Year after year, Uruguayan Pilu Sarabia spends a good part of his time in one of the best places in the world to be a surfer: the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia.

As he himself told DUKE, he spends that time managing his various ventures, and, as is also the case year after year, he finds a gem of a wave that pays for his entire trip.

Last year he hit several great shots and this year he hit several more, but this one definitely stood out.

“First time surfing this wave and in this area of ​​the Mentawais. Incredible: Only seven people in the water and waves I'd always dreamed of riding as a kid. It wasn't the best wave season in Indonesia, but a single afternoon can change everything (laughs),” he told DUKE.

Pilu comes down well-disposed, establishes a good line and goes out with the spray to celebrate life.

Below is the account of the entire experience of reaching the wave and the wave itself by the surfer:

“We were in Bali with a friend and my parents, who had recently arrived from Uruguay, and we had planned a trip to Las Mentas.

The truth is that so far, the year hasn't been the best in terms of waves. Not so much because of a lack of swell, but because the factors just haven't aligned: the winds, the swell direction... All the things that need to happen for a truly good season.

We had some good days, but just when the best conditions were looking like, the wind crossed at the last minute, on the peaks where I was, and that meant we couldn't fully reach the summit.

We'd already spent a month south of Sipura, at Hollow Trees, and we hadn't experienced anything magical. Yes, there were some very good waves, but nothing as special as in previous years.

But anyway, the date of the new trip was arriving and a swell was approaching that looked different: It had a bit more of an oeset component than most of this year's swells, which had almost all been very southerly, or which ended up going too far south over the course of the year.

It seemed like it was going to hit right while we were traveling, so we decided to move our ticket up two days to get there on time.
The question was: Where? There are tons of waves in Indonesia, and the distances between them are long, sometimes even days of travel to get there, as in this case. We had to assess the swell and take a chance.

Since I was left with that bitter taste from the previous month, of not having had conditions that completely matched HTs, we decided to try our luck in another area of ​​the Mentawais: This time in Playgrounds, on the island of Siberut, a place I had not yet visited.

We assessed the waves a bit, and the conditions seemed to be lining up for that area, or at least close to it. We were hesitant until the last minute; even on the ferry, we ran into a friend who was heading to Hollow Trees in search of the same swell, and for a moment we were filled with doubt. But it seems the wind got bad there afterward.

Nothing, we continued with our own business. We arrived Thursday afternoon, surfed some fun waves, relaxed... But Friday was a different story.

The sea had risen, and the wave we went for was getting bigger very quickly. I went in first on a short board and immediately realized I'd screwed up. I got out, changed, and then things got better.

It was an incredible afternoon. There were between seven and 10 of us in the water, heavy waves, and square tubes. We had periods of low and high tide, waves for everyone, and everyone looking out for each other.

This particular wave was different. I was already tired, having paddled out two in the series that I couldn't get into because I thought I was too far gone. But right away, a Californian took on one that was going badly. I thought he was going to die, and he was thrown out the tube door.

That's when I thought, "Oh, I can't be that cowardly," haha. So the next series that came along, I didn't even think about it: I put my head down and hit it.

At the drop, I could see it was going to get there. I thought I was over the top, but that wave held up. When I dropped the barrel, it was like walking into one of those double-height halls they taught me about in architecture school, haha. I'll tell you about it now and I'll be happy; it was unnecessary.

So nothing... It ended up being one of those days that remain.

The funny thing was that the next day, after surfing these waves, I tore my shoulder out on a playful 1-meter-per-minute wave. But anyway, I got out and came back in, and I'm better now."