Red Bull Mentawai: Anatomy of a Super Trip

The Red Bull Mentawais trip is ON... we've scored on Day 1.

Rewind 18 months and Andy Walshe, Red Bull coaching supremo, is sitting in his office in LA hatching a plan. To take crew of surfers on a surf trip and get them to try out some of his advanced coaching techniques. But not just any old trip, and not just any crew of surfers. Andy will take some of the best surfers on the planet to one of the best spots on planet earth for a surf trip - the Mentawais, Indonesia. The plan is to allow the surfers to take advantage of his experience coaching in other sports and to see if they can develop as surfers and athletes from the sports science and techniques he can supply. He's backed up with two of the best surf coaches in the business - Dan Ross and Andy King. Their mission? In Andy's words:

"Quite simply to give the surfers the opportunity to be the very best surfers they can be... to help the athletes realize their dreams and their goals."



This is the story of what went down.

I'm standing at the check-in queue at Singapore Airport waiting for the connecting flight to Padang. From there we'll meet up with the crew of the Indies Trader IV and our adventure will really begin when we get on board. In the meantime, looking down the check-in line it's like a "who's-who" of top pro contest surfers and freesurf talent. There's Jordy Smith shaking hands with Julian Wilson... perhaps they're talking about the latest spin trick each of them might be trying when they get into some waves. Mick Fanning is chatting away to Sofia Mulanovich, maybe they're comparing notes on what its like to be world champs. Adriano de Souza high-fives fellow WCT competitors Michel Bourez and Tim Boal, while yet another World Tour surfer, Tiago Pires, rolls his board bags forward a few feet. This is going to be a long check-in; there must be 500 kilos of surf equipment to get on the plane. There'll be 13 surfers in all on this trip including all the aforementioned as well as a bunch of groms like Kolohe Andino, Conner Coffin, Evan Geisleman and Cristobal de Col. Lets hope there's going to be plenty of waves to go around as I certainly wouldn't like to be at a dreamy Indo spot when this lot paddle into the lineup.

Then I spot women's surfing's "Next Big Thing", Sally Fitzgibbons as she searches around for her passport, she can't believe her luck when I ask her about the trip ahead:

"This is such an amazing chance, to surf with guys like Mick, Jordy and Julian, I couldn't believe it when I got the email. I can't wait".



And with a massive sense of anticipation we all get on the flight. An hour or so later and not long after landing, we're clear of customs and making the bumpy taxi ride from the airport to the harbor. It's hot and humid here... 32c and sweating bullets. All around it's the hectic hustle and bustle of Indo life... Trucks play chicken with mad scooter riders as potholes loom up from nowhere. We lurch our way to the harbor surviving head-on collisions and pretty soon all our boards and equipment are on board the magnificent Indies Trader IV. The captain doesn't delay in leaving port and tired, jet-lagged heads hit pillows as we sail off from port to steam south overnight in search of waves.

I jerk up suddenly in my cabin bed - there's a loud shrill as the boat alarm rings out violently in my ears. It's 6am, this is our wake-up call. Current location: unknown - we're somewhere a few degrees off the equator and the ringing has stopped only to be replaced with the whirr and clunk as the anchor motor kicks into gear and sends that big metal claw to the seabed securing us in our watery position. But where? I pull on some boardshorts and rush upstairs. Everywhere there's an excited energy... The boat captain passes me, and anticipating my question says:

"We're anchored in the channel just beside Green Bush... it's off its nuts mate".

Around the back of the boat where all the surfboards and equipment are kept, it's a bit frenzied, a real anticipation in the air. We've hardly taken stock of our whereabouts and notions such as what's for breakfast have gone out the window... the surf is pumping and surfers are tugging at the leash to get into the action. Exactly how good it is comes with confirmation from Martin Daly, the Indies Trader owner, who's been sailing these waters for over a decade:

"It's all-time mate, I've only seen it like this maybe 4 or 5 times in 15 years".

We've just lucked into one of the best ever swells on this reef.

And its only Day 1.

What goes down over the next few hours I can truly say was one of the most memorable sessions of free-surfing I have witnessed. This was a barrel-fest pretty much impossible to surpass around here. Some highlights: Mick Fanning impossibly deep in the tube, playing cat and mouse with the foam-ball and somehow coming out of a 8 second barrel. 14 year old Cristobal de Col of Peru back-dooring a grunter of a wave and with some style riding the barrel, making the tough mid-section and kicking out with a huge smile on his goofy, brace-clad grin. Sofia Mulanovich taking off deeper than any of the crew and pulling into some gruesome closeouts. Michel Bourez of Tahiti finding out that it's not only on his own island where big cavernous tubes are to be found. And what about young Conner Coffin... the 'man-boy' finding some grace under pressure as he slotted into one of the biggest tubes of the day.

