An Island somewhere up north....

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

This island is pretty amazing. The entire time I was healthy and surfing the only surfers I met were either staying at the surf camp or passing through on a boat trip. There's only three guys at the camp so that makes for a crowd of four if we all decide to surf at the same time. The island is about half the size of Nias and I surfed alone most days at the main wave on the island. The guys on the two boat trips I saw, land by plane from Medan, have lunch at Baroqah, (if they were brave enough to attempt the local cuisine) then jump straight on a boat for ten days. How sad it is they have almost no interest in the local people and how they live. Air conditioning and DVD's on a boat. What a ridiculous excuse for a surf trip. Where's the sense of adventure in a trip like that???? Anyways, I'm getting off the subject. I've been renting a motorbike from Bapak Hamdan and exploring the southern reaches of the island in search of waves. Luckily on my first day some local kids showed me around some of the more obvious spots. As well as the best wave I've surfed so far, Matanorong. What an ass-numbing day that was. Holding onto my board with one hand and the back of a banana seat with the other is a helluva way to get to the surf. We must've ridden over 50 miles that day checking the place out. Of course at the end of the day we headed back to Matanorong - the first spot we'd looked at. The surf was really clean, but small. Head-high peelers ending up on fingers of dry reef. Still really fun and the local kids were stoked to watch someone surfing their spot.