The Mentawai Islands were on fire earlier this month, photographer Lucas Martin (@indosurflens) was on hand to capture it all. Here is his reflection on the sessions that went down.
As a professional photographer living in the Mentawai for over 14 years, it’s rare to see back-to-back swells for the entire month of June. Basically, the waves don’t want to stop.
After a boat trip, I stopped at my house at Ht’s with my friends Leo Ettiene and Thomas Debierre, two pro surfers from Guadalupe Island in the Caribbean.
With big names like Nathan Florence, Keahi de Aboitiz (4x Kitesurfing World Champion), Koby Abberton, Jhon McGroder, Barrenjoy, and many other chargers trying to get their piece of the pie, we were all ready to rock. On the 3rd of June, the waves were solid, but with light SE winds, it wasn’t 100% perfect.
The magic poured in on the 4th of June. I woke up at 5:30 am to see the waves with Leo and Thom. We smashed a few coffees and decided to wait for the tide to push in. With the swell building, we saw sets over 6 feet+, and the famous double-ups came into the show. I started shooting at 8 am and continued all the way through until 5:30 pm, stopping just for 5 minutes to grab some food and new batteries for my camera.
Leo and Thomas hit the water at 7 am, and believe me, they were surfing for almost 10 hours without eating at all. Just one liter of water and a few bananas, then back into the bombs. I had the pleasure to see the best surfers in the world in what is, for me, one of the top 3 best waves on the planet. Crazy late drops, insane closeouts—the boys went crazy. They just went for the bombs. In these kinds of conditions, you don’t have time to make mistakes because you can pay the price for your bad decisions.
After surfing perfect Ht’s for almost a week, the next swell was predicted for the 11th of June. This time, the swell was really south. It was perfect to score some more bombs down south of Mentawai’s. We took my friend’s boat, Asia Surfcharters, fueled up, loaded the food and water, and after four hours of crossing at night, we ended up in Greenbush.
We arrived in the Bush at 7 am, and the waves were already firing. Names like Icaro Ronchi, Brayden Drew, Gabriel Villaran, Jacob Szekely (“Zeke”), and Nathan Florence were already enjoying an epic session full of perfect slabby barrels and, of course, crazy wipeouts. We scored perfect Greenbush for two days, and Macaronis was on our radar as the next destination.
On the 12th of June, after an hour of cruising the Indian Ocean, we arrived at 2 pm at Maca’s. Solid sets straight from the south, and then the show started. Big double-ups came in. When Maca’s has this kind of south swell and size, it makes the wave heavier and shallower. It’s like a small Teahupoo. The next morning, the boys kept surfing, and when the sunset hit the Indian Ocean horizon, it was time to go back to our home at Ht’s.
In summary, it was one of the best runs of swells in years: epic barrels, friends, stunning sunsets. What else can we ask for? Just living the dream life.