Chatting to these guys and girls as they climbed back onto the back-platform of the Indies Trader IV after this session it was like some of them had had a kind of 'awakening of the Mentawais. Even experienced hands at this place were full of superlatives:

Conner Coffin said something about being in dream-land and shook his head in disbelief. As they say in Oz, this was a rip-snorter of a way to start the trip. It's true that good things come to those who wait but heck if it's there already grab it by the balls and jump in with both feet first.
 


It's dinner-time. Our 'boat-mates' are gathered round the impressive table in the living area of the Indies Trader IV. There's still a buzz in the air about the earlier session and an initial view of some video footage confirms what we've been saying and thinking: this was a classic session. Surfers peer over each other's shoulders to get a look at the video footage. But this isn't a self-indulgent window-shopping of footage... there's a real purpose behind taking a close look at the shots. The footage is loaded into an analysis programme that Kingy and Dan Ross - the two coaches - have on their computers. It lets them do some snazzy stuff quickly and easily - like split screens of the same surfer on different waves or one surfer in two different barrels. Dan sits with Sally Fitzgibbons and they talk about positioning within the barrel. These are the evening scenes that would play out throughout the trip and it looked like these surfers were sponges for information and advice.  

The next day I sit down for breakfast beside the 2004 Womens ASP World Champion - Sofia Mulanovich. I'm curious about why Red Bull chose to come here, to the Mentawais. "Its simple" she says... "This is Disneyland for surfers". The captain of the boat takes up the story in a bit more depth... "This is a chain of about 70 islands of different sizes... They sit just off the west coast of Sumatra facing southwest... Take a look at the globe - there's nothing between these reefs and the massive storm-generated swells of the Southern Ocean. All that energy comes trundling along as swell traveling thousands of miles. When that energy expires on the reef... well mate you can see for yourself today what that looks like... "

Before long we're cruising to our next destination. The swell and wind charts, the buoy reading all say one thing to Martin... make headway for Rags Right. So we lift anchor and steam forward. There are 10 natural footers and only 2 goofy footers on the trip so this should be a popular choice of destination. Rags is an exposed reef break that favors a swell coming from the southwest and the charts showed just that. We could be in for a treat.

Not much later we're in view of the lineup at Rags. Once more we're at the back of the boat, everyone's craning to get a look at this famed wave. It can't be true can it? It's well overhead and barreling. Wait a minute though... at Green Bush it was 6-8ft and barreling. We can't get it this good so quickly. Can we? Such questions don't even enter the head of a surfer. Before you can say "World Tour Champion", Mick Fanning has got his board down from the rack and it snapping on his leash. He's one of the first in the tin-boat and it chugs off to the glassy lineup with him and a couple of groms in it...Kelohe Andino and Evan Geiselman. They look like they can't believe their luck... in a boat with Mick Fanning and in under 40 seconds they'll be sitting in the lineup eyeing up some solid 6 footers as they contemplate more tube-time in paradise. But ahead of them is Michel Bourez one man who has a natural instinct for barrel-hunting. In the early morning half-light he was seen from the boat as a mere shadow on the first wave of the day - a really long, crazy-deep double barrel. Filmers worriedly checked their F-stops to make sure the dawn light had shed just enough exposure to document this insane pre-morning moment.



Everyone else isn't far behind. Photographers and filmers are in position and the sun is now up, putting on a perfect light show. There's almost zero wind if anything just a wee bit offshore. The wave is perfectly groomed, sucking up at the peak and then running off... some double-ups with an inside section draining the reef almost dry... the coral heads part-exposed and poking up menacingly. An empty one somehow gets through and I find myself gasping at its beauty. A perfect almond-shaped moving wall of water, it rifles its way across the reef and is a joy to mind-surf, the sound effects come free-of-charge - the 'snap and wrap' of water on reef as the wave in constant motions closes shut on itself in a peeling, perpetual and rhythmic movement. It's mesmerizing.

