May 2015 Mentawai Surf Report

Mentawai Surf Report Words, photos and clip by Grant Davis at Aloita

May began with a bang. There was no shortage of swell, predominantly from the SSW direction.

Seven Palms proved to be the pick of the local spots. Our crew enjoyed plenty of long, clean walls and the odd barrel.

When the swell peaked Scarecrows was the spot to be, the usually sectiony walls turned into a Telescopes type doppelganger.

May 7 was a particularly good day, with just our Aloita crew surfing perfect empty scarecrows all morning. The second week of May delivered more swell but this time more direct from the SW.

May 14 was a standout day. Telescopes had a bit of a crowd on it, so we hit Scarecrows again. It was 4-6ft and solid walls that kept on keeping on. After a memorable three hour session the high tide shut it down, so we moved over to enjoy some 3-5ft Telescopes. The afternoon delivered westerly winds so suicides was the call, the natural footers loved it. Flavio and Sami scored a bunch of cover ups and attacked the walls on the incoming tide.

Back to back swells and light Nth quadrant winds directed our focus to the playgrounds region on May 17. Solid 6ft Bank Vaults was the first port of call, but the crowd was onto it. Instead we headed around the corner and scored some super clean near empty 2-3ft Ebay. Yes it was a little inconsistent but minus people it was way fun. After lunch we headed back to BV’s to find only 5 others out and clean 6ft barrels to great us. Our crew headed out and challenged themselves in some very solid barrels.

Nipussi was a pleasant last surf of the day, at 4-5ft with some big faces and the odd cleanup set – it was a great 3 surf day.

May has been the best most consistent month so far this year.
The final week has been a little painful with very little swell.

Here’s hoping June lives up to last year’s high standards, it’s definitely looking promising on the charts.