39 posts tagged “surfing”

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:

1. great waves
2. great music
3. cinematography/photography/aesthetics
4. 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.

The article below came out on 9/28.  I've been getting married, getting away, and getting sick so have been kind out out of it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/sports/othersports/02surf.html

This article quotes Scuzz (Chris Scurrah) and Christina of Sumatran Surfaris.  Sumatran Surfaris is currently doing a company trip/relief mission combo and probably invited some media along to cover the trip.  The article quotes respected CalTech scientist Kerry Sieh as saying that the southen Mentawais have been lifted roughly 3 feet according to GPS.  The article notes that Rags Right is gone and Macca's is shorter, shallower, and more dangerous.  As far as other spots go, if Rags Right is affected that much then Thunders is probably pretty different with lots of exposed reef on the inside.  It was pretty shallow/hollow but rideable from 3-5 ft faces, hard to know how it will be affected.  The Hole may also be gone since it was shallow/heavy to begin with and pretty far south.  Green bush was named by Surfing Magazine, has been featured in videos, looks shallow, and I believe it's near macaroni's so it could be gone also.

A reader asked about tipping on boat trips.  In surf travel, just like any other form of travel, there's always potential for a culture clash when people don't know what's expected of each other.  Hopefully this will clear away some of that confusion for future visitors to the Mentawais and Northern Sumatra, and result in happy returns for those of us who are looking to go back.

Why tip the crew on a boat trip?

1. Indo is a poor country.  The Indonesians working on boats aren't spending weeks away from their families for kicks or for surfing - they need the money.  Maybe some of the crew will blow it on crack and whores, but most have direct or extended families that count on them for food, shelter, medical care, school fees, etc.

2. You have been provided good service in a very personal way.  Everyone working on a boat works hard either behind the scenes or in direct contact with guests.  You'll see the crew first thing in the morning, last thing at night, at every meal, they'll pick you up and take you back to the outside when you're too tired to paddle but just need one more, you'll learn their names, they'll help keep your bunk area tidy, and make sure your favorite boardshorts on the clothesline don't get blown off in a squall.  

3. Tipping rewards skills that you, as a surfer, want to be available to you when you come back.  You don't want that expert ding repair guy, the guy who shoots great video, or the dinghy driver who knows the safe spots in the lineup at Kanduis to be driving a cab in Padang next time you come back.  Make it worth their while.  It's a small industry, next time you come into Padang you'll probably see a familiar face and they'll be glad to see you.

4. When the waves went flat you and the boys had a bender and kept the crew up at night, then left a mess for them to clean up in the morning.  Happens on almost every boat trip, and a decent tip helps fix any hard feelings.

5. Plus honestly, it's no skin off your back.  You probably just coughed up in the neighborhood of 5000 US Dollars for a plane ticket, a hotel night or two, a couple new boards, and 11 or more nights on a private boat.  In the grand scheme of things, a nice tip for two weeks worth of work for an indo boat crew is less than the cost of a big night out in a major western city.

How to discuss tipping

• With your group

Agree on an amount.  If you're organizing this thing, throw out an amount just try to get everyone to go along.  If the cheapskate in the group knows everyone else is coughing up a hundred bucks, then they'll grumble but they'll do it too.

• If going solo

Ask around (a subtle reminder to others who may not remember to tip) but in the end you must chart your own course.

• Ask your guide

You guide will tell you how it usually works, and will organize the crew to all be in the same place at the same time without disrupting anyone's work or sleep (not as easy as it sounds - the crew is busy on the last night!).  Generally this happens on the last night of your trip, after dinner but before anyone goes to sleep, 

How much to tip

I took a 13 day trip with eight total guests and a crew of 5 plus a guide.  The guide refused to accept any tips.  We tipped USD100 per guest for USD800 total and the crew (once it had been counted out) was stoked.  By the crew's reaction I judged this to be an acceptable, possibly even above-average tip.  The total cost of this charter was a little under $20,000 so this amounted to a 4% tip.  This is LOW by the standards of US restaurants, bars, taxicabs, and hair salons, but 15% of a charter boat price seems outrageous and I hope expectations never get to that level.  Regarding higher-end boats - more of the cost of the trip goes to the capital cost of the boat and less to the variable costs of crew, food, fuel.  On luxo-liner boats the crew may be the cream of the crop from other boats and expect better tips in return for better service.  The crew can also gauge how much you can afford to tip by the quality of your boards, clothing, equipment and how much the boat costs, so may have higher tip expectations in that situation.  So for what it's worth, I'm going to say 4-5% is a good number. 

who gets the tips?

