34 AT THE MENTAWAIS, tradition broken

  Surf at the Mentawais islands, the dream of almost every surfer on the planet was finally close to be accomplished. It all started when I received an e-mail from my friend Fernando "Batata" Ávila saying that he was organizing a trip to the Mentawais islands and he needed me to organize a list of good boats at the best price I could get plus a photographer for his group to decide. The group was made of 6 guys, all gauchos (from south Brasil) and they want to confirm the boat A.S.A.P. After giving them a list of boats with their respective prices the group's decision was made, the boat for the trip would be the Aileoita 2, a new made boat specially designed for surf trips by my Hawaiian friend Jordan Heuer that has more than 10 years of experience on the Mentawais and owns an excellent surf travel company on the area, the Saraina Koat that has more than 6 boats on its fleet. After negotiating with Jordan I closed the deal with a good discount for everybody's stoke.

  From the initial group the only change was of the famous musician/surfer Armandinho that coulnd't make it because of appointments with his music label so his spot was fulfilled by another gaucho surfer, the young Gustavo
Deutrisch. The group was complete and the trip scheduled for the first days of September.

  Traditionally I've been spending my b'day at G-land for many years but the opportunity of finally making this dream come true with great style onboard a first class boat with a group of friends an a photographer spoke louder.finally after 11 years of residence on Bali I was going to break the ice and get to know the Mentawais!!! The initial plan was to spend the 10 days and 11 nights of the trip on the Mentawais and after that go straight to Asu to make another dream come true.

  After a few days i picked Batata up at Bali and after a few days of running
around going to banks and money changers the payment was done, the tickets bought and the trip confirmed. A few days later there was another member of the group arriving on the island that I already knew from Bali from the previous year's season, the black belt Jiu-jitsu fighter João Fábio Cabral.

  The trip members that were going to leave from Bali were Fernando "Batata" Ávila, Me, Gustavo Deutrisch and João Fábio Cabral plus the photographer/video maker Gene that was also on the island; The other members of the expedition were João's brother Rafael Cabral, the shaper and commercial director of Da Hui Brasil Eduardo Braga and Alexandre Bonei that would flight directly from Brasil to Padang, Sumatra.

  On the afternoon of the 1st of September after been picked up at the airport at Padang by Rudi and the rest of my friend's Jordan's team we all met at the 4 star hotel Bumiminang. After a few hours resting we had dinner and at 21hs we were transferred to the harbor from were our boat would leave; at 22 o'clock we left the anchorage at the Padang harbor and the trip had begun.

  After a rough night of heavy seas and strong wind we were arriving early in the morning of the day 1 of our trip (2/9) to our first destination, Playgrounds. Our first stop was at the Kandui island to drop the Hawaiian Amon, one of Jordan's partner at the Kandui Surf Resort, and his girlfriend that had taken a ride with us from Padang.

  Soon after we had a complete breakfast and went searching for waves.with a rare wind blowing constantly for over a month at the Mentawais we looked for the spots that could offer the best conditions where the winds would be offshore and Beng-beng was the chosen spot.

  Blue warm water, sunny day and 2' to 3' lefts breaking over a coral reef that would allow many turns and an occasional little barrel were the icebreaker of the trip. The crowd was mellow with only a handful of guys in the water in front of a true work of art from mother nature.an island surrounded by an ocean of turquoise blue water with exposed coral reef and white sand, full of palm trees and natural beauty that would become the daily scenery of the places where our trip would pass by.

  There we found my friend Jordan that was coming back from a trip around the islands with some guys from California and we changed boats as we had used Aileoita 1 to make the crossing from Padang to Playgrounds. We spent the day surfing, eating and relaxing and went to Kandui to spend the night at more tranquil waters. On the following morning as the winds were strong and the swell was small we decided to accept the offer of the Hawaiian Amon and went to have a look at the Kandui Surf Resort.

  We were impressed by the natural beauty and faultless infrastructure of the place and ended up enjoying the facility of a good internet connection to check the swell forecast that showed the peak of the swell for the 3rd and 4th of September (this day and the next).

  From an e-mail that I received Me and Batatinha found out that to go to Asu we would have to take two more flights, transport overland and by boat plus spend a lot more than we thought.as we were loaded with boards and bags we decided then that Asu would be delayed for some next expedition and that from the Mentawais we would go back to Bali to go straight to G-Land. We pulled the anchor and after 6 hs we were arriving at sunset time at Telescopes where the conditions were real bad with 1' to 2' bumpy waves.

  we had a session to get wet and that was it. After the surf we continued the trip to a harbor nearby to spend the night and at 03:00 in the morning we were already cruising again, this time on the way to Lances were we arrived at 7 o'clock in the morning. The condition at Lances was of 4' waves with sideshore winds that was making the waves become very sectioned but with some good power and with no one in the water. The joke of the trip was when Batatinha said that if the surfer from south Brasil Giovanni Mancuso was there he would say that Tramandaí beach had a lot more waves, the question then was if the crew wanted to surf at (Tramandaí spots) Malvinas left or Backdoors right (Lances rights-Ht's). After a few hours session we took of to Macarronis at lunchtime. We got to Macca's at 16:30 and the waves had 2' to 3' a little bumpy because of the sideshore winds. This whole day was cloudy and was the day we lost two lures with the rest of the line trolling from one spot to the other.

