Tipping the crew on your Indo boat trip

A reader asked about tipping on boat trips. In surf travel, just like any other form of travel, there's always potential for a culture clash when people don't know what's expected of each other. Hopefully this will clear away some of that confusion for future visitors to the Mentawais and Northern Sumatra, and result in happy returns for those of us who are looking to go back.

Why tip the crew on a boat trip?
1. Indo is a poor country. The Indonesians working on boats aren't spending weeks away from their families for kicks or for surfing - they need the money. Maybe some of the crew will blow it on crack and whores, but most have direct or extended families that count on them for food, shelter, medical care, school fees, etc.

2. You have been provided good service in a very personal way. Everyone working on a boat works hard either behind the scenes or in direct contact with guests. You'll see the crew first thing in the morning, last thing at night, at every meal, they'll pick you up and take you back to the outside when you're too tired to paddle but just need one more, you'll learn their names, they'll help keep your bunk area tidy, and make sure your favorite boardshorts on the clothesline don't get blown off in a squall.

3. Tipping rewards skills that you, as a surfer, want to be available to you when you come back. You don't want that expert ding repair guy, the guy who shoots great video, or the dinghy driver who knows the safe spots in the lineup at Kanduis to be driving a cab in Padang next time you come back. Make it worth their while. It's a small industry, next time you come into Padang you'll probably see a familiar face and they'll be glad to see you.

4. When the waves went flat you and the boys had a bender and kept the crew up at night, then left a mess for them to clean up in the morning. Happens on almost every boat trip, and a decent tip helps fix any hard feelings.

5. Plus honestly, it's no skin off your back. You probably just coughed up in the neighborhood of 5000 US Dollars for a plane ticket, a hotel night or two, a couple new boards, and 11 or more nights on a private boat. In the grand scheme of things, a nice tip for two weeks worth of work for an indo boat crew is less than the cost of a big night out in a major western city.

How to discuss tipping

With your group

Agree on an amount. If you're organizing this thing, throw out an amount just try to get everyone to go along. If the cheapskate in the group knows everyone else is coughing up a hundred bucks, then they'll grumble but they'll do it too.

If going solo

Ask around (a subtle reminder to others who may not remember to tip) but in the end you must chart your own course.

Ask your guide

You guide will tell you how it usually works, and will organize the crew to all be in the same place at the same time without disrupting anyone's work or sleep (not as easy as it sounds - the crew is busy on the last night!). Generally this happens on the last night of your trip, after dinner but before anyone goes to sleep.

How much to tip

I took a 13 day trip with eight total guests and a crew of 5 plus a guide. The guide refused to accept any tips. We tipped USD100 per guest for USD800 total and the crew (once it had been counted out) was stoked. By the crew's reaction I judged this to be an acceptable, possibly even above-average tip. The total cost of this charter was a little under $20,000 so this amounted to a 4% tip. This is LOW by the standards of US restaurants, bars, taxicabs, and hair salons, but 15% of a charter boat price seems outrageous and I hope expectations never get to that level. Regarding higher-end boats - more of the cost of the trip goes to the capital cost of the boat and less to the variable costs of crew, food, fuel. On luxo-liner boats the crew may be the cream of the crop from other boats and expect better tips in return for better service. The crew can also gauge how much you can afford to tip by the quality of your boards, clothing, equipment and how much the boat costs, so may have higher tip expectations in that situation. So for what it's worth, I'm going to say 4-5% is a good number.

who gets the tips?

Usually there's a hierarchy among the crew. Honestly, this isn't really your business, and these guys need to work together and already have an understanding in place that you shouldn't try to disrupt. It won't surprise you that the guys with the most money invested in the boat and the most responsibility get their take first - guides, captains, cooks. They have the most skills and the most alternate work opportunities. But the underlings don't just get the scraps - the senior guys know their deck hands, skiff drivers, mechanics, and assistant cooks are all part of providing good service and could get work on other boats so they will share. If they are working a full season on a boat things get to be pretty family-like, and you can screw family a little but not a lot.

What currency to use

USD or Rupiah. I'm not being an ugly American here, the dollar really is king. This finally hit me when I watched a Japanese guy fish out 25 US dollars from his wallet and pay the indonesian government's visa fee at the Jakarta airport. If the indo government takes USD, then it's damn near coin-of-the-realm. In theory Australian Dollars, Euros, Pounds, or Yen would also be useful to the crew but would probably entail a much bigger spread between the face value in the country of the currency and the actual value they'll get for the non-USD foreign notes whereever the boat pulls into port. So if you have those currencies and want to use them for tips then you should give 10-20% more in USD value.

Bring new bills

There's no ATM machine on the boat or anywhere you'll be stopping. So if you didn't bring enough cash on the boat, you won't be able to tip the crew. Duh. Also, USD notes that are of an older type or look beat up won't be worth as much in exchange. So when you go to get the notes you're going to take to Indo, make sure you get crisp new ones.

Non-cash compensation

Before a boat trip I asked a Balinese coworker if there were any items that were hard to get in Indonesia that I could schlep over to Indo and give to the crew. She said, "Money!" Seriously, I've heard that school supplies, tools, western-style clothing, surf gear that could be resold are all very thoughtful. So if you've got this stuff laying around and can bring it along to give away, then do it. It's not a substitute for cash, but it will probably find a use.