BINTANG : 110' Schooner
Mentawais Islands

John O'Toole scores in the Mentawais on the Bintang, August 28-September 8, 2003 Sept. 22nd, 2003

My recent trip to the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia was one of the best surf trips of my life. I admit that I was hesitant to travel to Indonesia after hearing about the most recent bombing in Jakarta, but I was not going to let them terrorists, or as George W says "terror", nor any State Department warnings stop me from getting sick barrels.

Nick Kauper, my neighbor in Playa Hermosa and owner of the Backyard Hotel/Bar, flew up from Costa Rica and met me in Singapore (a 16 hr. flight from LAX) where we boarded a plane for a short flight to the port city of Padang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where we stayed for one night. Not too many Gringos in this town as we found out as we walked through the main marketplace and became the center of everyone’s attention. They were laughing and yelling "heh Mistah" beckoning us to come and buy something from their stand. We got a lot for our buck as it is 8500 rupiah to one dollar.

The next day we boarded the Bintang, a 110 ft. schooner and cruised 12 hours overnight to the Mentawai Islands which are 80 miles off shore.. The guests consisted of two Americans, one Puerto Rican and three Australians. Daryl Robinson was our captain and he was a good captain. A jovial, middle-aged Aussie with a very youthful spirit and energy who knew the islands well and always had us surfing the best spots with the best conditions. There were 5 other crew members, two other Aussies and three Indos, who attended to our every need including board caddying and great meals, not to mention a plethora of information on this wave rich region. We lived on the boat for the next 10 nights, the islands are largely uninhabitable due to rugged terrain (rain forest, swamp land) as well as the threat of malaria.
The Mentawais, with their coral reefs and channels, face the perfect direction to pick up all of the continuous swell which pumps out of the Indian Ocean March through October, plus the favorable winds so necessary to create well-shaped surf. There are no less than 50 different spots in a chain of about 10 islands. We started out in "Playgrounds" where there are about 8 spots surrounding a group of 3 Gilligan’s style little islands, however surf was small (still head high) for about the first 4 days as we motored south awaiting the larger swell due to arrive about the 5th day of our trip.

One day we went ashore to one of the islands to walk around and we were met be a few older ladies who lived there. They were natives and were covered head to two with tatoos, tribal markings I assumed which asserted their status in the community. They were curious as we each had camcorders in our hands, yet very friendly. We each gave them the shirts off our backs and then bade us farewell.

Sure enough by the time we got to "Thunders" on our 5th day we were met by a large swell. We pulled up to Thunders and witnessed 10-15’ surf in the distance. We surfed the inside of Thunders which was a solid 8’+ and knew why we came here. We then hit "Rags Left" another thick left hander, and got some more solid 10’ surf. I went "over the falls" in one of my worst wipeouts in extreme sports history but luckily there were not too many waves in the set behind it. The reef is typically shallow and omnipresent at all of the breaks so reef booties helped a lot to avoid foot cuts. We then motored to "Maccaroni’s" which is a barrelling, shallow left hander, one of the most perfect barrels I have ever seen. We sat there for 2 days and I honed my tube riding skills for life.

We next sailed north and hit "HT’s" and "Lance’s Left". Our session at Lance’s Left was magical—sunny, off shore winds, and 8’ peelers. The next day we continued to "Telescopes" which was a bit smaller yet very playful and a few tubes to boot.

The trip was a success and I found the Indonesians to be very friendly and sensitive to our fears of recent terrorism in Java and Bali. This is the largest Muslim country in the world with a population of over 220 million people, but for the most part it is a moderate form of Islam. I picked up some words along the way like "umbak besar" (big wave) and "selamatt pagi" (good morning) and knew that I would come back again soon.

We had an overnight stay in Singapore on our way back home. We found it to be an extremely modern city, very orderly and clean. We did some shopping hit the Hard Rock Café for dinner. The next day we headed back to the USA.

Many Thanks, John