Im a surfer. The ultimate holiday for me is a surf holiday. Add in six great friends that only get to see each other once a year then you have just a fantastic trip. This was a recent trip to the fabled Mentawais Islands of the coast of Sumatra. My buddy's are all from Finland and I was the only Australian. Kind of a strange thing that I was part of the Finn clan but as my friends tell me - I have a Finnish soul....:)
Getting to the Ments (as it is affectionately known in the surfing community) is a mission. First you need to get from The Indonesian capital of Jakarta to the small airport of Padang in Sumatra. From there its a long all day ferry to the main island of the Ments. Then several more hours on a tiny boat to the final chosen destination - this can vary depending on which area you decide to surf.
On this trip we stayed on a very local island with absolute limited facilities. No electric, no internet, not hot water. Sharing two rooms between six dudes on bunk beds with not even a small fan to keep the air moving. It's the tropics. The equator went basically right through the middle of the room I think. Every morning we set off on the little boat laden with surfboards to see which break was working the best. We would do three sessions a day - each around 2 hours on simply perfect Indonesian waves. The different breaks all have great names like "burgerworld", "goodtimes" or "bengbeng". The swell changes directions in a heartbeat as does the wind, so different places work under different conditions. It is the holy grail of surfing destinations in Indo.
Now is covid still dragging on and bloody difficult to go anywhere for surfing trips. I miss it so much and cant wait to get back to Indonesia for another trip with my bros!
The surf season in Phuket starts soon. I reckon Im gonna get a trip to Bali or some other exotic location I hope. I been based here for years and from Sri Lanka to Indo to Maldives my fave location is still hands indo. maybe the next trip should be the Philippines! Im Jobiker and I love surftrips to Indo!
