Warm water, great waves, and… crocodiles. Photo: Instagram//Screenshot
Macaronis is one of the world’s best waves. But there is a danger there hidden below the surface, and it’s not the reef or an errant fin. It’s a crocodile, and it was recently spotted cruising the lineup.
Macaronis, situated in Pasongan Bay in the most southern of the Mentawai Islands, is a picture-perfect wave. The mechanical left-hander has gained world-wide recognition for its long tubes and clean inside section. It’s not an easy wave to surf, but it’s well worth the trouble if you can wrangle just one ride.
It’s not unheard of to see a saltwater crocodile in the area — in fact, reports of crocodiles at Macaronis are relatively frequent — but it would be unnerving, to say the least. After a video of the most recent sighting made the rounds on social media, a handful of well-known surfers turned up in the comments.
“It’s there all the time in the estuary near Macca’s resort,” wrote Kelly Slater.
Torren Martyn, a guy who has spent plenty of time exploring that particular part of the world, chimed in as well.
“Spent a week anchored right there swimming around the boat,” he remembered. “Same in the Telos when we were there anchored up in the mangroves for close to a couple of months, swimming by night and day. Then one night under a full moon spotted the eyes of a croc circling the boat, was tripping and the following day we were sailing to to the closest wave about 1km away and saw the same croc swimming in 30 meters of perfectly clear water. I believe It recently attacked and killed a local lady in the same area and was then put down.”
Strider Wasilewski, a guy who also knows and loves the waves at Macaronis, was a little more succinct: “That’s fucked up,” he said.
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