The Scarmatra Files part 2

Entering the Inflatable Zone

SURF MAT ADVENTURES

Well, we surfed our mats a few times, with Way Jambu being the best spot as it was always uncrowded for some reason. This little fishing village ( WAY meaning river) was a great set up, unfortunately the river entrance was not open, so we were surfing the tail section of the main reef, but could only imagine what this place would look like with a pumping swell, offshore winds and the river mouth open. We found it best with the mid to full tide, the last section had bare coral heads fully exposed at low, so we were lucky to surf it with plenty of water over the reef.

At 2-3 feet it is a fun mat wave on the end section, nice sucky take offs, clean straight wall, breaking into a deep channel beside the reef, which is where the river entrance would normally be, instead the fishing vessels were all parked there waiting for the high tide .We had a blast, caught plenty and shared a few slides together…the best thing was it was just the 4 of us, with no other surfers turning up and leaving the standard 20-30 guys fighting it out back at our camp at Ujung Bacor , so no complaints from us!

We had to pay for parking, a whole 10,000 rupees, which equates to $1 aus and money well spent. The drive out from Dami worked out at 250,000 rupees, split 4 ways and we left the local kids with some stickers and rupees as well.

The video below gives you some vision from our first go out.

The SCARMATRA Files part 4 from adam williams on Vimeo.

Hand Line Fishing

I use to do a lot of this type fishing with my father as a kid, watching this guy swirl his line out after a big cast brought back to me some good memories fishing the local river mouths back home , even down to the spool with a handle on it!

This is where the river entrance would normally be, but at the moment like everywhere else we saw, it was chock full of sand till the next rain and flood.

Thru Paul Newman's eyes below

Way Jambu - Sumatra from Bulkheads Stuff on Vimeo.

The Return

The second time we surfed it was a LOT bigger and in hindsight we should have brought our boards with us, even the driver was spinning out when he picked us up and there was no surfboards to throw on the roof , had him scratching his head and it was obvious they had never seen a surf mat, let alone see one ridden. I had already had a good surf early in the morning on my bonza, so while the boys went surfing I volunteer to film from the beach. With the late afternoon humidity off the scale and not alot of wind to cool things down, my camera decided to chuck a wobberly right as the boys were catching waves. The live view would freeze when trying to shoot video, so had to eject the battery to re set the camera and was lucky to capture what I did.

Paul Newman , entering the Inflatable Zone

Justin Spittle

Paul caught some great waves, and was not backwards taking on the sets even though he got belted on a few, while Phil and Justin sat alot wider on the last section.

Paul setting himself up for a smoker….these waves broke so fast on the inside, you would get mowed down before reaching the end section

Highs and Lows

Fine line between the two, if you took the low path, you lost all your speed …took the high path and you could tap a ride to Nirvana as displayed by the sequence below of Phil Harper and Justin Spittle.

I lost my sun glasses…

Okay, I was having a full meltdown on the beach, the heat and humidity was near unbearable, and I was hanging to jump into the water to cool down and catch some of the bomb waves that I was filming, anyways I left my only pair of sunnies behind up the beach, and had walked back down not realizing where I had left them, so between the camera not playing ball, the heat and now no sun glasses', I was fully spinning out and marching up and down looking to see where my glasses were….then this young Aussie surfer pulls up on a motorbike and we start talking , ‘ how come there is nobody else out ? ‘ , I just shrug my shoulders, dont know ‘ was my reply. He then asks what are those guys riding? ‘surf mats ‘ I answered. Why he asked ? ‘ cause we can ‘ was my reply, which brought a grin to his face and the next question was ‘ can I take a picture of you ‘? I had forgotten that I was wearing my Shazam board shorts, a equally colorful Hawaiian shirt and a funny little hat with camera and tripod in hand , no wonder the guy was laughing, but he did speak fluent Indonesian, so after explaining my lost sun glasses predicament , he offered to speak to the local kids who had all just appeared on the beach, so with the lure of money, these little kids went bolting down the beach with the chance to earn some money, and this coincided with poor old Phil getting out of the water , such a funny sight watching these kids running past right past Phil, who he thought they were coming down to help him.

I did get out for a few waves, by now the tide was filling it up and the wind more side shore, but only caught a few before Paul called me in, he had wrenched is shoulder trying to hold onto his mat, so we packed it in for the day before anyone else got hurt. Watch below for the vision from land and from my go pro camera

The SCARMATRA Files part 9 from adam williams on Vimeo.

Magic Carpet Rides

Phil Harper @ the SCARMATRA tour

Such a great trip. Had everything. The journey getting there, airports, check ins, flights, 6 - 7 hours transfers, toilet breaks. And our accommodation at Dami with Jason King. Waves every day, laughs every day and bubbles almost every night. And all with a great bunch of older surfers in our 60's, 50's and a couple of 40 yr old young blokes. All having a great time not really acting our age a lot of the time. Surfing has no age limit, its only the body that slows us down a bit. Thanks guys for the great company and experiences we shared.

Dress for Success

Uncle Brian Manahan and Myself

Bintang Time

Pictures by Craig McRitchie

left-right

Craig Joubert , Mark Able , Phil Harper, Greg Byers , Craig McRitchie , myself and Jeff Burgess front

Craig Joubert, Justin Spittle, Paul Newman , myself , Dave Gelder and Phil Harper

Dinner Time

Brian Manahan , Mark Abel, Justin Spittle, Dave Gelder, Jeff Burgess, Craig Joubert , Paul Newman, Phil Harper, Greg Byers, Paul Gleeson and myself