good morning. after searching the news trying to find out what happened in the mentawai’s, i finally know what happened. no, you won’t see it much on japan tv, or in hawaii so here’s what happened. there was a huge earthquake and guess what happens after an earthquake? yes, tsunami…. a big 20’s tsunami came and here’s what happened. 2 boats were anchored at night, everybody was sleeping, the water sucked out, the captain came out to look what’s going on, and seen a huge wall of white water coming for his boat. the wave broke over his boat, picked it up, and slammed it into the boat next to his. that boat was the Midas. 9 australian surfers and the midas staff were in the boat and in a few minutes, the boat was on fire. everybody got away safe. lucky. unfortunately, over 350 dead bodies were found and that number is expected to rise. what about the surf camps? take the famous luxury macaroni’s camp, it was flattened by the tsunami and all the surfers staying there were hanging on trees and the leftover building for their dear lives. i went to the camp last year and to imagine that the beautiful camp being totally destroyed is sad. as for other surf camps? we just don’t know because lack of communication.
what went wrong?
first, they installed sirens after the last tsunami that killed thousands but guess what? they didn’t work. i’m not surprised….
second, the new buoys the placed in the indian ocean to detect a tsunami was vandalized so it wasn’t working. who ever vandalized it should be held accountable. it was because of the broken buoy and the defective siren that cost lives that could have been spared.
here’s what i think. i’m shocked because i went to the mentawai’s over 10 times. in fact, i was just planning a trip with the moniz family for next year. i’m sure my sister is thinking twice about going there after what happened. the mentawai’s is beautiful, the people are beautiful, and the waves are the best in the world. would i go again? yes. terrorists, earthquakes, and tsunami’s don’t really scare me. it’s a part of life and if you want to enjoy your life, you will have to take risks. yeah, you can stay at home everyday and play it safe. then walk out to get a cup of coffee at starbucks and get hit by a car. life rolls on and i’m sure that the beautiful and strong people of the mentawai’s will recover. they always do. it’s us surfers that have to keep on going to get them back on their feet. if we run away from places like that, it’s worst for them.
i wish for everybody in the mentawai’s for a fast recovery. i’m glad to hear that the sansoucci2 is fine and so is our dear friend timmy wau. i’ll see you guys next year and if there is anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask….
**anyway, i gotta get going to the dove contest and big party at yoshihama. the typhoon is right over me so it’s going to be nuts! stay tuned for photos. see you all there!!!
