A (mostly) visual diary of a totally beautiful joint
by Jimmy Mac and all surf pics by @blackperalphotography
We went to the Mentawai Islands with the winners of the first BBSF ‘win a trip to the Ments’ comp. Stephanie Schechter and Morgan Bloom were actually second place getters but after the winners Ben & Marianne pulled out the girls were on. We had the opportunity come up some months back with Mojosurf’s ‘trips with purpose’ – surfing, yoga, exploring the troppo Islands and joining beach clean ups in the area with Mojocare – We vibed with all of it and having never been to that area of Indo we were excited to get amongst it all.
We found a neat little logging spot. Steph getting her fave 5 toes over her favourite surfboard nose
The adventure started straight up with the fastboat ride from Padang, Northern Sumatra, 150kms out to the Mentawai Islands capital, Siberut. From there the local boys picked us up in their much smaller handmade timber boats in which we hightailed it through local rivers and across the ocean to the Islands, specifically Nyang Nyang Island, and to our Jungle digs Mojosurf @Yantosplace
Cozy timber home with beach view and bigger timber guest house below. Wow factor on high
Above: E-Bay was my favourite wave with plenty of juice and just around the corner from our pad
Ary Heim (Germanys best surfer..?) & Morgan digging in to a dreamy little day at Pitstops
The Mojo crew at Yantos Place are a family where seriously awesome & freindly vibes abound everywhere. Always making sure you got enough food, cold bevs and a smile across your face. Kalian, one of the sons and the resident photographer has got mega skills on the lens and as well on the uke, singing songs all over the place (good songs too!) Arvo surf checks with the drone were epic…something i’d never imagined before. And Terry, he was the coconut guy. Apparently the land originally belonged to his Grandfather so he was the only one allowed to fetch the daily coconuts for us all. Such a treat to consume this fresh organic food daily
Most days were a bit like wake at 7, check the waves, swim, have brekky and then chat to the boaty about planning the day ahead. We’d usually surf till 12ish, back for lunch, yoga around 2 followed by that kind stuff where you might read a little, explore a bit, climb a tree or play with your grommet or best friend…Then an arvo surf till dark. Eat, drink, ping-pong and evening songs with the family. Goodnight
Our resident Yogi Paloma Ferretti (my wifey) sliding between guiding us through our daily asana
We did a really fun day trip to Playgrounds where we got to surf all day at a number of different spots and we also did the beach clean up of Snake Island, which was a pretty striking experience given that we were in some kind of tropical paradise
Our Trash catch: 81 water bottles, 16 thongs, 1 bike seat, 8 foam noodle cups, 1 engine oil bottle and various other styrofoam & plastic components. Bad news is we could have filled 5 more sacks
Having chatted to the locals and given the nature of the trash we could presume that a very lot of this rubbish comes off the boats ferrying surfers to and from the mainland. If you’re travelling this area please spread the word like we are here. We all need to chip in if we want to keep these heavenly places alive!
Pack your trash and then go and pack some barrels. Trash first though
well that was super duper Bagus!! (means really good in Balinese). We’re on it again next season. It’s a surf trip with purpose (fun is one of the purposes). If you’d like to join us in 2020 the dates are June 5-14th and June 12-21st. There’s 16 spots on each trip. Click on the ‘book now’ button below with code Ments10 for 10% off. Hope to see you there 🙂
