NEWSLETTER

G'dayto you all,
Well here I am back in Indo for the 2002 season. I hope you all had plenty of good waves & good times during summer in OZ & elsewhere, but now it's time to think about the coming winter and the warm weather, waves and hospitality of Indonesia. Here at Freeline we're ready to get you out of the cold for a while and into some hot barrels. The dramas of last year are over, not that they were as dramatic here in Indo as the media would have us all believing. The Indonesian people are still happy to welcome surfers to their areas and enjoy us being there. The "average Eddy" Indo couldn't give a rat's about the politics of it all. The situation is stable and you're sure to have a great time hanging out with us in Indo.

 

It was great

to catch up with the Indo Freeline crew in Jakarta even though Andi gave me a "welcome back boss" flogging on the pool table. There is a noticeable absence of tourists around due to last years terrorist activity, world reaction and media blow up of it all. Unless you're a total idiot and try to offend people, Indonesia is still a safe and fun place to escape winter for a while and get into great waves and culture. We hit Cimaja mid April, got small waves and a warm welcome from the crew there. Since it was small, it was see you later Agus, and with early birds Kingsley Dyson on his 2nd trip with us, and fellow West OZ sandgroper Mark Donavon we headed out to Batu Besar losmen situated in front of Turtles. 

 

We were rewarded with small to medium good quality waves for the duration with only a handful of other surfers out. Mark put in plenty of hours and got some choice barrels. If I worked as hard as he surfed I'd be driving around in a new BMW.

 

The staff at the Batu Besar were stoked to be in action again and have guests arriving. Maryati cut loose in the kitchen and we were all well fed. The girls are always stoked to be busy looking after us all. The reef at Turtles is in good nick, the small creek has moved down the beach a bit so not much sand is being washed onto the reef. It was looking real good on a couple of the bigger days and looks like shaping up for a good season there.

 

Back to Jakarta,

another flogging from Andi and a couple of days till we picked up Terry Kelly and his mates for a tour to Sumatra and the new Ombak Indah Surf Camp, right on the point of the best and most consistent wave in the area. It was good to hook up with Terry again and catch up on news since he was last with us in Sumatra in 2000. Terry and his mates had just got back from a couple of weeks in the Mentawais where they got lucky and scored good waves mainly around..oops! can't tell you that.....but they said conditions were great and plenty of clean hollow waves wherever they went. No crowds. Indo seems to be shaping up for a classic season.

 

We got early reports

from Rinal at the losmen that conditions were clean, offshore and only 1 or 2 guys out. He was right, the lefthander in front of Ombak Indah was doing it's thing and the boys were straight into it. After about a week we got a couple of days of onshores but it was quickly back to normal. When I left to come back to Jakarta to get the next crew the place was cranking and still not too many crew around. It's been a good start to the season so far and with some crew being put off by the events of Sept 11 last year we might just have a lot of waves to ourselves. I know Stu's hanging out to get here in May, he should be stoked, as usual, getting into his favorite waves. See you soon mate, but first you have to put Andi in his place, under the pool table!!!

 

Well, whatever you all choose to do this winter

stay safe, enjoy life and maybe we'll see you in some Indo juice. Take it easy and I'll be back with another update about mid season.......

Nev & Stuart