Usually there's a hierarchy among the crew.  Honestly, this isn't really your business, and these guys need to work together and already have an understanding in place that you shouldn't try to disrupt.  It won't surprise you that the guys with the most money invested in the boat and the most responsibility get their take first - guides, captains, cooks.  They have the most skills and the most alternate work opportunities.  But the underlings don't just get the scraps - the senior guys know their deck hands, skiff drivers, mechanics, and assistant cooks are all part of providing good service and could get work on other boats so they will share.  If they are working a full season on a boat things get to be pretty family-like, and you can screw family a little but not a lot.

What currency to use

USD or Rupiah.  I'm not being an ugly American here, the dollar really is king.  This finally hit me when I watched a Japanese guy fish out 25 US dollars from his wallet and pay the indonesian government's visa fee at the Jakarta airport.  If the indo government takes USD, then it's damn near coin-of-the-realm.  In theory Australian Dollars, Euros, Pounds, or Yen would also be useful to the crew but would probably entail a much bigger spread between the face value in the country of the currency and the actual value they'll get for the non-USD foreign notes whereever the boat pulls into port.  So if you have those currencies and want to use them for tips then you should give 10-20% more in USD value. 

Bring new bills

There's no ATM machine on the boat or anywhere you'll be stopping.  So if you didn't bring enough cash on the boat, you won't be able to tip the crew.  Duh.  Also, USD notes that are of an older type or look beat up won't be worth as much in exchange.  So when you go to get the notes you're going to take to Indo, make sure you get crisp new ones.

Non-cash compensation

Before a boat trip I asked a Balinese coworker if there were any items that were hard to get in Indonesia that I could schlep over to Indo and give to the crew.  She said, "Money!"  Seriously, I've heard that school supplies, tools, western-style clothing, surf gear that could be resold are all very thoughtful.  So if you've got this stuff laying around and can bring it along to give away, then do it.  It's not a substitute for cash, but it will probably find a use.  

Not strictly surfing related, but definitely Indonesia-related.

A close friend and (extremely competent travel planner) from my last job has put together a non-profit dive tour operator called ZeroBar (www.zerobar.org).  They are running diving trips to the Ambon islands in Indonesia, Mozambique, the Maldives, and other exotic locales where world-class diving might be combined with nonprofit work (and possibly surfing on an extension to these trips).  These guys are on a mission to promote sustainable tourism, tread lightly on the environment, train locals to certify and support visiting divers, and educate locals about preservation of their local reefs.  They want to put less-visited but spectacular dive spots such as Mozambique on the map and leave the infrastructure behind to support the next wave of visitors with locals trained to support divers and preserve reefs.  Have a look, check out their trips, and consider becoming a member.

The big quake is coming to the Mentawais

If you've always wanted to surf the Mentawais (Siberut, Sipora, North Pagai, South Pagai) but just haven't gotten around to it, you should go soon.  I hate to cry wolf here but Sumatra has been very seismically active lately.  There were TWO major quakes of Northern Sumatra, the Christmas Tsunami quake that killed hundreds of thousands of people and THEN another huge 8+ quake off Nias in March 2005.  The Nias quake rearranged (reminder to self - find photo of uplift in Simeulue) surf breaks all around Nias, but didn't really affect the Mentawais.  When we sailed by the SE corner of simeulue we saw where the former waterline had been lifted up by about half the height of a coconut tree - 15 or 20 feet out of the water.  Yes there are new breaks and some breaks got better, but most breaks got worse.  Bawa, the famous swell-magnet right in the Hinakos is not nearly what it was before.  Forget about catching it like Tom Curren did in the Rip Curl search video from 1994.

