A fickle, expert-only left off North Sipora that barrels hard over shallow coral on the rare days it switches on.
Also known as Donuts.
Doughnuts breaks off the north end of Sipora, in the central Mentawai, inside the cluster of reefs the boats out of Tuapejat and Simakakang work daily. It is a left over coral, and the wave in that cluster people talk about least. Telescopes gets the photographs, Scarecrows gets the sessions, and Doughnuts spends most of the year doing very little. Then a swell arrives with the right shape and it turns into one of the heaviest things on this coast.
Sort the name out before you go looking. Some guides list Doughnuts as nothing more than another name for Suicides, the reef alongside it. Others, including the crews who surf it out of Simakakang, treat them as two waves, Suicides the right and Doughnuts the left. Suicides itself gets written up as a left by one source and a right by the next, which shows how loose the naming is here. On character, nobody disagrees. Sunset Surf Villas call it "a crazy barreling left hander for pros only".
The wave
Every account says much the same. It is a fast, heavy barrel with no build-up in it at all. The take-off is steep, the lip throws almost straight away, and it asks you to commit from the first stroke. Get it right and it stands against anything in the central Mentawai. Get it wrong and you wear the coral.
The catch is that it rarely does it. Doughnuts is fickle, rated only average for consistency even mid-season. It sits in the same swell window as its neighbours, so the south-west through west groundswells that light up Telescopes and Icelands are the ones to watch, and the dry season south-easterly trades from April to October hold it clean. Past that we would rather be straight: published detail on tide and size for this reef is thin, and the boat crews are the ones who genuinely know.
What is well documented is how surfers behave around it. When a solid groundswell is running, most crews cruise past and surf something with less consequence. That is not laziness. It offers perfection now and then and punishment a good deal more often, over coral that is shallow and sharp. Head counts sit in the low single figures and you will often be the only one out. If it is breaking clean and nobody is on it, treat that as information.
Conditions at a glance
- Wave type: Left-hand reef break
- Best swell: South-west through west groundswell, the same pulses that switch on Telescopes and Icelands
- Best wind: The dry season south-easterly through easterly trades that hold this stretch of coast clean
- Best tide: Not reliably documented for this reef. Enough water over the coral matters more than a fixed stage, so ask whoever is driving the boat
- Best size: Needs genuine swell before it breaks properly, and it gets more serious the bigger it runs
- Season: April to October, the dry season, when swell and trades line up
- Crowd: Almost empty. Reports put it at zero to ten surfers, and when a solid groundswell is running most crews motor straight past for the less consequential waves nearby.
- Where: North Sipora, Central Mentawai
Who it suits
This is an expert wave and we will not dress it up. Advanced is the mildest rating any source gives it, and the people who run boats to it say pros only. If you are asking whether you are ready, you are not. It wants late, steep drops, the ability to sit in a fast barrel and come out, and the composure to take a beating over shallow reef with no quick help near. Goofy-footers get the forehand run. Regular-footers ride it backhand, which is a different proposition again.
If that is not you, nothing is lost, because you are surrounded by better options. Scarecrows is minutes away and hands out 200 yard lefts. Tikus is mellow enough to log. Icelands on a small day is one of the friendliest quality lefts in the chain. Doughnuts will still be there next trip. What it will not do is give you a second chance on the wrong day, a long boat ride from the nearest hospital.
How to surf Doughnuts with WaveBorn
Doughnuts sits in the home patch of Sunset Surf Villas. The villa is on the beach at Pulau Simakakang, sleeps up to six, and runs a dedicated private boat that reaches nine named breaks inside 15 to 25 minutes, Doughnuts among them. For a wave this fickle, that access is the whole game. Look at it on the way past, surf Scarecrows or Tikus while the swell fills in, then go back the moment it starts to stand up.
Both boats cover this coast too. Ombak Kabau takes up to ten guests for eleven nights and ten surf days, roaming the entire Mentawai chain plus the Tello Islands and the northern route to the Hinako Islands off Nias, so when the forecast points at North Sipora you are parked there for it. Odyssey Mentawai is our 46ft catamaran, up to eight guests with a surf pro on board and the same archipelago-wide range. Either way someone experienced is reading the charts alongside you.
Trips that reach it: Sunset Surf Villas , Ombak Kabau and Odyssey Mentawai .
Nearby breaks
Doughnuts sits within easy reach of Telescopes, Scarecrows, Icelands and Tikus , 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
- Lance's Right : A perfect, photogenic right-hand barrel and probably the most photographed wave in Indonesia.
- Lance's Left : A long, consistent left that wraps down the reef at Katiet in three sections, from a shallow barrel up top to rippable walls on the inside.
- 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.
- Bintangs : A short, dredging right across the channel from Lance's Left that turns on when the north wind ruins everything else in the bay.
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.