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Kalani Ryan chasing hollow dreams at Desert Point. Photo: Federico Vanno

Window To Indo

The Jungle boys lead a Desert Point raid for the mini-mites.

By Pete Matthews (as told to Matt George)

(Pete Matthews, owner of the famed White Monkey Surf Shop at Padang Padang and the man that most pro’s depend on for their Indonesian “Special Logistics”, takes up the tale.)

Pete: We were out at the Kandui Resort in the Mentawai. We were out there with Biolos, Cory Lopez and Ian Crane. Rifles was firing and it was insane. So anyway me, Matt and Cory had all our kids with us and they were all ripping. But there were also these two 12-year-olds at the resort, the Jungle boys they call them, “All day” Dylan Wilcoxen, his Dad owns the Kandui Resort, and Kalani Ryan, who lives at a nearby surf camp. You can imagine how good both these little guys surf. It’s baffling. Surfing the best waves in world since they were in diapers will do that.

Anyway, came time to get back to Bali so we decided to bring the jungle boys with us, let ‘em see a little of the real world out there. So we get back to the White Monkey in Bali and Jesus, the line was out the door now that the borders are open and we’re running out of boards to sell. Bali surfing is just roaring back with a vengeance. So then, all of a sudden Noah Beschen shows up with his film crew and they need some waves.


And then my shop manager, a guy we call “Special Ed”, he’s from Florida, you know, and he’s got this foxy girlfriend, she’s like Miss Indonesia or some shit, and she is just chewing on his ear about the typical crap so I figure he needs to just get the hell out of there. So fuck it, I grab some cash out of the till and tell Special Ed, and remember this is Noah’s first visit to Bali, so I tell Special Ed to be the grown-up of the trip and go rent a van and get over to Desert Point with Noah and his crew for a swell that was on the way. But I tell Special Ed he’s gotta bring Dylan and Kalani too. Because these little guys are Indonesian surf soldiers, fluent in everything and I know they would really be the boys in charge. What a life these 12 year old’s live here in Indo. I mean, that’s how we raise kids here in Indonesia. Tough, island smart. Ok, so the next task was for Special Ed to go break the news to his foxy chick and she started in at him, giving him that old song and dance about “It’s either me or your surfboard” and so Special Ed made his call.

And it wasn’t even that good a board.


Right, sorted, so Special Ed loads everybody up in the van and they take that time honored trip over to Lombok on that sketchy ferry and then take the classic drive to Desert Point and do it tough. It’s over at the end of that dusty road. Sort of like Indonesia’s Teahupoo. And the jungle boys just handled the whole thing, all the logistics, everything. But when they got there, the grown-ups only had enough dough for one room, so the jungle boys slept out on the porch, you know the drill. So the surf wasn’t huge, but it was perfect, as usual, and the getting there for Noah and these kids was probably more important than the waves anyway. I mean, look, surfing Indonesia? Perfect waves, sure, they grow on trees here, but what you really gotta do to get it on in Indonesia is to grow a pair and rent a van and hit the road, man. It’s a big world beyond Bali and it might start at Desert Point but it doesn’t end there. It’s still an endless adventure over here. One of the last places on earth for it. And for this crew, you know, Noah and those little kids? It’s all just begun. And that right there is spirit of our whole machine in Indo. The new post-covid Indo? Bring it and send it…or don’t even bother. Oh, and yeah…unless she surfs…do yourself a favour, leave the girlfriend at home.”

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