Whether the upcoming Mentawai quake pushes the breaks up or down, any change to the bottom contours of a perfect wave like HT's or Macaroni's is a change for the worse.  Nature does not by default create perfect ruler-edged reefs - great surf spots are a freak of nature, even in indonesia.  Also note that it's the offshore reefs that refract swell almost 180 degrees around to HT's lineup - if they submerge or rise that spot may stop working entirely.  

Crowds are lower than they have been for years

A few days back I got a mass marketing email from Sean Murphy the president of Waterways travel.  I've pasted in his message below in quotes.  What he's saying echoes what I've noticed on booking sites and heard from other sources.

"

WHY:
The Mentawai Islands are experiencing a downturn in traffic for a variety of reasons.  Last year was one of the worst seasons in the Ments in recent history due to slightly less swell than previous years combined with persistent south wind conditions.  When the winds blow from the South in the Mentawais there are only a few breaks that favor this wind such as Thunders and Burger World which also pick up quite a lot of swell.  In attempts to get their passengers the best surf possible many of the boats congregated at the few spots which were best given the conditions.  As a result, many charters experienced crowded conditions, unfavorable winds, or lack of swell given the breaks chosen by the captains and passengers on-board.

Compounding the poor conditions many experienced last year, it was apparent to all who made the journey that there are a number of upscale land camps under development which have already opened, or were scheduled to open for the 2007 season.  Although this is true, the land based resorts are experiencing their own problems this year.  Accessing the land camps has proven difficult, often requiring unreliable local ferry transportation.  Macaronis Resort had based its schedule around a sea plane operation which has just been cancelled effectively resulting in the cancellation of all bookings for the 2007 season.  Other currently operational resorts such as Aloita Resort (Telescopes/Playground) and Katiet Villas (HT’s Lances etc) have wide open availability for the 2007 season as a result of late confirmation of flights from Padang to Rokot (Mentawais).  Katiet and Aloita are not listed under specials below.  Contact our office if interested in Mentawai land based resort for current detail.

Finally, WaterWays has been approached by many boats over the past 2-6 weeks that are either represented by other surf travel operators, or have been operating independently, to see if we could produce any groups for them this season.  For the most part we have turned these boats away preferring to stick exclusively with our current fleet which is proven and thankfully mostly booked this season.

Given that most the resorts and many of the yachts have the bulk of their space remaining available at this time, it is unlikely that their occupancy levels will increase significantly.  Most people booking a 14+ day trip to Indonesia book well in advance, especially if trying to coordinate a group.  Our March/April groups have been surfing with no crowds even at the big name breaks – empty lineups.

WITH ALL THE ABOVE FACTORS IN PLAY, THIS IS THE BEST TIME FOR THOSE WHO ARE ABLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION AND GET TO INDO TO EXPERIENCE THE BEST SURF IN THE WORLD"

Did I already mention I love surfline?  If you're a premium member they do these long-range forecasts and show you what's coming up in the next two weeks.  These things are great as you get closer and closer to the date of your trip.  Me, I don't have a trip this year, so this is pure vicarious viewing on my part.  If you're heading to indo any time this week, you're scoring.  Note that the swell will basically never drop below head high for two weeks.  Even if the macker swell for 5/16-5/18 turns out to be a little overstated it will still be plenty big.  The only variable now is between two and three times overhead.  By the time these things get to 5-7 days out the swell is basically already in the water and the forecasts are pretty solid.  I've been watching these charts for a couple years and Indo has two week runs like this fairly often during the season, which is why I devote so much real estate to talking about it - it's pretty much a sure thing with respect to consistent clean swell and benign winds. 

Note also the nice SW swell direction, great for some spots in Northern Sumatra and sure to light up spots in the Mentawais that need a strong SW push like Telescopes.  If the swell actually comes through at 11 ft 19 sec that is tow-in city.

I'm not the first to name this spot or put up a map, that was this guy or the World Stormrider Guide Volume 2.  The spot is also known as Machine Gun Rights.  Several boat operators refuse to name the spot, all the while treating it as the focus of their Northern Sumatra boat trips.

