Getting to the Mentawais isn’t like hopping over to the North Shore from the mainland. Consider what Caroline Marks went through to get to the Mentawais recently: four flights, likely taken over a minimum of about two days, two ferries, which probably cost her another day, and an overnight stay before waking up to catch one last speed boat (a four-hour ride) to catch up with the boat she’d call home for her trip.
“Hopefully it’s worth it,” Marks said. “I think there’s supposed to be waves.”
Of course, unless you’ve been under a rock that has no access to wifi or cell service you know what just swept through the Mentawais wasn’t exactly a big secret. Everybody knew there were “supposed to be waves.” And there were. Only Marks didn’t mix it up at XXL Kandui like Kelly, Aritz Aranburu, or Nic von Rupp. She spent almost a week on a boat sampling different spots in the region while waiting for the swell to get there. What the crew did run into wasn’t any less heavy than the viral bombs that rolled through Kandui though.
And what surf trip would be complete without a legitimate wipeout or two, a cleanup set the entire crew can reminisce over, and at least one person enduring “the worst beating of her life” — all before later jumping overboard when another cleanup set threatens to plow through the boat and take out everybody on it?
