23 Days in the Mentawais: Niek van der Velde’s Surf Trip
Niek
Author
Niek
Author
Mentawai surf trip
23 days of waves, boats and boardshorts
Normally most of my trips revolve around snow. This summer I swapped the mountains for three weeks of warm water, reef breaks and small boats in the Mentawai Islands.
Getting there is already part of the trip
I headed to Indonesia with a few friends for 23 days of surfing in the Mentawai Islands. I'd seen enough photos and surf films to have a pretty good idea of what to expect: warm water, perfect waves, palm trees and small islands somewhere off the coast of Sumatra.
Actually getting there is another story.
It took me basically three days. Two long international flights, another domestic flight across Indonesia and then finally around four hours on a boat, heading further and further away from anything resembling normal life.
By that point you're pretty done with travelling.
Then the islands start appearing on the horizon.
Palm trees. Wooden huts. Clear blue water.
No roads, no shops, hardly any phone signal. And waves. A lot of waves.
At that point the three days of travelling suddenly don't feel that important anymore.
Waking up and deciding where to surf
There were more than twenty surf spots within reach from where we were staying.
That's probably one of the coolest things about the Mentawais. You wake up, look at the conditions and decide where you're going.
Every morning had the same question
Not whether we were going surfing. Just where.
Some spots had mellow, thick waves where you could just have fun. Others were proper reef breaks with double-overhead barrels. Depending on the swell and what everyone felt like doing, every day could be completely different.
Most sessions started by throwing the boards into a small boat and heading out between the islands.
When the ocean is calm, that's amazing in itself. Warm air, turquoise water, boards stacked in the boat and the next wave somewhere ahead of you.
When a bigger swell comes in, things get a little more interesting.
The boats are pretty small, and sitting in one while proper ocean swell rolls underneath you makes you realise quite quickly how remote you actually are.
Then you arrive at the spot.
And sometimes there's literally nobody there.
Thirty seconds on a perfect left
One session probably sums up the whole trip for me.
We found this perfect left and there was basically nobody there apart from us.
Long walls, good sections and waves where you could be surfing for thirty or forty seconds.
Just you and your friends in the water.
That's difficult to explain without making it sound like a surf film, but that's genuinely what it was like.
No crowded take-off zone. No fighting for position. You just paddle back out and wait for another one.
It feels slightly unreal
That's probably the simplest way I can describe surfing the Mentawais.
I brought a 5'9 Haydenshapes Hypto Krypto for the trip, which ended up being a really good choice. The conditions can change quite a lot, so having one board that works when it's a bit more relaxed but can still handle proper waves makes life much easier.
I rode it with FCS II Hayden Shapes PC Carbon Thruster Fins and an FCS T-3 ECO Traction pad.
The board survived pretty well.
My leashes didn't.
Always pack a spare leash
I broke my leash more than once during the trip.
At home that's annoying. You get out of the water, go to a surf shop and buy another one.
There aren't exactly many surf shops in the Mentawais.
So if there's one stupidly simple thing I'd recommend taking, it's a spare leash. Maybe even two.
An extra FCS Essential All Round Leash takes almost no space in your board bag and can save you from missing a couple of days of surfing.
For a Mentawai trip
Bring a spare leash. Seriously. Maybe two.
It's one of those things you don't really think about until you're standing on a tiny Indonesian island holding a broken leash.
23 days. Boardshorts. Repeat.
One of my favourite things about the whole trip was also probably the simplest.
I basically lived in boardshorts.
For 23 days I barely needed anything else.
Wake up. Eat something. Boardshorts on. Grab the board. Get in the boat.
That's about it.
You really don't need to bring much clothing either. It's hot and insanely humid, and anything you're not using just sits in your hut getting damp. Leave something in a corner for too long and there's a pretty good chance it starts smelling weird or even getting mouldy.
Coming from snowboarding, where travelling normally means bags full of outerwear, boots, gloves, goggles and layers, this was pretty nice.
No wetsuit drying somewhere. No cold feet. No getting changed next to the car in the rain.
Surfing in boardshorts every day is hard to complain about.
The tropical sun is no joke
The one thing you do need a lot of is sunscreen.
You're close to the equator and you're spending hours in the water every day. Some days we'd easily be surfing for four or five hours.
A tiny bottle isn't going to cut it.
I brought plenty with me and would definitely do the same again. Something like Sun Bum Original SPF 50 Sunscreen Lotion, proper zinc for your face and enough of it that you don't start trying to save sunscreen halfway through the trip.
Keep reapplying as well.