The World Stormrider Guide Volume 2 (Stormrider Guides)

However, once I went there I realized the spot is NOT where the online map or the map in World Stormrider Guide Vol. 2 say it is.  Those maps are an inside joke that do exactly what this blog post is trying to do - reveal that there is great surf in this general area, and if you actually make it to indo and ask around or book with the right operator, you'll probably be able to score it.  Any of the boat operators I list as "dedicated" to Northern Sumatra on this post can dial you in to a session.

There are important downsides to this spot however:

1) Treasure Island needs a fair amount of swell from a specific direction - not every swell angle will get in. 

2) It's not a swell magnet - it needs to be decent sized to get going. 

3) The area is extremely isolated.  Forget about flying in, and it will take a long time to get there by bus/ferry.  The area is lightly populated with poor land access to the break.  You won't easily be able to buy shelter, food, or transport from locals anywhere near the surf spot.  There are definitely no local surfers, nor are there really any local villagers.  The extreme isolation means that boats accessing this spot have limited time to wait around for the right swell/wind combo to make it happen.  It's at least a few days motor from Padang, meaning if you book a 10 day trip out of Padang and opt to head north you'll surf the Telos on Day 1, Nias on day 2 or 3, and up north by day 4 or 5.  Your trip is half gone and you're just getting there.  The "Sjalina" operating out of Simeulue, "Mikumba" or "KM Nauli" out of Nias or Sibolga, and "Bohemian" out of Sibolga probably have the closest access and could conceivably surf there on the first & last day of their trip.  But remember - for those sensitive to time off work, just getting to Nias or Sibolga takes an extra travel day coming in and going home.

The camp featured on www.simeulue.com claims quiksilver travel as their US booking partner but if you visit quiksilver travel's site the Simeulue camp/boat trip is nowhere to be found.  As with most camps/boats in indo that drop off the scene it's probably more perception and loss of marketing partners than the camp folding or going away.  Here's the scoop from reader Jon:

"I finally got ahold of quik travel and got the lowdown on baneng beach resort.  The old owner got tired of muslim law i.e. not being able to drink beer and took a job w/ the UN. Since the camp is so remote and they're not familiar w the new owners, it is too much of a logistical nightmare to book trips w/ them.  The good news is that everyone who stayed at Baneng was stoked on the waves!"

Simeulue is one of the last frontiers in Indo surf travel.  It's very exposed to swell, and many of the known breaks were rearranged in the March 2005 earthquake.  It's a big island, and boat trips to Northern Sumatra rarely make it past the SE corner.  It's very isolated and hard to get to though.

I'm just back from a trip to El Salvador.  Got to see it go big on the April 9-11 swell, and came away with some pretty strong impressions.  I'm not breaking any real news below, but this was my first trip there and only for a long weekend trip so no time to really dig in.  Hopefully you'll find this useful.

Photos

1. The 16th photo in this Surfline feature was taken at Punta Roca on Big Tuesday http://www.surfline.com/surfnews/photo_bamp.cfm?id=8814&ad=1
2. Evan's photos are here on Picasa

Travel Logistics

1. Flights are very convenient from the west coast, as long as you fly Taca.  Taca has nice new planes and they do maintenace for JetBlue (we saw a JetBlue plane in the hangar in San Salvador).  The taca schedule is nonstop redeye outbound, nonstop evening return.  Can't ask for better than that to maximize surf time on a short trip. Contrast with time-wasting flights to Panama or Costa Rica where you probably have to connect and/or spend time at an airport hotel.  Go Taca and surf the same days you fly!
2. The international airport is within 30-45 minutes of good surf.
3. The roads are a thing of beauty, with the uncrowded west coast highway quite remiscent of California's Highway 1 except with broad paved shoulders and no potholes in El Salvador.

