~ Ripcurl Mentawaii vessel sunk ~

Think it was way down south near light house.

Best place for charter boats on the sea floor, creating structure instead of damaging coral reefs with there anchors and crowding line ups.

Didn't you work at a surf camp indo? SUrely they would crowd lineups as much as boats?
The best two weeks of my life were spent with 7 best mates on a boat in the ments.
Not having a go at ya mate just asking

indo-dreaming wrote:

Think it was way down south near light house.
Best place for charter boats on the sea floor, creating structure instead of damaging coral reefs with there anchors and crowding line ups.

Interesting Indo..?
I noticed in Samoa south side, all the reef breaks had buoys with permanent anchor systems in place as to not damage the reef etc.
I thought this was normal everywhere...?
Obviously not eh.

udo wrote:

Best place for charter boats on the sea floor..............wonder how many thousands of litres of diesel was left in the fuel tanks.

True Ude's
Was talking with a fellow the other day about his diving expeditions in Fiji, was diving a sunken ferry wreck and the diving operator would make them swim thru the wreck whilst banging on the hull from the outside with a hammer.
All went wrong and the hammer went thru the hull into the diesel tanks releasing thousands of litres of diesel, which the Fijian government have to no money to clean up or control......?
Old mate ended up spewing in his regulator ;(

udo wrote:

Best place for charter boats on the sea floor..............wonder how many thousands of litres of diesel was left in the fuel tanks.

Yeah good point, didn't think of that.

wellymon wrote:

indo-dreaming wrote:

Think it was way down south near light house.
Best place for charter boats on the sea floor, creating structure instead of damaging coral reefs with there anchors and crowding line ups.

Interesting Indo..?
I noticed in Samoa south side, all the reef breaks had buoys with permanent anchor systems in place as to not damage the reef etc.
I thought this was normal everywhere...?
Obviously not eh.

There is a couple for example at Maccas, and i think Hideaways…Christie Carter the guy that started the first surf camp in Mentawai's years ago was trying to get more put in i don't know if he has had success, he did have a website about it…i will try to find it.

goofyfoot wrote:

Didn't you work at a surf camp indo? SUrely they would crowd lineups as much as boats?
The best two weeks of my life were spent with 7 best mates on a boat in the ments.
Not having a go at ya mate just asking

I actually did a few trips as a surf guide on a charter boat also.

Not really just about crowds although it does suck when your in the middle of nowhere and five boats that are running a commercial business have caused a crowd, yeah resorts and camps bring crowds also but at least they have a positive flip side in the fact, they bring money and employment into the local economy, they have to pay local fees and taxes to Mentawai government, they buy fuel locally, where the food comes from depends on resort/camp but much higher chance of buying food locally rather than bringing all from Padang, employment wise they don't always employee all staff from Mentawai but a much higher % than charter boats in some cases the nearest village ensure a creation % are employees from the local village.

While charter boats may be great for you and your mates they generally don't bring any positives to the local people, they buy 99% of there fuel in Padang, they buy 90-99% of their food etc in Padang and generally speaking they rarely employee Mentawai locals, they do occasionally have to pay a little fee to anchor and surf near a village not sure how much now but it was only about $10 (Rp100,000) when i was working, its kind of an official thing they even get a receipt.

Profits from both charter boats and resorts that are foreign owned generally go back to investors offshore, in the cases of resorts yes some have Indonesian business partners but these Indonesian are generally also already well off as that is a big reason to team up with them to help jump hoops etc

Ive also stayed in villages that are rarely visited by surfers like the odd guy a year and i always come up against attitudes and frustration from locals on the situation as almost everyday they see these big often luxurious boats anchored near their village surfing the waves but they don't get any benefit, in places like Telos they don't even get a small payment, remember that these people generally have nothing and even die from preventable disease and things like childbirth complications, so its kind of two extremes.

Although i have to say they also get frustrated with the surf resorts, last village i stayed in the people were complaining that the nearby resort a few KM away that always surf the wave in front of their village has never ever visited to introduce themselves etc even though they have been operating for years.

Personally i think now the Mentawai's have developed with a lot of on land accommodation to suit all taste and budgets they should be looking at regulating and restricting the charter boat industry .

For example caping the number of charter boats to what it is currently with an aim to reduce the numbers so if business/boats close down or boats move on as happens that the space can not be filled or sold, also i think its time that the South Siberut/playgrounds area was a no go zone for charter boats as there is now heaps of resorts and camps in that area, with notice to do the same thing in the North Sipora/telescopes area within 5 to 10 years, this would still allow from Scarecrows down to Lighthouse the more remote areas of the Mentawai's to boats and includes the ace's in HT's and Maccas.

Anyway thats my two cents worth.

They were heading south down to Thunders ,got caught in a storm and somehow sank, crew and guests OK.
Like · Reply · 1 · July 22 at 1:49pm

Apparently they hit a reef, must have tried to carry on and sunk.Yep, good old Kuda Laut, 3/4 inch thick iron wood hull, not a problem!

Got that off a mates facebook page, posted by a bloke called Moose.

http://www.surfinglife.com.au/news/sl-news/13868-the-rip-curl-search-boa...