Mentawai Surf Report: Late August and Early September Swell Update
Mentawai Surf Report: Words, video and photos by Grant Davis at Aloita Resort
In truth, August was a little slow in the Mentawai this season.
However, August 31, the last day of the month, delivered some of the best pits in months. The swell was a solid 18sec period episode from the SSW and it built during the day. Even better, the strong trades had backed off and we enjoyed light SE winds for much of the morning. We pushed beyond the numbers at Telescopes and onward to Scarecrows, where it was a tad high, but there were some clean 4-6ft hollow pockets in the mix. As the tide dropped out the tubes became frequent. We got back to Aloita to hear word of epic 3-4ft Tikus from the other Aloita speedboat. The swell was still pushing and Tikus was going unridden. The crew split in different directions for the afternoon, some hit Tikus, others ventured to a rarely surfed spot with and the others took to Telescopes.
September 1 delivered 8-10ft chunks, but the wind was more south and stronger. Local breaks were deemed to be the best spots to hit. Uncrowded 3-5ft Tikus was met with no opposition. We did a whole day at Tikus and everyone was stoked to score plenty of quality waves with minimal people in the water.
On September 2 we shot up to Playgrounds. The swell had peaked, but was still a sizable 6ft plus from the SW @ 15secs. The wind was light during the journey, but came up from the south as soon as the crew hit some relatively empty 3-5ft Nokanduis. The pin was pulled early and EBay was the choice for us at 3-4ft minus the crowd. As lunch drew near, the crowd faded and the tide/wind dropped and some real fun was had. Into the afternoon, the crew never came back and we surfed it pretty much alone until 4pm.
The south trades continue to blow in the paradyllic island chain, but as long as we continue to get swell the options continue to look good for us here at Aloita.
Stay tuned for our September wrap in the next week or so.
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