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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A strong earthquake in remote eastern Indonesia cut power lines, cracked building walls and sent panicked residents running out of their homes toward higher ground Sunday, authorities and witnesses said.

The Indonesian Meteorology and Seismology Agency warned that with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 it was strong enough to cause a tsunami. However, there were no immediate reports of giant waves and the warning was lifted within an hour.

The tremor struck at 2:43 a.m. local time, around 85 miles off the coast of Manokwari, Papua, at a depth of 6 miles.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the strength at a more powerful 7.6 magnitude and nearly three times the depth. Shallow earthquakes generally cause more damage than deeper ones.

Electricity went off and people fled their homes in the dark, fearing a tsunami, said Hasim Rumatiga, a local health official.

In the town of Sorong, very near to the epicenter, a resident told El Shinta radio buildings and houses had been slightly damaged.

Indonesia straddles a chain of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific ”Ring of Fire” and is prone to seismic activity. A huge quake off western Indonesia caused the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed around 230,000 people, more than half of them in Sumatra.

There was no doubt the recession was going to hit the surf industry and in predictable ways. Surfers would be traveling less and opting for less expensive destinations. I’d would expect surf charter bookings to be down significantly. The surf apparel companies like Quicksilver and Volcom have taken big hits, most notably in their stock prices which are down close to 90% from their highs.

Quicksilver owned the luxury surf charter Indies Trader IV. For the past few years, it’s been the stretch limo of choice for pro’s venturing to the Mentawais. Martin Daly and Indies Trader Marine Adventures launched a website for booking charters on the boat in 2005 along with the other three Indies Traders of the fleet.

Now the Indies Trader IV can be yours for a cool $5.5 million. Freedom Marine of Australia has the boat listed on their site.  Doesn’t seem there’s as much an appetite for surf charters that book at $2000/night with this economy.

Cannibals and surf exploration don’t mix well. In 1975, traveling Australian surfers, Kevin Lovett, John Giesel, and Peter Troy were traveling Indonesia on motorcycles in search of new perfect waves. They were drawn to the island of Nias off the coast of Northern Sumatra by a horseshoe shaped bay a the Southern end of the island that looked promising for surf. They were right. They discovered Lagundri Bay and surfed it alone for three months. The discovery set would set the surf world on fire and open the door for further exploration of Indonesia. (An account of surfing the remote islands of Northern Sumatra).

Kevin Lovett later learned that the three of them had been targets of cannibal practicing tribes on the island during their stay. The blog, Strange Maps of the World, presents a early 20th century map of the world highlighting areas that practice cannibalism both historical and present. A good guide when heading off to Papua New Guinea, Vanatu, or other unchartered areas. [Link to larger image of Map] “Indonesia, Micronesia and the rest of Oceania are marked by many contemporary instances of cannibalism, in Australia, New Guinea, Borneo (Dayaks) and Sumatra (Bataks).” Don’t think we were not immune to it, while Europe seemed free of Antropophagie (Greek for “eating of humans”) – something that may more than anything indicate a bias in the map, North America certainly was not.

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I recently published my account of a surf trip to Northern Sumatra aboard the Mikumba run by Sumatra Surfariis, a great charter operator for Indonesia, in Everywhere Magazine. Everywhere Magazine is part of 8020 publishing that also publishes the photo-focused magazine JPG Magazine, filled with user submitted and voted on content. They’re both great magazines, check them out. Here’s the full pubished account below (link to story an Everywhere Magazine). Check out my photos at JPG Magazine. Incidently, the photo at the header of this blog is from this boat trip to Northern Sumatra without a doubt one of the last great unexplored areas of surfing. Unlike the Mentawais, there are only a few charters that operate in the area.

Points North – Surf Exploration in Northern Sumatra

We plan for months. My packing list is two pages long. There are of eight of us, surfers traveling from New York, California, and Hong Kong. We are embarking on a two week excursion on a converted Indonesian freight boat to remote tropical islands to explore and surf. We are going to surf waves that most surfers only see in magazines and videos and will have these waves to ourselves.

We start in Sibolga, Northern Sumatra, Indonesia after over 30 hours of flights and an overland trip across Sumatra. Sibolga is the last port before Banda Aceh, the northern most province of Sumatra and the one hit heaviest in the 2004 Tsunami. From the dirty anonymous port, we chart a course west. The islands where we will be searching for surf are so obscure and unexplored that after the 2004 Tsunami the Indonesian government relied on the help of the handful of surf charter operators in the area to chart courses to the isolated villages to bring relief supplies.

[Continued after the break]

Our boat, the Mikumba—a sturdy, 80 ft, wooden, converted freighter—lacks luxurious accommodations, but she makes up for it in space. There are two open decks above the main deck affording us a comfortable place to take in the stunning coastline. The crew cooks, cleans, and works hard at keeping her in shape. The engineer of the crew spends the night in the hot, stuffy, loud engine crawl space to make sure the engines don’t fail under passage.

