Leaving Asu, Simeulue, Earthquakes, and the skunked boat trip

Where to begin...  A few days before we were to leave Asu 4 Brazillian dudes showed up that turned out to be a lot of fun to hang out with.  Their first day the swell was big, and one of them got swept over the reef.  Then a few others were trying to come in at the wrong keyhole.  Getting in and out at Asu is a dicey affair since the reef has some 20 ft deep crevices that are full of dead coral that you have to negotiate correctly or pay the reef tax .  I had just come in, so I ran own to show them where to paddle when I noticed a blood trail on the reef.  Leonsio had gotten brutally slammed and was bleeding bad from a dozen places.  We got the others out of the water and rushed back and for the next 2 hours we worked to clean out Leonisio's wounds of coral, sand, and bacteria.  It was pretty heavy, the guy was in a lot of pain but he took it like a man.  Later an Indo nurse showed up and stitched the bottom of his foot together and his arm as well, which had a puncture that would pretty much swallow an entire Q tip when we were cleaning it out and trying to find the bottom. 

The next day another brazillian had to get the top of his foot stitched back together from a fin slice, so it was a couple of pretty hectic days, Genji and I were happy to escape with many memories of waves, and minimal injuries (my heart broke a bit leaving, but thats about it waaahhh waahh what a sap, I know.) I hope to go back to Asu another time, beautiful seclusion (sitting on the reef, to the south is Antarctica, and to the west is Africa) and an amazing wave with many faces that you could spend a lifetime trying to figure out.  Thanks Earl and Samantha, Mana and Folo for a great time!!!

We surfed a few more epic sessions and it was time to leave Asu and try to get to our boat trip.

 We woke up on the morning we were to leave Asu to a pouring storm.  We got soaked the entire crossing and made our flight to Medan later that night, only after our driver took us to a sketchy Padang style eatery (they bring out every dish they have and put it on the table, you eat what you want and pay for what you eat).  The problem is lot of the food sits around all day and by the time our flight landed both Genji and I were feeling the aftereffects.  As Genji so eloquently put it "Never trust a fart around here".  The next day we were up at 4:00am and still feeling ill, Genji thought he might have Malaria, so we did the logical thing and got on a flight to Simeulue, which we were the only 2 people on. That was an odd feeling, they had the board bags right in the cabin with us and the captain was listening to Adele "rolling in the deep" which happened to be Tony Danza's (nickname for one of the Brazzos who looked exactly like Tony Danza) favorite songs hahaha. That cheered us up a bit. 

We found out the house we were supposed to stay at had the roof blown off in a storm and the electricity was also cut.  We could still stay there, but it rains 2" a night here fairly often, so we improvised and moved into a losmen with a local lady named Nanik that has an extra room she rents out by the day.  We got our hands on some Motorbikes and set off exploring the island.  We found Ollie's wave from the google earth coordinates and got some good waves, It was a small right tube which Genji stuffed repeatedly, getting vengeance on me for all the big lefts of Chile and Asu, but I was more focused on the upcoming boat trip.

We then got news that the other people on our boat trip had bailed, and it would just be Genji and I!   All was good, so we thought.   And there is a swell forecasted!?  Can life get any better?  Apparently it can.  We made it to the harbor and out onto the boat, which sat on anchor.  We had to wait that night for 10 chickens to arrive before we could leave, which gave us a chance to watch Ramadan fireworks and hear the Hari Raya prayers being blasted on the loudspeaker over the harbor.  A pretty surreal scene for a California boy, to say the least.  The next morning we were off to the Banyaks, spirits high!

  All was good, so we thought. We surfed a decent lefthander the first morning.  This was to be the only surf of the trip.  The next day started with a bang, literally, as several of the main batteries had mysteriously exploded.  So the boat would not start and we were essentially stuck.  We remained there on anchor for the next 5 days, without surf or any luck in getting the remaining batteries charged enough to start the boat, until the captain made a run on the speedboat to try to contact someone to get  new battery.  Well the speedboat broke down as well and we were left on the boat wondering what had happened to the captain or what would happen to us.  Luckily for us one of the other boats got a distress call and found our captain sheltering up on the island.  They returned him to us and loaned us a battery to get started so we could make it back to port.  We left the day the swell was forecast to arrive which was frustrating, but after 6 days of one problem after the next, Genji and I were ready to get off the boat.

We came back to Nanik's, and surfed the swell at the righthander.  Genji has probably racked up close to 20 barrels there.  I have racked up several more beatings.  The wave is pretty backless and round, it basically sucks the water off the reef and breaks fast and down the line.   We've been here 3 days now and have a few more days left until our flights to Bali.  Last night the kitten here had 3 little kitties in Genji's board bag.  And around 1:00am we got rocked by an earthquake lasting about 30 seconds.  Found out it was a 6.6, and glad to not have any sort of problems resulting from that, other than a power outtage. 

We are looking forward to meeting up with Jessica and Garth, plus Caleb and Simi some friends of mine who are also on Bali.  Also looking forward to some varied foods, flush toilets, lefthanders, reduced malaria risk, cheap boardshorts, bintangs, and maybe, just maybe Air Conditioning (forgot what thats like, we've been within 2 degrees of the equator without AC for over a month now).  Well enough rambling out of me.  Sorry I can't post pictures, but the connection here is extremely inconsistent.  Hopefully we get some waves on Bali and especially, out in the Mentawais in late September! - Kevin