As told by Christie Carter:

In 2001 the fun turned into a business when I received more guests than I had expected.  We installed electricity, initially to run the freezer for food, fans during the day, and lights until 9pm at night.  There were some sweltering nights on the island when the wind disappeared, and some of my return guests put in the request of fans at night.  Having electricity meant having to charge more, but it also meant being able to offer better food, and the holy grail of life on a tropical island: cold beer.  Eventually I broke down and bought a second, larger generator and ran it 24/7 whenever we had guests.  This meant not only fans at night, but ICE as well!  Things were getting really civilized.

Of course, having gone through all the trouble and expense of starting a company, along comes September 11th and blew it all out of the water.  Our main market at that point were Americans, and they weren't confident of travelling to the largest muslim country in the world.  2002 was a difficult year, and I had to borrow money to stay afloat.  On October 12 2002 the Sari Nightclub in Kuta beach Bali blew up, and with it the prospects for business in 2003.  Somehow we received enough guests to stay open and running throughout all the tumultuous times.

During this time the accommodation stayed status quo, and I became frustrated with not being able to offer my guests something better.  I started looking around for a better deal amongst the many land owners that I had met during my survey time.  The business was growing but I couldn't justify investing any more money without a guaranteed longer-term contract.

In 2004 I was finally offered a longer lease on the island, as incentive to build better facilities on the island.  It had taken me 6 years of negotiation to convince the land-owners that what was good for me was good for them, and that the man that they had contracted the island to before was not interested in actually building or investing anything in the Mentawais, and certainly had no incentive to bring guests to their island.  So I bought out the prior holder of the contract and signed up the island with my company for 20 years.

Within months of securing the contract the "hotel" was going up in the air.  2 stories high with 3 bedrooms and 3 en suites, the hotel's purpose was to not only give people better accommodation, but to make sure that those that wanted to party could stay at the bar, and those that wanted to sleep could sleep.  What a novel idea!  Off season 2004 the bar got a complete facelift all the way down to the floor joists, and Sa Bar was built to give the guests somewhere to drink and hangout.  Then came the games room with ping pong, crew's quarters, and a new generator shed in 2005.  Fuel shed and addition of a pool table in 2006, as well as our own boats and outboards.  Two new bungalows, viewing platform, massage hut and speedboat shed were completed during the off season 2007.  Basically, when we're not hosting guests, we're a construction crew.

We are standing by to make your dreams a reality.

The original secret surfing location and Mentawai adventure surfing resort in the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, Indonesia.