Our energized young guide, AK, relates the story of a surf break in the area called HI’s or “Head Injuries.” Surfers name the break after the captain of another surf charter fell on a big wave and came up with a large chunk of coral embedded in his skull from the shallow reef. The message is clear: though beautiful, these waves have real consequences and help is a long way off.

30 years ago surfers first started exploring the area. In 1975, three adventurous surfers hacked their way through the jungle on the island of Nias and discovered what would become the world-class surf break at Lagundri Bay. They stumbled upon every surfers’ dream: a beautiful, secluded, unknown surfbreak. Nias at the time was untouched by exploration. The jungle harbored dangerous malaria and indigenous tribes still practicing cannibalism. Their discovery of the wave opened a gateway that would change surfing; however, it came at a cost as one of the three adventurers died shortly afterwards of malaria.

Word soon got out of the wave at Lagundri Bay, and rumors spread of waves better than anything anyone has imagined in the islands south of Nias—the Mentawais. Intrepid surfers started exploring these islands by hiring rickety local fishing boats. Sleeping on planks and eating rice, they would spend weeks at sea for the chance to surf the best waves in the world and discover new ones. Eventually, a nascent surf charter industry built up around exploring these islands. What started with fishing boats became a competitive industry complete with luxury charters and over 60 boats competing for surfers’ business. Now there are a half-dozen land camps on the Mentawais, hundreds of documented and surfed waves, and legal battles over the rights to these waves.

Because of the open-ocean crossings and exposure to heavy swells and currents, exploring the islands to the North of Nias requires larger, more seaworthy boats. This means that only a few companies operate charters to “the North.” We encounter few boats or fisherman as we explore hundreds of miles of coast. Destruction from the 2004 earthquake and subsequent tsunami is evident everywhere. The earthquake caused massive uplift in some areas, up to 15 ft on some reefs.

On our fifth day, we find out first hand why only the sturdiest of surf charters makes their way up this far north. An afternoon squall turns into a storm. 10 ft waves pound the Mikumba at anchorage tossing her bow violently up and down. The captain and crew walk about restless and uneasy. We do everything we can to avoid getting seasick.

The storm abates by daybreak, and already we are motoring again in search of surf. Though no one slept much, the crew and our guide seem unaffected by storm. It’s clear now why the engineer of the crew sleeps in the engine room: there’s no one to help us if we founder.

The swell finally arrives. We wake up at dawn at a renowned surf break, a “secret spot” our guides insists that we keep unnamed. We are mesmerized by surf perfection. Waves start more than a mile out from our anchorage, open up wide on the shallow reef in a blue barrel and reel across it in beautiful groomed lines. There are few waves in the world that break with this consistency and length.

For the next two days we surf until we can’t any more. The wave has broken two of our boards and torn the fins off of two others. We’ve been spun on wipe-outs to the point of not knowing up from down and been dragged across the sharp reef. We are sunburned, chafed, and exhausted. By the time the swell subsides, we’re too spent to surf anymore. It’s everything we’ve traveled across the world for.

The swell fades and we motor south. The next day we surf a break in front of a tiny fishing village on Nias. As we surf, a crowd of locals gather on the beach in front of the wave. The children shout and cheers us on. The spectacle of foreign surfers dancing across waves in front of their homes is as exotic and exciting to them as it is for us to surf here.

We explore an island without surf. Populated by just a few fisherman, the island is stunning and pristine. We snorkel out in the current and watch a torrent of tropical reef fish of all colors swim below us. I’ve never seen a reef so alive. There’s nothing between us and Antarctica thousands of miles to the South, just open ocean and long lines of inexorable swell.

On our last night, our cook prepares a feast of lobster bought from the local fisherman. Clouds ring the horizon, and the sun seems to set everywhere in fiery colors of exuberance. We eat on the top deck of the boat looking out on hundreds of miles of open ocean and all begin planning our return.

More photos from the trip below:

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In spite of the shipwrecked Taiwanese Fishing Boat on the reef at Padang Padang, the Rip Curl Pro Search 2008 proceeded without incident first at the wave at Padang Padang and then as the swell dropped up the point at Uluwatu and Racetrack (section of Uluwatu). Interestingly enough, the press never stated where the event was being held electing to say instead “Somewhere in Indonesia.” Uluwatu hasn’t been a secret spot since it blew up on the surf scene 30 years ago and was featured in the movie “Morning of the Earth.” Padang Padang got especially timely exposure when the Taiwanese fishing boat ran aground there a week before the contest was supposed to be held. So much for keeping a spot secret.

The Balinese authorities who blew their chance to drag the grounded boat off the reef the first few days it after it had grounded there, recently decided burning the it was the best alternative (WTF?!). According to their spokesman, “The objective of burning the boat was to reduce it’s size. The next step will be to cut up the remaining wreck and have it removed piece by piece to a place where it will not distrub the tourist beaches in the Bukit areas.” The ROLE foundation has been providing updates on the situation in Bali.

