A consistent right-hand reef in the Playgrounds that stays clean on north winds and needs less swell than its heavier neighbours.
Also known as Nipussi Left.
Nipussi sits on the southern side of Masokut Island, better known to most visiting surfers as Nyang Nyang, at the northern end of the Siberut group. You will also hear it called Pussies or Tiki, depending on who is holding the map. It is a right-hand reef break sitting in a sheltered pocket of the island, a short way down the reef from Bank Vaults, and it has quietly become one of the most surfed waves in the whole Playgrounds region.
Its reputation is built on reliability rather than drama. Nipussi does not need much swell to turn on, it breaks on all tides, and when the wind swings north and the exposed spots go ragged, this bay stays offshore and clean. Boat crews know it as the wave that saves a day, which means it is often the most consistent option in the area and rarely flat when everything else has gone quiet.
The wave
The take-off is a wide peak off the tip of the point, and there is usually more than one of them on a good set. The water is deeper here than it is up the reef at Bank Vaults, so the drop is comparatively forgiving. On the bigger sets it stands up steeply at the top of the point and asks for a committed entry, but you are not looking down a dry ledge the way you are next door.
From there the wave wraps down the reef and into the bay in long, rippable walls. It is a carving wave more than a tube wave, with speed and open face for turns, though on the right swell and tide the inside will throw a short barrel before it runs out. It finishes into the bay where the water drains back to sea, and that rip is the easiest way back to the line-up once you know where it sits.
Size changes the character more than tide does. Small to medium swell is when Nipussi does its best work, and around head high is the sweet spot, wrapping all the way from the point into the bay in one long run. Push past that and the interest starts moving up the reef to the heavier waves nearby. All tides work, but low water pulls the reef close on the inside, so mid to high is the fuller, safer window.
Conditions at a glance
- Wave type: Right-hand reef break
- Best swell: SW through W groundswell, and it will take a S swell too. It starts working on less size than the heavier reefs nearby.
- Best wind: Northerly. N through NW and NE hold it offshore, which is why it comes good when the exposed spots are blown out.
- Best tide: All tides work. Mid to high is fuller and safer over the inside reef.
- Best size: 3 to 8ft. Around head high is the sweet spot, when it wraps from the point right down into the bay.
- Season: April to October is the peak dry season swell window, but it breaks consistently through the year.
- Crowd: Moderate rather than heavy, but it is the fallback wave for every boat and camp working the Playgrounds, so a windy day can stack the line-up. Numbers thin out as soon as a decent swell pulls people back to the heavier reefs.
- Where: Siberut area, North Mentawai
Who it suits
This is an intermediate wave, and honestly so. Compared with Bank Vaults a short way up the same reef, which is a genuine expert-only slab, Nipussi is the friendlier of the two by a long way. If you can paddle into a solid head high wall, hold a line and pull off cleanly before the wave runs out, you will get plenty from it. It is a good place to build reef confidence before you go looking for heavier ground.
That said, forgiving does not mean soft. It is live coral, it is remote, and the reef edges are sharp where you get in and out, which is where most cuts happen. Low tide is the time to be careful, and the rip on the inside will move you if you are not watching it. Some camps do put improving surfers out here on a small, clean day, and on the right day that is fair enough, but it is still a reef a long way from a doctor and it is no place to be learning to stand up.
How to surf Nipussi with WaveBorn
Ombak Kabau is the straightforward way in. She takes up to ten guests for eleven nights and ten surf days, and she roams the entire Mentawai chain chasing the swell rather than sitting in one bay, so the northern islands and the Playgrounds reefs are part of the run when the forecast points that way. Nipussi is the call our skipper makes when the wind goes north and the exposed breaks are unrideable.
Odyssey Mentawai works the same stretch from a 46ft catamaran with up to eight guests and a surf pro on board, and she also runs north to the quieter Tello Islands, so a trip can take in Nipussi and keep going. We will not pretend the wave is boat-only, because there are camps on Nyang Nyang itself where you walk down and paddle out through the keyhole. For us it is a boat wave: our Sunset Surf Villas sit in the central Mentawai and Jenny's Bamboo Surfcamp is over at Krui in South Sumatra, so the two charters are the honest answer for this one.
Trips that reach it: Ombak Kabau and Odyssey Mentawai .
Nearby breaks
Nipussi sits within easy reach of Bank Vaults, Pitstops, Beng Bengs and Ebay , 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 North Mentawai
- Rifles : A machine-like right that runs for hundreds of metres and is widely rated one of the best on earth.
- Kandui : A hollow, mechanical left in the northern Playgrounds, often called the Mentawai answer to Teahupoo in miniature.
- Burgerworld : A long, playful right-hand reef point in the Playgrounds that switches on when the heavier North Mentawai reefs go flat.
- Hideaways : A world-class Playgrounds left that opens with a hollow ledge and runs into a long rippable wall, over reef that punishes greed.
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.