After a two week hiatus from surfing (and even walking) due to a freak ankle sprain incident, I made my way over to Krui in Southern Sumatra. Two weeks late back into the game after a high of getting my first cover-up, I was undoubtedly slightly frustrated, but surprisingly optimistic. I think this was because I knew I was kind of physically and technically capable of getting barreled. In that sense, I was confident of still reaching my target, despite this relatively non-minor time out of the water.
As one of the 5 passengers stumbling out of the weekly Lion Air prop plane onto Krui’s local airport (rather more like an airstrip), I found myself in a surprisingly developed town and area. Giving my ankle one more full day to rest, I spent my time scouting out the different surf spots in the area.
A friendly French surfer from Biarritz gave me the short intro to some of the more frequented breaks in the area: the Peak, the Point and Krui Lefts.
The peak was a consistent, symmetrically beautiful A-frame in a relatively calm bay which generated short barrels even on small swells, due to its nature of sucking water off the reef. I found that the wave tends to channel to the right, but there’s also where some massive, scary coral heads stick out of nowhere, The only true downside of this wave was its short rides.
The Point (also known as Ujung Bocur, Karang Nyimbor) was a long-left hander that also worked slightly less consistently well. It reminded me a lot of Uluwatus on a mid or high tide, or like a slightly less neat and consistent version of T-Land on Rote. Unfortunately, I did not find the Point to throw or barrel much, which was unfortunate.
As for Krui Lefts, it requires substantial swell to start working properly, but it was undeniably a quality wave on its day. Its apparently pretty similar to Bingin on Bali, without its consistency.
On the first day back in the water after a long break, I first went to check out Mandiri, a super consistent beach break which is supposed to work when everywhere else isn’t. That morning, I found about 20 surfers out in the water, some of them getting decent rides with a short barrel section (which I later observed was very rare, since Mandiri tended to be to messy and closing out most of the time, due to unfavourable winds)
Knowing that I had to ease myself back into the water, I picked a less busy spot and caught two longer-than-expected lefts and rights. It felt good to be back in the water and I was proud of myself having a good session despite the long break.
Later that same evening, I also tried out The Peak, and caught a couple of short rides. After discovering those two nasty coral heads on the right, I made the decision to only surf the lefts, and realised that my previous skill of rail grabbing take-offs were a bit rusty. (After eating some late drops)
It wasn’t until a decent-sized swell arrived to turn on Krui Lefts, that I made the conscientious effort to rail grab on late take-offs. On my first first rail-grabbed wave, I’m pretty sure I got a cover-up, and found myself riding the turbulence first, then found myself out of it, where I could let go and stand-up and surf normally. Although I highly doubt I was actually as skilled as the pros on Youtube, it felt as if I was imitating Mason Ho riding deep barrels in Uluwatu, and it definitely felt like a feather in the cap moment for me. 😀
In that same session, I took off on one wave, and got tunnel vision as I watched the wave race past me, and washing-machined me out. Rafik, a Malay-English mixed dude from the same dorm, said to me “Got chewed up, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but it was worth it”, I replied with glee.
I was about to take off late on another wave, but backed out when Rafik took off deeper and earlier with priority. As I sat on the lip and watched the wave pass under me, I didn’t see him, and thought to myself, “Man, he must’ve been chewed up too”.
After what seemed like forever, he slowly paddles back into the line-up with a dazed and blissful look on his face, almost as if he was high on some form of substance.
“Guys, I just got barreled down the line for the first time in my life!”.
– Dude who got priority on the same wave I was about to take off on
There were cheers and high-fives all around. Getting barreled for the first time is a significant milestone in any surfer’s journey. I was elated for the dude, but I also felt a slight pang of jealousy, knowing that I was a hair’s breadth away from riding that very same barrel.
As I continued to surf this wave over the two days while it worked, I found my rail-grabbing takeoffs becoming more consistent and comfortable. I even took off one one wave where it was in the grey area between being steep enough for a rail grab and just taking off normally, my brain farted and I ended up just sitting on the board as I rode it out.
In other words, I was going through the growing pains of letting the body instinctually learn when to decide when to rail grab or not.
In one of my proudest moments to mark my progress as a surfer, I took off with another rail grab, and saw the wave forming a solid tunnel all at once all the way down the line. In other words, it was a close-out, so I immediately straightened out to avoid getting slammed onto the reef. As I rode out the white water, I thought to myself, “If that wave barreled, I could have definitely rode it out”.
It was at this moment I knew I was technically ready for riding barreling waves, and from my original hurdle of lack of skill and capability, it now became a problem of the right chance and circumstance.
