Nic von Rupp has a thing for heavy waves. He likes a wave with a lip thick enough to take his head off. He likes a wave that will throw him against the seafloor, crushing his ribs and pinning his arms and legs. He likes a wave that will hold him underwater for an uncomfortably long time. He likes a wave that spins over a shallow reef, fish flitting to and fro just beneath the surface, their white bellies scraping over sharp fangs of coral. Give Nic something that will make his heart beat faster, and Nic is a happy man. Which is why his recent trip to the Mentawais was perfect for him.
“I’ve been traveling to the Mentawai Islands for the past 10 years,” he said. “For me these were some of the biggest, heaviest, shallowest, and most dangerous waves I’ve surfed around here.”
The thing about waves like the ones you’ll find at Greenbush is that, while they look like a doodle out of a grommet’s school book, they will flay the skin from your bones.
“It might look perfect, but trust me, this wave stands up like a train,” Nic explained. “It’s steep like looking down a cliff. Once you make that drop and pull in, you never know what that last section is going to do. It’s a roll of the dice, whether it stays open and lets you out or just closes out because the reef is too shallow to handle such a mass of water.”
That’s surfing, though — the best waves are only the best waves because they come with consequences. A shallow reef offers up the best barrels. That’s something Nic knows well, and it’s a price he’s willing to pay.
“You gotta pay to play, and this time the boys paid to play,” he said. “Scratches, broken boards, split-up noses, and to finish off the session, Nasty Nate knocked himself out on the last wave. The life of a pro surfer is the dream they say… until you go head first into the reef and need to get stitches but you’re 16 hours away from the closest hospital.”
See more from Nic von Rupp on his YouTube channel.
