Helpful Hints
Surf Etiquette
Your trip to the Mentawai's should be the best experience possible. The very nature of the way in which waves break in the Mentawai's lends itself to an even higher degree of order and cooperation. Follow these rules and everyone will have a better session, especially you. Remember, you're on vacation!
1. Don't think you own the place.
When you arrive at a new spot and there is already a group surfing the worst thing you can do is to send out every surfer on your boat in an all out assault. It's just not cool. A good surf guide will show you how to strike a perfect balance by sending out a few surfers at a time and making the transition as subtle as possible.
2. Take your turn.
The majority of waves in the Mentawai's break like a classic point break. The most discouraging thing in the world is to have some clown paddling past you after every wave. For this rule, think assembly line, take your turn, go in order, and everyone will get their fair share of waves.
3. Hands up if you don't want it.
When it's your turn and you're waiting for the set of the day it always helps to let other people know your intentions. Most people will expect that you're going to be going on the next decent wave that comes through but by no means does that mean you have to go. When a wave is approaching that you are not interested in all you have to do is hold both of your hands up and out of the water to send a clear message to everyone that you're not going. This will eliminate any ambiguity and there will definitely be more waves to go around and a clear line of communication in the water.
4. Let it go.
It sucks to get burned on a small, weak day so you can imagine how much worse it is on a big, scary day. If you see someone paddling for a wave, even if they look like they aren't going to catch it, let it go. Getting stuffed on a double overhead grinder with the reef lurking a few feet below the surface and the possibility of getting stuck inside isnt worth the potential conflict.
5. Pick me up.
When you're ready to get picked up all you have to do is wave your board in the air from the channel. If there is someone injured, everyone in the line-up should wave their boards at the same time.
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The most important thing to remember on any surf vacation is to simply share waves!
Our surf report page contains all of our favorite links for analyzing and predicting what the waves are like in the Indian Ocean. Each one of these links offer a variety of useful tools to help you keep track of what the waves are doing now and what the forecast looks like. Surfline is the most comprehensive surf forecasting and reporting website on the internet. They have a great tool called LOLA which is remarkably accurate in it's wave height, period, and wind direction models. This link will take you to their comprehensive "LOLA" page. Brand new website with a tremendous wind, wave, and period forecast for Sumatra. Very high tech, easy to use, provides a fantastic visual display for many areas including Sumatra. This site is not over technical - Wavewatch is very easy to navigate, understand and has some great features! Magic Seaweed maintains a remarkably detailed surf report for the Mentawai Islands region. Out of all the sites at our disposal we'd have to recommend Magic Seaweed as a close second behind Surfline in terms of features and overall accuracy for their swell forecasts and more importantly wind predictions!
This is a very accurate and easy to read 4 day forecast measured by the most relevant Mentawai buoy. An extended 7 day forecast is available on a subscription basis. This site also boasts great local wind information. 168 hour forecast covering the entire Indian Ocean in a spherical format. This is what all of the other websites use for their data, just not as fancy. If you want a quick, easy to understand link, this is it. 168 hour forecast covering the entire Indian Ocean. This link provides a simple to understand wave period animation. The longer the wave period the more spots waves can sneak into, especially in the Mentawais. This is one of the most impressive, free Indonesian surf reports on the internet. It's got accurate wave height, period, wind, and tide information in an easy to read format.
A remarkably detailed satellite animation of the Indian Ocean region. Make sure you check out the "zoom" feature. This will show you basic storm patterns and wind shifts along the Equator. Practically the same animation as # 1 but in an easier to read enhanced color format. This satellite enables you to see clouds and precipitation a lot easier than the original. Mark Sponsler at Stormsurf has put together an extremely comprehensive list of swell and weather links for the Indian Ocean region here. The link above offers a graphic format for wave heights. Stormsurf has created a number of great wave height models for the Indian Ocean. The link above is a fantastic overview for the entire Indian Ocean - check out Stormsurf for all of your forecasting resources!
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