2016 Mentawai Surf Season Review

Last updated: 14 October, 2016

Words, photos and clip by Andy Potts.

Well, sadly we have come to the end of what everyone universally regards peak Mentawai surf season. March through October is when an endless procession of S and SW swells light up the Indian Ocean.

Mid to late October is the time of the year when many sit back and reminisce on the swells experienced during the 2016 Mentawai surf season, and start planning next year’s charter or land resort holiday.

This year was widely regarded as much more consistent than last year, with consistent overhead and double overhead Indian ocean groundswells running into the island chain pretty much every week. There were so many standout swells during the season that delivered incredible waves at both the well known haunts and also some of the lesser known set ups.

Macca’s in May, June and July offered protection from light south winds, delivering so many memorable sessions with generally cruisy crew on most boats and at the camp. Two incredibly special days in June delivered perfect 6-8 hollow barrels that pumped all day long.

July and August were incredibly consistent months in Indo this year, groomed groundswells and favourable trades combined to produce perfection all over the island chain. The charter boats were scoring wherever they turned up, while crew holidaying on land camps surfed their brains out at local breaks.

It seemed like everywhere was going off.

July delivered a real standout swell from the South/West with light and variable winds all day. For memory it peaked in the 12ft at 17 seconds range. Lances was pretty bloody epic, check out the footage. The winds were consistently more favourable throughout August and early September as Occy and his TPW guests stayed up in the Playgrounds area for a week.

Occ’s guests scored consistent 4-6ft plus waves all week. Occ himself was looking fit, recharged and ripping, so it was the perfect finish to an epic 2016 Mentawai season.