A Decade of Surf Tourism in the Mentawais
Posted on January 24, 2007 @ 3:17 PM
THE OWNER/SKIPPER
Rob Wuillemin is one of the non-surfing skippers who copped
his fair share of criticism for jumping on the Mentawai
bandwagon in the late ‘90s as the surf charter business took off.
The Mentawais were originally the domain of a handful
of surfing skippers, in it for the lifestyle at least as much as the
money. Rob was perhaps unfairly targeted as a symbol of a new,
more business-minded approach to surf charters. Nearly 10
years on, Rob and his wife, and their well-appointed charter
boat Sans Souci are still in the Mentawais. He originally came to
the islands at the invitation of Rick Cameron, director of Great
Breaks International, who had high hopes of master-planning
and managing the growth of surf tourism in the Mentawais.
Cameron’s planned Mentawai Sanctuary, with his exclusive
control over boat numbers, movements and land developments,
proved unpopular and unworkable with rival skippers. But Rob and the Sans Souci have
endured. Rob’s outsider
status as a non-surfer and
association with the widely
unpopular Cameron might
have sometimes made his
position difficult, but Rob
still believes Cameron’s
Mentawai Sanctuary concept
had its merits. “I believed
that Rick was on the right
track, and with a few small
modifications to his ideas, all those involved up there could have
really secured their futures with what could have been the best
surfing destination in the world,” says Rob. “But, I hadn’t been
involved with anyone in the surfing industry, didn’t know the local
politics or the surfing community politics and couldn’t get over the
huge egos involved from all quarters. To this present day I haven’t
got involved in any of the local politics, I just do my business and
just shake my head at all those guys involved back in 1997 who
could have had something really special.”
The chief issue for the surf charter boats is safety, he says, and
imposing reasonable safety standards would be the best way to
regulate the number of boats.
“Currently there are around 30 to 35 vessels operating in the Mentawais. There is a small handful of these
vessels that I would say comply to Australian
standards for surveyed passenger vessels, are run
very professionally with western crew and have
the required certification to run commercial
vessels. They could operate in Australia without
a problem,” he says. “There are one third plus
that are safe, mostly western vessels that carry
life-saving equipment, life rafts, flares, have twoway
radios, etc. They probably lack a fair amount
of maintenance and in some cases are run by
unqualified skippers. Not overly professional. Then
there are the rest – mostly local boats – that I would think twice
about going up a river on: they’re unsafe, don’t have any life-saving
gear and radios/electronics rarely work. I believe that there should
be restrictions on numbers of vessels. The vessels should be of a
certain standard with emphasis on safety. It is only a matter of time
before we lose a boat and some lives. This will rock the industry
and will be felt by everyone. Probably around 25 vessels would be a
reasonable number.”
His advice to those considering a Mentawai surf trip? “My
advice would be to do their homework, select a boat that has the
capability to move in any weather, safely and unrestricted by the size
of its fuel tanks. You can almost guarantee that half of your time you
can have breaks to yourself. Definitely they will see much, much
more of the Mentawais and possibly be able to go north to Tanah
Bala and Telos if on a decent boat. If you go on a cheap local boat
you can expect to surf with four or five boats every day. Local boats
tend to stay together for safety and can’t move in rough weather or
at night. They are also limited with their fuel range.”
THE SURFING SKIPPER
Jody Perry has spent as much time skippering surf charter boats as
almost anyone. Yet this year he’s left the Mentawais disillusioned
and in search of new seas. Jody’s one of those surfing skippers in
it for the lifestyle, a former junior champion who competed with the likes of Tom Carroll, Joel Engel and Thornton Fallander back in
the late ‘70s. When he talks of his experience in the Mentawais, he
seems to echo a sentiment felt by many long-time surfers about the
evolution of surfing itself.
“I have watched the surfing world as a whole evolve over more
than 30 years, and the same process seems to occur,” says Jody.
“We start with something magical and endearing and heartfelt.
