Nias Island

Ah...Nias Island...google it!!! We took a connecting flight through Medan to the barrier island of Nias. Nias is home to Sorake Beach. Most surfers agree that this is consistently the best wave in the world. I was there and I believe it. Beyond description, but I will try. The island is...primitive. We landed at the airport and hired a driver for the 3 hour wild ride to Sorake beach. The ride was kind of like riding a giant snake. We assumed we were lost until we came out of the jungle to Sorake. It was a magical sight.

We booked a couple of rooms at the Oseda Nias Surf House. From the balcony outside my room, I saw this. There are essentially four right point breaks. 4' to double overhead at 14 second intervals. Just amazing. For 4 days we very rarely saw a section breaking in front of the curl. At all times there were 8 or fewer people surfing. Most were pros taking a break and practicing for the tour. Most rides last longer than a minute or three.




This spot is called The Point. It is said it gets VERY big. We saw waves up to 15' and saw pictures of much bigger. It really goes off in July. They sponsor a qualifying contest for the pro tour then.

Inside there is a break called the machine. More my longboard style (insert the word small here) Another perfect wave after wave. To be clear, I did not surf at all at Nias. It was enough to take photos of some the best riding the best. 
I have a ton of videos. A few of some girls on longboards doing some very graceful moves. Not sure how to edit them, but I will try to put some on youTube and post later.

A nice sunset and some local kids.
We took a day away from the beach and joined a couple traveling from Slovakia for a visit to a rather unique village (Bawomataluo) on top of a very high hill. It was built hundreds of years ago for defensive purposes against invading unfriendlies. 

The houses are constructed of Ironwood timbers. The unique crisscross of the foundation timbers are designed to absorb the shaking of earthquakes, which frequent Indonesia.


  Once upon a time, this house belonged to the island king. Now the village chieftain's house, we were invited inside to view the many wood carvings incorporated into the woodwork.























Now to finish up this blog...we rode the snake back to the Nias airport, connected to Medan, connected to Kuala Lumpur, then I flew home to Phuket and Don went home to Kamphaeng Phet via Bangkok. I leave you now with this video of some boys from Bawomataluo doing their Jumping Stone Ceremony. 

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