to prepare ourselves and the boat for the trip back to Padang. We packed our boards, tied the speedboat behind the boat and started our crossing back to Padang. Arriving back in Padang after a night of rocking and rolling across the straight we realised that we’d lost the speedboat we were pulling during the crossing. Just paying another due to mother Indo.
That evening we were all reflecting on the good waves and good times we had together on this amazing adventure. We realised we only scratched the surface of this Mecca of surfing and that there are still so many amazing spots in the Mentawai’s that we did not even get close to and that we had to start planning another pilgrimage as soon as we got back.
We said our goodbyes to the captain and his crew and left for the airport. For most of the guys it was the end of the trip but for me it was the beginning of a whole new adventure as I was heading to Bali.
