Ian’s blog

New posts now at www.morningglass.com

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:34:17 -0700

Sorry for the hiatus, I've been working a lot and masterminding my 2009 indo trip. But since I've learned some useful stuff working on this year's trip, I'm blogging again at Morning Glass.

Come on over for the new stuff!

News on Indies Trader 4
How is the global recession affecting Mentawai bookings
Variations on the standard Mentawai trip explored
New Telo Islands resort with strong backing
Coming soon: Historical Mentawai swell data crunched and explored - how often does spot X really work?

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This blog has moved to www.MorningGlass.com

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:32:05 -0800

I'm currently in the process of moving my surf travel blog over to www.MorningGlass.com, which is much easier for everyone to remember. My friend Bill has been kind enough to let me use his domain for my rants. After this post, all new blog posts will show up over there, with the archives soon to follow.

See you over there!

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Has " Indies Explorer " left the Mentawai charter scene for good?

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:04:14 -0800

Indies Explorer boat first caught my eye when featured in a surf video a while back. It's one of the largest and most recognizable charter boats in Indonesia, a Pinissi schooner over 100 feet long, bright white with two tall sailing masts. I saw this iconic boat at Thunders in August 2006. It was a small day of forgettable surf and 40 people were in the water groveling for some chest-high sets. Indies Trader 4 was also there, so we felt pretty smart that our groveling session didn't cost $1200/person/day.

About Indies Explorer, when I was looking for a Mentawais charter boat I was intrigued by the large size and relatively low per-day cost, but the boat holds 12 guests which was sort of a turn-off and the schedule didn't work out for the dates I had available. That day at Thunders I felt fortunate to have skipped since it looked like the boat didn't have much shaded common space with a view of the surf (always a precious commodity on surf trips). The sleeping cabins below decks all had ventiliation hatches in the middle of the main deck and the deck sloped up forward and aft, basically killing the most logical place for a picnic table, hammocks, etc. When we drove by in our dinghy there were also bits around the stern that looked kind of beat up and run-down. I scrutinized the other boats we came across as much as possible - there are only so many boats over there and I wanted to see what kind of shape they were in, did they pitch and roll a lot when anchored, etc. The truth is that some boats just look better on the internet and Indies Explorer is probably one of them. Using 6-year-old photos on the booking web site is one slightly deceptive practice - recent boat photos are always a good thing to ask for.

Anyway to make a long story short, I was thinking about all this because I recently learned that an overnight storm washed "a big white wooden sailboat" up on the beach in Padang. I don't think there are many other such craft near Padang besides Indies Explorer. For all the things that looked impractical about it you can'd deny the boat has soul. If anyone is thinking about going on Indies Explorer in 2008 or knows if it did in fact hit the beach drop me a line.

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Mentawai Boat trip bookings bouncing back after slow 2007

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:32:22 -0800

It's the beginning of what the cruise industry calls "Wave Season", the first 5 months of the year when the majority of cruises, the majority of leisure travel, and the great majority of indo boat trips get booked. From what I've been hearing Mentawai bookings for the 2008 season have been pretty strong. The 2007 season had slow bookings because of the strong, consistent SE winds in the Ments during July-Aug-September of 2006.

These winds didn't really affect Northern Sumatra but they caused bad word of mouth for the whole area. It's not hard to imagine why - with strong SE wind you blow out all the rights that typically need some combo of N or W wind. When most surfers are regularfoot and HT's, Bank Vaults, and Rifles are blown out for the better part of 3 months, you're going to have mostly dissatisfied guests. If they wanted windy lefts they would have gone to Fiji.

The bottom line is if you've been thinking about a boat trip this year you should book early, especially if you want a specific boat, need specific dates, or want to go off the beaten path. Many of the most popular boats/guides are booked out a year or more in advance by repeat customers. Boats going to more obscure areas like Northern Sumatra or the southern Ments need longer trips, which means fewer total trips to choose from on top of fewer boats that run those routes.

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DVD Review: New Emissions of Light and Sound

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:39:04 -0800

This is the best use of leftover footage I've ever seen. Take leftover footage of the Hobgoods, Taj Burrow, and Yadin Nicol (w/crazy haircut) from Secret Machine (same photogs, same trips), mix with a well paced and synchronized Sasha soundtrack, blend in artsy underwater shots, behind the wave shots, good editing, scenery shots and BAM! you have this DVD. I have a strong affinity for surf movies with great music & great waves. This one has both. I wish my trips to indo had this Sasha soundtrack playing while I was there.

If you really hate electronic music you should probably give this a miss. If you can tolerate or enjoy electronica then this is very well done and you will find it highly re-watchable.. If you had a big TV and a good sound system you could put this DVD on as background at a party and be psyched. The disc automatically starts playing about 20 seconds after you stick it in (more like a CD than a DVD) and automatically loops back to the beginning when it's done.

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Waimea shorebreak now a beachbreak

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:58:48 -0800

I went to the North Shore weekend before last in hopes of catching the pipe masters and getting a few waves. Instead the North Shore was plagued by kona winds and I aggravated a knee injury so I caught an earlier flight home.

