Kandui Surf Resort in the Mentawai island chain; June 5th surf report
Winds were out of the northwest this morning and light. The swell was dropping a little, but there was still plenty of water moving. 4 Bobs and John Candy’s were overhead and clean and that’s where most of our crew decided to surf, but a few of us headed for Bankvaults. The waves there were not much smaller than yesterday and the conditions were super clean. It seemed difficult to be in the right place at the right time, though, with the strong current from the outgoing tide pulling us up the point and into the reef. We had to keep paddling back down and dodging clean up set as we did it, but we managed to get a couple a good ones before throwing in the towel. On the way back we could see that the winds were blowing southeast at Kandui’s (How that is possible with the winds blowing north at Bankvaults I don’t know!), and it was super clean and overhead. Our other boat was just arriving and those that wanted it went out. They had a window of good winds and a decent tide before things deteriorated, but they got in some good tube time. Many of our guests were leaving today so they stuck close to the resort this afternoon while the new guests went to surf some well overhead, although a little onshore with the west wind that had come up, Nipusi. 4 Bobs was looking pretty epic with the west winds and shoulder high waves, so the second our departing guests left we were grabbing our boards! When that wave is that size with that kind of conditions it reminds me of one of my favorite waves in the world, Lower Trestles. It’s just shorter, but you can be surfing by yourself like I was in the late afternoon today. Surfed until dark. Only 5 guests right now and the bookings for the next month are slow and the other resorts and boat operators have similar bookings from what I hear. Good time to get down here and possibly get it uncrowded! Looking for smaller surf tomorrow
Kandui Surf Resort in the Mentawai island chain; June 4th surf report
Took the dingy early this morning to check out Kandui’s. Everybody had their hopes up after yesterday’s amazing barrels, but the winds over there were out of the northwest and it wasn’t looking that great. The winds were light enough for Rifles to have good conditions with that direction so I took a look at that also, but the swell was just too west to get in there. By the time I got back to the resort it was obvious that we were going to get run over by a storm so we all just hung out and waited to see what the weather would have for us after it passed. (The wind was going all over the place for a while.) It was getting to be late morning by the time it cleared up and that was past the Kandui tide window for the day, but just about then waves seem to be lighting up 4 Bobs and John Candy’s and the winds were out of the northeast now, but not too strong. Our guys jumped out to 4 Bobs and were scoring some great, overhead waves and only our three guys out. The report from our partner Jordan, who is guiding the Aleoita right now, was that Kandui’s was indeed too low a tide and wrong winds, but that hadn’t kept him from getting some sick barrels before the tide became just undoable. We were thinking about checking Bankvaults and E-Bay. Both spots can handle that wind if it is not too strong, so we took off. I don’t think any of us really expected to surf Bankvaults today because the swell was definitely sizeable and there were outer reefs breaking, but we thought we would take a look anyway. We waited and watched and never saw anything over 8 feet (you have to use the Hawaiian scale when the surf gets big), so we sent out our guinea pig, Taylor. After 15 minutes or so, Taylor was still alive so I decided to give it a go myself. The conditions were super clean and there was not another person in sight. Thick waves were peeling down the reef with surprisingly good shape. We were both sure we would see a 12 foot clean up set any minute and get washed to the beach (been there, done that), but it never came. Only 8 foot dream waves with no one out but us. We probably would have gotten a lot more waves and got them from deeper if we didn’t have that feeling that a giant clean up set was out there somewhere with our name on it, but we managed to get a few nice ones under our belt before heading back. While we were gone, all the other guests were having fun. 4 Bobs, John Candy’s, and Karambat Left were all head high plus and fun, and the light winds were making for good conditions everywhere. Some of our guests were out until it was pitch black. Looking for decreasing swell tomorrow.
All photos courtesy of the crew at Kandui Surf Resort / Indies Trader surf charter boat and Sebastian
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