...Bali

Too long between surfs, days and days. nothing in April...apart from erm Bali.

Bali was immense as I'm sure you can imagine, so many waves and we didn't even get a 'proper' swell whilst we were there. We went straight down to the Bucket peninsula when we first arrived. Which is pretty much the southern most part of Bali:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=bali&lr=&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bali,+Indonesia&ll=-8.811118,115.161953&spn=0.085496,0.181789&z=13

Most of the famous waves are along here, Padang Padang+Impossibles, Uluwatu, Balingan to name a couple we went to. On their day they are all world class, i.e bigger and better than anything in Europe, or anything I could comfortable or safely surf. But we all (all levels) surfed them when it was a little smaller. Not everyone surfed Uluwatu, read up on it and you'll find out why, we paddled out and it was pretty scary. Paddle out a cave - which itself can be a raging white water cauldron (not quite that bad when we went), into a strog rip and then 15mins through big crowds down to Temples. Magical place, but I was on edge, and really needed to take a dump after a particularly strong Bali coffee, so I wasnt exactly on point out there, but still had a wicked time and a few waves.

All these waves are reefs but at high tide that doesn't matter one jot, you wont touch the bottom. Low tide is a different matter though. If ike me you find yourself walking across the reef at Ulu's barefoot, you will have fucked up. pretty royally. My advice take reef boots regardless.It was pure agony. All the waves here are left handers, so if you're goofy all good, otherwise you're going to be practicing a lot of backhand surfing (like me).

We stayed with Rapture surf camp, accomodation was pretty good, although 8 of us were in dorm bunks, some had better than this. I wouldn't recommend it, the guy who ran it was a bit of a dick and nobody would go back because of that. The area is amazing though and more than made up for it. Cool monkeys everywhere, i saw a leaping stingray. I also saw a water snake hot footing it across my path into the sea. Immiediately after I went and got a really memorable wave. I had just broken my leash and come in to get another, saw the snake went straight back out to where i was when snapped my old leash and tucked into a tiny little barrel, im not claiming the barrel, because I never came out but so far thats the closest yet.

The last 3 days we got a boat to the island just east called Lembongan, This is what you need to do! I wish we had been there for longer. You have to get water taxis to the waves here. called Playgrounds, Lascerations(!), No mans land, Shipwrecks. again all reef action but really safe until the tide drops. All I know is im going back here next year for as long as possible, really felt that these are waves that would completely take anyone's surfing up a level, all so clean and nicely peeling. Not to mention on of the most breathtaking settings ive ever surfed in. The waves here are mainly rights, but there are some lefts. We stayed at a place called Mainski (www.mainski-lembongan-resort.com) Seriously ask anyone on the trip and theyll tell you the same thing go to this island at least for a couple of days.

Lacerations was the first session, I really thought id get my barrel here, but the waves were slow to come through, there was a rip and maintaining position was tricky. The first 2 or 3 were the closest, Rob told me to put my hand in the wave and try and diagonally orientate my board4 5 degrees out. I stuck my whole arm in the next wave and nearly dislocated my shoulder haha. That was it for barrels unfortunately, Shipwrecks was breaking sweet the next day, a real curved bowl shape wave, but the crowd was big and i only got a couple here. Aiden called me into a good one. Corals underneath looks ferocious.

On the last night we were in Kuta, its a bit of a shithole truth be told, but i was exhausted. didnt surf here or really hit the town, Kuta beach isnt exactly highly regarded these days. had a lookin the moring it was crowded, dirty and rubbish.

We went to Seminyak for dinner (decent restaurant called rumours) and sunset drinks (amazing but expansive bar called ku de ta) seemed a lot nicer than Kuta. Not sure about any surf up there though. One thing I did notice is Kuta / Seminyak are pricey.


packing list (cause i always fuck it up)
reef shoes
2 long and short sleeve rashies
3 pairs of boardies
2 pairs of shorts
3 tshirts
board(s)
hard / tropical wax (hardly used any)
factor 50 sunblock
zinc
aloe vera, aftersun
flip flops.
ding repair
first aid kit - disinfectant, tape an sticky bandages/plasters
duck tape


basically you can get anything in Kuta for a price, but not really in Padang Padang and the likes.

I learned that for cut feet keep cleaning it and covered on the streets - that's where you are gonna get infections. try the liquid plasters (Germolene) in the sea.

So thanks to Kate and Big Friday along with Rob Barber for another killer trip. top notch.