Surfing in the Mentawais: Only for the pros...or the rich?

#mentawai #surftrip #kanduiresort Most surfers have seen videos from the Mentawai Islands. Crystal clear water, sunshine, no crowds and pumping waves. Pros getting barreled time and time again at Kandui Left, Bankvaults, Rifles and HT's......and that was one of my worries when planning my surf trip to the Mentawais. Is it always double overhead, super hollow and scary? Is it a surfing paradise reserved only for pros willing to risk life and limb? Sure, if you go in July and August, your chances of scoring a big swell is higher. However, for most trips of around 10 days apparently you're only likely to get 2-3 days of good swell. Of course, the average waves you experience in the Mentawais are likely to be in another league to your local beachbreak. The point is that videos from the Mentawais make it look like it is pumping all the time, 24/7, 365. That's not quite the case. Whilst you're unlikely to get completely skunked, there was a guy on my trip who on his first boat trip to the Mentawais spent 10 days with waves no bigger than 1ft. He still came back every year after that so it can't be all that bad. You also have to factor in that many of the waves that you see on the videos are incredibly fickle. Kandui Left is also called No Kandui for a reason. Super fast and multiple sections make it a fiendishly diffciult wave to make. Bankvaults looks incredible in the videos, but you only see the best waves. For your average surfer, it's a challenging wave with sections that take you by surprise! As someone told me before I went "that wave just wants to eat you". I also went with the hope of scoring 'The Queen of the Mentawais', Rifles......only to be told when I arrived that Rifles only breaks maybe 8-10 times a year and is only really good a handful of times a year. This is the type of thing that you may not know when planning your surf trip, I hope it helps to manage expectations. Take this with a pinch of salt though. Surfing in the Mentawais is hard to beat. Is it only for the pros? No. There are loads of waves in the playgrounds area which offers variety. If a swell hits you can always find a more sheltered wave if that's what you want. If you are a really good surfer then there's also that end of the scale, with waves that make my palms sweat just looking at them. I think you need to know what you're doing, but I had a great time and am a pretty bog standard surfer. Will I be going back to the Mentawais? Yes, absolutely. The issue is that it not only takes at least a couple of days to get there, but it's not cheap. Kandui ranges from around $3k USD to $3.25k USD for 10 days. There are cheaper surf camps but you're still looking at $100 USD per night. Personally, if I'm going to make the trip, I'd rather pay the premium to have the largest amount of flexibility to get a boat to the surf whenever I want. Still doesn't hit the wallet pretty hard though! 0:00 - Morning start at Kandui Resort 1:04 - Surfing Hideaways 2:53 - Burgerworld 3:54 - Jet Ski Surf/Wakeboarding 5:06 - 4 Bobs Surf 6:31 - Pistols 9:26 - End of a trip 11:05 - How is expensive is a Mentawais Trip? 12:40 - Do you have to be a pro to surf in the Mentawais? 13:33 - Constant Swell? Misleading Videos?