Kandui.

About

Kandui is a left-hand reef break on the northern tip of Karangmajat, in the Playgrounds region of the northern Mentawai chain. It’s a freight train of a wave — long, hollow, and built for the back foot. The line-up sits over an outer-reef shelf that turns chest-high pulses into rifle barrels and double- overhead pulses into a gauntlet. Kandui Villas overlooks the take-off; charter boats line up alongside whenever a clean swell hits the chain.

Kandui needs south-west swell with 12s and beyond to reel the full length of the reef. East trade winds are clean offshore, the same dry-season pattern that fires the rest of the Mentawai chain. The wave is best on a mid to high rising tide; lows expose the inside ledge and the end section turns into a closeout over reef. Below head-high it doesn’t properly ledge; above triple-overhead it picks up freak sets and the paddle-out becomes its own commitment.

Expert only. The take-off shears late, the second section is foot-on-the-gas or no-section-at-all, and the inside reef sits so shallow that a leash can catch and snap on a bad fall. Hold-downs are long and the current pulls down the line. Crowds run deep on every clean dry-season day, and the regulars from the resort have priority. Watch a couple of sets from the channel before you slide in.