We’re handing the reins over to our new friend and guest blogger GirlJamie. Jamie aims to give you a fresh outlook on life in our little mentawai island paradise. She’ll be seeing the things that I don’t see anymore. Feel free to repost or comment through FB or at mentawaisurfing.com. Cheers!
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Don’t look!
If you’re squeamish.
This is an actual photo of Keala Kennelly, a professional surfer. She came close to losing her eye the other day in Tahiti, towing into big waves last week and hitting the reef after a bad wipeout. So much for her modeling career poor dear.
I’ve been thinking for a while about the Mentawais, and this photo gave me further pause. As the Mentawai Islands get more and more crowded, the surfers that enjoy waves to themselves are venturing farther afield. We surf waves that we’ve never surfed before because they were too fast or shallow. We surf our regular waves on lower tides than we used to surf before. We surf when we’re tired or failing light, just because everybody else has left the lineup. There are much more people to avoid as you’re racing down the line. There are surfers in the lineup at big hollow waves that perhaps shouldn’t be there, but are because everywhere else is “too crowded”. It is all adding together to be a much more dangerous past-time than it used to be.
In a normal season, on average I would stitch up 6 guests by the end of the season. This year we’ve done over 14. 6 in just the first 2 trips! Is it a coincidence? Is it just a roll of the dice? No. The reason more people are getting injured is because there are more boards and reefs to bump into, and we’re taking more risks just to get waves to ourselves.
There’s no point to this rant, and Keala’s photo has nothing to do with this post.
Maybe just showing you what big waves and reef can do to people’s faces. Maybe just using my crystal ball to predict that surfing will become increasingly dangerous for the people who visit or live in this small island chain in the middle of nowhere, and that injuries such as Keala’s are more common. For that matter surfing will get more dangerous everywhere you go. Peace and hati-hati.
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Overheard, reposted, regurgitated, passed on, let go and FYI.”I am not sure you have heard about this but better I inform you that EDISOM, The Bupati Mentawai is already positively to be charged for Corruption Case.The case (for now) is related to the funding of forestry, reboisation or something like that. He is now under survaillance and not allowed to leave the country by law.I am sure none of you have nothing to do with him, but in case of in case you already informed. Stay away and keep clean.”
I’m going to come right out and say it. It disgusts me that after almost 2 decades of operating commercially in these islands, the dozens of local and foreign flag charter boats have failed to band together and sorted out some kind of mooring system. On average, each charter boat anchors 3 times a day. Every time they put down their anchor, they are smashing up live reef (see photo attached).
Its not like our reef has enough to deal with. What with potassium cyanide being used by local fisherman with compressors. Or the occasional dynamite fisherman that are ignored by the (suspiciously complicit) Mentawai authorities. Global warming, coral bleaching? What about oily bilge water, plastic rubbish, surfers walking all over the reef? Hell, might as well throw your anchors down cause there’s not much left anyway!
The only thing the charter boats ever managed to come together on was banding together in an “us vs. them” associations in one of the biggest portrayals of human greed that I’ve ever been privy to. Battling each other legally for control of the waters, whilst they go out and drop anchors on more reefs.
If you’re as disgusted as I am, please choose your favorite charter boat and either write them a letter directly, or contact their agent and ask why aren’t the charter boats able to sink down moorings instead of anchors everyday?
Makes me embarrased to be a human being.
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