Jumat, 26 April 2013

Surf Guides at Abasi beach

We understand that not all of the visitors who come to Manokwari regency are experienced surfers. There are a lot of surfers that are still in the beginning levels. To help them learn how to surf, we have some members of Abasi Surfing Club who can teach basic surfing techniques at Abasi beach or other coastal areas in the northern or eastern coast of this regency. They are Henoch, Aaron, Rigel, Benny, Herman and other boys from the club. Most of the members of the club began surfing with simple wooden boards. It was approximately five years ago. Now they ride the waves using standard surf boards made of foam and fiber reinforced plastics. They will help beginning surfers choose waves that are are safe and where to start the take off and where to jump into the water.

Surfing is a fun but dangerous sports. It is important to consult local surfers about the underwater contour of the sea bed in the surf areas before new visitors can start surfing at Abasi beach for the first time.

If you plan to visit Manokwari city to learn how to surf, please, contact Salomina Rumadas (the founder of the club)  by email to abasiklubsurfing@gmail.com

Rabu, 24 April 2013

Australian surfer at Cape Bakaro

Two weeks ago I received an email from Matt Fox, the project manager of CII for West Papua province of Indonesia. He said that he would come to Manokwari and interested in surfing. One week later he arrived in Manokwari. On the first day, I brought him to a lift-net bagan in the middle of the sea where we saw fishermen catch fish and enjoyed some grilled fish there. Then I arranged his morning surf at Cape Bakaro. Matt is an Australian. He was the only tourist at the beach that morning. Accompanied by a local surf guide, Matt rode the morning swells of the cape.

There are a lot of Australian surfers at Kuta beach of Bali island but very few of them go to Manokwari of West Papua to surf at this cape. I hope that more surfers will come to this city to enjoy surfing. Cape Bakaro is also called Pintu Angin (meaning the Gate of the Winds). If you are interested in surfing, snorkeling or hiking in Manokwari, please contact us at abasiklubsurfing@gmail.com

Selasa, 09 April 2013

Pinto Angin

Long time photographer and surf writer John Callahan has just published an article about SurfExplore trip in Pinto Angin of Manokwari city. It is published on surfline.com, a famous website that is visited by tens of thousands of readers every month.
Pinto Angin is a spot in the eastern tip of Dore bay - around 20 minutes by car from Manokwari city. Pintu Angin is always exposed to high swells coming from the Pacific ocean. Pinto Angin means the Gate of the Winds. It  is part of  Cape Bakaro. The following picture shows how a Japanese surfer, Hayato Maki, was riding the waves of Pinto Angin during a sunset time. The sunlight coming from the west create a contract look of the photograph.
Please, contact us by email to abasiklubsurfin@gmail.com if you plan to visit Manokwari for surfing at Pinto Angin, the nearby Abasi beach or other places in this regency.

Surfing at Pinto Angin


Pinto Angin or the gate of the winds is a surf spot in Manokwari city that is only recommended for experienced surfers. It is not suitable for beginners. It was visited by some surfers from SurfExplore team between February and March 2013. The members of the team were John Callahan, Hayato Maki, Emiliano Cataldi and Phil Goodrich and Alberto Castro. These experienced surfers also explored a number of surfing sites in the north coast of Manokwari. They drove a 4WD pick-up truck Toyota Hilux during their exploratory surfing trip along the empty beaches of Manokwari. The Pinto Angin (in Cape Bakaro) and the North Coast of Manokwari directly face the Pacific Ocean. Wave hunters will find these sites worth surfing.
Hayato Maki at Pinto Angin of Cape Bakaro
I posted some information about Cape Bakaro, and Abasi beach in the forum of globalsurfers.com as a way to introduce or promote Manokwari city as an alternative destination for surfers. To make it easy for anybody to visit this city, I give some description below:
Traveling to Manokwari city
  1. Fly from your country to Jakarta. Then take a domestic flight to Manokwari (check the website of Lion Air, Sriwijaya Air and Express Air). Another alternative is flying to Singapore and then continue your trip to Manado city by Silk Air. After that you need to take a domestic flight to Manokwari.
  2. Contact us by email to abasiklubsurfing@gmail.com before you come so that we can arrange your accommodation, travel permit from the police station and give you the estimated budget that you may spend while surfing in Pintu Angin and other beaches of Manokwari.
In addition to surfing, Manokwari is a great place for nature lovers who want to see the tropical rainforest of West Papua.

Rabu, 03 April 2013

Wooden Surfboards from Abasi beach

by Charles Roring
Children and teenage boys in Abasi beach began to learn surfing at early age. They took wooden boards which their mothers used for washing clothes to ride waves that were located just a stone throw away from their houses. These boards did not have fins. After months of practices, finally, they were able to ride waves with their wooden boards.
Their actions attracted the attention of a small number of western tourists who visited Manokwari. Some of them were experienced surfers who were willing to help these local surfers. Now the youth of the Abasi beach have got around 5 standard boards that are made of foam and reinforced with FRP material. Abasi village is located just around a 20-minute ride from Manokwari.
Some people may look sad when they see that the youth of Abasi now ride the barrel waves with standard surfboard instead of their traditional wooden ones. I personally want to see the children, teenagers and young adults at Abasi beach surf with wooden boards. But I believe that they deserve better boards.
If we really want to see them that way, at least, we have to find ways that can help them ride wooden boards that are locally manufactured with improved design and workmanship. This type of wooden surfboards is environmentally friendly and has received the touch of modern technology. Modernized wooden surfboards will have streamlined forms that are needed by every professional wave surfer.
I used to have some conversations with Phil Goodrich and Emiliano Cataldi, two international surfers from SurfExplore team to find possibilities of designing and locally manufacturing wooden surfboards once Wave Surfing in Manokwari becomes well promoted and developed. West Papua is abundant of tropical wood. There is one species that is light and strong. We call it kayu susu (meaning milk wood). Its color is white and strong enough to bear the load of an adult wave surfer on the water. I hope that this dream of locally making an eco-friendly surfboard can be realized in the future. If you  are interested in traveling and surfing in Manokwari, please, contact Salo Rumadas by email to abasisurfingklub@gmail.com.

Senin, 01 April 2013

Surfing is Art

For most of the beach goers in the world, wave surfing is sport. But for Phil Goodrich, it is a great source of art inspiration. Phil and his friends from SurfExplore team visited Manokwari in late February to early March 2013. They spent most of their time exploring the north coast of the bird's head region of Western New Guinea in search of barrel waves. The successfully found several spots where no surfers had even been before. Some local youth from Abasi beach who accompanied their trip were glad to surf with them. It was a rare opportunity to learn new techniques from experienced surfers from the SurfExplore team.
Phil Goodrich is a prolific artist. His paintings are mostly about seascape, surfers, barrel waves and anything or anyone that is related to beach life.

A Painting of Wave by Phil Goodrich as gift to Salo Rumadas in Manokwari city of West Papua province 
Phil often shows children, villagers and beach girls in his paintings that he see during his surfing exploration in Indonesia and other parts of the world. Anybody who is interested in buying his artworks can find him in Facebook or his official website: http://www.philgoodrich.com. Before leaving Manokwari for Mentawai, Phil made an artwork of a barrel wave for Salo Rumadas, a personnel of Abasi Klub Surfing. For Phil created the painting using oil on canvas, an unusual media for him. Most of his artworks are oil on wood. Members of Abasi Surfing hope that they can meet him again one day.

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