Sometimes I wish I surfed goofyfoot

Mentawai Surfing trip - 15 days until departure

In 15 days we will be departing to the airport and the Donkey indo surfing journey will begin.

24 hours of flying to Kuala Lumpur the capital of Malaysia via Malaysia Air for most and Singapore Airlines / Hawaiian Airlines for a few others, 2 days enjoying KL, a 2 hour private reservation for the wave pool at Sunway Lagoon, no doubt a few hours of antics at the swim up bar at our hotel in KL, a short 1 hour flight to Padang Indonesia followed by a day of rest and body/equipment prep. 1 puddle jump buddy holly plane flight out to the islands, followed by a 2 hour boat ride to the resort. Thats allot of travel time, considering the actual surfing part of the trip is just getting started..

11 days at kandui resort and surfing the playgrounds region of the mentawais, considered by many to be the best concentration of surf breaks in the world. Our island resort is located within a stones throw of 25 world class waves all of which we access via our exclusive fleet of 6 boats used to ferry us from one uncrowded barrel to the next. Oh... and did I mention we are shooting a movie too? Yeah a movie, in 1080 HD.

The Crew:
The Smythe, Gaykley, Steinmart, The Capitan aka The Erwinator aka Muffin Tops, Bivers aka BE-LO, Tivers aka TAI-BO, The Dude aka Boner, Shegas, Lagbehind aka The Viper, Kama aka little bit aka 80 pound, The Flyin Hawaiian.

Today's Motivational Indo Video

Things are heating up in Indo!

Check out this new report. If this is any indication of what we can expect, its going to be ridiculous! This pic shows what will be happening to Ford if he doesn't committ 100% on his drops!

Extended Forecast Outlook:

Note: all dates and times are local Indonesian time. Surfline offers this forecast on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings.Our latest SSW groundswell will continue to fade into Saturday, June 14th, and a storm that was down under last week directed most of its swell energy towards Western Australia but we will see some building head high plus SW to SSW groundswell for Saturday with some sets running a few feet overhead plus for later in the day and then fading but still workable and head high plus SSW swell will go into Sunday, June 15th, with smaller but workable surf into Monday morning.Further out, we just had an impressive storm in the South/Central Indian Ocean that had a rather larger fetch of 35-40+ knot winds and seas were reaching over the 35 foot mark. This long period SW groundswell from 205-220 degrees will build in late Monday and then really kick in for Tuesday and into Wednesday, June 17-18th, with head high plus to double overhead surf for most of the SW facing breaks and the top breaks will be pulling in triple overhead sets with some larger sets at the premier SSW facing breaks. Thursday, the 19th, will bring fading but still head high plus surf with sets running several feet overhead and then we will be expecting some new SW groundswell for around Friday, June 20th, with another shot of head high plus surf and the top breaks should see some overhead sets. We should see a little break in the action for that weekend of the 21-22nd but the long range models are showing a rather vigorous storm track that would deliver more solid overhead SW swell for that week of June 23rd.

Rifles | Kandui Resort | Mentawais

Be sure your photos come home with you

Good morning Donkeys;

So I came across this deal this morning. $50 and free shipping for a 160 GB external hard drive. I should have enough storage space but if you think you are going to get a ton of photos and want to go home with ALL of them, I suggest you bring some extra storage. Here is a link to the deal. This is only good today.
Maxtor 160GB External Hard Drive
Lots of other options out there but this is just one I saw this morning.

Visas and Reef Booties in the Mentawais

Hi all, Departure day for Kandui Resort in the mentawais islands of Indonesia is getting closer and closer. I am so glad I am busy with work the next few weeks to help keep my mind from obsessing about surf.

Everything is dialed in, reservations confirmed, balances paid, flights booked, every know surf accessory purchased, and now it's time for the actual trip.

I had two separate discussions this week: one about reef booties (which I hate) and the second about any special Visas that we may need. I was pretty sure about the answers to both questions, but I called Anthony Marcotti at Kandui Resort to confirm.

Answer #1: "Kooks wear reef booties...you might need them at G-land but you don't need them surfing the mentawais"

Answer #2: "no special visas are needed, you pay your visa at the airport about $25, and also pay your mentawais islands tax $40 to our representative Rudy that will pick you up from the airport"

Airbus A340 and Singapore Air Flight 37

So this morning I was finally able to align my travel plans with Ford's. We are traveling to and from Singapore on on the Airbus A340/345. The Airbus A340/345 plane is considered the best plane in Singapore Air's fleet. More than 50% of the Airbus A340/345 has seats that lie flat. Unfortunately it is a raffle system to receive these seats. Either way all of the seats on the Airbus A340/345 have extra leg room and there is only one column of seats where you will be in there middle. So even though we are not as lucky as you all to fly direct (with a stop over) to Kuala Lumpur, we get to fly exec. Below is a comparison of our planes. You can find more info at Seat Guru

Singapore Airlines Seating Chart for Airbus A340/345		Malaysian Airlines Your Flight

I'll be at Campgrounds

If you are looking for me in the morning over the next few days... I will be at campgrounds.

I am even rolling back my in-water deadline to 5:30am, so I can get a solid session in before work.

Winds look good, swell looks good, and I need some good sessions before my sales trip at the end of the week. So, if you want to join, you know where to go, I'll be there.

Make it a great week.

Costa Rica Pic of The Smythe

Costa Rica was barely even a warm up for the great surf you guys are going to catch in Indo. I was telling The Smythe how a trip to Indo will spoil all of your future surf trips. They will be more like vacations with some surfing. I can relate it to having sex with a condom vs. without a condom. Still great, but just not the same.

