Welome to Indo, where everyone's Indo and you stick out like a sore thumb. This doesn't really matter once you get out 14 hours into the middle of the ocean where you find the Mentawaii Islands.
This is a sequence of Josh Hoyer.
The playful waves of Macaroni's let Hoyer and these rest of the gang get a bit looser than some of the more shallow, sharper breaks.
The playful waves of Macaroni's let Hoyer and these rest of the gang get a bit looser than some of the more shallow, sharper breaks.
They attacked Hoyer and stole his bag of cookies.
Indos paddling at HT's near dusk.
Tom works real hard. Give him a raise!
To get to the Mentawaii Islands from California is quite the trip. Our flight went from LAX to Toyoko to Singapore to Jakarta where you get on a sketchy little jet that drips condensation on your head during the hour long flight to Bengkulu. The connecting flight is by a different airline and having made the reservations online I hoped that I didn't get stranded in Jakarta. The place where they killed all those Americans. The place where they wear Bin Laden t-shirts.
Unforunately my fears became someone else's reality. Mike Morrisey, Anthony Tashnick and Randy Bonds were stuck. Stuck with no connecting flight ticket. They paid two Indos to drive them to Bengkulu. A hundred dollars more poor each they climbed in the taxi where the drivers were suppose to be fluent in English but turned out couldn't say a word. The supposed 10 hour ride was actually 24 hours and across water ferries of Muslims. Tashnick got confronted by people pushing him and saying Islam but he quickly told them he was from Australia and they decisted. We had to spend an extra day in Bengkulu waiting for the three, who we hoped would make it cause we had no communication with them the entire time.
Staying in town we surfed the beach break which was fun. Headhigh with big sections and brown brown water. Went into Bengkulu after to exchange money and had everyone in the whole city that walked by us at the atms laugh. Only after we realized that everyone was laughing because we were in a Muslim city and no one was wearing shirts.....a big no no. The Rupiah exchange rate is something like 9000 to our $1.00, so things are pretty cheap.
Right before we were about to leave with out them and had assumed the almost worst Morrisey Tashnick and Randy showed up. Hours and hours of driving had definatley taken their toll of the guys. With everyone aboard to started our journey. Now it was only a 14 hr boat ride in rough rough seas until we reach the waves. Mike had his head in a bucket the whole time and RJ was ill too. Hoyer asked me if I got seasick and I told him I didn't know. Couple hours later and I jioined Mike and RJ for a good many many hours puking over the railing. Being seasick is not fun.
Unforunately my fears became someone else's reality. Mike Morrisey, Anthony Tashnick and Randy Bonds were stuck. Stuck with no connecting flight ticket. They paid two Indos to drive them to Bengkulu. A hundred dollars more poor each they climbed in the taxi where the drivers were suppose to be fluent in English but turned out couldn't say a word. The supposed 10 hour ride was actually 24 hours and across water ferries of Muslims. Tashnick got confronted by people pushing him and saying Islam but he quickly told them he was from Australia and they decisted. We had to spend an extra day in Bengkulu waiting for the three, who we hoped would make it cause we had no communication with them the entire time.
Staying in town we surfed the beach break which was fun. Headhigh with big sections and brown brown water. Went into Bengkulu after to exchange money and had everyone in the whole city that walked by us at the atms laugh. Only after we realized that everyone was laughing because we were in a Muslim city and no one was wearing shirts.....a big no no. The Rupiah exchange rate is something like 9000 to our $1.00, so things are pretty cheap.
Right before we were about to leave with out them and had assumed the almost worst Morrisey Tashnick and Randy showed up. Hours and hours of driving had definatley taken their toll of the guys. With everyone aboard to started our journey. Now it was only a 14 hr boat ride in rough rough seas until we reach the waves. Mike had his head in a bucket the whole time and RJ was ill too. Hoyer asked me if I got seasick and I told him I didn't know. Couple hours later and I jioined Mike and RJ for a good many many hours puking over the railing. Being seasick is not fun.
Too bad you don't get photo incentive for ShoresCrew. Hoyer with a logo saturated backside air .
The rest of the trip pretty much went everyone surfed all day or hung out. I went on a couple of the islands to film and it was crazy being on the island all alone, hearing wierd jungle noises. The water...although teaming with sea lice is so clear and very full of fish. Some more to tell but these pictures take awhile to link so I'll let them speak for themselves...with captions.
Lots of drinking in Singapore waiting for the next flight . Asshole Island, I own it. Fish Kabob,
The best barrels of the trip and his own strechting class, Dave was a happy camper.
Ever seen a 180 to 5-0 grind on a surfboard? Dave mixes it up.
Antony Tashnick is Mongo. The is kid is huge, hairy and loves to charge big waves.
Mongo's self video check for reef rash. Good barrel at rags right and then at H.T.'s
Josh Hoyer is creepy. He paddles mattresses and tries to jump onto Tom, which for some reason makes Tom mad.
Josh Hoyer is funny. He tries to do flips and other things like bottom turns which led to some nice spills. He did a backside turn too.
A flash in the face is Hoyer's reward for this barrel at Rag's Right. Hoyer backside at Macaroni's. Boosting.
Hoyer getting snaked by Tashnick, dont worry he didn't make it anyway. BS Floater to reef. Hoyer again at Rags
More of Hoyer's silly rolls.