Did They Just Find A New Wave In Indo?

A curmudgeon old head at my local spot recently returned from Bali and declared that we are living in a “post-Indo surf era”.

He remembers an Indonesia that — at least to a Westerner — seemed otherworldly. No chain restaurants or newfangled techno clubs or chronically half-drunk digital nomads, he mused. He, like Miniver Cheevy, mourned the past’s glory and reviled the present’s lackluster ick.

Whether the development is good or bad for the region is not for me to decide.

But, this edit was special in that if “Indonesia” wasn’t in the title I might not know where immediately where it is.

Sheldon Simkus leads a posse of fellow Aussies into the heart of “secret Sumatra” in search of waves off the beaten path of the regular Indo Instagram edit. He also recruits Stab High freshman Hughie Vaughan for the expedition.

The clip starts at a frolic-friendly beach break and ends at a growing, warping slab that probably isn’t a recent discovery, but that we’ve never seen.

If nothing else, the video is a counterargument to the assertion that we are living in a “post-Indo surf era”. Perhaps there are still parts unknown to the surfnaut.