Week #4 in Indo – Featured Blog

A whole month in Indo draws to a close. Surfed every single day. For a month. Do I want to come home? Hell no! Swell was a bit quieter this week, but a small day in Indo still beats a small day in the bay. No problem dealing with long lulls when you bobbing about in warm water checking out the palm tree’s and talking kak with the other 6 peeps in the water with you.

Crystal clear water gives you time to hang off your board and check out what all cruising by underneath you. Bit like surfing in an aquarium. Some of Nemo’s buddies, lots of angel fish and parrot fish, and all sorts of other colourful dudes I couldn’t identify. Also get to suss out the gnarly bits of coral you could soon be landing on.

Worked out a neat trick, that if you just touch your nose to the water it means you close enough to take away all the surface glare and it’s almost as clear as wearing goggles.

Cloudless skies meant some hectic glare at times, so glad we worked out our “saffa string” concept a few years ago – which means we can surf with our peaks on and not have to worry about them washing off and having to swim over the reef to fetch em. Simple – just 2 fishing clip swivels joined together by a short length of string. Clip one to the hat, the other to either the label in your rashie/Tshirt if it has one, or just a tag you’ve sewed on to it.

Just make sure you get decent clip-swivels, cos the cheapie one’s break after a while, which means a swim-in to fetch ya hat. If they game-fish grade they’re good enough to hold ya hat on even in a solid whipping.

Smaller swell and a change in direction meant we could surf one of the most scenic spots in the chain. Looks like BurgerWorld in the Ments, but it ain’t. Breaks in front of a jungle covered headland, with a big pinnacle off to the side. Pretty as.

Fun wave too, nice peaky takeoff that then races along close to the rocky shelf. Needs a combo of wind/swell and tide to work well, but when it does it’s a jol. First time in 3 years we’ve had it breaking this good.

Bumped into our mates on the Ratu Motu (ex-Indies trader 4). They had the bosses daughter and her mates on board for a Friends and Family trip. Lekker if your dad owns one of the best surf charter boats in the world! Captain John popped over to where we’d anchored to say Howzit, and next thing was hightailing off the dingy onto our boat. Turns out as he was heading over he’d glanced back at his motor – and saw a seasnake sticking it’s head out at him!

Tied up to us and grabbed a gaff in the hope of being able to lure it outta the outboard, but the slippery visitor was nowhere to be seen. He told us later that it had just shot out the impeller pipe later that day!

It was a snakey day, cos later on we spotted a big ‘un a few metres away from the boat. Swam around us a coupla times eyeing us out, whilst we eyed it out just as much. Discussion was had about what to do if it decided to slink up the anchor rope….

Everyone regaled each other with stories about how they were the most venomous snakes in the world….but couldn’t bite you cos had such small mouths. Supposedly can only nip you between your toes and fingers. No-one wanted to test the theory!

Suddenly the paddle from the boat to the line-up wasn’t a relaxed affair. Now you looked for a buddy to paddle with and kept swiveling your head around 360 degrees to see if it was following you. Every time you came back to the boat for a break or drink invariably someone onboard would tease you about just having seen the snake.

Turns out the old adage of “Don’t cry wolf” proved true – the girls who’d been teasing everyone about the snake were paddling back to the boat – and next thing one of them spotted it a few metres away from them – never seen anyone paddle so fast and climb up on a boat in record speed!

Had surfed the right point one morning, and despite being super clean it was small and lully, so the surf guide decided we should mission up round the headland to the beachies, which are serious swell magnets.

The hiccup with these beachies is that they’re unlike any beachie you’ve ever encountered. Mutant would be an apt description. Coming out of deep deep water and then unloading onto the shorey. The outer reefs chop the swell up into lil A-frames, so these peaks come through all over the place. You sitting looking out to sea and see a lekker wedge coming at you, no problem, paddle for it – then look down and see that there’s about 6 inches of water in front of you! Board and back-breaking stuff when it gets a bit bigger.

So we pull up behind the break and cruise the backline, and for all intents and purposes it looks about 1ft. Rule #1, never judge a wave from the back! Then we see a set unload and the whitewash just explode sky-high…hmm, OK, maybe bigger than 1 ft…

The surf guide and the lone booger on board paddle over to have a squizz. Some of the others reckon they’ll take a swim in to the beach to check it out from shore. Having a healthy respect for the beachie through past experience I decided to skip the swim-in. Turned out to be a good call.

​Only 2 of the 3 made it in to the beach, with one hapless peep getting annihilated in the shorepound and just stuck in the impact zone cos of the gnarly currents. 

Transpires that the peaks were about 8 – 10ft and just detonating in about a metre of water. Huge barrels, but not many makeable. The surf guide reckons it was the heaviest beachie he’d ever surfed, and he’s the sorta guy who’s super comfy in big, heavy surf – he counts big Greenbush as one of his favourite waves!

One absolutely massive set came through and those of us on the boat thought we were about to catch a ride over the falls, so quick up anchor and moved further out. Huge whirlpool formed by the current that pulled back from the beach after the set, pretty freaky to see. The guys got back beaming but buggered. Sand in every orifice they had. So bummed we didn’t get any shots front on, but getting in to the beach with a camera was impossible. Pity.

Had a few fun days at the most consistent left in the region, so slowly overcoming my complete uselessness at backhand, and have progressed from complete kook to semi-kook going backside. Going straight down the line has been replaced by a few mid-face wiggles. Long way to go still…

A few early arvo’s back from the surf saw the “golf course” getting some action. Hubby had made a small 6 hole “course” for fun. Quite official-like with pars for each hole, flags in each hole (pole with a triangular bit of paper sticky-taped to it!) and a photocopied scorecard we made up.

Clubs were limited to a 9 iron and a chipping wedge per group, so “putting” was a bit of a challenge. More so considering the absence of greens, instead just random fluffy, bumpy grass. Further challenge was provided by Latitude Larry, the resident Labrador. Who took great delight in running off with the balls at every opportunity. Gave him his own one to chew, but he still preferred to steal everyone else’s. 

Another week behind us and only one more to go before having to head back home. Eish, could quite happily just stay here indefinitely!
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