It’s been a minute since we haven’t heard from somebody who just scored in the Mentawais. The messages and recaps with phrases like “waves of the day,” “waves of a lifetime,” have stuffed our inboxes for weeks now. And while word of mouth may be the best advertising in any other business, the cold, hard, physical evidence of an eye-catching image still reigns supreme in the surf world.
Photographer Jose Postigo had heard stories of the Mentawais and seen pictures his entire life but it wasn’t until this most recent, storied swell that he got his first chance to see it in person — camera in tow.
“I never imagined that the time would finally come to visit this place,” Postigo told The Inertia, “and even less with the best swell in a very long time.”
While Kelly Slater cameos, an infamous drop-in, and more ate up the Mentawais news cycle, Postigo came back professing how much more there really is to the place that we don’t get to see.
“You have no idea the number of spots that were working those days,” he says. “Perfect waves with hardly any people.”
The Mentawais may be a surfer’s dream but Postigo points out the islands are a paradise for photographers too, of course.
“Every frame, every point of light was perfect and you couldn’t put the camera down.”
Editor’s Note: Find more from photographer Jose Postigo here.
