Text + photos: Bradley Masters/ LiquidEye-whs.com

W
hile sitting on the beach enjoying a sunset beer down in Seminyak, I made a call to Andrew Mooney to see if he was keen to chase a swell to Nias, one of Indo’s forgotten waves. With the swell coming from the right direction and the charts on our side the trip was on.

Pepen Hendrik was already keen as well as Andrew “ Roosta” Lange. The logistics of the trip were put into motion. With three flights needed to reach this right-hander and only a two day swell window, we planned to keep the trip to a four day hit and run mission.

Picking Mooney up at the airport and then transferring to the domestic section, we were off. We spent one night in Medan and then caught our connecting flight onwards. The drive from the airport to Lagundri Bay is another story in itself. The best option is to close your eyes and pretend you are sleeping, which seemed to work for us.

On arrival we were treated to some fun waves, and that night we all slept with butterflies in our stomaches knowing that tomorrow was going to be the day. Waking up in the morning the swell had arrived and the boys were ready. The whole day we had six to eight foot barrelling right-handers basically to ourselves with just a handful of Euro surfers giving the boys all the waves they wanted. The local boys put on a good show with Justin and Madman Tony using their local knowledge to weave in and out of a few nice barrels.

For me to shoot the photos from the water I was given a big shock and sent back to the ABCs of swimming lessons. More than once I was washed to the beach and then picked up by boat to try again.

The current at Nias is a crazy factor to contend with. The wave will just stand up out of nowhere and before you know it, you are 20 metres too far inside. Then the scramble back to the take-off point to get under the lip and straight into the barrel begins.

Knowing the swell was peaking on that day we used it to our full advantage and surfed well into the sunset. The Bintang was tasting sweet that night, and the stories of the waves were shared all around.

Now back to Bali for the next swell!