Sofia Mulanovich, Lance's Right.
Fourteen years ago, the word “Mentawais” was unknown. At the
time, of course, we’d all seen videos and magazines showing guys like Tom
Curren and Kelly Slater ripping epic, palm-fronted waves, leaping into fantasy
lineups from Martin Daly’s big blue-and-white steel boat, the Indies Trader I. In 1997, only surfing’s
royalty knew of the Trader’s
coordinates.
But a year later, we were all
scrambling for maps and travel-agent phone numbers, because by 1998 the secret
was out—we had to do a Mentawais boat trip like Curren and Slater and the rest
of the big-name pros, and we had to do it in style.
One major reason was this: In
August 1997, captain Daly, armed with his new, plush Indies Trader II, had floated New-Schoolers Slater, Pat O’Connell,
Ross Williams, Taylor Knox, and Chris Malloy through the Mentawai chain, and
the voyage was documented for 1998’s No
Destination, a Quiksilver film and Surfing
magazine feature, essentially the first luxury “surf star” Indo boat trip
tailored for public consumption.
“No
Destination happened at a time when the U.S. magazines were really starting
to blow the Mentawais apart,” Daly said. “It was a great surf movie which
launched the world’s first high-end surf-charter boat.”
Before No Destination, Daly and journalist Nick
Carroll had collaborated on several Mentawais projects, stirring the
surf-world’s interest with imagery of celebrities in unidentified tropical
perfection, totally off-limits for the rest of us. According to Carroll, 1994’s
Surfers of Fortune film and article
came from the first real “knockout” trip.
“I distinctly
recall the whole ‘Indo boat trip!’ fascination thing erupting as a result,” he
said. “But the hang-ups were: a) we weren’t publishing the locations, so a lot
of people didn’t really know where it was; and b) there weren’t many boats
doing the Mentawai run. Most people thought Martin was the only captain in
town, so the numbers of surfers doing trips there remained quite limited. This
definitely whetted many surf star—and magazine editor—appetites, because the
big lure of the Mentawais, other than the secrecy and beautiful waves, was
always that you could be assured of exclusivity.”
Things changed in
1998.
“There was a
sudden increase in charter availability and the inevitable publication of
location names,” Carroll said. “This happened around the same time as No Destination’s magazine release and so
appeared to occur in concert, but, really, the post-1997 Mentawais blowup had
been years in the making.”
And so the
Mentawais reality in 2011 is a far cry from 1997, when the islands truly were
“no destination” in particular. Besides the new upmarket resorts, today there
are several high-dollar Mentawais-based yachts, easily booked through a number
of surf-travel companies worldwide. If you want to go and surf the Mentawais in
style, you can—just like the surf stars.
“It has enabled
people to experience the ‘ultimate’ in surf travel,” Ross Williams said. “Lots
of people surf now, and they all need and want to go on an Indo boat trip.”