Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
Two weeks in the wilds of the Mentawais is like some sort of dream. We’ve had an incredible crew on this one with a super positive vibe and a huge amount of laughs. Dave Lyons has brought some good energy – when he’s not surfing, he’s fishing – supplying a steady supply of fresh fish for us all.
We’ve had waves right across the spectrum from intense and scary to small and fun. We’ve left a bit of bark on the reef, too. I got nailed at one small heavy left and had to duck dive a top-to-bottom three-footer in about eight inches of water. The thrashing I got was up there with the best I’ve ever encountered. I got washed upside down into a cave and did all I could to stop my board from getting dinged. Then got washed out at an angle and dragged across the cave’s edge. I bruised my hip and wrenched my shoulders, and had blood pouring out of one knee, and had scraped the skin off the other leg.
The standard practise is to rub the bleeding wounds with the rough side of the legrope leash, then scrub it with a scrubbing brush before dowsing it in fresh lime juice. None of these things is without a fair amount of pain, but they do set you up to heal quickly.
On another occasion, my mate Brett Wood and I were caught inside at a big right. We were faced with a pretty important duck dive to get under a six to eight-foot top-to-bottom peak that was zeroing in on us. We laughed at the situation – how many moments in life do you know 5-8 seconds ahead that you are going to get completely thrashed and beaten up, and you have no option but to face it?
That’s one side of the appeal of surfing in a wonderland like the Mentawai Islands, but the less masochistic one is the dreamy afternoons spent surfing perfect waves as the sun glows up the coconut trees and jungle. And the days capped off with the crack of a Bintang while floating in paradise.
See you at the beach, Derek
PS It has been amazing to see the world’s best rip apart Manu Bay this past week. Finals day ramped up to be phenomenal surfing with some of the best waves of the whole event. Carissa Moore was on another level to win the women’s title – bringing the mum power, with Italo Ferreira taking the men’s with his own special blend of high-energy surfing, airs and showmanship. Raglan looked beautiful throughout the event, but I bet the locals will be happy to see their town return to normal.
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: