Flies to the Mentawais, session over after two waves. Photo: Brett Barley//screenshot
A fin can be a deadly weapon, especially when you’re far from proper medical care. We were reminded of that when Mikala Jones tragically passed away in the Mentawais in 2023. Brett Barley was sidelined from what he called a “perfect” session at Macaronis during his last trip to Indonesia thanks to an errant fin to the behind. Luckily, he got away with just several stitches.
Barley, a North Carolina tube savant, took his family to the Indonesian island of North Pagai, home to Macaronis, known as one of the world’s best performance waves. The surf wasn’t particularly big on the day he was vlogging, but the wave’s perfection peeling down the point had him comparing it to a wave pool.
On his first wave of the session, he got barreled and fell on an air reverse. On his second wave, he landed an air reverse, but things went awry when he went for another one. During the air, the board flipped upside down, and his behind clipped the fins as he fell into the water. When he looked at the damage under his boardshorts, there was a knife-like slice in one of his cheeks.
He had to head over to the village clinic for seven stitches, which kept him out of the water for the day. His son, however, went back out to take advantage of the rising swell. Barley says he got back in the water the following day as the surf got even better, but for that, we’ll have to wait for the next episode of his vlog series.
