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.

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.

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.

Surfing before Sunset

Surfers who ride the barrel waves of Cape Bakaro during sunset hours will have to smartly adjust their take off position while facing the sunlight. For photographers, taking pictures of their friends riding surfboards at sea can be fun because of the contrast colors which they will get. But for the surfers, it is a daring moment. So, Cape Bakaro is not for beginners. The recommended site for them is the nearby Abasi beach. The person on the following photograph is Hayato Maki, who visited Manokwari early this month. He is an experienced surfer who came from Japan. I took this picture of him using a compact point and shoot camera, Nikon Coolpix P500 that was powered with telephoto lens. Today, Nikon has released a better and more powerful photographic device for budget travelers, i.e. the Nikon COOLPIX P520. The 18 megapixel digital camera is powered with 42x optical zoom (lens focal length is equivalent to 24 - 1,000 mm lens in 35 mm format). Taking pictures of surfers who ride barrel waves at sea can easily be done in sports mode.

There are always waves at Abasi beach and Cape Bakaro all year round. These sites are relatively unknown to most of the surfers around the world. Some native Papuan youth who live in Abasi beach are willing to share their beach with any guests from any corners of the globe. Contact Salo Rumadas, the sponsor of Abasi Klub Surfing by email: abasiklubsurfing@gmail.com if you plan to visit Manokwari city.

Surfing and Snorkeling, Fishing at Abasi beach

by Charles Roring
I have written several articles about surfing at Abasi beach in this blog. As a matter of fact it is not only wave surfing that visitors can enjoy but also fishing and snorkeling. The coral reef below the surface of the water is still in very good condition. Tourists who cannot surf will find that snorkeling in Abasi is fun. There are a lot of species of fish that can be seen.

Abasi beach of Manokwari

This afternoon, I went snorkeling in a place where there are no waves. I brought with me a new camera - Canon Powershot G1X. When I reached a depth of approximately 2 to 3 meters, I saw staghorn and table corals. Butterfly fish, striped surgeonfish and convict surgeonfish also thrive in the reefs. When I was in the water, there were so many children around me. I could not easily take pictures of the fish and reefs. Perhaps the fish moved away from me because of our too many movements in the water.

After spending around half an hour snorkeling and trying to take some underwater pictures, my friend came. His name was Henoch Marien. He was a wavesurfer who accompanied some guests from SurfExplore team early this month. I decided to give the camera to Henoch who is also called Olof. Before that I had to give him some explanation on how to use the digital camera. Henoch was very excited when receiving the camera. He swam into a deeper water and dived to the bottom of the sea. I was amazed to see that he could stay underwater for quite long and remain calm. He took a lot of pictures that I thought impossible to be taken without wearing a diving gear. He reached a depth of around 6 to 10 meters and shot a schooling fish of convict surgeonfish, bannerfish, damselfish. He took the picture without using flash. Yet, the quality of the photographs was excellent. At around 4 p.m. I told him that we should return to the beach because I was tired.
We took a rest for a while at a hut that was built for surfers to watch the waves. We discussed about the promotion of Abasi beach not only as a surfing destination but also as a snorkeling one. He agreed with my opinion.

He still went to the sea again with his surfboard. I tested the digital camera again. This time was for distant subject. Unfortunately, Canon Powershot only had 4x optical zoom. Combined with digital zoom, the magnification could reach 16x. I helld the camera firmly while aiming it at him. The following photograph is the result that I got when I pressed the video button. I had to open the video in my computer and pressed the print screen button to capture the moment. Then I cropped unnecessary frames and save the photograph as a jpg file using Adobe Photoshop software.

I, Salo, and the native Papuan villagers in Abasi beach want to develop this beach as a destination for responsible tourism - a scheme will bring improvements to the standard of living of the local people and at the same time preserve the coral reef and the surrounding marine environment from dynamite fishing. Surfers and snorkelers will be served by the villagers during their tour in Manokwari.
Manokwari is the capital of West Papua province. It is a famous gate for birdwathers and nature lovers who want to go trekking in Arfak mountains. Most of them go there to watch birds of paradise. The introduction of Abasi beach as surfing and snorkeling sites are still a new thing to most of the visitors. We hope that more tourists will visit Abasi in the near future.
If you are interested in taking a snorkeling or wave surfing trip in Manokwari, please, contact us by email to abasiklubsurfing@gmail.com. We will be happy to give detailed information about eco-tourism in Manokwari, arrange your trip and provide guiding services.

Accommodation in Abasi Village of Manokwari City

If you are interested in staying in Abasi village, you can stay in the homestays that belong to the villagers. One of them is Yafet's Homestay

Flower garden at Yafet's homestay at Abasi beach of Manokwari

To book the homestay, please, contact Yafet Maryen by sending text message or WA: +6281343123553. 

Visitors can go directly to Abasi beach and find Yafet's homestay. 

Happy Easter from Surfers of Abasi Beach

This is spring time in Europe, Japan, China and North America. We want to share our hope, love and joyful living with all of you who celebrate Easter.

These children started surfing with wooden boards which their mothers used for washing clothes. Now they surf with international visitors coming from all corners of the globe.