PART I:

  The season 2005 started with powerful emotions.

  28th of march of 2005:earthquake of 8.7 on the Richter scale, epicenter at 30 Km north of the island of Nias.

  I was in Los Angeles already 2 days at my partner Steve Levine´s house preparing myself for another season in Sumatra. At the very same day i decide that i would have to leave to Medan the next day.

  I arrived at Jakarta on the 1st of April where i would meet Formiga (ESPN) so togheter we would be the first brazilians to witness the disaster caused by this tragic event. Unfortunately we missed each other and i ended up taking the flight to Medan on the same day.

  2nd of April: Medan, there is no flight to sibolga (West coast of Sumatra)
where our boat "Baya Nohi" had left to Nias with 30 tons of humanitarian
help.

  On the 3rd of April i arrived at Sibolga and went to talk with Cap. Mark
Flint, a veteran resident captain of the region that was coordinating the
action of SURFAIDINTERNATIONAL from Sibolga to Nias. I was immedeatlly hired to coordinate the humanitarian help at Sirombu, west Nias (entrance gates to the Hinako islands).

  We left on the same night on a 85' hardcore fishing boat with rats, cockroaches, verms ant tons of help supply, including special fuel for aircrafts for the helicopter that would stay with us for the next 19 days.
The crew looked like they were from na Alfred Hitchcok movie.

  It was almost 3 weeks of hard work, at the same time rewarding financially and spiritually. Unfortunately we didn´t have enough resources to help everyone that needed but we saved lives and fed dozens of families.

  At this point, all of the reservations for the surf camp were cancelled, from the 20 guys who had already paid, only 4 were keen to get to Sumatra to surf the waves. Asu was never so empty in 10 years.

  During the days i´ve spent working with the humanitarian help i had the opportunity to go surfing a few times and to observe the changes on the reef and to confirm that the perfection and consistency were there.

  On the 23rd of April i was already in Bali waiting for the only guest of May´s group that would arrive on the 1st of May and i was also looking for people who would be interested at surfing uncrowded waves. on the 10th of May i would be living to Medan and Sibolga, on the preparation for the crossing Sibolga-Lagundi-Asu.

  To be continued...



Enrique Pena