Sumbawa

If you’ve seen them once, you’ll never forget them: incredible pictures of huge barrels and glassy faces gouged by an ultra-deep bottom turn or ripped apart by an aggressive cutback. And lately, kiters have even been getting into the tube. Time and again, such shots grace the magazine covers and fuel the Indo legend. But the better the image, the sketchier the stories about the place – beyond Bali, Indonesia’s a mystery. In the hunt for perfect waves, Java in the west and the Nusa Tengarra islands east of Bali soon crop up. But only the southern edge of Indonesia scores Antarctic SW swell and SE trade winds at the same time, the wind season is short, few reefs have the right angle – and even fewer are accessible overland thanks to an often rocky coastline. Which is why, despite enormous potential, the perfect blend has only yet been discovered at just a handful of locations. One of these places is Hu’u Bay in central Sumbawa.