South Sumatra Tips

Good time to go for krui area. Krui bay doest get much swell but a lot of the waves can be quality at the right tides etc.

Nothing like deserts around town but some good waves.
Its apparently pretty crowded now.
Up north or south can be worth a look away from people.
Swells are often too south for the best spots. July often gets some good sw swells though.
You might love or hate karang nyimbor/ujung bocur. Rarely tubes, often sections very fast and long. Any style board can ride this place unless choppy or massive, which it does get real big a lot.
I prefer to stay at sunset losmen in front of krui left or hotel janitra..or friends place near town,market,internet etc and closer to jimmies and mandari.
Rains a bit more than bali.
Not many spots proper offshore in trades.
Rains can bring glass offs.
Lots of bugs while biking.wear light colour sunnies or specs.
Some kids will beg for cash.
Up to you what to do but imo offer them a job like looking after
Your bike, pay if its kept safe etc or carry board..bule throwing cash around encourages beggers not working for it just as being rude can give bule bad reps..cant be nice to them all though...
Some people deliberately throw themselves in front of speeding bule bikes in hope of payout..saying that though its no bali with scammers everywhere or tricks etc.
Wai jambu and krui town only places really with kids saying give me money.
Bad roads in constant repair each year.

What about that GT . Yeah baby.

I was there few years ago now, flew into Bandar Lampung and drove over to Krui area. Worth it just for the drive unless they have chopped down the rest of the forest since then!

BB, if the forest you’re talking about is the one up through the mountains about half way, it's all still there and protected as Bukit Barison Selatan National Park. Nicest part of the drive.

Staitey, if you get a flat day or want to do something different, go up the mountains from Krui to Liwa and Mengaku. Nice drive/ride up through the mountains/national park and really good coffee. Or, go for a ride up further north of Jimmy's and venture off the main coast road down any tracks or pathways heading to the coast and bays.

Way Jambu on the right swell direction can be one of the better waves in the area. If it is solid, it lives up to it’s name as Sumatran Pipe.

I'm heading there last 2 weeks of July Staitey probably see you there.
I've got plenty of questions too.
Is UB the best option if it does get big?
What is an ideal swell direction for Way Jambu?
Would love a list of ideal swell / wind comboes for the better waves there if someone wants to give an insight? If you tell me to just go looking that's fair enough...

We are right in front of Ujung Bocur, I think it's called surf camp Sumatra Bungalows. Looking forward to it, seems to get plenty of swell so fingers crossed. Probably hire a vehicle to do some exploring.

Have to be something decent in July...

Blowin wrote:

What about that GT . Yeah baby.

Haha i wish it was my catch, its a local mates taken from the cliffs just south of supersuck.
Measured 53 inches or was that 5ft 3?
Regardless biggest gt i have seen.

To the guy above ub can be a bit weird over 8 feet its sometimes handling much bigger though. Theres a bombie peak just outside the ub point often closes out with yet the bombie itself can handle huge swells. Its a good 100 metre or more paddle further out.

A lot of the best reefs like more west swells and not too much south in the trades.
Lots of good beachies sround besides mandari. Most of the like glass mid tides and smaller swells. Wai jambu is kind of shifty and often dodgy but does get real good on clean swells. Not sure of direction.
It does get loads of swell from south too. Not good till its at least 3ft where as ub point can be fun at one ft or 10ft

Cheers Groundswell

Staitey, plenty have had a crack at it. It looks so good when driving on the coast road. The right is super shallow and super fast, haven't met a person yet that has completed a ride. Many have just been left behind or worse still, cut up on the reef. The left is awesome also but it has the dreaded end section. you might be able to pull in, but you won't get out, and end up hurt.

By all means get a boat across and go for a snorkel, it's not too bad and even have a go at surfing it if you like. If you make a wave out there, please let us know (and video evidence.) :)

I'll still have a look with you Staitey if you want. I'm still curious, it's high on my priority list I'm gunna see for myself. It does look fast in the pics though. I'm there for two weeks starting July 14

I would only go if you are getting jaded with Ub or just want to explore. It's a good day trip. Agus at the camp Staitey is staying can arrange it. We took boards, the right was around 4 or 5 foot but spur of the moment timing meant low tide unsurfable and we didn't hang around for it to fill in. Was same size back at UB and perfect so we missed a good day there. On the trip back to krui we trolled behind the left which was massive, very intimidating motoring close behind it. There's a small ship washed up on the rocks there, surreal sight.
Hire bikes from the camp, then you can get up to Krui and to all the spots close to UB...way jambu, biha, mandiri beach, osama etc. the roads are relatively safe.

Any particularly unethical camps around there? You know, ripping off the tourists and paying the locals a pittance sorta steeze?

blindboy wrote:

I was there few years ago now, flew into Bandar Lampung and drove over to Krui area. Worth it just for the drive unless they have chopped down the rest of the forest since then!