You don't really notice how strong the sun is when you're in the water because you're constantly cooling down. Then you get back to the island and realise you've completely cooked yourself.
For longer sessions a surf shirt also makes life easier. Something lightweight like the Florence Marine X Sun Pro Long Sleeve UPF Shirt is nice to have when your skin has already had enough direct tropical sun.
Paradise has sharp edges
Underneath all that clear water is another pretty important part of surfing in the Mentawais: coral.
It's amazing when you're looking down from the boat.
We'd also grab a mask and go snorkelling between sessions. There are tropical fish everywhere, coral below you and sometimes little fish swimming around your board while you're sitting in the line-up.
It's slightly less amazing when you fall on it.
You get small cuts and scrapes pretty easily when you're surfing reef breaks every day. And because you're somewhere with very limited medical facilities, even a small cut is something you want to look after properly.
Taking a compact SURVIVAL Hiking First Aid Kit makes a lot of sense.
Take care of reef cuts
Disinfectant, bandages and enough basic supplies to look after yourself are definitely worth bringing.
I also picked up some Chinese medicine while travelling through mainland Indonesia which ended up being a bit of a lifesaver for all the little cuts and scrapes that had accumulated after weeks of surfing.
This isn't really the place where you want to discover you forgot everything medical.
Meet Dr. Ding
Luckily, when it came to our boards, there was Dr. Ding.
A local repair legend who moves between the islands in a small boat repairing surfboards wherever they've been damaged.
I loved the whole setup.
You're somewhere with almost no infrastructure, no surf shop around the corner and barely any connection to the outside world, but there's still this guy cruising between tiny islands in a boat making sure everyone can keep surfing.
Absolute legend.
Life without a connection
Another thing that takes a little getting used to is that there's basically no internet.
Electricity mostly comes from generators, and depending on where you're staying they might only run for a few hours each day.
The first couple of days are a bit strange.
You automatically reach for your phone and then realise there's nothing to check. No endless messages, no scrolling, no constantly checking what's happening at home.
After a while you just stop caring.
Bring some analogue entertainment
A Sudoku book, a deck of cards, a couple of games. Download your music, books or films before you leave.
Then forget about the internet for a while.
There isn't much reason to be on your phone anyway.
Eat. Surf. Take a boat somewhere. Surf again. Snorkel. Play cards. Sleep.
Repeat.
After a few days, the complete lack of distraction became one of my favourite parts of the trip.
The kind of place that resets things
A lot of surf destinations get described as paradise.
The Mentawais come pretty close.
Not because everything is easy or comfortable. Getting there takes days. Supplies are limited. Electricity isn't guaranteed. Medical help is far away. If you break something important, you can't just go to a shop and replace it.
But that's also a big part of what makes it so good.
For 23 days, life became very simple
Wake up. Check the conditions. Load the boards. Get in the boat. Surf. Come back. Eat. Go surfing again.
Most mornings we'd wake up on this tiny island covered in palm trees, someone would check the conditions and then we'd decide where to go.
Boards into the boat, out across warm tropical water and, if everything lined up, a few hours surfing some of the best waves I've ever surfed with almost nobody around.
Then you do it again the next day.
And the next.
And the next.
By the end I'd had 23 days of surfing in boardshorts, boat rides between tiny islands, broken leashes, coral cuts, tropical fish in the line-up, empty sessions with friends and more good waves than seems reasonable.
Three days of travelling suddenly doesn't sound like much at all.
From tropical water back to winter
So yeah, I had a pretty good summer.
Going from snowboarding most of the year to spending three weeks on a small island in Indonesia surfing every day was a pretty good reset.
I'm back home now and slowly switching my head back to winter mode.
It won't be long before the boardshorts go back into the cupboard and the snowboard comes out again.
See you in the snow
You can follow what I'm up to next on Instagram: @niekvdv.
Gear I brought to the Mentawais
A few of the things that came with me and actually got used during three weeks of surfing.
Hypto Krypto 5'9
The Haydenshapes board I brought for the trip. Versatile enough for the different conditions we found during the three weeks.
View boardSun Bum SPF 50
Definitely not something to save space on when you're spending hours in tropical water every day.
View sunscreenFlorence Marine X
Lightweight UPF protection for the longer sessions when you've already had enough sun.
View sun shirtFirst Aid Kit
Not the most exciting thing to pack, but very useful once reef cuts and remote islands start meeting each other.
View first aid kit23 days very far from normal life
Warm water, small boats, empty line-ups, broken leashes, reef cuts, boardshorts every day and more good waves than I could reasonably ask for.