Week #5 in Indo – Featured Blog

All good things come to an end – or so goes the saying. Stupid saying really – why should they end!? Week 5 is our last week in Indo. I don’t like uneven numbers, and tried an arm twist to stay another week to make it 6 instead. Unfortunately wasn’t successful, in part due to our kakker-than-ever exchange rate, and also due to pretty mediocre looking swell forecasts. Although mediocre in Indo means at least you still get head-high surf at least! 

A week of mainly lefts. Which wasn’t so bad actually. Getting to the point where we rather enjoying going backside now. Still bloody useless at it, but not feeling quite so weird facing the wrong way now. Guess it also helps that the waves are stupidly mechanical, so it’s kinda like having your own wave pool. Another big plus factor is that there’s only 3 other peeps in the water with you. Small crew this week.

As it was our last week we got stuck into a bit of curios buying from the locals. The left is the only spot that has ou’s paddling out to sell you stuff from their canoes. My Indonesian, although improving, still isn’t at the point where I can do much negotiating. Probably overpaid as usual, but stoked with my wooden surfboard memento nonetheless.

The average day at the resort see’s you get up at the crack of dawn, with the boats leaving between 6h30 and 7h00. Then head off north or south to hunt down waves. Most days it means having lunch on the boat, which are rather tasty affairs. Everything from nasi goreng, mie goreng, chicken curry, wraps, lasagne and more.

Plenty of snacks on board as well to ward off the mid morning/mid-arvo munchies. And Oreo’s. Lots and lots of packets of oreo’s! They’re evil lil bicci’s. Once someone opens a packet, boom, they vanish into tummies immediately. The Aussies have even got a whole bunch of ways to eat ’em, that includes opening ’em up and peeling out the filling and sandwiching a whole bunch of fillings on top of each other between 2 biscuits. 

A number of Oreo-eating competitions evolved. Like how many oreo’s in a stack can you fit in your mouth, or just how many in total you can shove in. Managed a stack of 4. Went off Oreo’s completely after that!

Ask anyone who’s been to Indo about Chitato’s. You’ll see a longing smile spread across their face for sure. The world’s most addictive chips. They proudly claim a 65% potato content. Which leaves you wondering about the other 35%! Guessing it’s all MSG. Cos they are the best tasting chips ever. Gotto be the beef BBQ flavour though. Open a packet of these onboard and it’s chowed flat in about 10 seconds!

Can get away with eating crap cos you surfing all day, every day. Do mix up the bad stuff with the good. Coconuts are the best way ever to refuel after a long sesh. Best R10 you can ever spend on an energy drink.

Hubby got nick-named Osama-Bob. A combo of Spongebob Squarepants (his nickname) and Osama Bin Laden. Had just had a bit of skin cancer taken outta his temple before we left, so had been told to keep the sun off it. Margot made him some lil lycra neck scarf type thingy’s (like the anglers use to protect their necks & faces).

He decided his cap didn’t cover the problem area sufficiently, so ended up pulling the neck protector up and over his head – looked a bit like a condom on his head! Took plenty of abuse for looking like a surfing Taliban, but did succeed in keeping the sun off! Will remember to pack the rashie with the built-in hood next time.

Coupla days down at my favourite right point again. Not a helluva lot of swell, but still some head high peelers to get wet on. Nothing wrong with that if there’s less than a handful of peeps in the water with you.

Spongebob had waiting patiently for 5 weeks to get his first wave, so finally decided to take him out for a surf. He’s a fussy lil critter, cos it has to be small and clean. Cos he can’t duckdive! Last time we tried that he popped, and had to be repaired with a but of lilo superglued to his butt.

Hopped on my shoulders for the paddle in, and was then stoked to hook a quadruple-overhead wave. Couldn’t wipe the smile off his lil yellow dial!

One of the guys just here for the week was a German chap who was still learning. Lekker guy, who wasn’t scared to launch himself over the edge and have a go. Was just the two of us in the water one arvo, when I sent him on a decent size lil set. Got the wave after him, and paddling back out saw him stuck in the shallows with his hand on his head. Oh-oh.

Closer inspection revealed a nice head-butt to the reef and 3 lil tiger claws across his forehead. Head wounds have the propensity to bleed and look worse than they are, and after deciding I couldn’t see any bone he should be just fine to paddle out and grab another wave. Bit ‘o blood never hurt anyone! Worked out well cos he scored one of his best waves after that.

I’d been feeling a bit guilty about sending him on a wave that ended up hurting him, but turned out he’d made the wave OK, but had straightened out and ridden it too far up the reef. He was drydocked and saw the next wave coming at him and had decided to dive under it! Never a good idea in ankle deep water! Ended up diving straight into the coral! Did learn an important lesson though, and doubt he’ll make the same mistake again!

Had our first arvo off in 5 weeks, cos the wind and waves weren’t cooperating. Had grabbed a surf in the morning, but didn’t look worth sticking about for the day so we headed back to the resort. Took the opportunity to grab the kayak and the SUP for a quick paddle about the island. 

However, neither can be achieved without Larry the Labrador joining you for company. The ultimate water dog. He loves the elevated position that being on the kayak & SUP provides, so he can scope out for fish. Once he spots one he dives off and tries to chase it. Crazy dog!

You physically have to pick him up and drag him off, or try tip him off, the board – as once it’s on the sand at the waters edge and ready to go he’s on it, and no amount of cajoling will get him to move an inch. he’s going with whether you like it or not!

Always so hard to leave when the holiday finally comes to an end. What did help a little bit was that the last few days were pretty scratchy for surf and didn’t look like a helluva lot coming. Nothing worse than when you have to leave and you know it’s gonna cook in a few days.

Still went out and got a wave the last 2 days, even though it was by far the worst conditions we’d had over the whole 5 weeks. Bit onshore and only chest high. Had to catch a few waves so it could count as a “surf”, cos wanted to have surfed every single day of our trip – that made it 5 weeks (35 days) of non-stop surfing. Stoked! But buggered! Shoulders certainly gave in a bit towards the end of the trip, with an achy rotator cuff to contend with.

En route back to the resort after our last surf, decided to scrape the wax off my board and get it ready to pack. Ended up with a good sized glob, so decided to try make it back into a mini block of wax. Plenty of kneading required to get all the scraped buts to merge back together, but reckon it turned out OK. Pretty sure some ou will be only too happy to find it onboard when he’s about to dive off for a surf in cranking waves and it’s a choice of that or nothing!

Boards packed. Bags packed. Time to say goodbye to our home of the last 5 weeks. So sad to go. Know it’s back to PE,and bogger all surf. Eish.

Love outer island travel. Get to try all sorts of odd forms of transport. Like the weird bike contraption that drove us from the jetty to the airport. Boards get there on a trailer towed by a dude on a bicycle. Check-in entails filling in your details on a blank piece of A4 paper at the “check-in counter”

Then it’s onto the trusty Cessna for the hour’s flight back over to Padang. Flown by a dude from Slummies. Saffa’s everywhere these days! He reckons it’s not a bad job – get to fly over the Ments all week scoping out potential surf spots, and then zip off to surf them on your days off.

​Til next year Telo’s.