Mentawai Surf Report: Suicides and Rifles on Fire – Late May 2016

Mentawai Surf Report: Suicides and Rifles on Fire – Late May 2016 report from S Resort Aloita.
We started the week with another pulse from the south and headed to the Playgrounds.
Rifles is the closest Playgrounds break to S Resort Aloita, only a 40-min boat ride away (in good conditions).
We pulled up to a fairly crowded line up and 3-5ft runners with the very occasional 6ft set.
I explained to the group that Rifles is fickle and this might be their only chance to surf it, so they decided to have a crack.
A few got some bombs and saw some flashes of it’s potential, but the lure of surfing elsewhere was too great.
Over to Nipussi with solid 4-5ft of swell and with only two in the water, we were out there.
Our next stop was back to the skate-park that is Four Bobs. Again the lineup was almost empty. This was our last stop for the day and the team happily drained their reserves trading off some sharp top turn combos.

The next few days saw a dropping swell locally, and variable winds. Nothing epic wave-wise, but still better than home.
We had a couple of chunky surfs at Icelands and some very playful Telescopes.
With the swell forecast on hand, anticipation levels were at boiling point.
As a large low pressure system parked itself due east of us in the Indian ocean, the north wind flow began. Normally this might cause a few headaches for us, but with the swell on tap, Suicides was going to be cooking. The 30/5 saw the first swell really show with 3-5ft in the morning, a super fun session was had.
The first swell peaked that afternoon, only a foot bigger than the morning, but consistent and clean. The next morning was the best I have seen it at Suicides all year, lined up, offshore and hitting the reef perfectly.
At 3-5ft and the right tide, Suicides gets almost playful.
Two long outings were had on the 31st, many barrels were had and smiles were wide.

Photos by Grant Davis and Hatsumi Ishibashi | Video clip by Grant Davis