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A Mentawai Local with a World-Class wave in his Backyard

Hang Out with Mentawai Locals!

A Mentawai Local with a World-Class wave in his backyard

Meet Ade

Multilingual, Carpenter, Surfer, Entrepreneur, and Owner of the only locally-owned upscale resort in the Mentawai islands.

Growing Up in the Mentawai islands, Far from any phone or internet signal

Born and bred on the island of Siberut. Ade grew up in a different world than most of us did. He found his inspiration by meeting fellow surfers traveling to the Mentawais.

The boom in the surf-tourism in the Mentawai islands played a major role to Ade’s life. He receives this blessing with humbleness and gratitude, which he shares with every single visitor.

Ade speaks fluent English, Indonesian, and the Mentawai dialect. But his desire to learn seems to just keep growing in him, so he learned Spanish from his girlfriend, Laura. It’s impressive to observe how someone who grew up on such isolated region can understand the expectancies of foreign clientele, while conversing in their own language.  He lives for his passion, family and friends while pursuing his dream (an uncrowded world-class wave in its back-yard). He offers his hospitality to any surfer who shares his dream. 

Read also here: Surf Coaching Retreat in the Mentawais – happening next month of October 2019.

It all started with one fishermen boat.

“Shadow” started over a decade ago when Ade was organising surf boat services to bring foreign surfers around the different surf spots of the Mentawai islands.

Shadow Mentawai
Chilling aboard one of the newly acquired ‘Shadow’ boats during our last trip

Ade’s hard-work led him to become the owner of nine boats while supported by family and friends. Ade has many different vision to his business, he dreams big and finds a way to get the results.

After building his amarda, Ade sold his boats and bought an island. The only inhabitants on the island are his family, him, and a coconut farm plantation.

Building A Surf Resort from the Sand Up!

Ade and his family lived rustically. Every night was filled with the smell of lit bonfires, tasty coconuts, and when dusk hit, a blissful tent to comfort a hard day of work.

It started with a bungalow 8 years ago – not any bungalow, but a beautiful and spacious one where you can fill the wood has been carved with love and talent. Today, Shadow is an all inclusive surf-resort with premium accommodations, AC, Hot Water and even a WIFI connection.

Don’t look further, everything you need for happiness is right where you are.

Life lessons all of us can get from Ade’s story:

  • Keep it simple
  • Don’t look further, everything you need is right where you are
  • Put love in what you do
  • Keep doing what you love
  • TRUST and the rest happens!

Family first!  

All the staff are family. Papa the boat captain, Dody (his brother) teaches surf-lessons with the help of the cousins. All of them have incredibly charismatic personalities and made us feel warmly welcomed.

Pull into some shade at Shadows

There are two waves, Shadow’s right and Shadow’s left. When the stars align, these World-Class waves have nothing on the Macaronis, HT’s or Kandui. Shadow’s right is considered one of the bests of Mentawai.

While we stayed there, a South African guest who is a regular traveler to the Mentawai’s for the past 10 years commented ‘When Shadow’s right awakes, this is the best wave in the Mentawais’. 

Best time to surf in Mentawai? You’ll have higher chances to see those waves working anytime between April to October on a South Swell > 4-6ft, which happens pretty often!

Shadow Mentawai
Finding shade during our last trip to Shadow Mentawai
Want to live the Mentawai Experience and Surf with Ade? - Fill in the form below.

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Indo Surf Crew

Indo Surf Crew was first born in the year 2018 as a surf photo & video content creative project while the first surf coaching trip organised by Uriel & Rodrigo happened in 2019 on an island off Sumatra. Since then, they have been running surf coaching retreats for all levels and mostly specialise in surf coaching for intermediate to advanced surfers. Surfing Consciously is our motto. To us it means, bringing awareness to our body, thoughts and interactions – in and out of the water. We take pride in working with eco surf resorts that are acting responsibly in preserving Indonesia’s nature, supporting and educating local communities. Indo Surf Crew was founded by Uriel Jean Armel, a French surfer and film-maker who has taken roots in Indonesia. You can read more about Uriel here, on an interview with Magicseaweed & here during an interview with the Surfing copywriter. As for Rodrigo, he was the first surf coach to join Uriel in his adventure and he’s the founder of the Power Surf techniques – a method that is now practiced internationally to train surf athletes from all over. Power Surf is a land based practice that combines ginastica natural, yoga, capoeira and martial arts, breaking town the fundamental surf techniques through a series of exercises. It also involves video analysis a skate practice for optimal result, which we do during our surf coaching trips.

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