Mentawais | SESSIONS

Maybe, just maybe, you’d prefer cooler water or the option for beach breaks but if these are your complaints then you’ll never be happy with your lot in life. Besides, if Red Bull’s favorite Basqueman Natxo Gonzalez, who made his name in the freezing waters of the Atlantic and at the world’s wildest beach break of Nazaré, isn’t upset with the state of play then honestly who would be? 

With conditions perfect our crew cast off the bowlines and set sail from Padang, in Sumatra, to cross the Mentawai Straight with sights set on any of the archipelago’s big name acts.

And boy did they score, from Macaronis to HTs and all points and peaks in between. 

Natxo went toe-to-toe with Conor Maguire for the charger’s belt, while their high performance peers had a shootout for the ages in the young guns division. Aussie upstart Jarvis Earle met German-Costa Rican flyboy Leon Glatzer for the first time, and what better place to sound out a new sparring partner than in the world’s most perfect ramps?

As for Californian Dimitri Poulos, he claimed over and again that he’d found his version of paradise, his actions more than matching his words.

Izzi Gomez showed up and blew up, as is her way no matter the craft she’s atop, while Indonesian future star Bronson Meydi regularly stole the show in man a session, despite his little known status, proving once again he’s one to keep an eye on for sure. 

As for the headline acts, Adriano de Souza showed the kind of form that won him a much-deserved world title in 2015, while Caroline Marks demonstrated time and again that in tropical tubes over wickedly sharp coral she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Think Caroline’s licking her lips in anticipation of Teahupo’o’s welcome return to the women’s Championship Tour lineup in a couple of weeks?

Don’t just take our word for it though, get comfortable, sit back, press play on Taylor Curran’s epic eleven-minute edit and enjoy the show.