Photos: A Day At The 'Bush

All images by Steve Arklay

From a frigid Australian winter to the warm embrace of the tropics, Indonesia has long been our favourite mid-year migration.

Recently, Victorian photographer Steve Arklay posted up in the Mentawais - his first time out there - swapping the blanched light of a southern winter for the saturated colour palette served up two degrees from the equator.

Staying at Kingfisher Resort, Steve had easy access to a number of A-grade waves - Lance’s Left is right out the front - but it was another wave that he hoped to see through his viewfinder.

“I’ve always wanted to shoot Greenbush,” said Steve. The channel angle at Greenbush offers the classic palm-lined backdrop, not unlike Lagundri Bay, but breaking the other way, of course, and an order of magnitude more dangerous.

The combination of verdant backdrop, cobalt water, and top heavy waves create what is, at least in Steve’s mind, the classic Indonesian image.

All you need is swell, over a certain height, and from a certain angle.

The swell has to be big enough to get up the bay, and south enough to slow the wave down to allow an escape, either to the end, or off the back if the last section bares its claws.

Sail past the reef on a moderate south-west swell and you’d be forgiven for mistaking the wave as an accelerated closeout. Perhaps one of the reasons Greenbush flew under the radar for many years despite being on the Mentawai milk run, not far from the refuelling port of Sikakap.

“I’d been there for over a week when Jaco [Kingfisher Resort owner] spied a swell,” said Steve. “He thought it was going to be good for Greenbush, so he hit up a few of the guests if they were keen to do a mission.”

“Not many were, it was perhaps outside their ability,” said Steve, “but I was frothing to shoot it and another guy, Louie, was also keen to surf it.”

“We set off on the morning,” explained Steve, “and arrived around 9am with a small crew already in the lineup.”

Billy Bain was on the last day of a charter trip. "We'd just had four or five days of great waves, and all to ourselves," said Billy, "so we were pretty satisfied; we were in high spirits." So much so that, despite the forecast, some of his crew spent the night celebrating in Sikikap, beer in one hand, karaoke microphone in the other.

"I went to bed early," explained Billy, "then got up early and we were the first to arrive. I was first in the water, had it to myself for a while too."

After a while, Beau Cram joined him and the two had it to themselves.

"Beau's spent a lot of time in WA's North-West," says Billy, "he's not too worried about being backside on a heavy left."

Beau styling from deep as Billy paddles out.

It was Billy's first time out at Greenbush and having no-one in the lineup to show how it's done he made a critical error on his first wave. 

"I took off and made the drop OK," says Billy, "but then I instinctively faded and when I pulled up under it I got left for dead." 

"After that I realised you've just got to fucking pin it for the channel."

Beau, weight forward, rail engaged, terminal velocity imminent.

As the crowd built, Steve sealed his waterhousing, put on his flippers, and slipped overboard.

"If I had to put a number on it," says Steve, "I'd say only about 30% of the waves were made."

The slim return on investment didn't deter surfers who kept chancing it on the sets, looking for the one that didn't break too fast and stayed open till the end.

German Aguirre claiming victory on a solid one

Also with Billy and Beau were Max Weston and Kai Ellice-Flint, two longboarders who compete on the WSL Longboard Tour. Greenbush is arguably as far removed from a trad longboard wave as is possible, yet Max - shown here - compromised riding a shortboard with longer rail line and less rocker.

Appeared to work OK.

"A lot of the time I was shooting empties," says Steve. "Maybe no-one went the wave, or maybe they fell off on takeoff."

"A few times I'd be kicking and shooting, and suddenly my flippers would be on the reef as the water drew off the reef - it was pretty crazy."

"I took care to watch my position after that, especially with the tide dropping."

"The last section began to squeeze and pinch as the tide dropped," explains Billy, "but if you got one that stayed open you could make it from so deep."

Unidentified, board swallowed by the shockwave, still confident of success. 

As the tide dropped further the surfers in the lineup dwindled until there were none.

"I kept shooting," says Steve. "Fuck that, it was firing; just big, empty Bush."

A lot of the crew began leaving, including Billy, Beau, Max, and Kai who put the boards away and prepared for the crossing back to the mainland. Their trip drawn to a close.

"Louie and Jaco were watching an empty lineup," says Steve. "No-one in the water at all. It was going right on low tide and I was shooting these beautiful waves that were coming through, and Louie and Jaco couldn't resist, paddled back out and got a few waves each."

Kingfisher Resort owner Jaco Steyn hands free and eyes peeled for bottom-of-the-cycle shutdowns and imperfections.

"We left departure till as late as we dared," says Steve. "It was a long trip back but we were reminiscing over Bintangs on the way."

"It was a successful misssion to the 'Bush."