The nation of Indonesia is made up of more than 17,500 islands! It is said that over 6,000 of these islands are inhabited, but only around 1,000 are permanently settled. The largest islands of Indonesia are Java, Sumatra, Borneo and New Guinea. Padang is located on the central west coast of Sumatra and is the 3rd largest city on the island. Most likely you will fly to Padang via Jakarta on a local carrier. Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia, located on the northwest of the island of Java, not to far from the southern tip of Sumatra.

The Mentawai Island chain is off the west coast of the southern half of Sumatra. It is made up of 4 main islands, moving from north to south they are: Siberut, Sipura, North Pagai and South Pagai. Southern Mentawai Outpost is located on the Northern tip of a small island called Sibigau, about 4 miles off the west coast of Pagai Selatan, South Pagai. Sibigau is fully exposed to the south and west, just the beautiful Indian Ocean out there. This is why we don’t even need swell, with a south wind, that blows for about half the year, the wind swell wraps around our island and ticks off perfect overhead high barrels!

The ferry route is SSW, about 110 miles until Sikakap, the ferry port located on Pagai Utara (North Pagai). Now that the fast ferry, “Mentawai Fast”, is running our route on Fridays there are 3 days a week to leave Padang and head out to the Ments. The fast ferry makes the crossing in just 4 hours! Leaving Padang at 6AM on Fridays and arriving Sikakap at 10AM. “Ambu Ambu” is the overnight ferry, the travel time is 13 hours, leaving Padang at 5PM and arriving Sikakap at 6AM.

Once you arrive the ferry port in Sikakap, you will be greeted by our staff in one of our boats. The last 15 miles of your travel is worthy of a National Geographic documentary, cruising past uninhabited pristine island jungles and white sand beaches!

Please see the map. The solid red line is the ferry route from Padang to Sikakap. The dotted line is the route from Sikakap to Sibigau.

At Southern Mentawai Outpost we offer 4 options for the length of your surfing adventure; 7, 9, 12, and 14 surf days, with a max capacity of 8 surfers.

Of course everything is flexible and we love to help plan adventures, just shoot us an email or ring us up with any questions or concerns.