You would think that aside from furthering an environmental disaster after the fuel and oil have already leaked out onto the reef and waters, you would want to minimize the impact of further damage to the environment. You might also think that cutting apart a burned and broken boat would be more hazardous and dangerous than one that was intact. Not so for the Indonesians. At this point, I don’t think it can really get any worse.

During a week of uncharacteristic, lake-like flatness, a plan to remove the boat from the reef was put together by the Marine Police and an operation was scheduled for Thursday when the tides would be highest. With a large westerly swell forecasted for Friday morning, it was a one-shot deal. Wednesday evening on the low tide ropes and buoys would be affixed to the boat and Thursday morning at 6am several large fishing boats were to be coordinated on site and tow the boat off of the reef on the incoming tide. This did not happen. On Wednesday night two of the fishermen who were affixing the lines and buoys were injured, one of them hospitalized, and word got back to the rest of the fleet that it was too dangerous to attempt.

Thursday morning dawned with ideal flat conditions and a beach full of hopeful surfers and lifeguards waiting to rush out and help affix the ropes to the boats for towing. At 7am the information was released that the boats were not coming and a group of surfers immediately rushed off to the port in Jimbarran to plead with the police and fishermen to act quickly and get the boats on site. After two hours of negotiations, the boats left port and arrived on site 45 minutes later.

By the time the ropes were set and boats were in formation to attempt to tow the Ho Tsai Fa off of the reef the tide had already turned and it was too late. Chris Moore from the Role Foundation was one of the people who spent the morning swimming in diesel and wading through shin-deep rotten sardines and diesel sludge. “At one point we did move the boat, but it was just for one moment. We were just too late. If we were just one hour earlier, or had we been able to use a Tug Boat, we would have been able to pull the boat off.”

By all accounts the operation was a huge disappointment. We missed our window of opportunity to pull the boat off of the reef and its fate was sealed by nightfall as swell filled into the area. By Friday morning, there was 6-foot tubes breaking over the boat and long lines from the Southern Indian Ocean pushed the Ho Tsai Fa onto the inner reef and ruptured the hull.

Friday and Saturday, the same group of concerned surfers who had been trying so hard to get the boat towed off of the reef continued to work at what is now a clean up and containment mission. The Role Foundation, as well as representatives from surfing companies, and local surfers have been doing their best, with limited manpower and resources to remove as much oil and fuel from the boat, as well as anything that can be taken off of the boat now, before a larger swell hits on Monday.

“The situation is not good,” says Michael O’Leary, director of the Role Foundation. “We are doing our best to contain this mess, but with a large swell forecasted on Monday we are worried this boat is going to break into pieces. We have a long road ahead of us with this if Padang Padang and the surrounding areas are ever going get cleaned up.”

The notorious Tawainese longliner fishing boat, Ho Tsai Fa No. 18, ran aground on the reef at Padang Padang in Bali, Indonesia at 7PM on Friday night – just in time for opening day of the highly anticipated Rip Curl Padang Cup event the following morning.

“The whole surf community is pretty concerned about the boat as it’s leaking fuel,” said Rip Curl’s Andy Higgins. “With a swell arriving on Friday afternoon, it could break open. So apart from the fact that this could make running our events—the Rip Curl Padang Cup & Rip Curl Pro Search—there impossible, it poses a big threat environmentally as well. Either way, it’s on the top of our ‘to do’ list until we find an appropriate solution.”

Taiwanese authorities had been seeking assistance from the Indonesian government to find this boat well known for illegal fishing practices that’s been missing since May 13, 2008. Taiwanese skipper Tsai Wen-chen and approximately 16 Indonesian crewmen were on board when it went missing.

From Solspot.com

Check the video of surfers riding Padang by the boat.

Update from CoastalWatch:

The boat has settled on a much more precarious looking angle today, and it’s starting to leak a fair bit of diesel. In fact the whole area around it reeks of diesel. The local ladies on the beach are not too stoked… lucky the wind is offshore, but a bit of swell could bring it in. I don’t think it’s gonna take too much to tip it over… there’s hardly any swell now but the biggest sets are rocking it in a very sketchy looking way. If it tips it’s gonna be a massive environmental stuff up.

Looting has kicked into overdrive and so far it doesn’t really seem like any effort is going to be made to get this thing off the reef. It’s slowly being dismantled on site and anything of value is being taken. There’s people all over it and around it. The load of fish has been cleaned out, now crew are taking petty containers, tanks, radio gear etc. A lifeguard came past proudly holding the steering wheel and I was like no way, this thing isn’t going anywhere, ever.

You can’t help assuming that it’s starting to look like it could become a permanent feature of Padang Padang.

Even if they did want to get it off, there’s no real big tides until Friday, when some swell is supposed to kick in as well. If no-one gets it’s off the reef by then it’s gonna get smashed back to Taiwan. Let’s hope it doesn’t get smashed square into the lineup.