Here is a picture of Chris warming up on a super fast (barely makable) beach break.

Padang Hotel - Mentawais Surfing Trip

Hey Guys:

We have 5 rooms reserved here http://www.theambacanghotel.com/
On July 7th and 19th of July.

Cost around $80 per night per room

First Come first serve for KL Hotel

As many of you Donkey's know, we will be staying at the Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel by Marriott in Malaysia. I have booked us 4 rooms that have 2 twins each. So whoever wants a room please let me know. There are 2 Donkeys, Flakely and Kozai, that are arriving on Sunday and they can grovel with those of you that have reserved a room. Speak now or sleep in Chinatown and eat bull penis soup! (Sheagas said it was delicious).
Conner, Please post Padang Status!

Ok so it's Officially Off!!!

Due to the lack of swell and sooooo many scheduling conflicts, it seems that we need to push the 4th annual DP contest to late July/Early Aug. (after indo, when everyone should be ripping)... So for now I think that we all should focus on the next slightly smaller contest which will be held in Indo.. Who of the 2008 Donkey Patrol crew will be crowned "The King of Kandui".. More info on this to follow.. Otherwise, Im coming to SD this weekend to surf and shoot a test run of some video format Ideas with the smythe, who wants in?

Mentawais Indonesia Surfing- 30 Days Until Departure

4th Annual Donkey Patrol Contest is Officially ON!!!!

OK, so since no one else, but smythe (who's outta town) wants to get this thing going, I am putting it out there that we should hold the DP contest Sat. June 7th.. It looks like there will be a fun 4-6 NW swell in the water, the weather is going to be GREAT, we all need the water time, it would be good for all of us to get together before Indo and Josh (and Smythe) need to go down. Also I think it could be a way to determine who is gonna wear the pink rashguard for our first session in Indo.. First Heat will kick off at 8AM.... More info to follow.. Also, who will have scheduling conflicts with this?

Travelers Yes | Forecast Readers No

For those that don't know, Smythe and Stefan are in the northern Guanacaste region of Costa Rica right now. They pulled the trigger on a last minute strike to go catch some surf. Their plan, last I heard it, was to stay up in north around Tamarindo and Playas Del Coco and make a multitude of strikes to Witches Rock , Ollies, and my favorite, "The Labyrinth". At first glance the forecast for all of Costa Rica looks great for today and the remainder of the weekend.... check it out.

"SSW groundswell (~195-205) will peak going into the second half of the week and hold fairly steady on Friday before slowly fading this weekend. Thursday sees exposed spots go head high to several feet overhead off the Southern Hemi swell, as a solid dose of SW windswell joins in for more size. However, steady SW winds, along with heavy rain, will prevail for mainly choppy condition. On Friday, SW windswell backs down as the SSW groundswell holds, still head-overhead surf on tap with improving conditions. Saturday morning will see fading SSW energy and clean surf in the 4-5'+ range.

Further out; a new S groundswell (185-190) fills in on Sunday and into early next week with some fun waves in the waist-chest-shoulder high plus range."

But herein lies the problem: the Guanacaste peninsula is shaped like a boot, and Ollies and Witches are up by the heel. The bottom of the boot takes a direct hit from this steep south, but the upper part of the boot just gets the scraps of the swell, almost nothing.

The only way for them to have known this is if they read beyond the basic forecast, and looked at the lola model and the surf spot forecasts;

I sent them both an email to this effect, but I think my efforts were too late, my email went out after their departure. Here is my email.

"you guys need to look at the surf spot forecasts and the lola nearshore swell tracking models..
It looks like northern costa is going to be completely blocked from the swell.. Tamarino / Ollies are going to be getting scraps..
Central and South Guanacaste will be getting the juice and are not in a swell blocked area. "

So here is my question to the other donkeys:

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Fiji Barrel Riding | Wiki How -To

Step One: crouch as low as possible, dig in, drag hand to control speed and "feel" the wave, lastly throw in a melon grab for style points.

Step Two: make sure the barrel is bigger than your head

Step Three: make sure you have plenty of luna bars stuffed in the back pocket of your rashguard so your buddies don't eat them in the boat.

38 Days Until Mentawais Islands Surfing

Are you doing everything you can to get prepared?

Donkey Contest - June 7th Instead??

I just checked the updated forecast, and it looks like the swell for next weekend is good enough to run the event however the swell direction is very steep and a majority of the swell will march right past san diego and hit in north orange county.

That being said, the forecast is also predicting a significant amount of consecutive swells for June 7th with a much better swell direction for northern san diego. I think we may have to wait until later in the week this week to make an official call. We will need to see how the steep swell is hitting the event site and what the weather/wind forecast looks like.

"Further out; a better and fun size S swell (180-185) looks to move in at the end of the upcoming week and top out over the weekend before slowly fading into early June. This is looking good for 2-4’ surf at the better exposed breaks, with possible larger sets at standouts (again North OC). Stay tuned as we continue to track this swell.

Beyond that, long range models indicate a return to a more cyclonically active western South Pacific; starting with a strong storm that is soon to develop deep in the South Hemi over the next 48hrs. If forecast charts hold true, then we could see a good run of SW groundswell starting around the 4th-5th of June and continuing for several days after. Keep checking back for updates."

Donkeys practicing for the 2008 Donky Patrol Championships

Who says Donkeys can't swim.....