The surf spots

1. There exist legitimate world-class waves.  Punta Roca is the spot in the west, Punta Mango in the east.  On video punta mango reminded me of Rifles or HT's, which is one of the highest compliments I can pay a wave.  Punta Roca looked more like Rincon than J-Bay, fairly fast but with only incidental barrel sections.
2. There are a number of quality, uncrowded spots in the west.  Zonte served up fast rights and lefts at three different peaks, and only about 10 min drive from Sunzal.   
3. K59 is a thick, steep, two-turn right hander, with neighbor k61 there to absorb crowds but no local amenities. It's about 10 minutes past Zonte.  It was beautiful and 15ft+ on Tuesday but nobody was trying to paddle out through the macking shorebreak.
4. Mizata has a point and a beachbreak, but is 25 min past K59 and so a 1hr one-way drive from Sunzal/La Libertad.  The beachbreak looked decent but wasn't holding size and wasn't consistently hollow.  Perhaps with more sand flow late in the wet season or a different tide.  Hard to tell since we only saw it once.
5. There's no place in the west to hide from the prevailing onshores.  When it comes up, every place blows out.  During our trip the wind came onshore between 8:15 and 9, with significant velocity/chop after 9:30 or 10.  Not a lot of glassy time so you MUST stay near where you want to surf and be up and out there at first light. 
6. There's no place to hide from a big swell.  Say you're in Northern California and it's a beautiful, offshore, huge Maverick's day, but you'd prefer something in the 8-12 range instead of 15-20 - fine, head for Santa Cruz.  However, in the western part of El Salvador all spots were fully exposed and only Punta Roca and Sunzal didn't max out on Tuesday and they both had triple overhead sets and severe current.  Many visitors down there were novice/beginner surfers and it was a frustrating few days on the beach for them.
7. The surf guidebook on central america is laughable when it suggests paddling out from the pier on a big swell at punta roca.  Big swells HIT the end of the pier with undimished size and ferocity.  After sets, the current flows down the point at 4-5 knots, so if you aren't in a powered boat, forget about getting from the pier to the point.  Walk way up the point, time the sets, jump off the rocks, and paddle like hell.  We tried three times on big tuesday and on the third time my buddy broke his leash and we got washed over a quarter mile down the point to the beach in about three minutes.  It only took about 12 or 13 waves to put us on dry sand, and with an 18 second period, that's over a quarter mile in 3-4 minutes.  12 minute mile = 4-5 knots.  Paddling against this would be a waste of time.  Our only consolation for not making it out on Tuesday was that the local spots newspaper featured a bunch of photos of the surf and noted that two gringos tried three times and didn't make it out.  They may have been talking about us.
8. Tides can be a significant factor.  There are two tides a day.  Since you'll only get quality waves in the morning or possibly evening and the day down there isn't much more or less than 12 hours long, you'll get the same tidal conditions at both slack wind times.  If possible, figure out what tides your preferred break needs and plan a trip where the tides will be favorable in the morning and evening.

The locals

1. The Punta Roca locals rip and their surfing deserves respect.  While timing the sets to jump off the rocks at Punta Roca, I watched as dozens of consecutive freight-train double overhead plus waves were caught and ridden well by locals without any missed waves, blown takeoffs, or wipeouts.  It's rare to see no waves going unridden in consistent big surf with only 15-20 guys in the water, but there it was.
2. Punta Roca locals will defend their turf.  I caught a set wave 20 minutes into my first session there and got dropped in on and yelled at by bilingual local ripper Jimmy Rotherham.  Two minutes later he did the same thing to a traveling companion, so I didn't really take it personally.  Later I determined that our crime was to think we could get a set wave.  Later Jimmy didn't want any beef out of the water though, and accepted my apology for erroneously coveting set waves.  Another sign we weren't welcomed with open arms: the dust in the back window of our guide's van had "Boyas Gringos" written in it, which I learned meant barneys/kooks/bad surfers. 
3. The upside though is there aren't very many local surfers.  In Punta Roca and Sunzal we kept seeing the same faces.  As far as I could tell K59, Zonte, and Mizata are lightly surfed and don't have meaningful local surf populations, though I think there are small surf camps at K59 and Mizata.