But if anything is going to snap you out of this kind of daze, it's the sight of Jordy Smith dropping into a bomb. Here is a guy who is utterly driven, who will find a way to ride a surfboard how he wants on any kind of wave. No compromises. If that means making a barrel but sacrificing a section just to get some speed to boost an air then he will do it. And the results are spectacular. I watched open mouthed as he dug into one barrel, came out and gouged a carve so solid and deep that he over-extended his body to the extent that most of him was underwater in the face of the wave with the exception of one foot still delicately balanced on the board. Surely he would fall, he must go down. Impending doom and an immediate appointment with the reef loomed up. Somehow though, defying the laws of physics and within milliseconds of being smashed into the reef, he was once-more upright, riding out the last section on the inside. Big smile on his face. This was a moment of pure sporting brilliance...Show me a sport that combines power, grace, athleticism and style in such measures... does one exist to match surfing at this level?

After this session Jordy would tell me that his experience in the water that day was simply "unbelievable and breathtaking".

There were others, many others with similar tales to tell. This was a day for heroics. How about Michel Bourez spending so much time deep in the tube that afterward he laughed about it saying "We all spent so much time in the tube today that we didn't need sun-screen!" This is the man they call 'Sand Bank' because he treats the razor-sharp reefs like they are merely sand - he has no fear of the consequences, or maybe its because he is just so in control of the situation - even in a close-out. In this session, he pulled into a tube that seemed to go on for an impossibly long time. Over-thinking it when watching the video shot later I thought that maybe like a time and space conundrum, things probably get stretched when your in there that long, probably most-notably your mind. Well at least I imagine your mind gets blown. These are moments that even of the highest level of surfer don't come around too often. Mick Fanning seemed to agree when after the session he said:

"That was the pinnacle for my sort of surfing... going super-fast in the barrel over shallow reef with only a few friends out... it was a pretty amazing day."

He rode barrels that day that underlined his status as one of modern surfing's true stand-out performers. Here is a man that can make decisive and crucial adjustments on his board in the critical conditions that exist in the confines of an extremely hectic and hostile environment - the super-fast moving reef barrel. On one wave we see him pulling in and disappearing into what is surely an un-make able tube... but we know he's still up, and the tip of his board is just in view ahead of the foam ball and the cascade of water. But still it looks like the impossible... to ride triumphantly out of this thing. But then... sensationally... we see him suddenly doing a wheelie as he bounces and plays with the foam ball on his way out, and a clean exit from the tube.  

I suspect some of the groms on this trip are in awe of what they've seen go down today. Everyone surfs till late in the day, milking the most out of the light as it disappears behind the palms. By sundown there seriously is not a drop of water out of place and it's picture-perfect. Of the 3 groms from the US here it's Conner Coffin who struggles to sum it all up... "I'm kind of in a daze, its dream-like... I don't know what else to say, I got the best barrel of my life out there today."

It's the end of Day 3 and we've already gotten two days that for most normal surfers would be the best days in their entire surfing lives. No, strike that, these two days would be the best days even for the best surfers on earth... they told us so. We're in a trance and it's difficult to sleep... not just because of the rock and roll of the boat but because of the clear memory of sensational barrel riding... this is the energy that is coursing through us.

Which is just as well because for some surfers coming back to the boat still means more exercise: the warm-down session on the spin bike. The coaches have implemented a warm-up and warm-down strategy designed to enhance athletic performance during a surf session. This will give surfers an edge particularly useful in contest heats. It means thinking more about optimal heart-rates and designing your warm-ups to your own needs. The spin bike is a big part of this but onboard there are also weights and sand-bags. Mere minutes after surfing barrels and making turns Sofia Mulanovich is on one of the bikes... she says this is a totally new concept for her but realizes that this goes on in most other professional sports so why not surfing? Andy takes a tiny blood sample from her finger and checks her heart rate while he's at it. All the data will go into a computer for analysis and the end-result will be a sit-down talk with each surfer about what to do to improve.

Overnight the captain decides to steam north to Macaronis. This is one of the Mentawais better-known waves. Probably on account of its consistency and that it's a totally rippable wave perfect for progressive surfing... it's a left-hander that gets loads of swell. It can be crowded and has the added threat of exposed rocks even from fairly high on the tide. Everyone's out there and there's something in the air. Well there are a few surfers in the air to start with... Julian Wilson and Jordy Smith seem to be in near-contest like mode with one possibly trying to do outdo the other in an aerial contest between two of the world's most progressive surfers. There are groms in the lineup here that will look back on this session in years to come as an inspiring moment that helped drive them on in their bid to be progressive surfers. We're talking history here and trying hard not to say that, as a cliché but the photos and video footage will support such a grand claim. Here's what happened:

First, Julian Wilson began pumping down the line and launched a number of backhand airs that gave away the fact that he was trying to replicate his famous signature " Sushi Roll". He's only done it a couple of times before and this is a trick of complexity and difficulty that makes some of those whacky tricks that David Blaine does look easy. On attempt number three he seemed to have everything lined up... the speed looked good, the wave looked good, it's not a trick needing a ton of speed more the right launch and spin. Anyway, he nailed it this time, spun and grabbed to perfection and rode away to go and smash the wave on a couple of other sections just for good measure. Here we were again, looking at the future of surfing: progressive combinations.

