It’s hard to fathom, but Indonesia has been a surf frontier for nearly 70 years now. The island nation first became a surf site in the late 1930s when American photographer and surfer Robert Koke established the Kuta Beach Hotel in Bali. With a couple of Hawaiian-style redwood planks, Koke recreated the Waikiki beach boy vibe along the palm-lined sands of Kuta. A lull in surf exploration occurred during WWII and Indonesia’s struggle for independence, but Australian surfers rediscovered Bali in the late 1960s.
Over the nearly 50 years since, surfing has spread to formerly inconceivable nooks among these 1,700 islands, bringing surfers into contact with disparate cultures and vast stretches of the Indian Ocean. Its southerly exposure, tropical reef system, and favorable winds have yet to yield up all of its wave assets–but the main areas have been plotted–from Timor to Bali, G-land to Western Java, Southern Sumatra to the Hinakos. Even as one-time frontiers such as the Mentawai Islands are quickly tamed, new wave discoveries sustain newer generations of feral wave wanderers during a surf season lasting April through October.
In the wake of this modern-day gold rush, an incredibly talented local population of surfers has emerged along with its own competitive tour, the ISC (Indonesian Surfing Championships). Centered in Bali, the native professional corps now include surfers from as far away as Western Java and Sumbawa. Considering their combination of local knowledge and talent, there’s a good chance that the final stages of Indonesia’s surf mapping will be made by Indonesian surfers themselves.