Early Season was fun and the Mentawai May forecast looks magnificent

It is common consensus that peak Mentawai season is May through September, but pre-season Feb, March and April can also deliver great waves, just as post-season October and November can.

The 2014 Mentawai pre-season was fun. Mentawai May forecast looks magnificent.

The Perfect Wave’s man on the ground, Andy Potts, settled in at Aloita Surf Resort and Spa in the heart of Mentawai back in the second week of April.

Andy said, ”Since mid April there have been a couple of mid-sized long period swells, but unpredictable winds generated by unforeseeable storm cells have played havoc with local winds at times.”

Andy continued, “Crowds though have been pretty chilled. The last week of April delivered a variety of conditions, ranging from onshore slop through to perfect Playgrounds.”

“The best session by far was at near perfect 4-6ft, 14-second interval, near-empty Rifles on Wednesday April 30.”

Here is The Perfect Wave’s wave diary from on the ground at Aloita Resort covering the last week of April.

Monday, April 21 – Tuesday 22– 3-4ft SW swell with occasional 6ft sets @ 11 seconds, wind: light to variable N.

Wednesday April 23 – Saturday 26- 3ft SW swell with occasional 4-5ft faces @ 9 seconds, wind: light N-NW variable during the afternoon.

Sunday April 27- 3-4ft SW swell @ 10 seconds, wind: strong-howling onshore W.

Monday April 28 – 4-5 ft. STH swell @ 12 seconds, wind: light to variable NW.

Wednesday April 30 – 4-6ft SW swell @ 14 seconds, wind light all day.

Here are some photos from the insane Rifles session on Wednesday April 30. The highlight of the day was father and son team – Greg and Matt Burton both sharing tube after tube. At 50 something years of age, Greg handed Matt another valuable life lesson showing him exactly how to ride Indo tubes. It was a memorable day of surfing perfect waves not be forgotten for a long time by all.

May is often a magnificent month in The Mentawai

Here is a very brief summary of the dozens of May Mentawai swell forecasts we have perused looking ahead to the next week or so:

Two strong pulses of S-SW groundswell are expected this weekend and early to mid next week.

Small 3ft S-SW groundswell is expected to round out this week with light early winds and 10 knot E-SE trades.

A fresh SSW groundswell in the 5-6ft range is expected on Saturday May 10 accompanied by light early winds and then 10 to 15 knot E-SE trades.

Sunday May 11 should see 6-8ft waves on exposed reefs with 10 to 15 knot E-SE trades following light morning winds.

A new, long period S-SW groundswell should peak in the 6ft plus range on Monday May 12, maintain on Tuesday and slowly taper all week under light trades, ahead of another solid pulse in time for the weekend of May 17 and 18.

If you want to fly in and fly out for a swell or book a week or ten days in the heart of The Mentawai and enjoy rapid speedboat transfers to most of the best breaks at a much cheaper rate than a boat trip, then Aloita is the option for you. The resort is slick and also family friendly.

Mentawai May forecast