Sumatra Files

Boardsox In Sumatra from Good Grief Productions on Vimeo.

The Boardsox crew arrived in South Sumatran late at night, excited like little kids the night before Christmas waking up to see what presents Santa had left them.

We quickly discovered the local delights of Sumatra, riding 10 minutes from our accommodation at paradise villas to the local beach break of Mandiri. The beachie happens to provide heavy spitting barrels on tap and became our regular spot when the swell was down and when we needed much welcome relief from the fire coral that borrowed a lot of our skin and never gave it back.

The crew began to explore the area finding other waves that replicate Hawaii’s pipeline, novelty wedge barrels and even the occasional right? That’s right, this particular right gave us regular footers a glimpse of heaven with a reeling barrel over some of the shallower reef you’ll find, not to worry for our goofy-footed mates there also had a left that was even heavier, more round and threw barrels you could only draw in your imagination or on paper if you were errrrr good at drawing.

We aren’t sure who to thank for this but his name apparently starts with J and is a pretty epic bloke in our books. Fair to say everyone got their fair share of waves over the trip, probably even too many waves as it occasionally resembled some kind of wave OD. Hayesy clearly won the barrel count, the peoples cone-head as we like to call him. Wal won the most amount of waves caught and highest froth levels (nearing dangerous levels, don’t approach this man unless you like to get frothed upon).Will was the clearest winner of the slowest motorbike driver and Dan won the most amount of infected cuts.

The Sumatran people are for the most part super friendly and you will get asked for 1000 photos from other Indonesia tourists. Which we actually sort of liked, probably the first and only time we will feel like a full-on celebrity.

Sumarta is surrounded by heavily dense rainforest which makes it one of the most beautiful places to explore.Our days were spent cruising trying to find new waves (with the occasional motorbike stack) or drinking a few too many bingtangs in the afternoons, which sometimes lead to ahhh picking up poisonous sea snakes after bingtang number 10! Hayesy still reckons that these alarmingly colourful snakes can’t bite you because of there small teeth. However one of the Sydney dudes we were staying with told us he lived in the PNG and heaps of people died from these snakes if they bite you in between your fingers….Classic Hayesy.

As the crew journeyed to the next destination, it is certain that Sumarta has stolen a small piece of our heart that we can simply only get back by returning here and getting filthy coned!

Thank you Sumarta, Love Boardsox crew

Sunsets & Shakkas