Kandui’s Greatest Hits: 2012

YOU don't get a greatest hits album unless you've had a few chart-toppers and yet again the place to be in 2012 (if you dig getting barrelled) was the Playgrounds region in the Mentawai Islands. Here we have the season's highlights from Kandui Resort located right in the heart of this Indonesian play-park where barrels grow on trees. Anthony, one of the partners clocked a 30+ second barrel ride here this year. He hasn't stopped talking about it since and it's getting really boring. Written by Justis St John That's it, the final guests are on the boat, another season in the books at Kandui. Every year we kick-off all full of hope before descending into a whirl of blue stoke, and only now do you surface, gasping-air and thinking: where'd all that time go? 2012 started off with a bang with some insane April sessions at the resort's premier righthander, Bankvaults. May and June glassed off with plenty of perfect lefts and rights and one of the best days ever recorded on June 11, 2012. July had great, consistent swells and favorable winds. August and September were at times on the slow side, but produced one of the bigger swells seen in years before October finished us off with some of the best conditions of the year. © 2013 Island Eye Photography

Early season in the Mentawai's can be a gamble. Conditions are almost always good, the crowds are mellow, but scoring a solid swell takes a bit of luck or timing. Kandui Resort partner and Booking Manager, Anthony Marcotti, spends a lot of his year stuck behind a computer but saw this swell coming, jumped on a plane, and scored by all accounts the wave of the year in all of the Mentawai Islands with 35 seconds worth of tube time on this wave. You can see the video here. A happy Anthony recalls "This was the second wave I caught of the trip and I was honored when Shane Dorian said: that one will go down in history!" © 2013 BarrenJoey Surf Charters

For the previous three seasons, Kandui Resort has hosted Billabong's "Surf With a Pro". Shane Dorian has headed up the program every year and always seems to have a special connection to Kandui's premier right-hander. Most people know Shane as a crazy big wave charger and he is, but in reality he's also one of the most surf stoked people you'll ever meet and one of the nicest human beings on Earth, maybe even beyond.

A lucky few score one of the days of the year at Kandui Resort's favourite righthand aquamarine cylinder. Mind-surf those empty peaks at the start and wow, you'd gnaw off your own arm to get at that.

In mid-season it really starts to heat up but most don't realize that for every heavy session that goes down, there's a perfect wave around the corner that dreams are made of.

Island Life, Kandui Resort's accommodation.

June 11, 2012 was by far the day of the year. The morning dawned with light north winds and a nearby righthand slab fired all morning.

Phil Waldemar on the wave of the day on the day of the year. This particular wave, according to Kandui Resort partner Ray Wilcoxen, was one of the best waves he's ever seen ridden at this spot.

Midday, June 11th, the wind switched from light north to light east and Kandui Left turned on for the afternoon.

Kandui Resort Guests taking in the action at 4 Bobs, a fun right-hander directly out front of the resort. The new floating dock has been a huge hit with our guests who enjoy being in close proximity to the wave to heckle their friends whilst downing a few Bintangs.

Kandui Resort's premier righthander takes a solid swell with west winds to really turn on, but occasionally a swell can slip through unnoticed and you score. This session went down in mid July and absolutely pumped for three hours with virtually no crowd at all.

Here's a different angle of the session.

August is usually one of the most consistent months of the year. This year however was out of the ordinary with very below average surf, but still managed to produce a couple of gems like this one.

September kicked off with one of the swells of the year. Kandui Resort guest Byron Howarth scores a heavy one at Kandui Resort's premier left-hander. You might remember Byron from Rip Curl's Mentawai Search program in the 1990's with Tom Curren. This was Bryon's 12th trip to the Mentawais and after one wave, he claimed it as the best of his life! This session wasn't without a reminder of how dangerous Kandui Left can be… One dislocated shoulder, eight broken boards, a healthy amount of reef rash and countless beatings in the space of one afternoon…

Video session of a nearby slab which fired in September.

October has been good to Kandui Resort the last 3 years and 2012 was no exception, here we had a crazy good but empty session at Riles. It's these sessions you feel truly blessed to be a part of, however undeserving you may feel you are.

Kandui Guest Ralph Dawe scores an absolute gem. Ralph has visited the Mentawais the last few years and this wave has somehow always escaped his grasp… not any more!

And penultimately, if you're not bored of endless barrels, here are the season's highlights of the Kandui Resort in 2012. It's pretty much that slightly translucent icing covering the cherry sitting on top of the cake - only in tubular form.