I met up with Mr. Krui at his Hello Mister surf shop and he agreed to write about his early years and being the first local Krui surfer. A legend of the original Krui surf scene and mentor of 4 generations of Krui surfers.

Alberto Borsauno Wijaya that's my name.

I was born in Krui 1979. When I was in Junior High School I only thought about drugs, sex, gambling and fighting. That's because I was from the harbour area and it's where I first tried Ecstasy, before I became a junkie. After I tried Ecstacy I just wanted more and more and then started using heroin. I was a junkie until I was 26 year old, about 7 to 8 years.

In 1998 there was a riot in Jakarta, all my family went to Singapore and I was sent to Krui town to live with my Grandma.

In Krui there was a bus station close to my house and all the tourists arrived there. I first got to know them as a translator because the bus station guard at the time did not understand English. Those foreign tourists wanted me to take them to a place called Tanjung Setia.

At the time there was only two hotels there (Tanjung Setia) and no electricity. Because I often took guests there they asked me to work for them as a toilet cleaner and other things. I worked there for five to six years after that I had my first motorcycle and I started surfing ... about 15 years ago.

The next generation

Great vibes at Hello Mister, Krui

Someone gave me my first surfboard, broken, so I fixed it and started surfing by myself. I found boardshorts in a trash box. I tried to surf Krui Left for the first time, no other surfers, only me. My first surf I stepped on a sea urchin because I did not know the safe way out. I surfed in those old boardshorts because I wanted to look like the tourists.

Albert with student in Tanjung Setia

Albert with student in Krui town

I really had a hard time when I wanted to surf. I got bullied by the local people always yelling at me but I just kept going and tried to find friends to surf with. Finally I found "Pepen", he was a cow herder and not so long after another one his name is David. I shared everything with David, we surfed together, used heroin. For two years I didn't work only running my motorcycle rental out of the Family Loseman. That was my first business before I started the surf shop (Hello Mister) in 2005.

Learning English & surfing

The classic shot of Mr. Krui

After the local people saw me and David surfing they started to ask me to teach them. So now ... I was just so happy because I had many students.

That's why they call me, “Mr. Krui”.

Follow Albert's work on Facebook: Krui Sufmatra