Sumatra help needed - board design + accomodation + time to go

General Discussion
1

hello people

some questions, since a search for the best time to go on internet resulted in contradicting results

isnt it right that the best time to go is when the southern hemisphere is going to winter modus? meaning that july and august [november december] being the best? and may and june [oktober+november] being good seasons too?

what shapes to take? or buy?

i am 6.2 and 75-80kg depending on fitness.

have a 6.3*19 coil and a 7.4 minigun and can make 6.7

there is a 6.7 13kg/m blank at home, to be shaped, compsand can yield anything max, since it is compsand…

rocker specs : 2.25 tail, continuous rocker, noserocker at 5.75, 14mm of lift before center [0.0mm]

is it long enough? what shape should i give it? fins, bottom deck etc…

never surfed big hollow reef waves though, only french big waves, the ones i surfed were more big than hollow

anybody got good ideas for accomodation, and possibly boat charters to mentawaiis? [horribly expensive for my budget]

Thanks for answers!

2

I’ve been to the Ments only 3 times so far, but my good friend goes 3 times a year. You can go from April through October, but it’s not as consistent during the early and late seasons (April and October). June-August is pretty crowded. May and September might be best in terms of crowd and swell.

Generally speaking, you don’t need big boards unless a huge swell hits and you’re a charger. I usually bring 2-3 normal shortboards and 2 step ups. In hollow waves, you want a shorter board with more rocker to fit the curve of the wave. You don’t need a flat board because you’ll get the speed from the steep face. You might want to bring at least one high performance shortboard if there’s no swell and you’re stuck surfing relatively soft waves like Burgerworld or Nipussi.

3

I don’t think they will tolerate miniguns on their planes. :stuck_out_tongue:

sorry, ik kon het niet laten.

4

Take Lennox’s advice!

5

thanks for that link surfding i watched all 4 of those DSC videos.

definitely some great ideas for training in there.

7

I went in July last summer and we had two weeks of consistent at least head high swell. Slightly crowded but not ridiculous. Ran into Rusty at a couple spots and hung out with his family. He checks this site by the way.

A cheap boat trip will cost $3k. Or stay at one of the resorts. Macaroni’s is gorgeous, the resort at Kandui’s is owned by the nicest people on this planet. Small boats will ferry you out to the breaks nearby or a bigger boat can get you up and down most of the coast. There’s a resort at Lance’s Right as well.

One of the most beautiful places on the planet. Enjoy your trip!!

8 
Howzit Wouter, Go to Bali then shop around for a cheaper boat trip. One of my friends got one for under $500 for a week. These are not the high end boats, no AC ( but fans)or some amenities, but they feed you and take you to the good spots.Aloha,Kokua
9

wouter take your best paddler, thin pulled tail and as wide as you like

never been, but i want a board i can surf for 6 hours straight in pumping waves, without getting tired

you will quadruple your wave count

10

I used to live in Bali for a bit. the boat trip your friend got was prob lomboc and sumbawa for 500, 500 for mentawi is pretty unheard of. I would go to a land resort with a good boat and stay an extra week for the cheaper cost, but the traders are sick. You don’t need a big board my budies were paddling into 20 foot faces at HT’s on there step ups just 3 inches longer than there shorties. I ride a 5’11 18.25 2.25 on the west coast and I go 1/8 thinner and narrower on my indo boards. I weigh 165 and am 5’8. you can also haggle down your rate on the land accom. I usually get about half the price that internet sites advertise, but it helps to speak some bahasa. If you go to bali or sumbawa I can give you some good tips and I still have friends there. Have fun where some protection (light neoprene jacket) and go deepere than you think

11

Murrray Bourton has a nice summary of the design features of boards for big hollow waves here:

http://www.basesurfboards.com/bourton-guns.htm

He also has some ideas about quad semi- gun shapes for indo here:

http://www.basesurfboards.com/bourton-quad-gun.htm

and some more complex gun shapes here:

http://www.basesurfboards.com/bourton-RandD.htm

12

thanks guys, pinhead thanks for reminding me of that one.

anybody has fin set up for 6.7 thruster?

13

I know things have changed a lot but I went to NIAS in the late 90’s in October and paid AUD$0.40c a night including use of a 6ft6 board that was pretty good. (Better than my one at home).

It seems any mention of the word “SURF” these days everyones eyes light up like a cash register.

CHE CHING.

Everyones got their hand out.

There’s usually heaps of Dutchies travelling through indo. My Ex was one but she was usually mistaken for a aussie.

Was pretty cool when you clog wogs would try and say sneeky stuff thinking no one else will understand.