Goodness knows what Jordy thought of this... I think probably "Good on you mate, but watch this". So not to be outdone he too looked like a man on a mission and as the session went on the hacks, snaps, gouges, turns, laybacks, 360s and so on got more and more ridiculous. Jordy then paddled into a good-looking wave. He pumped a section and then launched himself... surfers paddling out watched in disbelief as he spun one of the craziest airs ever seen. He called it an Arial Roll Spin (backside rodeo with a full flat spin at the end... similar to that in bodyboarding). Whatever it was, it looked like something from the future. Jordy commented afterward:" "It happened so fast...  I got really lucky... I just pulled off one of the greatest maneuvers of my life".

The next day, we pull up at Bank Vaults and the weather has changed. It's grey and cloudy and a bit moody, there's damp in the air and some rain. The palms make their melancholic bow toward the beach in a way that suits the general mood. The sea has turned slate grey and looking out toward the peak I can see some sets as their blue-silvery shimmer catches what light there is. It's a bit shifty but worth a splash. Problem is there was party onboard last night and there are not many takers. But Tim and Adriano are up for it, Sally too. Something's going on you don't often see pre-surf session... Sally is getting rigged up with a waterproof GPS monitor. It'll tell the coaches how much and how fast she paddled as well as paddle speed and wave-riding speed. More data to crunch but together with video analysis, hydration stats and optimal heart-rate info, this will build a picture crucial to helping Sally develop as an athlete.

Meanwhile the head injury Tim got on Day 2 has almost completely healed up and the 22 staples that medic Grant had to put in, are now out. He paddles out with the look of a man who hasn't got into a decent wave for a while. For Tim this trip has been an emotional rollercoaster - after injuries on Day 1, both he and Tiago Pires had to sit out the very best sessions watching their friends tear apart incredible waves. Anyway he's out there now and I'm in the tin-boat watching him surf as he gets some nice ones. He paddles over full of smiles  "Pretty good fun. The wave is breaking different places but if you're clever you can get the ones that barrel... so much fun!"

This is one of those waves that comes through across the reef with mechanical-like uniformity. That's one of the reasons Red Bull chose to come here with this programme. Coach Andy King summed it up:

"Think about the other action sports - in snowboarding you build a big jump and it's the same for everyone. In a half-pipe you hit the same feature time after time... you have a steady, uniform playing field to work on and to achieve progression. Surfing's not like that - every wave is different. But by coming here we can simulate as close as possible to a surface that has some consistency."

I see what he means when I watch Adriano de Souza surfing the rights coming through. Andy is on the jet ski watching from the channel... between waves Adriano paddles over to Andy and they chat about his technique. Andy is getting Adriano to draw out his carves after he's come off-the-lip so they look cleaner, more consistent... better. This is going to help him in his contest heats. Adriano tells me later ... "Coming here is the best thing for practice and coaching like this. At the contests it's hectic... there's just no time to sit and talk with the coaches about stuff like this in depth. Here we can work on our techniques and then take what we've learned into the contest arena."

That evening we make a stop at 'One Palm Island'... we're at the end of the trip and it seems like the perfect spot to get everyone on land for a game of soccer and to take some group shots. The location is stunning, like out of a fantasy-commercial for some exotic liqueur - a tiny reef-fringed opal shaped island with a solitary palm tree right in the middle. As if the setting wasn't incredible enough, a small right-hander peels down the reef and Sally Fitzgibbons is out there making the most of the last half hour of surfing on this trip. She cracks one off the lip and kicks out, splashing into the azure. Back on land I'm standing barefoot on sugar white sand and chatting to Michel Bourez. He sums up the trip: "I realize now that this trip was exactly what I need to progress my surfing and to help achieve my goals... and the chance to surf with the best was what I needed to push my level up. It was definitely the best trip I've ever done and it will stay in my mind for the rest of my life."