SERF Academy’s Matt George call’s school back into session in the Mentawai Islands.

The class room is offshore today kids…

SURFER magazine Senior Editor and long standing Tracks contributor, Matt George, and Chris Faucher, M.A. have concocted a new way for students to earn University credits: The Surf Journalism Expedition. As an extension of the non-profit organization, Last Mile Operations, The Surf Journalism Expedition hopes to educate students in the discipline of surf journalism while also affording them the opportunity to travel to the Mentawai Islands, surf perfect waves, and help the communities they visit. This is Matt’s first blog…

“Unbelieveable” is an over-used adjective when describing Mentawai surf charters. But let’s talk about a truly unbelievable Mentawai boat trip. Picture seven university students from California, Hawaii, Florida, Colorado (Colorado?) surfing and studying their way through this well travelled island chain, a region plied by a veritable fleet of charter boats ordinarily filled to the gunwales with frothing, desperate surfers of a singular stamp, every one of these sunburned, salty buccaneers determined to not only catch all the waves they possibly can but those of their best mates and any other unfortunate who happens to be moored alongside: picture these seven surfers, all of whom decided that they were going to approach what should still be a grand adventure, and certainly one of the turning points in a wave-rider’s life, with just a bit more broad-mindedness: just imagine them in the lineup of Indonesian reef break, blue tubes and green jungle for a backdrop, trading glassy six-foot sets, hooting for the epic late drops and plunging wipeouts, cheering each other on, backing each other up in the impact zone, keeping an eye on each other, wave after wave, set after set… and as other charter boats steam by to disgorge their ravening charges into nearby breaks, these seven are for some reason left to enjoy this idyllic communion, the only surfers in the lineup. Hard to believe?

“Repeat after me in Indonesian, ‘I before e except after c’… Again.” Matt gets tough.

Fin-wafts might get you hoots from your peers (and brownie points from Matt) but that’s all. Charlie Magna

but’s your writing that But the part that would have to seem crazy to any conventional Mentawai boat tripper—completely insane, in fact—would be when even while experiencing this embarrassment of riches, this seemingly unfair abundance of precious waves, that these seven surfers would willingly abandon the lineup to paddle in a body over to their inflatable dinghy, motor back to the D’Bora, the SERF Academy’s floating classroom, and while empty waves peel in the background sit down for a scheduled 11:00 am round table forum, discussing the creative process with renowned documentary filmmaker and guest instructor Stacy Peralta, who himself was out styling on his Lopez quad just minutes earlier.
Like I said, unbelievable.
And oh, yeah, this was Day One.

Da boat.

Evening falls over another long and tedious day at big school. Lucky bastards.

Website: lastmileexpeditions.com