Carbon offset air fare no doubt.... Hoped you car pooled to Krui.... And all those carbon sink chunks of bush being cleared for roads and camps so surfing westerners can pollute and pleasure themselves..... I suppose one feels less guilt if paying a carbon tax, so one can continue a consumption based "big footprint" lifestyle... .... Ahh the hypocrisy of "greeny surfers".... Chemical surfboards, chinese factory boardies and wetties, jetsetting the world...... lol
ps- getting that 10k organised, BB. We'll cook a yellow cake for a celebration when the deal is done ;)

Ouch

Fusion sheepdog, fusion! No yellowcake necessary. Just hydrogen and some clever engineering. Now where is that torsion wrench?
As for the carbon footprint, as I said before it's all about large scale government and corporate adjustment. In this case individual responsibility is a hoax, it's not going to make any difference. But if you feel some weird sense of personal guilt for the state of the environment, which I don't, by all means walk everywhere, grow your own food etc etc.......but just remember if we all tried to do it the results would be a catastrophe beyond anything climate change is likely to throw at us over the next couple of hundred years.

Cop out....... If every person made minor adjustments by 10 or 15%, which would not be hard, the world would be a better place.....
Government should not shape society...... Society should shape government.....
Cop out BB.......

10 -15% by everyone? Globally? You're dreaming. Yes of course it would make a difference but it isn't going to happen. Maybe 0.01% of the population will do it and.......they have wasted their time. If you want everyone to do it you need a lot of organisation and the authority to impose that organisation, which is the role of government. I am happy to pay whatever carbon tax is put in place and if that prices me out of overseas holidays or forces me to get the bus to work so be it. Ask me to give things up to make an insignificant gesture that makes no difference.....sorry I never went for guilt and martyrdom.

You can achieve better than that Sheepy just by giving up meat.

Here's the the real problem:

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Shoredump, just spent half an hour trawling around that.

That was fascinating, cheers.

Staitey. I stayed a month in August 08. Drove down from Padang looking for waves (scariest drive of my life). Found some fun setups on the way and got lost a lot and needed to sleep in boardbags in jungle/rubber/palm oil plantations. Stayed at Ujang Bocur most of the time but surfed Krui and Way Jambu a few times. Way Jambu is the premier wave but it is pretty scary and there isnt great medical facilies if you get cut badly. Best over 5ft, but has a flat bit of reef (sharp live coral) that it sometimes closes out on. Surfed it 6-8ft one day - I got one wave and went in cos I was too scared of getting cut up - my mate who is better and has bigger nuts got a lot of incredible ones. Easy to get to, just go to the village 10-20min south of UB and head to the beach (the beach smells like poo because a lot of people poo there). Krui great for bigger swells or mucking around in small swells. In August we found the trades blew crossshore at UB, pretty frustrating as it was choppy most of the time after 8am. Not a perfect wave by any account but fun. Got a bit sick of it after a couple of weeks though. It also has some pretty nasty coral. Jimmys is great fun, and the Peak was fun for a quick tube but is a bit crowded. Never surfed Bannana Island - bit of a drive and heard it was fickle but others say it is fun (albeit shallow). I wouldnt bother with the wave at the massive ship at Bali Villiage (except it is cool to see). And the beachie north of UB was average when we were there. It is actually worth heading inland if you have a couple of weeks and doing a day walk through the jungle (there are a couple of marked tracks) -pretty incredible stuff. Overall, South Sumatra is not the setup of prefection and dreams that you get in the Ments, and harder to get a high barrel count than the Ments too, but it is pretty fun with great places to explore, incredible jungle, cool locals (well we found that the case, some girls who did a trip the year after us found the opposite) and some nice long close-to-perfect waves.

Shoredump. UB best option when it is big if you want to surf big waves. Otherwise the Krui waves are a good option for more pefection and some RH barrels. Also, when the trades are crosshore at UB it gets kinda choppy, and it is really protected at Krui. I would surf UB if it was big and offshore, else head to Krui.
Else you could go to Way Jambu for some adrenaline. Sorry I have no idea what swell directions we had, was staying in basic huts with very little power and defiantely no internet. Only i do know that teh swell direction makes a big difference - as there are a couple of peaks there, and once when we were there (on the really good day) it was hitting the inside peak and breaking across the reef (perhaps had more S in the swell??), the other times it was closing out onto the reef and there was only a short outside section to surf.

blindboy wrote:

10 -15% by everyone? Globally? You're dreaming. Yes of course it would make a difference but it isn't going to happen. Maybe 0.01% of the population will do it and.......they have wasted their time. If you want everyone to do it you need a lot of organisation and the authority to impose that organisation, which is the role of government. I am happy to pay whatever carbon tax is put in place and if that prices me out of overseas holidays or forces me to get the bus to work so be it. Ask me to give things up to make an insignificant gesture that makes no difference.....sorry I never went for guilt and martyrdom.

