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Getting There.
Air Asia got us to Kuala Lumpur with their customary efficiency and friendliness. After a short night at Tunes Hotel at the Budget Terminal, we were back onto Air Asia for the short hop to Padang, where we’d spend another day and night before crossing the Mentawai Strait. We’d been in Padang less than a year earlier, when the wounds of the recent earthquake were still painfully raw. Now most of the rubble had been cleared, new buildings were going up and the pall that had hung low over the town had lifted somewhat.
The Australian Football Semi Final was on that night and the local Wavepark crew had arranged for the Fellas Café to show it on their big screen for us. It was a typically beery and boisterous night - as befits a footy final - but there was an uncomfortable moment when I found myself looking across the gulf between the bar and the quiet street, to see families ambling quietly home from Friday prayers with our foreign cacophony invading their night. Change can be a relentless wave.
Our crossing of the Strait was like a Universal Studios tour: too perfect to be quite real. We skimmed over a glassy sea at 30 knots, under a cloudless sky, cooled by the breeze we were making. A large pod of small Asian dolphins came out to play and race, and lost. We stopped to visit a pair of whales drifting on the surface, feeding and blowing nonchalantly, majestically undisturbed by our oohs and aahs of whale-hugging adoration.
(Wavepark has just launched a big, comfy, safe, outrageously expensive and insanely fast boat, that will have you stepping onto the island almost before your back foot has left the jetty at Padang. It’s currently undergoing sea-trials and will be in service before the 2011 season. Your ride is included in your cost.)
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While most breaks are rarely less than overhead, the nature of the waves can vary from heart-attack to laidback. Your surfguide will soon assess your inclinations and skills, get you to the right breaks and give you advice on how to make the most of them. They will also push you (gently) out of your comfort zone, as you’ll find you’re able to tackle a lot more than you would try at home. Most of the waves are very predictable in how and where they break, they’re easier to get onto and getting caught inside is only a real issue at the very serious spots.
The surfer that leaves Wavepark will undoubtedly be better than the one that arrived a mere ten days before. He’ll also have the pics to prove it: Alice usually takes pics and video of most sessions, which form the pre-dinner entertainment and draw whoops of kudos or howls of derision from your thirsty ‘mates’, who might not have accurately accounted for effect of several skolled beers on an empty stomach - after a day labouring under the equatorial sun.
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Wavepark usually has two boats available to take you to the many breaks scattered fairly close by. Hideaways is right on your doorstep, but other breaks are about 15 to 30 minutes away. During our trip, we were hit with two large swells, two days of tiny swell and two days of screaming winds and rainstorms. The advantage of having two boats meant that during the big swells we could split into Chargers and Cruisers boats. When it gets really big in the Mentawais, there are always options to the death-pits, so while the Chargers attacked macking Bankvaults and Pistols, the Cruisers plundered Rifles, Tiki/Nipussi, Spankers/Four Bobs and Beng Bengs. (Some breaks are called different names by different resorts and charter boats.)
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Hi Mum!
A satellite phone and internet access (for a modest fee) will help you reassure Mum that neither you nor her precious grandchildren have been swallowed by a whale. Unfortunately, they’ll also help the jealous bastards at the office hunt you down and insist you deal immediately with some trivial matter that the guy who delivers the bottled water could have sorted in seconds. (Before you respond, remember where you got the money to get here.)
Why You Should Go There.
When you consider the standard of accommodation and service provided at Wavepark, the comprehensive list of what’s covered in the price, and the quality and consistency of the surf, it’s quite astonishing how much you get in your ten days on the island for the amount you pay.
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Accommodation.
Maximum of 12 guests.
Three double bedrooms in the ‘hotel’.
Two 3-bed chalets.
All with ensuite, lounge area, fans, mosquito nets.
Shower gel and bathroom towels provided.
Chalets have iPod friendly stereo systems.
All rooms serviced daily.
Laundry service.
Bar and Restaurant.
Reasonably priced beer, spirits and mixers.
Modest corkage fee for BYO.
Unlimited free coffee, tea and filtered water.
Three (very) large meals a day.
Lounge and Diversions.
DVDs, mags and books.
Pool table and table tennis.
Gear for snorkelling and fishing.
Kayaks and SUPs.
Island walks.
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Yes, it’s a bit of a mission to get there, but it’s nothing compared to the journey that Christie Carter and the other pioneers of the Mentawais had to undertake, just to be there to welcome you onto their beach
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