Ambivalent waves: surf tourism and human-waves relations in Siberut, Mentawai Islands

As contemporary surf tourism research primarily focuses on
sustainability or socio-economic impacts, the materiality of waves
tends to become simplified or overshadowed. By taking the latter
more seriously, this article particularly aims to explicate how local
human-waves relations offer nuanced and complex accounts of
what it means to live with waves in surf tourism destinations.
Drawing on Ingold’s (2000. The perception of the environment:
Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge) notions
of ‘engagement’ and ‘perception’, human-waves relations become
illustrated here as ‘ambivalent’ given their practically complex
interdependence and the irreducibility of waves and humans. On
basis of field observations in Siberut, Mentawai Islands, Indonesia,
this article highlights how local Mentawaian engagements with
waves develop in terms of ambiguous and dynamic notions of
‘good waves’, ‘fear’ and ‘pleasure’, and practices of ‘avoidance/
encounter’. These notions emphasize the often complex and
everyday engagements Mentawaians have with waves, but also
offer an avenue to recognize the importance of attending to the
seemingly trivial matter of waves in context of a surf tourism
destination.