Redirection

It's been a week of magical waves and epic freediving. I’m so thankful for my time in the Mentawai Islands. I’ve met beautiful people, drank a bit too much, and surfed my little heart out. This part of the world is pure magic, and I know I will be coming back many times. However, I’ve decided to cut my time here short and redirect my path. The guy I'd caught feelings for over the last month via texting and phone calls, when spending time together, didn't really pan out. Our connection in real life wasn't so hot after all, and I was left alone with no friends or people to socialize with.

Toska, the resort I’ve been staying at, is divine but quite isolated. After a week of being on my own, I was going a little crazy with my thoughts. I found myself super happy being out in the water, but as soon as I got back to the property, there was no one to talk to and nothing much to do except read and work. There's only so much of that I can do before I need a bit of human connection.

There are no roads in Mentawai, so I wasn’t able to visit people or explore. I didn’t have a boat of my own to move around, so I couldn’t island hop to different resorts and visit friends I made on the waves. It got a little frustrating to say the least.

Now I know to bring friends with me and to purchase a small boat or wave runner beforehand and ship it there prior to my arrival so that my group and I have independence.

On my last trip here, about six weeks ago, I traveled with eight amazing surf women on a big boat and made friends for life. One of them, Liz, a Swiss goddess of a woman, was headed to Krui (a place I’d never heard of before and knew nothing about) after our trip to live for an extended stint of time. I reached out to her a few days ago to share my frustrations, and she was quick to suggest I reroute and go there instead. It’s beautiful, remote, and most importantly for an obsessed surfer such as myself, there are amazing uncrowded waves. Say no more, Liz!!… I’m on my way!!!

At the same time, another one of the women I met on our all-girls Mentawai surf trip, Miky, a Japanese and Polynesian beauty currently living in Bali, agreed to come join us. To top it off, once I posted a story about my abrupt change of plans, my soul sister Valentina, a Chilean princess living on Oahu, informed me that she and her husband had just arrived in Krui and would be waiting for me with anticipation.

Talk about Universal Alignment!

So, here I go! Yesterday, I took the stinky, rickety ferry from Mentawai to Padang and arrived at my hotel around 8 p.m. to sleep and make ready for a long travel day. It’s 6:30 a.m. now as I sit next to the pool in this cute little lodge, waiting for my driver to take me to the airport. I have to take three flights to get there, followed by a six-hour ride in a car, but it’ll all be worth it once I see my girls. We’ll be sipping rum, laughing at life, and marveling at how, somehow, we all came together in this most remote part of the world.