Indo Week #1 – Featured Blog

Lekker, just finished our first week in Indo and it’s been pretty darn fun. Waves have been on the small side, but there’s always still something to get wet on. 

Can’t say the holiday got off to a great start, as after landing in Singapore we found out Zuma-muppet had been up to his antics and the rand had tanked. Not exactly epic timing when you’re about to be spending 5 weeks overseas! Had to clobber the free Happy Hour in the hotel seeing as beers cost R90 a pop.

Singapore is such a kiff possie (once you stop converting everything into Rands….). Had to laugh at the self-checkout option in the supermarket tho – imagine that working in SA. Not. 

​The rand’s so kak against the dollar we had to resort to buying 3 packs instead of 6 packs, haha!

After a coupla days chilling in Singapore we headed over to Indo. New route this time. Caught the ferry over to an island called Batam, and then hooked a local flight over to Padang. So much cheaper than having to fly via Jakarta.

​Ferry was a decent speedy thing, not some dodgy Indo bum-boat, and the local airline is the equivalent of Mango, and only cost about R700 return ticket. Stayed in Padang overnight as our island hopper over tothe Telo’s was early Sunday morning.

Gotto love it when your hotel has an Earthquake warning brochure….

Early start to Padang airport, and then cram into the lil plane for the hours flight over to the islands As usual we had a Saffa pilot – the ou’s that train at the PA flight school seem to have a deal with the lil charter plane airline, and all seem to come over here to log hours. Gotto say feel safer with a Saffa at the stick.

Thankfully an uneventful trip over, as am not a fan of lil planes. Get chauffeur – driven by this dude on a bike towing you in a small trailer with seats down to the jetty, and then it’s a 40 min speedboat ride to the resort. 

Super stoked cos they’ve just built some new bungalows and we were lucky enough to be the first guests to test-drive them. Flipping amazing to have your own lil possie right on the beach. Kick-ass spot with King size bed, big screen TV and all the things that make life comfy.

Eased into things the first week as waves were on the slow side, altho we did still get a surf in every day. Only had one half day surf the whole week, and spent that arvo playing golf. Set up a 6 hole hit n hope course around the resort, and each group had to share a club. Plenty Bintangs, plenty laughs and only a few missing balls. Some attributable to Larry the Labrador who thought it was great fun to pick em up n run off with them.

Days at the resort are all about getting surf. You get up early in the morning, as the boats leave at 7am. There are 2 speedboats, one heads south, the other north. Some spots are as close as 15 min away, others take an 1h20. Just depends on swell and winds. Always an option somewhere. Flat in Indo isn’t like flat at home. Flat means you’ll still find chest to shoulder high waves somewhere.

Here’s some shots from the week….

It was mostly small, but picked up later in the week. Long lulls meant plenty time to chat in the line-up, but no worries when the waters as warm as a bath and the air temp hovering in the early 30’s.

The boys punished the Bintangs on the slower days, managing to empty the esky (cooler box) one arvo on the way home, followed by plenty more in the resort pool. Hubby made the mistake of thinking he could keep pace with the Aussies….and was in bed by 7pm! 

Swell charts looking better for the week ahead…yeweeee!

Another summer week for sure. Didn’t even get wet. And that takes a lot to do cos normally will surf anything from 6 inches upwards. Coupla waves about if you wanted to drive round the corner, but with the active sea-life situation we have at the moment you gotto be on ya toes. Nov/Dec is the busy bitey time of the year at exposed beachies.

Often the saying goes “the surf’s as flat as a lake” – pity we didn’t have some action like Lake Ontario. Coupla barrels even! Take that kinda “flatness” any day of the week.

Lekker summer days mean peeps like to hang out at the beach, but keep an eye on your stuff if you do. The mounted police are doing regular patrols along the coast but can’t be everywhere all the time, so take responsibility for your stuff and don’t be doff about where you leave it. 

Summer also means lotsa peeps in the water that wouldn’t normally be there, so keep an eye out for anyone that looks like they’re in difficulty. Specially when the onshore is jamming and there’s that gnarly rip at Clubhouse and towards the Avo’s rock. Ou’s not so good about reading the no swimming sign and go in for a dip and get into the rip.

JBay’s got a clever sign system they’ve just implemented – where at the entrance to each beach is a sign with a specific code relevant to that beach – so if you need to call for assistance you quote that number and the emergency services know exactly where to go. Hopefully our own NSRI/Coastal Water Rescue guys can get something similar for us.

The calm weather and warm water saw a bit of red tide appear at JBay for a coupla days – look hard at the pic – you’ll see a bit of red out there on the horizon! Thankfully nothing has manifested in the bay in PE that I’m aware of so holding thumbs we stay clear of it.

