We’re getting late in the surf season up here in the Mentawais, which means one thing: trades.
The predominant SE to SSE wind can blow all day, every day. They call this time of year “Goofy Season”, as the breaks protected from the trades tend to be lefts, while many of the rights are onshore.
We’ve had a few little windows on this boat trip. Being close to the equator, things can change quickly, usually when a rain squall or storm kills the wind for an hour or two.
Luckily, we’ve had swell.
When there’s enough size, we can hide around corners and find protected 4–6 foot waves. The waves here are incredibly hollow, the reefs incredibly sharp, and it’s been amazing. The boat crossings have been a little rock ’n’ roll, but that’s all part of it.
It’s a pretty wild part of the world in more ways than one. The Mentawai archipelago stretches roughly 150 kilometres off Sumatra, with around 70 islands sitting alongside the Sunda megathrust, one of the most tectonically active regions on Earth. Major earthquakes hit the broader region in 2005 and 2009, followed by the devastating 2010 Mentawai earthquake and tsunami.
Beautiful, raw and very much alive out here.
Back in Bondi, Saturday is looking like a cracker beach day at 26 degrees, before rain and a much cooler Sunday.
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: : Uge
