The first swell of the 2018 season delivers!

The first season season swell for 2018 exceed all expectations. While Bali did the usual circus act, our 52ft wave hunting machine called Switchfoot was quietly motoring out to the Mentawaiis for the first major swell event this season. Captain Jason Quinn had an inkling that a certain lefthander might be doing it's thing... and was it ever!

We knew swell was coming from the long range forecast, and with all the talk, I’d have to say no. We knew somewhere would be cooking. The lucky thing for us was that this swell hit during our first day at sea, and judging from the period and direction we made the right call to head to Teles. We were motoring around the corner from Padang and I could just see it reeling in the distance, and mate we were frothing.

Most swells hit it fairly straight and you can get barrelled on takeoff. To get under it, you need to push more than you might think… sometimes it looks like a roll in but you’ve really got to push under the lip to get in clean. The first section is pretty quick, then it fades out into a long wall perfect for wetting the rail, then there’s another little horseshoe on the end of the reef that gives you time for one last kick stall into tube. The reef is fairly forgiving; it’s just the perfect shape for this particular swell direction, but at 6-8 foot plus it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. In that 3-4 foot range it can get quite crowded though. There’s a lot of locals who surf here, but there were no locals out this day. 

That’s the best I’ve seen in years. There were only three boats out there too, so it was far from being crowded. Sitting in the channel was great, you could actually feel the blow outs, and energy in the water. It was unreal!

It was solid for sure, 6-8 foot plus on some of them, perfect offshore too. And the swell direction was absolutely spot on.

We’ve had a range of guests on here recently, and we cater for everyone, but a few of them did give it a good crack! The wind turned onshore around lunchtime so we moved over to another break nearby and surfed some fun rippable waves for the younger crew onboard.

Flick Palmateer and Laura Enever were on one of the other boats. They went with Laura’s brother Chris for his 30th. It was a bit of a family affair. Two girls, two guys. Great vibe in the water. And they were ripping!