September 27th 2022: Lost in Indo

It has been more than 36 hours of travel to get back from the Mentawai Islands. I'm jet lagged, content and stoked. My mind is still abuzz with what unfolded over the previous 14 days. We became a band of pirates (albeit friendly ones) chasing swells around a remote group of islands way off the West Coast of Sumatra.

There were 11 of us, me from Dunedin and the rest from Raglan, Mt Maunganui and Auckland, plus 7 Indonesian crew members. You couldn't have asked for a better group. We surfed almost 20 different waves ranging from 1-2 foot warping horsehoes to 4-5-foot reefbreak drainers. None less than 8/10 on the quality front. This was mostly thanks to having Chris "Scuzz" Scurrah onboard to guide us. He has been exploring the Mentawais since the late '90s and knew exactly how to pick the eyes out of each location. He was like a magician – especially when he called one 30-minute window of offshore wind after a rainstorm to the very minute.

We were also lucky to spend time with our Indonesian crew who we got to know and learn from. They're an amazing group of people and a heap of fun. The remote villages we visited were equally intriguing with mixtures of religion and development. They seemed to be filled with a lot of very happy people. From the outside it appears they have very little. But perhaps they have more than we will ever realise.

To follow the full story from our Mentawai Odyssey keep an eye out for stories as they drop over on New Zealand Surf Journal.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Apologies for last week's dead-air. That is the first time in 11 years producing Box of Light weekly reports that I have missed a deadline. My intention was to file from the Mahogany, but patchy internet throughout the Mentawais meant that was not going to happen. And there is something magical about having very little connection with the outside world. Something very appealing about being so remote and exploring these islands without the weight of the world coming at you in newsfeeds. Each day our clocks were set by the sun and our compasses by the promise of swell. That's not a bad way to be ...