Surfing
Surfing
Are these the best waves you’ve seen this year?
Mikala Jones and Marlon Gerber score big at one of the jewels in the Indonesian surfing crown, Nias.
If May means one thing in Indonesia it's that the wet season has gone dry, and the swell floodgates have opened instead.
True to form, the first big low of the season reared up recently, with just enough west in the swell to entice Marlon Gerber and Mikala Jones to strike out for the far end of the archipelago, with filmer and photographer Scotty Hammonds in tow.
The squad headed to the island of Nias, home of one of the original surfari dream destinations, as seen in a legendary Coca Cola advert in the early '90s.
The place has changed a lot since then, but three flights and a long drive from Bali later the team touched down to see the waves are still as incredible as ever.
Picture postcard perfection
© Scotty Hammonds
Marlon Gerber sitting oh so pretty in the Indonesian morning light
© Scotty Hammonds
Marlon Gerber under the curtain and racing
© Scotty Hammonds
Mikala Jones scored early in the swell
© Scotty Hammonds
Marlon and Mikala got stuck in from the start. Although these days Nias is often ridiculously crowded, numbers in the water are seemingly inversely proportionate to the size of the waves, and as sets started to climb past the 10-foot [3.05m] mark the two Bali-based chargers had free run of the lineup.
Sadly for Mikala he copped a mouthful of the bottom after going down hard on a bomb, and was forced to call his trip off early. A week later doctors would remove a marble-sized chunk of reef from his face, but apart from a few stitches and some minor scarring he'll be back to his usual charging ways in no time at all.
A sad lesson in missing the barrel of a lifetime
© Scotty Hammonds
Marlon Gerber racing the curtain
© Scotty Hammonds
Empty and incredible
© Scotty Hammonds
Marlon Gerber deep and driving
© Scotty Hammonds
With Mikala out of action, and just a few hardcore local Aussie and Brazilian chargers stepping up, Marlon was the man as the swell kept coming.
For three days the point pulsed, and Marlon logged hours behind the curtain, battling the foamball. Don't just take our word for it though, hit play on Scotty's video above and soak in the best waves of the Indonesian season so far. It's an incredible edit, and we really hope you enjoy it.
