At Sea in Mentawai: Surf trips gone horribly right

Images, Words & Video by Megan

Beater Cars and Bad Weather

It was about 3pm when my turbulence-ridden spacecraft blasted into Sumatran airspace. I lugged my gear filled bags to the curb as a small man came up to me. “Megan- you?” “From Hawaii, yeah?” “Well no but I live there,” I replied.

“English no, Indonesian yes,” he said. He grabbed my bags and placed them into a vehicle that would have only passed inspection on Pluto. The walls of the car fluttered in the afternoon breeze and the duct taped stick shift struggled to hold on for dear life. We hopped in the death machine and embarked on an hour long drive to a hotel where I was to wait until our boat was ready to leave for Mentawai.

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The boat was ready to depart without me initially as I had missed my ride and was left wandering the empty hotel corridors. Fortunately someone remembered the photographer and I was collected just moments before the boat left the dock. We motored into a severe thunder and lightning storm. With no life vests on board, I spent the 10 hour crossing downing ginger tablets and hugging my swim fins.

Barrel-O-Clock

We make it to the land of perfect barrels, razor sharp reef and water snakes.

I spend the next 12 days shooting surf from sunrise to sunset, on a little blue dinghy. We play reggae and roast in the Sumatran sunshine.

Day 1. Our boat nearly flips as the dinghy engine stalls and we drift like flotsam.

Day 2. Raquel Heckert gets barreled.

Day 6. Raquel gets cheese gratered at Hollow Trees.

Day 8. We see majestic island but are told we can’t go on it as there has just been a murder.

Day 12. We head to port. The captain remembers there are too many people on the boat. 2 of us hide in the pirate hole.

“Lost At Sea” Video