Economic Development

1. El Salvador is poor, even by the standards of Latin America.  The recent civil war left it way behind Mexico and Costa Rica.  There are few private cars, but the numerous multicolored buses and pickup trucks with stand-up-and-hold-on racks in the back reminded me of India.
2. Side effect 1: They use the US dollar as the official currency.  Changing money is a non-event.
3. Side effect 2: Local goods and services tend to be cheap, where available.  Don't count on being able to get your favorite brand of surf supplies, but things like wax, sunscreen, and ding repair are available.
4. Side effect 3: The local people are totally friendly and many seemed to know someone who was living in the US

Crime

Violent crime targeting tourists is a real concern in La Libertad and near Punta Roca.  There are large banners in Spanish suggesting that for your safety don't bring guns to parks or beaches.  Evidently lots of people have guns and like to carry them around.  Check your ego, go with a guide, stay in secure areas after dark, and don't flash anything remotely valuable.

Every time I read about Punta Roca in surf mags there was a story about someone getting robbed while cutting through the cemetery.  It almost happened to a woman who was traveling with us.  Against the advice of several, she walked up the point alone with a nice digital SLR camera.  Before long a kid was casing her stuff and had alerted a robber.  Some other kids yelled at her to run but with no understanding of Spanish, she stayed put.  Finally local expat Bob Rotherham's wife spotted the bad hombre and yelled at her in English, "Run!  That guy is going to rob you!"  Our friend took off running with the guy only 40-50 yards away and narrowly escaped.  The guy wasn't so bad-ass that the local kids were also afraid of him, but armed robbery in broad daylight right on the rocks at the country's most famous break is pretty scary.

I should note that Punta Roca is in the town of La Libertad, which feels a bit sketchy.  In the Sunzal area further west where we stayed, daylight physical safety was never an issue with backpackers drinking beer and wandering the beach.  Nighttime might have been a bit more dicey, but there was an armed guard at our hotel making us feel safe when we sat outside late at night.

Booking

If all this sounds good, then cut out the middleman and contact www.epicsurfingadventures.com.  US-based operators probably charge a 20-30% premium over what you can get by booking with an El Salvador-based company.  Our guide was Giovanni who surfed well, spoke passable English but also had trouble getting set waves at Punta Roca.  He lives in San Salvador so wasn't really a local in La Libertad.

I got a tip from Danny over at Sumatran Surfaris about a promo video that Patagonia had recently posted for an upcoming DVD called "Sea Legs".  I happily link to it here as I feel some personal attachment to this effort.  After my trip on Budyadahri in August 2006 I was stuck in Padang for an extra day, which happened to be Indonesian Independence Day.  The Patagonia surf team was one day delayed arriving in Padang because they got bumped off their over-booked Garuda flight in Singapore, and arrived in the Hotel Batang Arau the evening before I left.  If you had to be stuck someplace in Sumatra, the Batang Arau is pretty dialed in with very cold beer and a staff that hustles, smiles, and speaks English pretty well.  Anyway, Scuzz was nice enough to introduce me to the affable Chris Malloy and Belinda Baggs, who is seen charging a few in the video.   This footage was shot off Northern Sumatra Aug 18-30, 2006 on the Southern Cross, guided by Adam Kobayashi of Sumatran Surfaris.  Adam guided my trip on Mikumba in May 2006, knows the breaks of Northern Sumatra well, and will stop at nothing to find the best waves available.  Adam's the type of surfer who rides overhead barrels on a fish when most guys are riding their pintail semi-guns.  I know he was putting some pressure on himself to score on this trip so I'm glad they did, apparently in both the telos and the banyaks.  Here's the archived swell forecast from surfline.com - pumping.

I'm guessing the video was titled "Sea Legs" as the SE winds had been howling day and night for most of my trip Aug 6-17, making for a very rough and somewhat scary crossing.  Most of the photos that come back of indo have sunshine and glassy conditions, but if you spend almost two weeks out on a boat your odds of copping a heavy squall are pretty decent.  Under pelting rain and heavy seas you learn if the crew did their job refitting the boat during the offseason: strapping down the refrigerators and stereo system, plugging leaks with tar, padding doorways and low overheads so tall foreigners don't bash their heads, applying grip tape in the right spots on deck, and so many more things that take a boat from being "OK" to being totally dialed in and confidence inspiring.  You're a long way from help out there.