With more than a dozen local surfers on board, the pompong had earlier set out from the dock in the Meranti Bay subdistrict, Pelalawan regency. The sun shines intensely, beating down on the crowns of the surfer's heads. They jump to land, seeking shade under the foliage along the riverbank.
The boat's engine is switched off. The only sound is the swish of a light breeze blowing through the bushes. There is the occasional sound of water slapping as the boat's hull softly strikes the eroding river bank.
Zulkifli, 23, a surfer from Meranti Bay, sits and takes a few deep puffs on his clove cigarette. He furrows his brow as he strains to hear something. Suddenly he shouts, "The bono is here! The bono is here!"
Without being prompted further, the other surfers jump back onto the pompong. The engine is turned on and the captain turns the ship around toward the mouth of the river. While arranging the stack of surfboards on the roof of the pompong, Zulkifli told Tempo, who was also on board at the end of last November: "That faint rumbling sound is a sign the bono is coming."
Zulkifli estimates that the wave is at least two and a half meters high. The rolling wave slowly turns into a breaking wave. When the foam on the top of the wave dives downwards, an amazing thing happens on the Kampar River. A breaking wave two kilometers long suddenly spans the river's width. This is the bono they have been waiting for.
The origin of the word 'bono' is not easy to trace. Tenas Effendy, 77, an expert on Malay culture, said there is no research to confirm the word's origin.
"That word is not in the Malay dictionary," said the writer, who was once chairman of the Riau Malay Traditions Organization, and is currently an advisor to the Riau People's Association.
Scientifically, the bono is categorized as a tidal bore, a phenomenon that occurs when a wave from the incoming tide moves upstream from the mouth of the river.
The Kampar bono suddenly gained prominence after a professional French surfer, Antony 'Yep' Colas, promoted it on the internet. Colas is one of the first people to surf a bono.
"Bono Kampar is in third place, after river waves in China and Brazil," he said in reply to an e-mail from Tempo.
As a wave hunter, Colas has gone around the world surfing waves and writing about his experiences. He has published more than 10 books, including ‘The World Stormrider Guide’.
Colas came across the Kampar bono by accident in mid-2008, when he was researching waves in the Benak River in Malaysia. It turned out that the word 'bono' came up during a Google search. This interested him.
"There had to be something to this word," he said.
In September 2010, with just scant information, Colas went hunting for the bono.
"Extensive research came up with nothing. There was no other way other than going to Meranti Bay village and looking for the bono," he said.
The first time he surfed the bono, it was 1.8 meters high. He went back in December. That time, he found a bigger and longer wave."The wave lasted for 45 minutes," he said.
Sumber : Tempo
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