Please feel free to check out Aki's Japanese sister site!!
japanese

If you live in the Phillip Island area and want to improve your surfing, Mal is your man.  We've had the pleasure of having Mal on several of our boat trips, and on top of being an amazing surfer, he's also just a top bloke and a good guy.  Endorsed by such top level pros as Joel Parkinson, Mal offers no nonsense, practical sessions that will improve your surfing technique. If you want to have more fun at your local beach or maybe tune up for that once in a lifetime surf trip, Mal has the experience to make a difference.  Mal can also be contracted as a personal surf coach on one of our boat trips or at one of the local resorts. Check out his website for more information, and contact us for more information about rates.

Headed up by one of our long-time return guests Brett Menke, Next Wave provides high-level, in depth coaching to help take your surfing to the next level. In addition to improving the skills and strategies of junior surfers aspiring to compete at the highest level, Next Wave's coaches will work with any surfer (male, female, longboarder, shortboarder, etc.) that wants to maximize their skills in all conditions. With coaching facilities in both San Diego and Orange County, the folks at Next Wave use the latest in video analysis, bio-mechanical assessment, fitness and nutrition, and contest strategy to help you maximize your performance. So, whether you're a grom thinking of going big, or you just want to be at your best before a big boat trip to Indo, you should drop them a line. www.nextwaveusa.com

Yu Uchigaki, also known as The Japanese James Dean, is one of our stellar skippers primarily guiding the Budyadahri. But he also does a damn fine impression of a professional photog these days. Check out this link to his photo site which includes many photos from his trips in the past few seasons, as well as quite a few shots of the man himself charging.

Their name pretty much says it all. With humble beginnings, the good folks at Clean Ocean have grown to about 2,500 members in just over 3 years. Click here to find out more about how you can help keep our oceans beautiful. www.cleanocean.org

The Slayer first met Eli on a trip in 2003 and noticed he was a very meticulous fella that surfed with flawless form. He also noticed that Eli was riding boards that he shaped himself and that these boards seemed every bit as high-quality as the name brand sticks you'll spend $450-$600+ for off the rack in California. When they returned back to the states, Eli shaped Slayer a couple boards. After the first board, Slayer was converted and after 20+ boards he will never go back.

Eli is based in Carlsbad, so if you're in California he can probably get you a quality, CUSTOM board for significantly less than you'll pay in a shop these days. Give him a ring 1-760-439-7017 and see if he can hook you up. Tell him Slayer sent ya!

Tom Plummer is a good mate of Sumatran Surfariis who runs the Substance Boardriding Surfshop in Padang. In addition to being the only store in Padang supplying a full range of surfwear, surf accessories and standard surfboards to the Mentawais, Substance now stocks the latest in Surftech Epoxy "Plastic Fantastic" Surfboards with TUFLITE Technology. These boards have been proven to be 20-30% stronger than standard sticks, which definitely comes in handy in the often heavy waves of the Mentawais and Northern Sumatra. Plus, buy one in Padang also saves on potential shipping costs and damage that can happen to a board in flight.For more information on the Surftech boards, as well other things Tom and the folks at Substance Boardriding have going on in Padang, be sure to check out this PDF file here.

www.indosurf.com.au/

Peter Neely's Indo Surf and Lingo is THE essential guidebook to surfing in Indonesia.

Good friends of the Sumatran Surfariis family, LEAP (Local Empowerment Assistance Project) is a non-government development organization dedicated to assisting Indonesian village communities, through poverty relief and small industry implementation. Check out their site to see how you can help out. www.leapin.org

Slayer's first jiu jitsu instructor Zee runs an amazing program in the favela of Rochina in Brazil that offers several cultural tour options for travelers looking for a "true" experience of what it's like for most people to live in hills of Rio de Janeiro. One of the amazing cultural experiences the offer is surfing tours with their resident expert Ricardo "Bocao" Ramos. And there are many, many other cool programs in addition to that, so check it out.

Indonesian Traveling

This is a great site that lists a variety of ways to travel throughout Indo. It covers a lot of different options for traveling over land and by sea with all the ships listed and all own hand-made detailed maps. The National Parks page has over 500 animals' pictures with Latin, English and Indonesian names. Pretty cool, so check it out.

Everywhere Mag

Here's a link to a cool story that our mate Evan Asano wrote when he took his first trip with us a few years ago. Nice write up, and it's cool to see how quickly things change. Don't run trips out of Sibolga anymore, and I can tell by the write up that it was pre-architectural revamp on Mikumba, so it's cool for historical purposes. And it's always cool to hear someone's first impressions on a trip to this area.