  On the following day we left at 06:00 in the morning for another 3hs of travel to Rags that had only 2' and we decided to keep going to Thunders for 20 more minutes were we finally found good conditions with 4' lefts with offshore winds and some barrels. On the afternoon at the incoming tide the surf got better getting more consistent and everyone had some nice ones.

  As the swell was small and the offshore was consistent Thunders was the best option for the following days. When we arrived there were 3 boats but on some days we counted 9 boats anchored in front of the wave because of the lack of swell and conditions on the other spots in the area; At some point when the crowd was intense the common waiting rules of a reef break was forgotten and many were doing the traditional paddle around each other, the drop ins were starting to get to critical levels and the education ended up been putted aside by some.really depressing.

  On the 5 days we stayed at Thunders the routine was wake up, look at the waves from the room's window, have breakfast in the boat's dinning room watching surfing videos and looking at the waves by the windows to go surfing soon after and ride 3' to 5' lefts with barrel and turn sections, have lunch and get back in the water to then have some Bintangs finishing the day with style.

  The young Gustavo Deutrisch dominated the small and tight barrels with mastery and was the one who rode inside the most with Batatinha right behind.this two didn't let go any of the smaller ones that were breaking closer to the reef producing some nice barrels; Meanwhile the rest of the crew was waiting for the bigger ones that didn't barreled so much but had good sections for turns.here all the trip members started to get new nicknames and amongst others the new members of the trip that started to appear were: João-Dugong, Johnny Bravo, Ogre; Digone-Dom Digone de Bali, Dom Porpetone, Dom Gordelone, Dom Sequelone; Batata-Bunda barrel, Tiririca, Ripple rat; Bonei-Uncle boneco, The Professor, Mr.Bean; Dudu Braga-Braguilha, Uncle Vodoo, Big Tiger, The one who leaves in a parallel world; Rafel "Tchuca"- Tchutchuca the Tiger's companion; Gustavo-Little Stewart and Gene-Perestroyka, Gorbachovsky, Barichnikovsky, Pangarovsky.

  The weather was cloudy on the majority of days, a rare wind was blowing constantly and the water was strangely cold sometimes but apart from that there were always good waves and some days with clear sky and warm water. It was evident the radical weather changes that the planet has been going thru, we were practically at the Equator line.

  On the morning of the 10th of September that would be our sixth at Thunders and ninth of the trip the swell was really small and we decided to take off without going for a surf and went straight to Maccas wich took us about 3hs; We visited the Macarronis Resort and left just after lunch to Ht's, another 3hs cruising.Arriving at Ht's we saw the wind almost straight offshore but the waves were very small and the tide real high.

  There a true aquatic handicraft market was formed with canoeists coming from the land with woodcarvings and shells for sale that gave Dudu the opportunity to show his incredible bargaining skills. We kept traveling to Lances Left where we slept with less rocking.

  On the next day and last of the trip the swell at Lances Left was very small so we decided to go back to Ht's.when we arrived the swell was very small and inconsistent and the tide wasn't the best but the wind was almost straight offshore. As the tide got better the sets started to show some better waves up to 4' that produced good barrels but that ended about 2hs later when the tide got wrong and the waves simply disappeared. Our mascot Stewart Little scored the gold and got two really nice waves but on the best one that was the best barrel of the trip where he took off on the limit on his backhand and made all the wave deep inside the barrel coming out on the end the photographer wasn't there to register because he had gone to the beach. That was the last surf session of the trip.

  It was evident that we were lucky to have an efficient, helpful and happy crew on the boat; a good cook that always prepared good and complete meals; a captain that navigated at night and knew the region very well; a good, comfortable and fast boat with a full stock of food and drinks where the only thing missing was a good surf guide for the decisive moments about where and when to surf.

  Truly the dream trip with unforgettable days of perfect waves and only your friends in the water can still be a reality.

  After this session we pulled anchor and took of straight to Padang where we arrived at 01:30 in the morning. From Padang Bonei took an early morning flight directly to Brasil while the rest of us got on the plane to Jakarta where we spent a night at a 5 star hotel to celebrate the trip and my b'day at the best "Goreng style" but that is another story that won't be told here.From there we all kept going to Bali where Me and Batatinha would go A.S.A.P. to G-Land, João and Tchuca to Brasil and Dudu would meet his missus that was supposed to arrive soon on the island.

  I would like to register my special thanks to all the crew on this trip for the companionship, to the crew at Aileoita 2, to the Indonesian local from Padang Rudi, to the Hawaiian Amon and specially to my Hawaiian friend Jordan Heuer for his help on making this dream come true.

With Gods help in 2007

there will be more!!! Terimakasih Banyak.....

Rodrigo "Digone"

Boat diary of trip...