Donkey Gang

GOOD TIMES!!!!

Indo Donkey Gangstazz

Beware of the Donkey Gangstaz!!!

Mentawai Surf Spots - Playgrounds

This the list of surf spots that were surfed by the DP on our trip to Kandui

Nokandui
Rifles
Pistols aka "the last resort"
4 bobs (four bobs)
A-Frames aka John Kandies
Bikini Bottoms aka Carumba
Burgerworld
Hideaways
Nipussy
Beng Beng
Ebay or E-bay
Pitstops

We did not surf:
Razorblades aka razors
Lacerations
Bankvaults
Margi's

Ford Sighted on Snake Island

Reports are coming in that Gaykley has arrived in the playgrounds region and has gone feral. This image is the first to come in, we will continue to update you as this story progresses.

Burgerworld - Worst wave in the mentawais?

El Tom-o @ burgerworld

Yesterday the swell was dying so we jetted over to burgerworld. After my session at Rifles the previous night, I didn't even want to get out of the boat. Smythe said I had a bad attitude, but really i just didn't want to surf a lame mushy crapball after having just surfed perfect barrels. After watching for about 45 minutes I did go catch 3 waves, but for those three waves I had to duck dive about 60-100 times. Burgerworld is just really disorganized and shifty and it is rare to find a good workable wall. Ray the manager of kandui says it gets good like one out of every twenty trips over there. I guess we had one of those 19 type of days. The shifty lineup did manage our insta crowd well and some of the boys got some of the better waves of their trip. Here are some pics.

The dude @ burgerworld
Be-lo @ burgerworld

After burgerworld we cruised home, then shot out to pistols which is this slab reef wave around the corner from rifles. The wave is imossible to shoot, breaks top to bottom from the takeoff and the water sucks out right beneath you. I had a couple of backdoor shacks off the takeoff, and honestly pink rashguarded on a few because it was draining out so quickly. Some of the waves would run down the reef after takoff and resembled a short version of lower trestles. It was 3 turns max then you had to pull out because the reef went dry on the inside. Everyone got some good ones, but there was some carnage... Tom put his knee through his firewire, and smythe wrecked the rail of his board and a few guys hit the reef. Great risk = Great Reward. Big swell is expected to start showing tonight and we are all excited to get the high performance waves of Rifles and Nokandui again. Hopefully we will return with pics/footage this time.

Buckets @ 4 bobs

I Love Rifles

Today I had my second session at Rifles. It is my favorite wave in the mentawais. When I had thoughts of what Indonesian surf would be like, rifles is it. I could not catch another wave the rest of my trip and the trip would still be an overwelming success. Ryan, Guto, Anthony and I had a session at Rifles this afternoon and it was really good. It's not really a wave to do turns on, just go as fast as you can and get barreled. I got 10 or so really good, some really deep, barrels that I made it out of. Here is some video of what the wave looks like. So Stoked

Wave hungry donkeys

Monks just made a comment about the crowds in Indo so I figured it was a good time for this post. A trip to Indo will definitely find you a lot of really good waves and you will get uncrowded sessions. However, when you deploy 10 wave hungry donkeys, it changes the story a bit. So far we have really only had one swell and even though we have surfed every day, it has not been enough to quench the thirst of many of the donkeys. Yesterday I got lucky as all the donkeys got out of the water then the boat broke so they could not come out. It was definitely one of the best sessions of my trip. Only 1 - 3 other guys out and everyone was just trading waves. The best part was nobody was even remotely aggressive. Just a friendly session of trading waves. In contrast, below are some of the incidents caught on film. Mind you just because the person is in front of the other, does not mean the other person did not paddle around the other donkey.... (you will also notice the disease started to spread to non-donkeys.






Ps. In case you are wondering the Viper has struck a couple of times, he was just lucky that nobody caught it on film.

Wave Height

Nokandui doing its thing

To clarify: the biggest surf we have had was on our first day and it was a very solid 4ft overhead, I did not see any doh sets; but the waves do tend to grow as you take off down the reef. It has been at least head high or better every day. The thing here is wind, not swell. There is plenty of swell and the swell gets into some spots better than others due to shadowing. There were waves on day 1 that were well over DOH but the wind was wrong. Beleive me when I tell you the last thing you want on a 10ft drainer at rifles or nokandui is crosschop or a section getting blown down in front of you.

