A short, dredging right across the channel from Lance's Left that turns on when the north wind ruins everything else in the bay.
Also known as Bintang.
Bintangs sits across the channel from Lance's Left, on the far side of the bay at Katiet on southern Sipora. It is about five minutes by speedboat from the Katiet side of the bay, and it is a wave almost nobody plans a trip around. That is a large part of why it is worth knowing about.
It is a short right-hander that dredges over a shelf of coral, and its reputation rests on one thing, which is the barrel. Nobody claims long rides here. What surfers report instead is a wave that stands up out of deep water without much warning and throws a thick, round tube towards the channel. There is a softer left in the same bay, usually listed separately as Bintangs Left, which is a different proposition entirely.
The wave
The swell arrives from deep water and finds the reef late. That is what gives the wave its character. The take-off is slabby, the bottom drops out underneath you and the face jacks into a horseshoe shape almost straight away. Guides and boat crews keep reaching for the same words, sucky, dredging, slab, which tells you most of what you need to know about the entry.
From there it runs through a barrel section into a bowly wall built for turns before it fades into the channel. On mid-sized swells it is punchy and rippable, a fun right with a tube on the front end. On bigger days the barrel thickens and can run most of the length of the wave. Either way, do not go expecting distance. Even the people who rate it highest describe the ride as very short.
South to south-west swell is what it wants, and the wind is the interesting part. Bintangs is offshore in a northerly, which is the wind that ruins most of the Mentawai. The mornings when Lance's Left and HT's are chopped into rubble are often the mornings this reef comes into its own. Tide advice varies: some crews prefer a lower tide on the push for the slab, others rate mid to high when they want the shoulder to hold open. Ask whoever is driving the boat. April to October is the reliable window, though it will break outside it.
Conditions at a glance
- Wave type: Short right-hand reef break, slabby take-off into a barrel
- Best swell: South to south-west groundswell
- Best wind: North to north-east offshore, the wind that ruins most of the Mentawai
- Best tide: Reports split: some crews want a lower tide on the push for the slab, others rate mid to high for a longer shoulder
- Best size: Rideable from about waist high and it holds size, with sources quoting anywhere up to double overhead. Roughly 3 to 8ft is the range most consistently described as good, and the barrel gets thicker and rounder as it grows.
- Season: April to October, best May to September, and it will still break outside that window
- Crowd: Usually quiet and rated uncrowded by every guide that lists it, with one directory putting typical numbers at five to fifteen surfers. It fills up when a north wind blows out Lance's Left and HT's and the fleet goes looking for shelter.
- Where: Katiet bay, Sipora, Central Mentawai
Who it suits
Solid intermediates get a lot out of Bintangs when it is small. At waist to chest high it is a playful right with a manageable entry and a channel to sit in and paddle back through, and if you can take off on a reef wave and put a turn on a wall you will enjoy yourself.
Once there is size in it the picture changes. It is a dredging take-off over live coral, the lip carries weight and the ride is short enough that a poor decision puts you near the reef quickly rather than eventually. Sources disagree on exactly how shallow it is, with one resort describing reef deep enough to skip booties and most guides calling it a shallow slab. Treat it as shallow until you have looked at it yourself, wear booties, and remember how far you are from a hospital. It is not a beginner wave once it has any size.
How to surf Bintangs with WaveBorn
Two of our trips reach it, both of them boats. Ombak Kabau is our live-aboard charter, up to ten guests, eleven nights and ten surf days, roaming the full Mentawai chain along with the Tello Islands and the northern run to the Hinako Islands off Nias. Katiet is a natural anchorage on that route, and once you are sitting in the bay, Bintangs is a five minute run across the channel.
Odyssey Mentawai is our 46ft catamaran, up to eight guests, with a surf pro on board and the same archipelago-wide range. The pro matters more here than it might sound. Bintangs is a wave you check rather than commit to, and the call usually gets made on the morning: if the north wind is up and the rest of the bay has gone to ruin, this is where you go. It is also the sensible move when Lance's Left is full, because the crowd here rarely gets past a handful.
Trips that reach it: Ombak Kabau and Odyssey Mentawai .
Nearby breaks
Bintangs sits within easy reach of Lance's Left, Lance's Right (HT's), The Cobra and Bintangs Left , which is what makes this part of the archipelago so productive: if the wind or swell does not suit one reef, another is usually working a short ride away.
More breaks in Central Mentawai
- Telescopes : A long, versatile left off Sipora that works across a huge range of sizes, and a favourite of ours.
- Tikus : The uncrowded wave that breaks straight out front at Sunset Surf Villas, checkable from the deck.
- Icelands : A left-hand reef off north-west Sipora that swings from a mellow head-high wall to one of the heaviest big-wave barrels in the Mentawai.
- Scarecrows : A long, underrated left off North Sipora that runs over 200 yards into the Curry Bowl, one of the central Mentawai's most consistent waves.
- Suicides : A fickle, fast barrelling left off north-west Sipora that stays empty because most crews take one look at it and keep going.
- Ombak Tidur : A sectiony right-hand reef off North Sipora that picks up swell on the smaller days and rarely carries a crowd.
- Doughnuts : A fickle, expert-only left off North Sipora that barrels hard over shallow coral on the rare days it switches on.
Conditions here are a guide, not a guarantee. Our crew reads the swell, wind and tide each morning and puts you on the break that matches your surfing that day. See the full Mentawai surf spots guide or browse every break we surf.