Before wavepools and luxury surf resorts, a true surf trip meant venturing for days by boat to remote, perfect, barrelling waves in places far, far away.
Nias was one of those places. And it still is, but today it’s a “thriving little surf town” that even holds international contests, according to surf YouTuber Dan Harmon.
In his latest release below, Harmon dives into the history of Nias and how it was first discovered by surfers.
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Harmon shared his latest video above and captioned it:
“Hey guys! This short video dives into the history of Nias, one of the best waves in Indonesia.
“Today, Nias is a well-known, thriving surf destination, but it hasn’t always been this way. The first surfers to discover Nias, battled disease, sketchy ferry crossings and local tribes that practised human sacrifice.
“Nias has also suffered two major tsunamis, one of which changed the reef forever… Enjoy the story, and as always please like and subscribe to support the channel! Let me know of stories regarding the history of Nias and your experience surfing it :)”
Press play above for a very cool story.
One viewer shared a great Nias story of his own in the comments:
“Really interesting history Dan. I went to Lagundri Bay in 1977 and spent 5 weeks there living/ camping in the first building ever built near the break.
“It was a half built two storey house, thatch roofed, no power, built by the nephew of the landowner, a local coconut farmer. I spoke reasonable Bahasa Indo so he was jazzed to have me there.
“Didn’t pay rent, just looked after his house, did some gardening and hung out with him when he visited. There was a newly dug well next to the house, kids from the hill tribe village above the coastal strip brought fruit and vegetables for me to buy and l bought fresh fish from any fishermen who came past on their way into the bay. Mostly l surfed alone, only had a couple of fellow Aussies there for one week.”
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