No, you just dream of all world governments agreeing on a carbon tax.... About as much chance as all world people making a few minor adjustments..... Laughable..... Like copenhagen....

I think it's HoneySmacks

zenagain wrote:

Shoredump, just spent half an hour trawling around that.

That was fascinating, cheers.

No worries Zen, it's an amazing way to see it eh

staitey wrote:

Anyone know if the name of that wave in WOTD today? Sumatra? Not Way Jambu is it?

Fella I'm working with with reckons it is, he's stayed at Secret Sumatra camp last year, says it looks like the end section.

Yeah, shoredumps on it, Honey Smacks /A-Bomb.

There's a bit of raw sewerage flowing out a river there after rain right? What's your take on it Fitzroy-21 if it's been dry for days. Safe & clean enough? It looks fine in a few pics I've seen. But hepatitis is not a souvenir I'd like to take home with me.

No different to anywhere else in Indo. Only major population centre around there Shoredump, is Krui which isn't real big anyway. Away from Krui the area is very sparsely populated, inland and on the coast. The locals do tend to use the beaches as a toilet if they happen to be at the beach when nature calls but it's not like they all flock down there to take a dump...a shoredump if you will haha.
The water around Bali would be a lot worse.

Hahaha

Stayed at The Mandiri Beach Club, its right in the middle of everything, sick beachie and heaps of options either side. Sick vibe there, i even took my Skatey cos they have a ramp there too!

A lot of ex crims from Jakarta move down there to hide from gangs or history. I think thats partly why it has a rougher reputation and the odd local hating on tourists or changes to the area etc. Good place to hide really if you think about it.Especially way down south so close to jakarta but so far.
I lived with an english teacher down there for two months and couldnt understand an english word he said.I only understood his indonesian. dont know how well the students will speak these days :?

groundswell wrote:

A lot of ex crims from Jakarta move down there to hide from gangs or history.

Indo's answer to Tennant Creek.

@ Staitey & Shoredump. How did you guys go over there? Did you enjoy your trip? Did you have a crack at the Island?

You gotta go to know. The old story, "it was good years ago" applies.

To be honest, I don't know of too many spots in Indonesia at all that you can find information about online that don't get crowds of 30+ from time to time. It often just comes down to dumb luck if you are surfing those spots. Doesn't really matter if it is a heaving slab or a mellow point, there are enough surfers in the world with free time in their hands to descend upon the islands. Still, it doesn't stop any of us from joining them. Glad you got some good waves!

Everything Staitey said, except I loved it. The only reason I wouldn't go back is because I never really go to the same place twice. I am more a bucket list kinda person. Tick, next....
The island was beautiful, the right was too quick the day I was there, it was pretty low tide, but there were some gems around the back. I was assured by someone the right is makeable though on its day. Really like the countryside and lack of crowd up around Jimmy's, that would be my advice for anyone thinking of a base. Good spot. Had a pumping day on the rights there one day just us out. Surfed Mandiri beach to a bit of size too. A bit like mini mex I'm guessing. Surfed Way Jambu on a ten foot day, watched one of the best sets that I've ever seen unload in front of us while we scratched over. Pure adrenalin that day.

Where around Jimmy´s can you stay? Does anyone have a name of a hostel/ family there? I saw SS had some pretty hefty prices, whilst further south it got cheaper (around the $25 mark), but I could´nt find anything further north... however I do admit the maps I was looking at looked like they were drawn by five year olds...

Drew's (Andy) used to run a place there (same owner of karang nyimbor hotel).
I think his wife took the land or something. He was thrown down a well for bad behaviour according to word on the street. That was out front of Jenny's Right, Drew's right.

The other places are just people you meet might invite you to stay with them. Be careful with your cash though. Beautiful country up there.

There is a homestay a couple of places up from SS. I met a couple of kiwi lads staying there and they said the food and accom was basic but all they needed and cheap. Sorry I can't remember the price but they were on a tight budget and had been bussing it down the entire Sumatran coast.

There are a few other homestays around Krui and up at Jennys.

Some good advice here, maybe too good! I have been here over 5 times and after my first only go to surf two spots, there rest are unfortunately very fickle and to be honest depressing considering the market they try to exploit, particularly the peak or Krui. Ridiculous.

A handy tip I could suggest is staying at the last losman/home-stay on the Kerang Nymbor stretch, named Ndaml Ibu. Its on Facebook with pictures and very low key but without a doubt the largest, most cheapest, cleanest and hosts the best food. My brother and myself were her first guests. On my term the other (not name dropping but they have been named in this forum far to many times) are a rife joke considering the competition they have had between each other, not to mention initiating the ridiculous overcapitalising on surf tourism on the expense of natural beauty of the area!! Support local Indonesians like this lady