FLOATING THROUGH THE PAST
What is your fondest surfing memory?
If you’ve been fortunate enough to do a bit of travel in the “before times” pre-pandemic then chances are, among your surfing highlights is the classic, tropical, surfing boat trip through some exotic wave region in Indo or the Maldives or the South Pacific.
The pure, unadulterated joy of “surf, eat, sleep, repeat” for 10 days or two weeks with a bunch of mates, free of distractions, with three square meals a day laid on, an industrial size fridge of cold beer, the odd fresh fish dinner, waited on by a gracious local crew, all while being transported from one idyllic surf spot to another, is the stuff of surfing fantasy.
Yet in the 2000s, the boat trip became so ubiquitous, especially in the surf media and among pro surfers, that it almost became passe. If the pandemic’s taught us anything, it is exactly how precious those sublime aquatic experiences are. So, while we ponder when next we might be swilling down Bintangs on the top deck as the equatorial sunset puts on a show after another day of perfect waves, we figure it is a good time to explore the origins of the great surfing boat trip.
Boat trips really caught on in the ’90s, after the wave riches of the Mentawai Islands, off the west coast of Sumatra, were discovered. The resulting media attention unleashed a stampede of surfers and charter boats from around the world. The dangers of malaria, earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as the concentration of world-class breaks along a 200 km, or so, chain of some 70 islands made the Mentawais uniquely suited to boat trips. Surf all day,
