Mentawai Islands - Sumatra
Islands of Sumatra Indonesia
The Mentawai Islands are located approximately 100 miles off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia's northern most and largest island, and the port city of Padang, launching point for ferry travel and Mentawai surf charters.
There are 4 main islands in the archipelago, the largest Siberut, Sipura, North and South Pagai and numerous smaller islands surrounding these.
The recent discovery of world-class surf in the Mentawai archipelago and subsequent exposure of images of the region in international surf media has pushed the archipelago to the brink of an explosion of surfing tourism development. Foreign tourism operators in the area are, however, aware of the potential for negative impacts upon the local environment, culture, social fabric, and economy if tourism is allowed to develop unchecked. For this reason, attempts are being made from within the surfing tourism industry, as well as from local government, to manage surfing tourism development. In an effort to minimise the exploitation of this sovereign area and to build sustainable tourism, surf travel is nearly completely restricted to authorised surf charter companies. See surfing Sumatra.
You can either catch an overnight ferry across to the Mentawai Islands from the seaport in Padang or you can fly by Mentawai Air - a 45 minute flight.
Surfing Tours of the Mentawai Islands
There are a number of surfing companies that
have live on boats to take you to the best surf locations around the
Mentawai Islands. Contact these companies for more information about their
tours: Surging
Waters provides Mentawai Islands surf charters in Sumatra Indonesia on
Kaimana, a luxury 80ft surf charter boat. From only US$2300 for 10 full days
surfing the best waves on the planet. Group discounts available.
www.surgingwaters.com
Places to stay
There are some great villas located on Mentawai catering for surfers including Katiet Villas located in Katiet village. Located on the beach and only 120m paddle out to some great surf breaks.
Kandui Resorts is a new upmarket resort in the Mentawai Islands. With 7 traditional 2 room thatched houses.
www.mentawaiislands.com/kandui/
Last updated - 14th January 2010