Catching Up with Usman Trioko, Desert Point’s First Surfer

To foreign ears, the story of your average Indonesian surfer sounds like a Hollywood film script. Take Usman Trioko, the first surfer from Desert Point and one of the stars of Nusantara, a film dedicated entirely to indigenous Indonesian surfers. 

As one of 13 children who grew up in the dusty, desert poverty of nearby Bangko Bangko village, Usman learned to spear fish as a child, which he traded for rice to feed his family. He learned to surf on broken boards left behind by travelling surfers and promised to himself that one day he would master the roping tubes of Desert Point. 

Today he’s clocked more tube time than any human in history and fields calls from the likes of Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira to go surf. It is but one of millions of similarly remarkable stories of survival and surfing you’ll find across this archipelago, a handful of which have been documented in the surf film you see below. 

SURFER: This is the first all Indonesian surf film ever. So many foreign surfers have come here and made careers and content off the world class waves. Did it feel right to finally have a film that celebrates Indonesians surfing these same waves?

USMAN: I’m super happy to do this Indonesian film with all Indonesian surfers. It’s important to show Indonesian surfers, that they have talent skill and surfing really good. I really like all the longboarders, because I can’t surf longboard, but the whole part of it is really cool because we have our own story to share with other people. We have the life story of local surfers in this film. The waves were really good too.  

I want to say thank you to the Drifter team and crew for making it happen. So stoked to be a part of it.

Nusantara tells the story of some of the best Indonesian surfers beyond the waves. Can you give us an insight into how different life and culture is across the 13,000 islands that make up this archipelago?

Different island, different culture. I grew up in Lombok and I moved to Bali and it was really cool to get to know this island. You respect both cultures, everyone respect each other, it’s very important to respect all the cultures, very important to have fun and enjoy it all you know. 

Most Indonesian surfers come from very poor families and have no health insurance. What are you risking by surfing these incredibly powerful, and dangerous waves?

If I’m injured or anyone is injured it’s like the whole family is injured. We are local family, good family, all taking care of each other, so if I get hurt they are stressed out thinking about how they going to get money for surgery. That’s why I’m scared when I’m not comfortable in some conditions. Your body tells you sometimes. 

I come from a very poor family but I just love surfing. I wasn’t thinking about insurance and stuff when I was younger. My mind is like, ‘Surfing was so fun back in the day.’ I see a lot of people injured and I wasn’t thinking I was gonna get injured. But now at 30 I think a lot about how dangerous surfing is on a big wave. You could be knocked out, could break your neck.

For me, when surfing really good big waves, we just have to not fall in the water, not hurt yourself, but you never know when you get hurt. When you surf crazy bigger wave you know you can get hurt, but for me and my friends if I’m scared, I tell them I’m not going to push my limit because I don’t have insurance. My friends say we should go on this one but I tell my friends, you don’t have insurance, if you get injured you’re going to be injured the rest of your life, you can’t pay for healthcare, these hospitals are not cheap, you can’t afford to get surgery on your neck and back. You have your limit, if you feel confident go, but if you’re not confident I tell my friend, you can’t go. 

Tell us about some of the worst injuries you’ve seen?

The worst injuries I see, most of its at Deserts. One of these guys from Japan, he split his forehead back in the day, before camera, and footage coming from Deserts. Less camera and less people. This guy was a legend, he surf good, old school surfer, nice dude, we saw him laying in the reef at Deserts and we carried him up and they took him to Singapore. 

[Underground shredder] Nathan Bartlett from Australia was the heaviest one I see in the water. I catch the first wave, he catch the second wave, he was floating next to me, half dying, his face is blue, blood everywhere, foam coming out of his mouth. I scoop him on my board, and some Brazilian guys give him CPR in the water. I was traumatised a bit from that. I didn’t surf for a week after that. 

One of my friends from Deserts he broke his leash and the waves were 8 foot. He got smoked all the way to the Grower. He put his hands up asking for help, but we cannot help him, it’s ten foot at Grower. He got washed way down and we grab him and he can’t breathe. The current was strong, he panicked, you get into Grower, it was eight foot up the top, and ten to 15 foot at Grower. Cannot go in and cannot go out. We all carry him. I thought he was going to be the first guy to die at Desert Point. 

You are the first surfer ever to come from Desert Point. Tell us a bit about your story and what life was like for you growing up?

I love surfing since back in the day, I love travelling, love leaving home, seeing the world, but back in the day it’s tough life at Desert. No board, no nothing, we have to fight to get board, to ask people if they can leave us the broken board. We go to school come back and find a broken board and go surf. 

