For the past couple of months I have been travelling and surfing my way around the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. The main reason for my being in Indonesia was to update the relevant sections of Lonely Planet’s legendry Southeast Asia on a Shoestring guide, but in between inspecting countless hotels and scouring bus stations for timetables (yes, Lonely Planet work isn’t always as glamorous as everyone likes to believe!), I’ve been taking time out to ride waves and gather material for some features on Java for a variety of international surf magazines.
When I last updated this blog, six weeks ago, I was arriving in southern Sumatra having just about survived a few days of ridiculously heavy waves at One Palm Point. My goal now was the increasingly popular surf destination of Krui close to the southern tip of Sumatra. On my first visit to Sumatra twelve years ago the waves of Krui were a mere whisper of a rumour and I never met anyone who had firsthand knowledge of the place. Today things are very different and dozens of surf camps litter the coastline and the whole area feels as if it’s on the verge of bursting into the conscious of mainstream travellers. And if this happens it would be for a good reason; the coastline here is stunning and crammed with quality surf spots. A pretty meaty swell was hitting when we arrived so we went straight to the reefs in and around Krui town. The spots here only work on good sized swells, but when they do they’re some of the hollowest waves around. The Peak, a short, slabby right that gave you no option but to backdoor it, was the wave of choice for the next few days. When the swell dropped a bit we moved onto the hollow beach peaks of Mandiri beach. I’d seen photos and video of this spot before leaving home and had immediately thought how similar it looked to my adopted home spot of Capbreton – only without the million odd surfers that makes surfing Capbreton such a frustrating experience. Although most of the time the waves here actually just closed out we did have a couple of epic evenings of hollow, fast breaking semi-shorebreak. The irony of travelling three quarters of the way around the world in order to surf a wave that modelled itself on our local beach was not lost on any of us!
From Krui we returned to Java where I said goodbye to my wife and Gui, a mate from home, both of whom were flying back to France to return to work (or in the case of my wife in order to pick our little boy up from granny and granddad who’d been kindly doing babysitting duties for a couple of weeks). I then spent several weeks travelling around the interior of Java; an experience I can only describe as an absolute pleasure. I’m not sure I have ever been to a place where art, music and dance is so intimately wound up into daily life. Everywhere you looked people walked the streets with guitars and jam sessions burst into life with the drop of a hat. The urban highlight of Java was the cultural capital of Yogyakarta with its palaces, markets and spectacular dance dramas, but Java doesn’t just do culture. The landscapes were unforgettable and none more so than Mt Bromo; an active volcano in the east of the island that at the time of my visit was erupting. Further east still I had one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life on the Ijen Plateau where I clambered down into the crater of a live volcano and photographed miners digging sulphur out of the guts of the volcano. It was without doubt the hardest place I have ever worked and despite wearing three face masks every time the sulphuric cloud swept over me and the miners my eyes would stream and I’d start retching. At one point I simply curled up on the floor with my T-Shirt over my head as well and a miner had to come and pull me to safety! It wasn’t kind on cameras either and the sulphur quickly destroyed a lens and a flash unit!
Back to the surf I focused on the central Javanese coast around the village of Batu Karas which is an increasingly popular surf spot. Unlike most Indo waves this is a gentle, sand bottom point more akin to those on the Gold Coast (though nowhere near as good!). I found the wave pretty frustrating but fortunately nearby were a coupe of more exciting reefs which I ended up surfing most of the time. I had been hoping to have a few days in G-Land at the end of the trip but my time ran out and all I managed was mediocre surf in Bali before flying home.
For the past few weeks I’ve been at home in France. The surf for the first couple of weeks was dreadful – onshore and/or crowded with poor sandbars, but things recently picked up and I had a few good sessions in Seignosse and some quieter spots elsewhere along the coast. As I write this I’m sat in a hotel room in Mombasa on the coast of Kenya. I flew here a couple of days ago and will be spending the next month travelling up and down the Kenyan coast again for Lonely Planet, but again I have my surfing stuff with me and after scoring epic waves in neighbouring Tanzania a few years ago I have high hopes of finding something decent here in Kenya. I shall update this blog again on my return to France at the end of the month.
Batu Karas Point Central Java
Mt Bromo Java
Mandiri Krui area South Sumatra
All Fixed 
