Asu in Indo

I have been trying to convince a mate who is a goofy to come on a boat trip to Indo with me for the last few years, he loves surfing but hasn’t ever really had the money due to saving deposits and paying a mortgage etc.  He is finally in a position where he could probably afford it so I’m going to try again to get him to commit to a trip.

As luck would have it, I finally found and saved some old footage of Indo in 2005, spent about an hour putting some of it together into a 20 minute vid to use as a persuasion tool.  Thought I would post a bit of it here if for nothing else then it is 4 mins of a break in the Northern Sumatran islands called Asu and some of you might be interested.  On the other side of the island is a break called Bawa some might remember from one of the old Rip Curl Search vids, a right hander that Tom Curren rides on a 5ft something fish while it’s 10ft.  Both Asu and Bawa changed pretty dramatically after the earthquake, in the background you can see what looks like dry reef, all of that used to be underwater, but Asu still goes ok.

that wud definatly convince me to go!

So did this end up happening nbg?
I surfed asu the year of the big tsunami. Staywd in the village with a local family. I did 4 days on bawa and was not impressed. U had to really hunt for a decent one shifty closeouts. It was deep to so hold downs were scary, eff me it was powerful. Guys on 7.6 in 8 foot. As soon as I could get a little canoe off that island I did. Landing on asu was a blessing.  Back then the end section was a screamer called nuclear zone. Difficult but so inviting. Was always smaller than bawa but when it got big it held shape. One of the best waves ive surfed without doubt.
There were other waves on north nias too then but ive heard afulu is a distant memory. Lagundri lost the machine but the point improved outta sight.

Lesson one, don’t get a mortgage. It kills all things fun, like this!!

NBG, i hope your buddy gets to sample some indo bliss! It would be rude not to!!

The vid looks super fun, pretty easy wave to surf by the looks of it, and indo being left city and your buddy being a goofy footer.. Well what more do i say!!

Charge on frothers!

Easy to surf but if you go deep the drops are elavator. So I went deep. Haha. I always ride pintails in indo so elavator drops are easy. The barrel can be high so hang high to stay dry.
The nuclear zone is NOT easy. One day A.Irons D.Hopgood Dorian and a teenage kid hyped by the photographer as the nextbig thing Dane Reynold lobbed. Dorian was meh Hopgood was nuke zone master Reynolds was one huge wack then fall but irons was insane. Top bottom combo mastery.
Reynolds got burnt by yhe the ‘local’ brazos. Me and Irons had a bit of a bitch to each other then they were on to me. ’ u git a problem man’ yeah mate drop ins kill the vibe ’ f$^#  u man No more waves for this guy everyone burn him blah blah blah ranted about aussie wankers etc for 5 mins
I waited 2 sets then stuff it im goin. Paddled hard to a bomb watching half a dozen brazos paddling on the shoulder took the latest deepext drop ever then hooked the arm dropped the bum to watch em all pull back even big mouth to let me get pitted in peace. They were stink eyein me as I paddled past em to my apot but nothing was said. I waited my turn and repeated and they were trying so hard but just couldnt burn me hahaha. Irons was pissing himself laughing. The crew I was surfing with were bagging me all night coz I was sayin ‘me and andy this me and andy that’
Funny place.

The Brazo’s are fcuken ridiculous there, there is something seriously wrong with the attitude of entitlement that a lot of travelling brazo surfers take with them.  I’m sorry but you are not locals despite the fact the land camp is owned by a brazo.

It’s a fun wave and the end section can be seriously scary, a boiling pit of death on some waves.  It’s a long way from being perfect though.

Didn’t get my mate to ante up up for Indo, he went to Bali with his chick last year which he enjoyed and he’s all paid up and ready to go back to the south pacific for a boys trip this November, hopefully we get some swell.

Before the quakes it was pretty much pefect. But with the lifted reef I hear its shorter and funkier.
Wheres the november trip to?