SURFERMAG.COM CURRENT ISSUE VOL. 45#1

We took advantage of a break on the WCT to meet in Indonesia for the standard Mentawai boat trip: Andy Irons, Shane Dorian, Joel Parkinson, Luke Egan, and myself. Nothing super adventurous--just a chance to get away and do some surfing with friends--get a bit feral. On a trip like this everyone treats each other as mates--there's no ego clashes.

Joel was drinking lots of beers. He'd sink a few beers and go fishing but always seemed to come back empty handed. Pretty funny, actually. Andy and Shane were on the major film festival. They were watching The Godfather trilogy, the Austin Powers trilogy, the whole f#@kin' Star Wars trilogy, just powering through the DVDs. Meanwhile, Luke would be messing around on his computer, editing footage he'd shot on the tour all year and checking everyone's surfing out.

I'm sure despite all the camaraderie everyone was slyly checking each other out, gaining an understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses which might help when they're surfing against each other in contests. But the whole competitive thing seemed light years away. It was so cool to watch these guys just surf. All of them would ride longboards or grab a bodyboard for a session or just go body surfing...whatever. It was so great to see that even surfers of this ability level enjoy all these different aspects of surfing. That's probably the best thing to take from a trip like this.