I know this sounds like sacrilige but there is actually quite a few cool things to see in Sumatra so the 5 board quiver to me always seems extravagant. But the royal patranage of surfers these days I suppose have their entourage to help with the portage.

Heb en goed vakantie.

tot ziens

Cheers,

JD

14

Hey Wouts, I disagree with most of the board advice given here.

Indo is crowded, the Mentawaiis especially, unless you go total off season and feral it out in the rainy season (take plenty of fansidar if you’re hardcore enough for that mission).

Your going to be shoulder to shoulder with guys who’ve logged thousands of hours at hollow, shallow reefbreaks.

If you’ve never surfed these kinds of waves before there is a learning curve and your gunna be on the wrong side of it.

Take a good paddler that you feel comfortable on.

6’7" would be a good one board quiver.

As far as fitness goes, it definitely won’t hurt but there’s no substitute for time in the barrel.

Ask anyone who’s been to G-land recently who stands out and they’ll say Scardy and Dibbles (guides at Joyos camp).

Their training regime consists of smoking gudam gurangs like a chimney and drinking their own weight in bintangs every night.

Dibbles is probably carrying an extra 30 pounds around the mid-riff yet he sits deepest, takes off latest and gets the kind of shacks that’ll have you shaking your head in disbelief.

He laid it out for me in simple terms : ya gotta sit deep, take off late and be able to ride the barrel.

Also noticed that Murray Bourton (super experienced shaper) made the recent observation that most guys in the Ments were riding under-volumed equipment and struggling to catch waves.

Don’t fall for the Kelly syndrome mate.

No offence to you, but if you’ve grown up in the Netherlands you’ve never even seen what a long period southern ocean groundswell looks like when it hits a 3 foot deep reef, let alone surfed one.

It ain’t fukn tiddlywinks and guys get seriously hurt, mostly from my observations, from having the wrong equipment for their experience level and fucking up on the drop or getting caught in the wrong spot.

The other thing I would recommend slightly off tangent is hanging on one spot and getting it wired. You’ll quickly find that the guys who get the best waves have a particular reef wired and no where to sit and which waves to catch.

Put the time in and you’ll be one of those guys.

Early season is less crowded than late season now.

I’d recommend April.

good luck. Steve

15

words of fcking wisdom at last

show us the Jbanks i copied steve

thats the ducks nuts

its the difference of being a spectator and getting barreled off your nut, 20 times a morning

16

Sorry Lennox I will delete my notes.

17

Keep yer shirt on mate.

It’s just a different opinion.

Sending a bloke from the Netherlands whose never surfed a barrelling reef to the Ments on a potato chip that would suit a kid of QS standard seems kind of perverse to me.

I thought the training vid stuff was interesting too.

Based on my observations most surfers will happily struggle in waves of consequence secure in the delusion they are riding the same dimensions of the pros.

Steve.

18

word up!

will go into the 6.7 design later on, to get more feedback.

checked lots of murray’s information on his site, so that and sways will surely help me

at least this thread already learnt me a lot!

Wouter

19

nothing compared to what youll learn when your ass is impaled on your fins as you donate some skin to huey

your my size

take a 6 4 normal board for small days in headhigh mellow walls

a 67 or 68 aout 20 wide and a 7 2 for everythin else

20

Sending a bloke from the Netherlands whose never surfed a barrelling reef to the Ments on a potato chip that would suit a kid of QS standard seems kind of perverse to me. This quote I will hang in my shaping bay! I agreed with you on that one. I thought that Wouter was a well traveled hippy surfer like Rastavich?

He needs to give his experience level and years surfing so he can receive the proper advice? In the early 90’s living in Chile and surfing 10 plus cold barrels with landlocked Northern Europeans that ripped I guess I have a distorted view of life? When I lived in France there were Swed’s that could surf as well as Dutch guy’s? I guess these were exceptions? You put things in a more realistic light! I’m a bit out of touch (OLD MAN’s Syndrome).

Based on my observations most surfers will happily struggle in waves of consequence secure in the delusion they are riding the same dimensions of the pros.

This puts it all into perpective! Another quote for the shaping bay.

I thought the training vid stuff was interesting too.

I knew guy’s back in the day while living on the North Shore that just smoked pot all day surfed and snorted coke all night that ripped. However not for very long. I’m stoked to see the new approche to surfing with a drug free life style and training hard. It saddens me to see so many of the legends all strung out from drugs. All over the North Shore you see past hero’s lost in a world of drug and alcohol addiction. When I see the kids today taking a more serious approch to surfing I get inspired.

Keep yer shirt on mate.

Shirts back on.