The 5 biggest charters operators in the Mentawai have strike a deal with the local governement of Sumatra, only them and the resorts will have the right to exploit the highest density of world class break in the Indian ocean. The boat war has been won but is it a good news?

It could be the end of an era for the Mentawai…No more local fishing chartered by travelling surfers….no more land stay at Grandma’s or in the Playground floating house…There will be no other option to surf the Mentawai than to pay big bucks to the 5 big consortiums and book in their boats and luxury resorts ( as an average it works at 5 dollars US per wave during a 10 days trip). It is definitely a sad news for anyone who enjoyed the travel & hassle of getting there on their own to score perfect surf the old way. It sounds that the mentawai are now just like a huge 5 stars hotel targeting fast living rich surfers. What we can hope for, is that all this new organisation (MMTA) and legislation will also benefit the local people and their environnement. Hope lives on thou, because it will take a while for the indo authorities to enforce that new system and also because there are other sumatran islands out there!