Koa Rothman traveled via plane boat and automobile to get to HTs, but it was all worth it. Photo: Koa Rothman//YouTube
The life of a professional surfer can be both blessing and curse. One the one hand, you get to jet around the world, taking in tropical vistas and scoring world-class waves. On the other, you have to actually get there, which can involve dropping everything and scrambling for dear life when a swell appears on the horizon. That second scenario is the one freesurfer and YouTuber Koa Rothman found himself in at the top of his latest video.
Koa and his entourage were in Bali, but an oncoming storm had them looking for a last-minute flight to the Mentawais. However, it turned out the only flight they could find left in just a few hours. That’s not a lot of time in the best circumstances, but they were in Uluwatu, which was an hour and a half from the airport. The team was left frantically scrambling to pack up the gear in time to make it out. “There’s no shortage of stress, that’s for sure,” explained Rothman. “We’re professionals at stressing ourselves out, but that’s why we get such good waves, because we’re on it.”
They did manage to make it on that flight, but it was just the beginning of a long and winding Planes, Trains and Automobiles-style journey. They took a car to the airport, a bus to the tarmac, a plane to Padang, another car to an incredibly sketchy harbor and finally a four-hour boat ride to Villa Onu in the Mentawais. However, when they finally made it, they were rewarded with a series of all-time sessions at HTs, one of the best right-handers in the world.
