Sumatra

Karang Nyimbor Surf Camp, Sumatra. Check out these perfect overhead waves at my buddy's surf camp in remote Sumatra! There's a surfer on the middle wave; zoom in for a sense of scale. These waves break like this for nearly a half-mile from start to finish. This is probably the longest high-quality wave I've ever surfed anywhere. And crowds are small because it's so hard to get to!

Karang Nyimbor, Sumatra. Considering how long I've been surfing, I've got very few photos of myself. But on this day some kind soul was on the beach taking surf-pix with a good camera and the waves were very good. This turned out to be one of the better days of surf on this trip but the biggest day was nearly double this size ... scary!

Karang Nyimbor, Sumatra. You don't want to get pounded into the shallow reef by these powerful waves - the coral is very sharp! One of the guys in our camp got partially scalped by getting dragged across this reef. You'd better believe that got our attention. It's dangerous enough at higher tides but at low tide it's so shallow that you can walk out almost to the very point where waves break. Local fishermen (like the one pictured) wade around out here looking for shellfish and octopus. It's a tough living - did I mention there are stonefish (poisonous) and sea snakes (ditto)?

A day with a little more size to it...

Middle of Nowhere, Sumatra. Here's one of those poisonous sea snakes mentioned above. I nearly sat on him because he was hidden in that sea grass. I had nightmares about that near-miss..

Tandjungbaringin, Sumatra. A local fisherman with tools of the trade and his hard-earned catch.

Sumatra. Friendly people everywhere. Above: Children having children?

Upper right: We felt like the pied piper at times- the local kids are so curious about foreigners that they follow you around. We look different!

Right: A common sight : the Indonesian station wagon - plenty of room for the whole family! And the young one's probably driving.

Mandiri, Sumatra. Not Cool. We saw a lot of this all over Indonesia. The more we tried to convince these varmints that this was a bad idea the more they wanted to light up. Just like with kids here in the U.S. but at least ours wait till they're a little older. Most local dudes smoke so I guess it's inevitable for these dude-kids. But still. And where do you get the cigarettes at this age ???

Krui, Sumatra. Most locals live a subsistence lifestyle, with fishing and farming being the two big career options in rural Sumatra. Tourism is not very developed yet and I'd say that's a good thing - it's getting near impossible to find good uncrowded surf these days. And the locals seem perfectly happy without masses of outsiders.

The newest surf-god.

Sumatra. A beautiful way to start (or end?) the day. I'm not sure if this was a sunrise or a sunset but it's pretty!