The Survival of Paradise

Things are now, as they were before...it feels like we've gone back in time.

The charter boats are dry docked, the surf resorts are all closed... no one can enter Mentawai.

Indigenous natives have abandoned their satellite huts on the islands that they live in while coconut harvesting, and returned to the jungle.

The islands are more alive with nature than ever before. We see more birds, more fish, more turtles, more snakes, more monitor lizards, and the jungle is reclaiming itself.

The empty waves roll through every day, perfect as ever, as if victorious unridden. It's a magnetism only a surfer knows.

We sense a new energy is coming to Mentawai.

With 5 of us foreigners left at Mentawai Surf Retreat, all from different parts of the world, we feel both privileged and completely isolated.

Wherever you are in the world. Stay safe, no matter what it takes.

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The video is our tribute to the Mentawai Islands.

Filmed & edited by Iñigo Grasset (https://www.youtube.com/user/GsstFilms) during Coronavirus lockdown.

Words by Vere Dixon Smith.