Kandui Surf Resort, Oct 9th surf report.
Sorry for the gap in surf reports but, as I’m sure you all know, Padang suffered a major earthquake and our thoughts have been with our friends and family there. It looks like anyone connected with Kandui is ok. A small miracle considering how many buildings we frequent went down. By the way, Anthony is setting up an account through paypal for anyone that wants to help the families of Kandui workers who lost their homes. You can contact him at [email protected]. My condo there in Padang looks like it’s history as well but, of course, I’m not accepting any money. (Don’t feel too sorry for me. My house on the beach at Rifles is just fine!) Apparently, the ground under my building in Padang liquefied and the pillars holding it up sank into the ground and turned my 3 story into a 2 story! My housekeeper was on the first floor and the only thing that saved her as the ceiling descended toward the floor was my car and my wife’s mom’s car being crushed, but leaving her enough room to be able to survive and crawl out! Can you imagine!!!!
Weird, the earthquake didn’t feel that strong here at Kandui and there was no damage reported in the Mentawais and everybody is fine. We were watching a movie and eating popcorn and most of us just laughed about it and kept on watching. I never put down my popcorn bowl! We were shocked when reports started coming in from Padang. Buildings down, people trapped, pouring rain, no electricity, and only an hour of daylight left after the 5pm quake. I can only imagine how horrible it must have been.
Things are just beginning to get back to some sort of normalcy, although it will be a long time before Padang can truly be back to normal. I heard many boats were not able to come out to the Mentawais after the quake and both resorts near us decided to cancel their trips until they could assess their supply chain. We were very fortunate with some timely deliveries and quick action. None of our guests wanted to cancel so we decided to go for it and stay open. It’s been business as usual here at Kandui, and the current guests may really be in luck too. We were having some pretty bad weather for a couple weeks, but it has been really nice since our new guests got here a few days ago. Light winds are in the forecast for the entire week with 3 swells in the forecast as well.
We have been surfing Bankvaults and Nipussi for the most part, but have gotten some fun Beng Beng and 4 Bobs as well. There haven’t been many other surfers around and we have been surfing mostly by ourselves or just a handful of others. Taylor Steele is here right now with his family, including his parents. The whole clan is surfing Karambat left right now. Pretty cool. Check out the water shot Kaliang got of Taylor yesterday at
Bankvaults. Kaliang is becoming quite the photog!
when are you closing for the season?