How’s this awesome shot of Bruce’s back in the day – no surf, no problem, just sandboard instead! Pretty sure that’s the jump rock right under the “Francis” in the caption? Must have been amazing to surf the SF/Seals area back in those days. Progress isn’t always improvement.

Seeing as we’re doing vintage, pretty sure anyone over the age of 40 will fondly remember the 1995 Billabong Challenge. Bong owner Gordon Merchant, legend film-maker Jack McCoy and Rabbit came up with the novel concept of a comp for the best surfers in the best waves. Cos back then the Dream Tour was still a dream and ou’s were competing on the ASP in super crap waves most of the time. 

So they loaded up some 4×4’s, some tents and some tinned food, and missioned to the Mystery Left in the West Aus desert (Gnaraloo). Scored it absolutely pumping. And triple sucking. Rob beat Occy. Then they came over to JBay, and hooked Supers going off it’s pip at perfect 8-10ft. Kelly took the win over Occy, with local Warren Dean in 3rd. This was back in the day when Kelly had hair.

The video’s of those comps are so legendary. As are so many of the surf vid’s from back then. Pity no more VHS machine to play em on. Green Iguana, Bunyip Dreaming, Pump…remember those!?

After some successful nagging by local activists including the No Nuke PE group, Eskom’s consultants for Thyspunt have finally allocated a public participation meeting in PE. Interesting move to host it out in New Brighton. If you wanna go have your say, and see what they have to say, then pull in to Tuesday 8 Dec 17h30 at Century Hall in New Brighton. More deets here https://www.facebook.com/events/1047657055297287/

Prince Harry made a lil beach mission to hook up with the Surfers Not Street Children program when he was in Durbs last week. 

Sihle Mboto, 23, a former street child enrolled with the organisation, said that meeting Prince Harry was a “big deal”. “Growing up on the streets you would never think that someone like a prince would be coming to meet you. It’s really exciting,” he said.

Sihle said it was great to meet Prince Harry at Surfers Not Street Children’s downtown Durban home, where 12 former street children live. But Mboto wanted Harry to return the favour, so tuned him “I might be in England in January. Since you’ve seen my house, I should check yours!”  

​Pretty sharp, ay!

The Vans World Cup was such a great advert for surfing. Real, proper, meaty, moer-you-if-you-make-a-mistake kinda surf. Barrels were either perfect or painful. Ou’s stepped up their game and charged. Mick took out Wilko, JJF and Julian for the win, and is looking a hot favourite to regain the World Title at Pipe.

​It’s that time of year again when the cut’s decided for who’s up and who’s down in WSL. The following Top 10 QS surfers will be guaranteed a spot on the 2016 Championship Tour: Caio Ibelli (BRA), Jack Freestone (AUS), Kolohe Andino (USA), Miguel Pupo (BRA), Alejo Muniz (BRA), Kanoa Igarashi (USA), Alex Ribeiro (BRA), Conner Coffin (USA), Davey Cathels (AUS) and Ryan Callinan (AUS).

​Particularly keen on seeing Conner Coffin. Ever since I saw a Surfer mag article on him and his bro’s trip to JBay a while ago have been impressed with his surfing. Kid with a rock solid A-Grade rail game. So good to see.

You won’t be going home after your surf with an empty tum this summer. The Street Cred Chef will be parked at Pipe for the season, dishing up some tasty takeaways. They’ll be open til 9pm every evening, so you can grab a takeout for supper as well – they’ll have a different supper menu, which will change regularly. Stuff like kiff curries and fresh linefish etc

Steve Sawyer has headed over to China for the Longboard World Champs. But unfortunately China airlines managed to misplace his board. When you see what their Left Baggage section looks like not hard to see how stuff could go missing! Lil bit of home away from home action right there.

If you heading out to Seals over the hols, no more missioning to St Francis for your block of wax or leash or whatever. Cody Futeran has opened up a surf shop just down the road from the cafe, and it’s packed to the rafters with surf and summer goodies, so pull in.

The code red conditions were throughout Hawaii, with Pipe getting some solid sets washing through. Evan Gieselmann pulled into a 15ft double up closeout and Pipe and got knocked unconscious and suffered a 3 wave hold down. Lucky for him Saffa booger Andre Botha saw it happen and swam over to pull Evan up and start rescue breathing on him and get him to shore. Thanks to Andre Evan lives to surf another day. Respect.

Seeing as there was bogger all surf happening in the bay will have to end off with some kiff vintage shots from back in the day. When there were waves!

Bailing for Indo midweek, so things will be quiet on the website til mid-Jan as there’s bogger all internet out there, and when there is it makes dial-up look speedy.