Here's an idea on how your trip will go: After a long grueling flight you're refreshed with the adrenaline that comes with stepping off the plane into a different world and the thought that the next morning you'll be surfing perfect waves. You'll have a few hours in town before the boat is ready to depart.

Arrive in Padang

We will transport you to a beautiful historic hotel from the airport, what you do with your time in town is your choice. You can walk around or stay in the hotel bar developing your newly found love of the local beer. Walking around you'll find that everything you heard from your friends who've never been here or travel warnings was pretty off. In fact most people feel that Padang (the port you'll be departing from) is home to some of the friendliest people in the world. Walking down the street you'll be hailed by people of all ages practicing what is sometimes the only English they know:"Hello Mister!!". It has been voted the safest city in Indonesia for years and to our knowledge there's never been an incident where a surfer had a problem there.

Sail off into the sunset

After that it's off to the boat where you'll meet the captain and crew and then sail off into the sunset towards the Mentawais.

The next morning you'll most likely awake to a perfect wave peeling down the reef with light offshore winds or almost no wind at all. Maybe you'll even be the only boat there!

Picture...

• a perfect wave with only you and your friends!
• Beautiful clear-blue water
• a live reef with fish swimming all around,
• a stunning sunrise,
• the smell of the jungle wafting off the land mixed in with the smells of breakfast coming from the boat, the only sound being that of the wave tearing down the reef and the occasional hoot from your mate..need I go further?

For the next ten days your life will consist of important decisions like whether or not to eat breakfast or surf first, what board to ride, what fins to put in, rash guard or t-shirt?, reef booties or no reef booties?, etc...having an experienced surf guide and captain means you'll have someone to point you in the right direction. Depending on wind and swell direction and intensity Katika will often visit 10 or more different breaks during your 10 day trip.

It's up to the group on the boat what type of waves we surf, the captain gives you the options and you can choose.

Often times there are 3 or more waves working in one small area, this is where the tender (new for 2005) comes into play. Built by Steve from fiberglass the tender was made specifically for surf charters and accomodates 6 passengers and surfboards with speeds of over 30 knots. Your crew may have the option of surfing a couple different waves at the same time. You also have the option of checking all the waves in an area, where most boats would just have the option of the spot where the boat is anchored.

On the last day we finish up with an afternoon surf session and then sail off back to (or maybe away from) "reality" while you call home on the satellite phone trying to figure out a way to stay for ten more days and go on the next trip out.

Then next day you're off the boat in the morning to hang out and enjoy the best hotel in town's breakfast, or perhaps you'll choose to sample some of the unique and delicious local food, or take a massage to get all the kinks out before your flight home. Or perhaps you had something else in mind.let us know, we're flexible with new ideas and love doing trips to the areas up north if the Mentawais aren't your cup of tea. Also at the beginning and end of every season we do a trip from and to Thailand and surf the whole chain.

So let us know, perhaps what you have in mind can be arranged, in any event we'll try our best to accomadate any request.