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In June 2011 I found myself in the Mentawais Islands looking into the eyes of a local woman whose name I had just learned. I was at the newly located village of Gobik on Southern Sipora – the island below Siberut in the chain of four islands that comprises the Mentawais.
What I saw in her eyes and felt helped me realize where I was meant to be and what I needed to do with my life. Something clicked inside me and it wasn’t going to unclick, even if at some points I wished it would. I had never felt anything so strongly in my whole life. So I embarked on an adventure that after three years of ups, downs, learnings, failings, set up A Liquid Future – a small grassroots non-profit providing free educational programs in English, swimming surfing, lifesaving and surf guiding for the local communities of the Mentawais. It was all in response to their wants and needs. Today we have over 100 students between 6 and 56 years old who attend courses suited to their objectives at our Collaboration Center in Mapadegat.
This adventure started in Katiet where I lived with no electricity, phone signal, internet or contact with the outside world apart from visiting tourists. On occasion I walked one and half hours to the other side of the island to use the internet at the resort located there. Working and living here taught me complete self-reliance and independence, to trust my instincts. I learnt this very early on when, unfortunately, on one occasion when I asked an expat living there if it was safe for me to walk a short way along a beach alone and was told yes, it proved to be a no in my situation. I was attacked by a local man. Luckily acting quickly prevented it from having a bad outcome. I had to see this man regularly with no punishment given to him. It taught me great humility along with recognizing that sometimes there is not a justice as we expect or want but that we need to look beyond and act with courage and poise. I realized that I needed to depend totally on myself and how I assessed a situation. I decided to continue and not let one scary experience stop me from meeting the needs of many people, something I knew I could do. These were exactly the values surfing has taught me. You get put in testing situations sometimes, but there is always a break in the waves and the next one you catch can be the ride of your life and that ride may also inspire others.
Undertaking this adventure as a woman alone in the male dominated society that the Mentawias and Indonesia is, along with how male dominated surfing in the Mentawais is, enabled me to learn a new level of compassion and understanding of what it is to be a woman anywhere in the world and the confidence that surfing can imbibe to women however they choose to interact with it. Just having the opportunity to try surfing was a thrill for the local girls and women, who until then never had the chance due to the factors I mention above. I taught the first three girls ever from the Mentawais to surf and got them boards from Surfer Girl Bali. The change in self-esteem, confidence and trust they have in themselves is marvelous to see. Women are natural caretakers and this proved to be the case with the ocean environment too, where after developing an affinity with it they want to take care of it.
Finding your wave and riding it is what life is all about and what A Liquid Future aims to do for many of the locals of the Mentawais. That was what propelled me on this journey, to share, in the hope that by listening to one another we can use collaborative knowledge as a tool to adapt for the better to the changes that society faces today, whether that be the changes surfing is bringing to the Mentawais or climate change. Surfing is a wonderful medium to do this through as it brings down boundaries, facilitates trust and collaboration and thus has a huge potential to spread positivity.
Editor’s Note: A Liquid Future is looking to the French for inspiration and that bit of “je ne sais quoi.” They’re running a “CoffeeCroissantCrackdown” campaign to #MAD4Mentawai (Make A Difference for the Mentawai) during the Quik Pro Hossegor. Instead of buying a coffee and croissant or whatever you love to eat for breakfast wherever you live in the world, jump online and buy a $7 raffle ticket at and you and a friend could be eating breakfast on aboard a surf charter trip. Merci!