Everyone wants to be a part of it. Once involved, people realize that
financial rewards can be achieved. The more ruthless go too far in
that pursuit. Firstly, commercial interests enter the picture. Secondly,
exploitation enters the commercial interest. The ‘greed factor’
emerges and grows, and with its own self-sustaining momentum it
goes too far until all original sensibilities are eroded. All semblance
of the original ideal is abandoned, and the enchantment of the
whole experience is compromised for everyone. Good people leave
disillusioned. Lesser individuals take over the reigns and run the
show even further into the ground.”
Jody is one of a group of surfing skippers who seemed able to
work cooperatively to manage crowds in the Mentawais and try and
encourage decent surf etiquette in the water, but he feels they have
been fighting a losing battle. “Myself and others tried hard to tune
our guys to share over the years, and to keep the Mentawais surfing
experience as civil and enchanting as we could, for as long as we
could. We took responsibility for our guests’ behavior in the water,
threatening free-surfers and pros alike that they would be pulled out
of the water and steamed away if they didn’t play well with others.
It worked to a point. It works if everyone complies, but others
didn’t. It only takes one person to fuck that up. In the end, across
the board, it proved too much to ask. Open sharing currently works
between a small percentage of boat captains who are working with
each other. But that’s hardly a majority.”
He is also vehemently opposed to the concept of exclusivity
being granted to any waves in the Mentawais, arguing that the legal
precedent for wave rights simply doesn’t exist in Indonesia.
“In arguing for exclusive access, operators have cited Tavarua
and similar [resorts] as examples. It should be understood that in
various islands in the Pacific, local tribes have absolute control and dominion over their local reefs and waterways. That is not the case
in Indonesia. All surf breaks being ocean-side of the high tide mark
are therefore under Maritime jurisdiction. Surfing is a ‘marine’
activity. Land-based local authorities have no jurisdiction even under
the limited ‘independence’ status that the local Mentawai Islands
Council has. That access, that jurisdiction, has never been granted.
Charter boat access (including passenger access), operating permits
and clearances are granted to charter boats to operate in ALL areas of
the Mentawais without constraint. For land camps to even consider
attempting to subvert that (either legally, or through bribery/
corruption – the favored method) would create an absolutely
irreconcilable situation between boat/camp relationships – which
are already fragile at best.”
But Jody doesn’t let the charter boat industry off the hook
either. He says rates of pay for Indonesian crews are still far below
international standards and do not fairly compensate crews for their
time at sea, away from family and loved ones. Where top end boats
are charging customers top rates, he says local crews should be paid
at least accepted minimum pay rates, instead of having to rely on
tips from passengers at the end of each trip.
THE LAND CAMP PIONEER
Christie Carter was the first to open a land camp in the
Mentawais, with his Wave Park Losmens, six years ago, and
seems to have succeeded in maintaining good relations with
the locals and rival operators. Quite an achievement. He has
very definite ideas about how he would like to see the surf
industry regulated in the Mentawais. “I would like to see the
government pursue their interest in enforcing regulations
regarding development in the Mentawais. To date they have had
some misguided advice from various sources about the best way
to approach the problem. Personally, I think that development
should be controlled by the local government at the Mentawai
level, which they already have the legal right to do.”
Christie envisages a tiered licensing system catering for
various levels of investment, and all types of travellers, from
backpackers to five star, and definite limits on boat and land
camp numbers according to the “carrying capacity” of the
various waves and regions.
He sees one of the major problems with any regulated
system as entrenched corruption, which means any tax revenues
collected don’t get where they are most needed.
“The local population could best benefit from surfing by
having a system in place that guarantees them revenue from the
operators who are diligently paying their taxes. At the moment there are problems on both sides of the board. Some operators
aren’t paying, and the money that is being paid isn’t getting to
where it needs to get to.”
He also sees a role for the surf industry to try and protect
the natural environment of the Mentawais. “The government
and private interests need to work together to keep fishermen
from dynamiting and cyaniding the reefs in the Mentawais.
They should also be working together for a system of mooring
buoys instead of anchoring at key areas where the damage is
most noticeable. As the Mentawai population grows, there
should be a real push in education to convince locals to keep
their beautiful beaches clean.”