Anyway, regarding Waimea: the shorebreak has been a key place for me to get tons of barrels and escape the crowds between OTW and Rocky's on my past North Shore trips. However this year after they opened up the rivermouth a strange sandbar formed out in the middle of the bay. Conceivably it might have been pretty good with non-kona conditions and a bigger swell, but the dependably hollow waimea shorey body whompers were basically gone. It was literally about 30-40% surfers out there with only a dozen or so bodyboarders/bodysurfers at noon on a Saturday. Pretty unheard of.

Moral of the story - opening the rivermouth can ruin the shorebreak. Turns out that just like the OTW-Pipe stretch, sand flow is also a big factor at Waimea. Learn something new every time.

Luckily the swell had some north in it and the kona winds meant it was just beautiful hot and sunny at Pounders over in Laie. We duly got pounded with only a handful of kids in the water and had it to ourselves on Sunday. The Kahuku grilled shrimp never tasted so good.

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Going back to Northern Sumatra - 5 month countdown

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:08:15 -0800

I've started to plan my return surf trip to Northen Sumatra in May. I've already been there once. Why am I going back?

I've seen how consistent the swell is on Surfline (even though it was sort of small last time)
I know there are a lot of world class spots up there
There still aren't very many boats operating up that way
No effects from the recent Mentawai earthquakes

What's different about this trip?

Boat leaving out of Padang, not Sibolga, Simeulue, or Nias
A day longer on the boat
More efficient flights meaning less time off work and more surf time
Half the guys from last time have had kids and can't go back

Why May?

Memorial day weekend gets me an additional day for free
Historically a very consistent month for swell
technically peak season but possibly a bit less busy than June/July/Aug

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"Secret Machine" - my new favorite DVD

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:38:42 -0800

I don't know what took me so long to see it. The music is fantastic, 90% of the surfing is in great waves, typical ripping from Taj and the Hobgoods. The artsiness of it makes a statement. This aspect of the editing/music really took me by surprise given the schlocky-looking trailers with the Hobgoods wearing collanders on their heads. The gimmick kept me from this one for too long.

I'd rate the re-watchability right up there with September Sessions. Easily worth every cent.

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What's Going on Here?

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:29:20 -0700

Welcome!

What's going on here?

This blog has a few of my rants about surf travel but mostly around the topic of surf travel to Indonesia, one of my favorite topics of all. I started this blog because I needed to figure out what blogging was all about and picked this topic because I was unable to actually go to Indonesia in 2007 and wanted to live vicariously through others.

Why was it advertised?

Just for fun. I wanted to learn a little about search engine marketing and decided to put (very) little money on the line. As of this writing, this blog generates no revenue for me and I don't expect it to in the future. It's for information and entertainment purposes only. Feel free to post comments or contact me. Again, my goal is basically to share my experience and live vicariously through others until I once again get busy planning my next trip.

Where's all the info?

Not all posts are displayed on the first page. The blog has archives and unlike many news or current events blogs, the stuff I posted about surf travel six months ago is probably still quite useful information about this obscure little topic.

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Surf video reviews: Young Guns 3, Absolute Mexico, Aquatic Dreams

nobody@vox.com(Ian) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:30:03 -0700

Since the great majority of surf videos are not sold or reviewed by mainstream media companies I thought after I bought a handful of them I'd post my thoughts. Here's what I care about in a surf movie, in the following order:

great waves
great music
cinematography/photography/aesthetics
great surfing with a healthy mix of maneuvers

Young Guns 3 disappointed after YG2 had set the bar so high ON MY CRITERIA. I acknowledge that the younger Quik guys are growing up and pushing the limits more and more. The aerial maneuvering is mind blowing. Having said that, probably 20-25% of the DVD is 1-2 maneuver waves at a wedgy closeout beachbreak left. A long long way from the 4-6 maneuver linkages at Maccas or Rifles in YG2, each shot from shot from 3 or 4 different angles and accompanied by a fantastic soundtrack. I liked the fact that G-Land had its own section in YG3 and it's about time someone went back there and shot the new school on that wave. It takes a lot of water photogs/boats/skis to get the shots at G-Land because of the huge playing field, tide changes, currents, etc, and they got the shots. As a surfer who likes going left and getting shacked G-Land is the end-all, be-all wave. As a photographer it's a pain in the ass. Front-lit morning G-Land is onshore, rarely glassy or offshore, and by the time the 10am offshores pick up the harsh midday light or sponsor-unfriendly back lighting is a factor. Never mind the other hassles of currents, distance from shore, and lineup size. Safe to say it ain't HT's.

Absolute Mexico looks great, the surfing is much more on the WCT guys at La Jolla with only a smattering of big-wave Puerto Escondido. It is a great companion to "A Fistful of Barrels", which I also recommend. The music is latin but lively, and thoughtfully selected. You also get a healthy sense for what's IMperfect about the wave at La Jolla when pros are complaining about the swift current and the heavy drops.

Aquatic Dreams looks low-budget but delivers a pretty high action quotient. It's not groundbreaking in any way. The WA barrelling right sequence gets repetitive (Gas Bay?) but the waves are sick and it's not the Box. Expectations were fairly modest for this one and in my opinion it over-delivered.

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