13TH – 24TH OCTOBER | 4 – 8 FT
Wardy and the Sunny Coast’s hardest concreters jump onboard to close out our 30th season and the Mango juju was in full swing!
Words & Pics | Uncle Lip
THE GROUP
Half goofys, half regulars with most of the group never been outside of Australia let alone a surf charter in Sumatra and the Mangalui team were going to show them a very, very good time.
Conditions/Forecast
There was alot of hype about for the back end of October this year with forecasts looking epic. From the local drinking hole, social media, phone messages, forecasting sites....“do you think this swell is actually going to be any good?”.
The pre hype normally ruins expectations as so much can change quickly but the hype delivered and it was 10 days of action packed surfing with no one around.
STANDOUT SESSIONS
After a few days on the bigger side with a few of the boys out of their comfort zone, waking up at an empty 4 foot Roxie’s had the boys in overdrive froth, but a left we have been targeting this year a lot got the overall vote as we sat there for two days straight getting double tubes on the one wave, beautiful back drop and just you and your friends out is hard to beat, especially when the majority of the group have never seen waves this good in their entire lives.
Wave of the trip
Wardy was most barreled on the trip. Watching Lynchy the dark horse getting the best tubes / waves of his life was good viewing. The twins were ripping and pushing each other. Rorzy stepping it up on the esky lid when egged on. Danny pushing himself out of his comfort zone. Joey blowing fin boxes.....but, “wave of the trip” goes to “wipeout of the trip” this week, and that goes to young Locky.
Personalities
I think this is the most I’ve laughed on a charter this year. You round up a bunch of young tradies that all work together at home and you know the banter is going to follow them from the job site to the boat. My jaw still hurts from laughing so hard.
Food
The boys love a good pub counter lunch at home so all of Chef Situ’s pub feeds were a big hit. Most of the lads had never been overseas before so the exotic Indonesian meals also had the dinner frothing on the new tastes. Wardy who has done plenty of Mango trips prior promised the boys “You won’t be disappointed on the food” and Wardy’s promised sure did deliverer.
Fish on
Not much time for fishing with pumping waves all trip. A couple off the back of the Mango was about it.
It was time to depart Padang and the weather wasn’t looking good. It was the back end of a northerly front that had been hammering Sumatra for a couple of days. We talked about stalling our departer time for a more comfortable ride out to Mentawai but after watching the weather all day we knew the Mango could handle what was in front of us so we lifted anchor and went for it. The crossing wasn’t so bad but when we got out to the Mentawai at first light it was obvious the whole island chain was still heavily affected by the last few days of bad weather. It was literally the worst surf I had ever seen...
“Well boys its Monday morning and we could be at home putting on the gumboots”
Wardy
Funny enough though, within two hours the weather cleared up and the waves turned super fun and we managed to tick off three different spots on our first day. Mango Juju strikes again!
"No point stressin about what we can't control"
Special Thanks
Everyone who joined us this year for our 30th birthday, Wardy for getting the groms fired up and making the trip happen, all office and logistics staff who work tirelessly behind the scenes because without them we couldn’t do what we love, and of course, the amazing team onboard Mango.
Thanks for another great year.
Cheers.
Yours truly, Uncle Lip.