What surf dreams are made of. Photo: Kirra Point Surf School//YouTube
Surfers will spend their yearly savings and fly halfway around the world for a chance to experience the perfect waves of the Mentawais. But oftentimes, visitors discover that the lineups they find in the archipelago are just as crowded as the waves they left back home — albeit with much better quality.
But if you stay long enough, there are always windows where the stars align. The charter boats are elsewhere, the other surf camps are off eating lunch, and everyone is too surfed out for that second session of the day. Suddenly, you find yourself alone, surfing perfect waves. As you stare down at the sharp reef just below your dangling feet, you almost wish someone else would paddle out and join you for safety.
James Wood of Kirra Point Surf School recently had one of those experiences during his visit to the Mentawais. He paddled out alone, at a perfect, barreling left. But sitting too deep could mean paying the price on the inside part of the reef, where it got particularly shallow.
“The longer I watched it, I started to understand why no one was out there,” Wood said. “There always seems to be a catch with surfing: a lovely little coral buffet for you if you fall off on your waves. So I decided not to think about it too much and just get out there as quickly as I could before I changed my mind.”
While Wood is cautious, he’s more than competent enough to harness the tubes at this unnamed reef. He pushed himself deeper and deeper until he found the wave he was looking for, finding cover with almost no one around to bear witness.