And, he predicts, charter operators and land camps will
have to learn to work together for their mutual benefit. “For the
most part, in my experience, boats and land camps have to work
together wherever we are. We all come up short on supplies and
logistics every once in a while. It’s in everybody’s best interests
to get along and stay in touch. It’s a jungle out there. For those of
us that live here full-time, we have a really close-knit expat and
local mixed community over here. Everybody knows everybody
else, why should we fight?”
Whatever happens, he says, the pace of change in the
Mentawais will only accelerate. “Relative to what has happened
in the past 10 years, surfing will change the Mentawais way
more in the next 10. It’s exponential.”
THE CAMP AND BOAT OPERATOR
Tom Plummer has spent seven seasons in the Mentawais
working on charter boats and has recently become a partner in
the Aloita Resort. As such, he straddles the usual divisions and
vested interests of water and land-based operators. “Obviously,
I’d like to see some sort of sustainable management plan for
the Mentawais. This is my home now,” he says.
Tom also owns the Substance boardriding store in
Padang, is a master five skipper, holds an honors degree
in Indonesian Studies and is an accredited interpreter and
translator. He’d like to see a cap on boats and camps, and open
sharing of all breaks.
He expects to see the number of charter boats drop
rapidly as the impact of the new competition from land
camps, and recent increases in fuel prices, hit home. “Of the
20-odd chicken boats which used to do the run out of Bali
and down through southern Lombok to Lakai Peak, there
now remains only a couple of operators. We will see the same
happen in the Mentawais over the next few years as operating
costs increase dramatically (fuel tripled in price in the space of
a couple of months late last year) and margins get smaller. The
costs of departure for my boat Naga Laut have doubled since last
year. There is nowhere in Southeast Asia where charter boats
can enjoy the margins which were obtainable a few years ago
in the Mentawais. The salad days are over.”
Tom has devised a detailed management plan that is based
on limiting the number of charter boat licenses to the 30 or
so boats currently operating, with an annual license of fee
of US$3,000 payable to the Mentawai government. Licenses
could be bought and sold, much like commercial fishing
licenses, with stamp duty payable to the local government, but
no new licenses would be issued.
“The benefits of a well managed surfing industry in the
Mentawais hasn’t hit home to local people properly. They are
generally disenfranchised compared to a bunch of Padang
locals who have become very wealthy via servicing the charter
industry,” he says.
THE TRAVEL AGENT
Anthony Marcotti handles bookings for Martin Daly’s fleet of
five charter boats, his own company, Saraina Koat Mentawai’s
five boats, and is part owner of the recently opened Kandui
Resort. As such, he books roughly a quarter of all the surfers
who go to the Mentawais, from his Huntington office, in
California.
He’s concerned about the nature of some of the new
developments, but optimistic that all can work together for
the common good of the islands, if there is a cohesive plan
in place. “The situation out there right now is an influx of
a few resorts spaced out evenly among the chain. For me
the real dilemma is that a few of them have people with no
experience in Mentawai tourism, boat trips or land resorts
funding them and running them,” he says. “It’s especially
disheartening because a few of them lack a solid plan of action
to help the local population improve their livelihood and to
my knowledge no one else besides us and Martin are actively
involved with SurfAid’s efforts over there. What they are doing
in the Mentawais and in North Sumatra is amazing.”
Saraina Koat is behind SurfAid’s ‘Wave of Compassion’
fundraising surf trip, and have worked closely with the local
population in their area in the planning and construction of
their resort. “During the course of production, a process that
has taken almost two full years to complete, we have directly
employed over 60 local Mentawai workers and artisans and
have continued to employ over 30 people since April of 2006.
Our partnerships with the local villagers in our surrounding
areas offer many benefits; economic freedom, employment and
training opportunities to improve their future.”
He would like to see a cap on the number of boats and
camps in the islands, and limits on the number of guests per
camp. “Ideally, I would prefer to see the land-based resorts
agree to a strict number of guests – 12 to 16 per location – and
for the Mentawai government to follow through on their plans
to limit the maximum number of licenses for these types of
resorts at five.”
He’s also adamantly opposed to claims for exclusivity of any
of the breaks. “That goes against what a trip to the Mentawais is
all about. It just doesn’t seem right to restrict people who have
traveled all that way to one specific wave or zone.”
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