One of the freaks of nature, wave wise in the Mentawai`s is Burgers, Burgerworld, Koroniki, or as the locals told me last week when I was there, Roniki is what they call the island.

We can have a very small swell, basically flat at a lot of waves, and Burgers is head high, hundred metre walls, safe and clean, even in some big storms, How!?

The topography of the surfable area at Burgers is a large, flattish plate like reef, angling down at the perfect shape to create a ramp for any swell to start standing up and lifting. Add to the fact the angle of the island and this plate is “around the corner” for most swells and this refraction also allows the swell to be wrapped into a more uniform shape and groomed.

When the swells are too big, they break out on the outer edges of this flat plate and are big burgers, hence the name, coined early days by some pros who were out searching for waves and came across this arena on a day that was too big.

The brilliance was for Martin to put it in his memory and know that its worth another check on a smaller day.

This flat large plate like area, on smaller days stands up and refracts this swell to be a long wall, that does stand up, but that doesnt break out on the shoulder, allowing it to refract even more and run down the side of Roniki island, with a beautiful long wall out in front of you, and importantly on a small day, it breaks along the island, not into it, hence its not shallow, a problem with most waves when they are small.

Predominant storm winds are offshore, but the morning offshore flowing off the Mountains of Siberut blows some pretty significant moguls into the lineup, and what can look pretty clean from the boat, can make it difficult to link turns and when the winds die or go offshore, the real magic of burgers starts and anyone from a semi beginner to a semi pro can love its long walls and ramps, with the chance of a double coverup possible on some days.

Certain swell angles and tides are best, and a few other tips we will leave to once your onboard with us.

Burgers is now hard to get alone, there are people staying in the area on land most of the year now and when conditions align, the boats out there know its a good option. There are still a couple of other magnets that give the boats an option when its tiny, but for an overall, Burgers is the best, a Noosa style point break, along a DR Suess point, with a nice beach to walk around on, a semi ok left, and a calm anchorage, epic spot, and we have quite a few groups that would be happy to spend the whole trip there.

The locals are from the nearby village of Tailelue, where the kids go to school, and a few of the coconut workers come and farm the small islands large number of coconut trees. The original house there was full of Monkey skulls, and turtle shells, and a few more houses have popped up. Ive seen the Sikerei there, hunting, shark, and turtle for their ceremonies and celebrations, the locals honor and respect them and they are allowed to take sea life that others are not. The Titi that all true Mentawains used to wear are less common now, but you still see a few elders and even a few younger people now with their proud Titi, tattoed on using the wood and ink way of tradition.

Some big players from Singapore, Europe and Jakarta have big plans for the area of beach breaks running from Tailelue to Pei Pei in this area, it will be decades in the making and the overdue Tsunami will change those plans I think.