East Nusa Tengarra, Indonesia

An Email received from Pat Wheaton
May 2008
I just returned from a quick surf trip to East Nusa Tengarra, Indonesia on the Mahalo II owned and captained by Gary Burns. It was my 5th trip with Gary and this time I was stoked to be traveling with old friends and new friends as well as a couple of new Matuse Philo 1MM wetties for Gary and his surfing daughter Shannon. (Thanks to everyone at Matuse for making this part of the trip possible – that meant a lot to me and I know Gary and Shannon were surprised and super-stoked.)

On this trip the surf gods were smiling on us. We pulled up to our main target break in the late afternoon of Day 1 to a brand new ground swell that had started filling in earlier in the day. We found ourselves looking at very consistent 5-8′ waves running perfectly down the reef with offshore winds and no crowd in the line-up. It didn’t take any of the other surfers I was traveling with long to change and get dropped off in the lineup. Before I took the runabout out, I put Gary into his first Matuse wettie and he was all smiles even before he got wet. I kept the offshore wind’s chill off with my BC vest – it was perfect for the conditions the entire trip.

Being anchored in the channel for the entire trip just off the main reef kept us on top of 4 different waves which were just a short paddle or boat ride away. Off the starboard side of the Mahalo II were 2 great lefthanders when they worked, and off the port, was a close-by righthander bombie and another that we could see in the distance with a pair of binoculars. It was a great change from the early May flat spell that had been running when we left home. The only thing we had to do was eat, sleep, and surf – it doesn’t get much better than that! Oh yeah, we threw in a few fishing trips in the evenings and on the smaller days which kept us in fresh fish for the barbie and sashimi. Needless to say, this surf trip was a total success for all us. Here’s my wish that every surfer, someday, sometime, gets to make at least one trip to a new place in hopes of finding and riding great waves!

Terima kasih -
Pat Wheaton