Wanna See What Lunch Break Looks Like When You’ve Got The Best Job In The World?

Whenever you see those “Applications open for the best job in the world” clickbaits it’s always some solitary $200k Gov-gig where you have to cut the grass around a lighthouse on some forgotten Atoll in the middle of east Jesus nowhere. 

Perfect for a very select number of introverts, sure. However, most of us need a little inter-human connection and an occasional endorphin hit to edge towards elusive happiness.

Riku Matsumoto doesn’t have to cut the grass on his beautiful tropical island, he takes paying customers to surf the waves of their lives. And, gets to sneak a few of his own in between obligations, video evidence of which can be seen in COEXIST.

Part guide/part pro surfer/part Alaia Mentawai (Riku’s employer) poster boy = best job in the world.

“I’ve been working here for like three years this year,” Riku, fresh off the boat from surfing with shoulder season guests, tells me. “Nat, one of the owners of Alaia, is Japanese and is one of my Father’s best friends. My Dad encouraged me to come to the Mentawais four or five years ago and then I started working and managed to stay here longer.”

Currently Riku’s year consists of the majority of the year in the Ments (he’s there until October), then a short visit back to the family in Japan (ironically, considering how competent he is on a surfboard, Riku lived two hours from the ocean until he hit his mid-teens), then a month Hawaii stint, before it’s time to head back to the Ments. 

If that didn’t sound dreamy enough, Riku’s also got another gig: testing and refining various Haydenshapes models in the world class waves of his semi-permanent home. 

“I’ve been riding the Holy Hypto, which is kind of high performance board that I really like,” Riku says of his early season exploits. “Then I’ve also been riding the Nova, which works in any kind of conditions. When it gets to peak season and there’s barrels everywhere then I ride the Black Noise as it’s just so stable in the barrel.”

Riku tells me that the whole point of him pitching up in the Ments was to get used to said heavy reef break barrels, and taking his tube riding in COEXIST into account, it seems like it’s working. 

His favourite wave among his now considerable list of locals is EBay, the mechanical left point that churns out life-goal tubes and de-barkings in equal measure when it’s on. 

Riku’s relationship with EBay has been largely harmonious, although he admits that they got off to a shaky start.

“I only checked the waves for 15 minutes or something, didn’t see a proper set yet, then paddled out,” Riku says. “I had one of Craig Anderson’s old boards that was a 5’7. Straight away an eight foot set came and no one paddled for it so I thought I should go. I was a little bit late on the drop, but somehow I made it and tried to pull in, but the lip, the big lip hit me in the head, and then I got smoked. That was pretty scary.”

When asked if his experiences surfing in the Ments — where, in peak season in particular, “mellow” options aren’t really an option — has made him miss the humble beach breaks of home, he earnestly says: “Not really.” Before going on to admit that the last time he tried to surf a gutless beachbreak at home in Japan it felt so foreign that he could barely catch a wave.

One thing that the soft spoken Riku definitely credits his guiding career with, however, is improving his people skills alongside his tuberiding skills.

“I’m not good at talking with people or, like, in front of them and stuff, but I feel like I’m getting better slowly, kind of,” Riku says humbly. “We get guests from so many different countries and everyone has their unique personality here, so it’s good to spend time with them.”

Surfing’s improving, interpersonal skills on the up, equipment increasingly dialled; that’s the kind of career progression we can get behind.