Trying to decide on the right boards to take when you go away on your winter escape to the tropics can be quite a hard and complicated decision. With all the swell charts these days it can make that choice a lot easier specially if your going for a week or so but if your going for longer there can be lots of variables. With all the board changes in the last five to ten years to smaller equipment the days of packing half your board bag with 7’0″- 7’6″s and the sorts are long gone. I can remember my early days on the WQS I would have at least a 6’6″ or 6’8″ in my bag.

My last trip to the Mentawai’s was on boat in 2007 I think. That was the start of the shorter board era and my biggest board was a 6’4″. Which I rode on the last day because I snapped all my shorter boards (In one session at HT’s same day). What I learned on that trip was that for me I didn’t need that length of board in perfect waves. It was easier to ride shorter boards once you catch the waves and because the waves are so perfect in Indo you can catch bigger waves easier. They feel way better in the barrel and you can weave inside a heaving pit. Easier to turn and get out of awkward situations. They don’t catch rails in the tube or out on the face by having too much length. If they started feeling a bit slidey just put bigger fins in.

One of the problems I do see out here and at home because of the shorter board phenom, is guys going short which is fine but once you go shorter you have to think about all the foam your losing, so to compensate you have to add more thickness and width. I not always believed this, but now I say foam is your friend, embrace it. The more foam the easier it is to catch waves. The wider it is the more stability you’ll have. With the new volume measurement it makes life so much easier to work out how much foam you should have under your chest.

Now my boards I’ve taken away to the Indo have all been 6’2″ and under with most being 6’0″ with different tails. Mainly rounded pins and rounded squares. This trip my quiver of SuperBrands are the following,

5’11″ x 19 1/4″ – 28L –  Pigdog model – Rounded pin
6’0″ x 19″ – 28L –  Answer model – Rounded square
6’0″ x 19″ – 28L –  Burnside model – Rounded pin
6’0″ x 19″ – 28L – Answer model – Rounded pin
6’2″ x 18 3/4″ – 28L – Answer model – Rounded pin

The owner of Wavepark Mentawai Christie Carter had a unusual system one year out here on what board to ride. In a rack of nine boards he numbered them one to nine put the numbers in a hat along two bits of paper with a star and one blank. Every session he picked out of the hat a number, whatever it was he had to ride that board no matter how big or small it was. The two stars meant he could chose which board and the blank paper was a staff member could choose for him…..One session at eight foot Bank Vaults on a longboard was one to remember.

“A week before I even left for the Mentawai’s my car with five boards, clothes, passport, computer, GoPro, iPad, sunglasses got stolen from my car which was parked outside a mate’s house in Eden Terrance in Auckland while I was down in Dunedin for a week. Yeah I know I shouldn’t have left most of that gear in there but nothing was viewable maybe except half of my coffin board bag but who would even know what that was, specially though dark tints. Well someone did and when I received a call in Dunedin from Police saying someone had broken in to my car, well some may say I wasn’t too happy but I thought they must have taken a couple of the bags not boards or anything. But when I called my mate Lyndon to check out my car he confirmed the worst, my car had been cleaned out. What mutts.

Long painful story short, insurance paid to replace everything but the worst was my lappy with all the photos of my son Cooper growing up, I’m still shattered about that as didn’t back them up on anything. Big lessons learnt there, rookie mistakes. With the boards lucky I’ve a few boards in zee quiver so that was no problem except there were two magic SuperBrand’s out of the five which were in the car. On the bright side I’ll have five new boards waiting for me when I get home.

I went for a quick side trip to Bali first, I was arriving on a Friday and was excited to watch the All Blacks play Oz the next day but I got delayed out of Sydney so ended up missing my connecting flight to Bali and was flying as the AB’s tonked Ozzie which would have been good to watch.

Bali was fun surfed a few times mainly to be honest on the beach, went out to Ulu’s for the first time since 99 I think. Wow firstly to the motorbike ride out there, fark what a nightmare and wow to how different it was at Ulu’s all the hotels, buildings etc. Incredibly built up now. Waves where ok except for the white helmet guy who was baining me so hard. Paddling all over the place inside around in circles but seemed to get every wave somehow. When got back to Kuta was telling Indian Nick or Chongee about him who said “oh not white helmet guy, he’s in my top three bains” so it wasn’t just me.

Rewind a bit to the reason I was coming out to the Mentawai’s. Was at a BBQ in Gisborne last December and I had seen all the photo’s and clips from the year from the Mentawai’s. Was one of the best years ever out there, swell after swell and all the spots fired. Anyways Christie Carter who owns and runs Wavepark Mentawai Resort is from Gisborne and I grew up a few doors down from him at Wainui Beach, he also was at the BBQ and we gotten chatting about the year out there and the pumping surf etc. I was like oh you don’t need a bar tender out there next year do you? Pretty much as a joke but kinda not really haha. Well turned out he said he might have a guide opening though, as one of his might not be able to make a slot. I was like hmmm really? Hell yes, we kept in touch when he went back out and sure enough I was in. Guiding guests in mid August to second week October was the slot. What a gig!

I’ve been out here ten days now, had our first group of guests though which was only six people.( Resort takes twelve max) Three couples and four of those surfed. Four Australians and two from Austria. Poor guy Roland from Austria hadn’t surfed since his last surf trip eight months ago! A real nice group of people who were frothing to get out there. Hideaways is out the front which is a pretty nice wave, hollow left on the right tide and really smash able on the high with lost of push. The winds have been South East the whole time so Hideaways,  E-Bay, Beng Bengs and Pit-Stops are the pick in this area. We has one day that was six foot at times but quite long lulls. Hideaways is strange will be flat as then all of sudden six footers will come though for an hour then stop completely for a few hours then start up again. Starting to get my head around what times in the tide are good when it will turn on. Had a couple fun days at Pitstops, such a rippable wave. You always see it in the clips when the guys are punting up a storm,  the reefs pretty mellow and it finishes on sand.

There’s waves for all ability’s out here which is one of the magic things about this region. From hollow as waves to super playful where you don’t  have to worry about the bottom.

Looks like there’s a few swells lined up so I’ll keep you posted. Praying for Rifles!”

MAZ.