Being a surfer coming from Deserts, it’s not easy. Surfing is expensive. In Bali there are a lot of friends here with nice boards. But growing up in Deserts is hard, and a lot of your parents, not as supportive. They’re like, ‘what is surfing?’ At the end of the day, I just tell them I love surfing, I don’t want to stop surfing. What I’m gonna do if not surfing? Go up the hill, grow some corn, do parents stuff? But I love surfing I just want to be in the water, I always want to be in the water. My parents were always poor, so I learn spearfishing, my brother teaches me how to catch fish, life improved after I learn to catch fish. Some days we don’t have rice, we have a big family, we swap rice with fish, some people love the fish, so we have rice for eating. Sometimes my parents are way out working, and I bring rice for them. They are working for me and I’m at home school with my sisters and I provide more food to survive with my parents. I’m really happy a lot of good friends support me and help me continue surfing. Surfing is not cheap. 

You were one of 13 children growing up in a very poor rural area of Lombok. Can you give us an idea what life was like for your family growing up?

Six bothers and six sisters. It was nice when I was a kid. I go to my sisters house and everywhere I go people are yelling out, ‘Hey you want some food?’ Everywhere I go is food. When you surfing on the beach all my cousins and family on the beach, it’s my family town. No one is going to fuck with you on the beach. I’m not worry about that. As long as you nice and respect people they are nice to you. Now, all my nephew, a lot of them coming up surfing because they look up to me and they all surf, some surf similar to me, some surf really good. I’m really happy to see that generation coming up. My brothers didn’t like surfing but all my nephew now, if you are in the water and they are home, its super hard to get waves. All the crew, my nephews, I even have to say to them, ‘Hey, uncle go one wave.’ I have to stop them.  

After learning to surf on a broken board, did you ever think one day you would be getting calls from Gabriel Medina and other high profile surfers to go surf?

Back in the day to be honest, I was looking up to the Hawaiian people, Kalani chapman, Rory Parker, Jamie (O’Brien), Rico, they come here and always support us. Akila Aipa was the first guy to make me a custom surfboard. He surprise me with it back in the day. I was so happy with him, he’s a legend-legend, really good friend with him. Always supporting me with equipment, took us to Bali, so amazing. 

When I was a kid and I look at the surf, I’m not really good at surfing, just surfing white wash, and I tell myself, ‘One day I will own this barrel, I will surf this wave, I will be really good like these Hawaiian people.’ And I learn step by step. I’m always learning. 

What do you know about the history of Indonesian surfing going back to the original Balinese surfers - Made Kasim, Ketut Menda and Bobby Radiyasa - who I believe were the first Indonesians so surf? 

When Kasim and all these legends were surfing I was a tiny grom. It was more Rizal that I knew, Pepen Hendrick, Mega (Semahdi), Garut, the Balinese surfers, Made Llana. I don’t have phone until I 16, 18. We just watch magazines. All these people who were surfing really good like Bol, Ratu, that’s what I see back in the day. I never really see the older legends when I was growing up because we live in Desert and we not know reality in Bali because no phone or internet or anything. 

Who were the most influential Indonesian surfers who paved the way for you?

Back in the day, when Akila Aida bring me to Bali, Rizal Tandjung was really cool, a legend surfer for me. He surf really well in every condition, he always take us to his house when Varun (Rizal’s son) was small. Rizal was famous, riding for Hurley, and he is the one always come to Deserts, this guy has really good style, and surf really good. 

Has having a surfer on the World Tour in Rio Waida and a world junior champion in Bronson Meydi elevated the level and dreams of Indonesian surfers?  

All these people like Rio, Bronson and these kids that surf like the World Tour, they inspire all the kids because they are in the top, they surf different level. This young kid generation, they want to surf like Rio, going big, going hard. They are amazing at surfing, we are never going to beat those kids surfing. They are like Italo, John John, same level as those people. 

What are some of the things that tourists and travelling surfers don’t understand about Indonesia and Indonesian surfing?

Indonesia is the most beautiful place you can surf but also there is culture. You come here, you do the culture, surf good wave, meet nice people. It’s not all about angry people here. All smiling, having fun, and go chase some waves as well.  

How do you feel about the future of Indonesian surfing?

I think the future is going to really level up because of all these junior champion, like Rio on the WSL, and the new generation is following them. It’s going to go to a different level in the next couple years. We will have more in the WSL in the next few years.  

There’s a lot of development happening all over Indonesia as a result of surfing, including Desert Point, where the government is planning to develop the coastline. What are your thoughts on that? 

For me, the only thing that ruin people’s lives and land is investor. They pay the government big money, and you lose all your land. Money talks. I don’t know about it much. If you have money and you rich, you invest and everything will be fine for you. But for me I don’t really support rich people. Just work hard and do your own thing, you don’t have to ruin peoples life, ruin the whole hill, buy it, rent it. They want to ruin all the nature. It’s not easy to look at. It’s sad when you look at the hill and the mountain and everything has been cut up and it’s all just a different colour of bricks. It makes things harder, because you don’t have trees anymore. It’s sad everything is changing because of money. I hope the government will think different about it in the future.