As of right now, Australian travellers have to quarantine for three days when entering Indonesia. That was rumoured to be abolished in April, however the Indonesian government has jumped the gun and is trialling a restriction-free opening beginning on March 14th.

The new opening only applies to Bali and is considered a trial run before all of Indonesia gets the green light.

As the flood gates prepare to open, Matt George speaks to an expat who's seeding the ground in readiness for surfers craving tropical therapy.

“With Bali opening to international travel on March 14th, I’m going old school, taking it back to when surf movies were all about tribal gatherings,” say surf impresario Pete Matthews about his latest film project Days Of Our Lives: Lost in Indo.

“I am tired of surf porn clips on tiny phone screens, I want to sit in a surfed-out crowd and look at great surfing in exotic waves on a big screen and hoot my lungs out”.

His approach is simple, collect the Indonesian season’s best footage from top shooters, edit it into a series of segments that feature one full day of surfing each, then invite everyone to his White Monkey Surf Shop at Padang Padang and put it all up on a giant screen in the backyard.

“You won’t see this on the internet,” says Pete, “you’ll only be able to see it live. And I have no interest in making money on it, I just want to inject some old time stoke into the Indonesian scene as soon as the island is back up and running again. This is will be a movie for the real post-pandemic surfer who wants to re-connect with the spirit of surf travel”.

Shot by star filmers like Pete Frieden, Rory Pringle, Timmy Toes, Lachlan McKinnon and others, and so far featuring stars like Mason Ho, Kelly Slater, Jack Robinson, Eli Hanneman, Ian Crane, Keoni “Cheeseburger” Nozaki (see video below) and even Gerry Lopez, the exotic travel action is definitely there. But the look is more Morning of the Earth than the surf porn Matthews is trying to stay ahead of.

“I was inspired to do this when I was on that Reckless Isolation boat trip with Kolohe, Griff, Crosby, Ian Crane and Luke Davis,” says Matthews, “We talked about how they were gonna take their finished movie on the road, four-walling it from town to town, just connecting with the tribe and blowing minds in perfect Mentawai surf. And it was like a gift to the world everywhere they went. The difference with mine is that you will only be able to see it in one place. So if you are coming to Bali, you get to have that exclusive experience”.

Matthews, a former cinematographer himself who worked closely with such luminaries as Andy Irons and Chris Ward, strapped his editing guns back on as a way of best using his time during the Indonesian lockdowns. Often working alone from his Sumbawan villa that overlooks Lakey Peak, he drew on his memories of the first surf movies he saw.

“It was all about the travel sequences for me,” he says, “those images of far off perfect surf that just a lit a fire in your belly and put you out on the road”.

Matthews say he is going for a more meditative vibe out of this effort. No narration, no interviews, more a “soundscape”. A visual diary of individual days. Not just slapdash action, but the stoke and the magic of a great day of surfing from dawn to dusk. “But still, the most important thing to me,” Matthews says, “is aside from the whole exotic travel element, it will be about friendships and the way committed surfers do their thing together. Lucky for me, some of my friends just happen to be among the best surfers and best filmers in the world”.

No narration? No need when Matthews will be shamelessly featuring a bootlegged soundtrack of his favorite classic rock songs, with the footage edited seamlessly to the music of rock gods like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. “If anybody wants to go after me about the music I would say go ahead and good luck. This is not a commercial venture, nobody is making any money out of it and personally I think Jimi would be stoked”.

Matthews promises the result will be a throwback to those feature length surf movies that used to show to packed houses and would send everyone home to wax their boards at midnight.

“This will be a welcome back to Bali deal too, a chance to leave mortal life behind and celebrate the surf congregation again,” he says, “And the way things are going, this movie will probably be four hours long. Ha! The perfect re-entry”.

// MATT GEORGE