I have been staying out in the village of Katiet, local population of maybe 300, on the island of Sipora. There is a right hand wave there called HT's, short for Hollow Trees, that is a wave of consequence...very shallow and very powerful, and thus, very good... I got HT's pretty good a few days, but I ended up more often than not just watching huge swells come through with poor winds and unruly, savage, closing-out-death barrels that needed offshores to function. So lots of waiting for the winds to change in the afternoon, which they often do...but not so often this year...but i did get it on a few days. I also got Lance's Left unreal, a left hand wave on the other side of the peninsula, about a 1 hour and 20 minute walk along a paved path, through the bananna and taro fields of Katiet, over the mountain to the beach, and up the beach to the reef. Lance's Left has actually become a better wave since the last time i surfed it, better because since the reef lifted about 1/2 a meter last september from the quake the wave walls up and has more barrels than it used to have. HT's, on the other side was not affected by the lift though.

I was supposed to leave HT's on tuesday this week and go north on a speedboat for $50 to Sioban to catch a $1.50 ferry from Sioban to Tua Pajet, where telescopes is, to catch a ferry back to Padang on mainland Sumatera on Wednesday. But i heard from a boat that came through HT's about a new swell supposed to build on tuesday, so i hired a speedboat to take me all the way up to Tua Pajet on wednesday for $100 hoping to score some last waves on tuesday...and it was worth it...i got the $100 barrel on tuesday afternoon.

Winds got good for 2 hours and as the swell built and the tide filled in the office began to work...the office is what they call the take off at the top of the reef, there are 7 different take off spots depending on tide and swell direction. There was a small crowd out and there were some really good waves coming through in the sets as the swell built, so i was really taking my time, waiting through the pack to get my turn at the top of the line, then taking my time to pick the good ones. So, this one looked good, peaking deep in the office with a clean wall and a perfect taper to the lip of the wave, a sure sign of a clean and open barrel. I dropped in, pumped for speed and was immediately deep, real deep, in the tube. My friend Brock was paddling out in the channel and couldn't even see me inside the barrel. I was deep in the first section, then the second section...riding on the foam ball, i literally felt myself leave the face of the wave, the rail of my surfboard coming loose from the face of the wave, and my board lifting and increasing in speed. At this point the almond eye, the opening of the barrel, was bending and shrinking ahead of me, but i was determined and held my feet and center of gravity. Then the weightlessness faded as the foam ball pushed me back onto the face of the wave and i set my rail again, the second section contorting and dredging on the shallow reef to open and spit me out, blown out of the tube by the air and water compressed inside the barrel of the wave...gliding right toward Brock who was smiling and looking at me saying "that was the one"...i came off that wave with so much speeed, just gliding for so far, adrenaline pumping through me like electricity, thrilling. The entire 3 and a half weeks of waiting for this wave to work totally validated in just one wave.

I went on to break my board taking a lip on the head a few waves later when the wind changed for the worse and the conditions deteriorated...I had never snapped a board in my life...i broke 2 this last week. It was pumping.