The waves are a dream, and the day before yesterday was barrels galore with perfect wind at about head and a half. Ryan and I sat deep and inside on the reef at nipussy and took the sets that were direct south (most were southwest) these things just opened up and raced down the reef. I had 2 double barrels, and well over 20 other regular ones. Then alone I had a short 4 wave session at rifles, which is the real deal. Squarrels are at rifles, the barrels are as wide as they are tall. I cought 4 in a quick session before lunch, got completely shacked and burried on the first but I was so deep and traveled so far, when the foam ball ate me up I was addicted. The boys saw my first one from the boat and said the wave ate me alive. I wanted more. Waves 2-3, I did not take off as deep, and made it out of the dragons belly after what many would consider the best waves of their lives. Wave 4 was not as good as the previous 3 (even with the flogging on #1) and the boat was back to pick me up for lunch. At that point, we had already surfed 5 1/2 hours and it was only 1pm. The afternoon session was equally as special. More later.

Photos from Beng-Beng and Pit Stops

The swell that was supposed to arrive today turned out to be a hoax. What did show up left many places unridable and most of the places that were ridable had the wrong winds. So we ended up at Bang Bang again. Surprisingly there was a little something to ride. Here are a couple photos more photos from today.
The Dude at Beng Beng

Bivers at Pit Stops

Tai-Bo at Pit Stops

Shegas at Beng Beng

Kama at Beng Beng

Be Careful What You Wish For

You want pics? Are you sure? Needless to say the last three days have been epic, and today for me has been particularly special. These pics are over the last 3 days, and every shot the rider completed the ride without fail...

Seibring Nokandui
Smythe Beng-BengThe Viper @ Nokandui

Brantley @ Pitstops

ICE @ 4 bobs

KL - Traffic - Towers - Toilets - Carlsberg

For those left behind I grant this quick summary:

We arrived in KL and took our 45 minute bus ride into the city, I was amazed how clean the freeways were, not a speck of trash not even a cigarette butt. It made me wonder if there is such a thing as too much freedom. I saw darth vader a few times, spent 1 night sweating it out and probably lost 5 pounds. The city is beautiful and the patronas towers are a spectacle to be seen.

We are now in padang and waiting to head out to the resort. Everyone is in good spirits and the jet lag has seemed to subside for everyone. I think we need to surf soon.. gotta go pictures later.

Call your credit/debit card company

This is a reminder to call your credit card co. and your bank and let them know the countries you will be traveling in (Malaysia and Indonesia) and give them the dates of departure and return. They will put your cards in "travel" status so that your cards will NOT get declined if you use them in either of the two countries during the trip.

In Tahiti, I did not call my cards in advance, I got there and my cards got declined. I had to go to a pay phone use a calling card, call the card companies and let them know I was traveling and to turn my shit back on. It was a pain in the butt and even after my call my cards did not work for another 24 hours.

So... Call your cards tards

Updated Surf Forecast - Mentawais

We had three decent storms move through the SW Indian Ocean and now we are expecting a stronger series of storms to move into the South/Central Indian Ocean. We will be calling for our first SW groundswell to kick in for Sunday with some head high to overhead surf and then Monday, July 7th, looks to bring a stronger SW swell with head high plus surf and sets will be running a few feet overhead with some larger sets at the top SW facing breaks. Another reinforcement from the SW will come in for Tuesday to hold up wave heights but a strong fetch down under is expected to deliver and longer period and building SW to SSW groundswell for Tuesday and into Wednesday, July 9th, with solid head high plus to double overhead plus surf and some larger sets nearing the triple overhead range will not be out of the question.

Further out, the long range models are looking pretty good and it appears that we could see another shot of solid overhead SW swell for Thursday through Saturday, July 10-12th.

Lance's Surf Report, Surf Forecast and Surf Webcams

Lance's Surf Report, Surf Forecast and Surf Webcams