Indonesia Surf Log

So Benny, Brogan, Pabbs, Rabbs, and Christian headed to Bali on Wednesday August 30, 2008.

afternoon.

We flew into Denpasar, Bali and got a transfer to the Swiss Belhotel – Bayview in the southern part of Bali. It was a beautiful hotel with two pools, one on the roof and one on the ground floor. We stayed there that night and left at 6am for a flight to Bima, Sumbawa.

We took a 2-hour shuttle to our hotel, which was the Amin Gati (www.amangati.com) on the southeast portion of Sumbawa. During our ride we went past rice fields and salt fields. There were several small villages. Main transport was with motorbikes, horse drawn carriages, and some cars. It wasn’t developed much around the villages, mostly large farm areas and open space. Our hotel was probably the biggest one in the area but still wasn’t too big. There were a few hotels along the strip of beaches nearby. Most of the roads were paved but had large potholes. There was one lane in each direction but no shoulders.

There are two breaks out front of our hotel, Lakey’s Peak and Lakey’s Pipe, they were both huge when we arrived. It was a bit intimidating watching it; it was about 6-8 foot, almost double overhead waves. We decided to walk down the beach to the right (east) a bit to Nunga’s the first day. Nunga’s is a left break that is a foot or two smaller than Lakey’s and an easier takeoff; it also breaks over coral reef. Every break we are going to surf is over sharp coral reef. It was about 1230pm and low tide was at 5pm. You want to surf out here at a higher tide due to the shallow reefs. Everyone wore booties except me. The

coral to the water was somewhat spongy but there is a drop off the reef about a foot or two once you hit the water and that’s where the spiky sea urchins are. There like porky pines scattered on the reef. It wasn’t two bad since my feet have toughened up since being in Australia.

It was about 5-6 foot at Nunga’s and it was a fairly easy drop. But the waves were big and a bit scary at first. I kind of just sessed out the waves 

and watched others. I got a few good long rides; it ended up being a very fun session. There were only about 5 other guys besides the 6 of us.

The restaurant at the hotel had some

 great food. Full meals only cost about $3-$4. There was also a nice pool out front that had fantastic views of the breaks. We played some ping-pong and pool aft

er dinner. The hotel has a big banquet room with a TV, pool table and ping-pong table and nobody was there except us. Not many people are in our hotel, maybe about 15-20 including us. We all went to bed early that night to wake up to a 600 am su

rf session. Every night we stayed here we woke up between 5-6am

 to get out for the early

 windless surf sessions.

The following day, Friday, we got up at 530am to surf out front of the hotel at Lakey Point. It is a left and right-hander but the left goes for about 3 times as long. There were maybe 15 people out including us 6. It was about 6 foot and clean. I got a bunch of rights and then tried the lefts. The lefts were much longer. Brogan took his digital water camera and we all took turns capturing photos. We had a local film us with his video camera from the tower in front of the hotel. We had this guy film us pretty much everyday. The two level tower was built right on the reef, it doesn’t look sturdy but wasn’t bad when you go up in it. We surfed for about 2 hours.
In the early afternoon, 12ish we headed to Cobblestones. It is about a 40-minute walk south along the beach. I jogged it and the others hired motorbikes to give them a ride. I wanted to check out the in between breaks so I hoofed it along the beach. I saw 2 other spots that looked like you could surf them but the locals said it was too shallow. Cobblestones wasn’t working well with the tide and the swell so I jumped on a motor bike with the others and we headed to Nungas. The motorbikes were great in that they were very cheap and fun to travel on, and the drivers seemed careful. They charge about 400,000 rupia ($4) to go from the hotel to Cobblestones.

You get about 80,000 to 90,000 rupia for the dollar, I just estimate it is as being equivalent for 1 dollar to 10,000 rupia or ten dollars is 100,000 rupia. It makes you seem rich when you get a withdrawal from the atm. Now I haven’t really figured out what the best way to get money out for Indo. The local bank in Australia gave 83,000 rupia for the dollar but charge a $10 fee; the transfer place at the Sydney airport gave 75,000 rupia for the dollar with a fee; the transfer place at the Bali airport gave 85,000 rupia for the dollar without the transaction fee; and atms probably give the best rate with about a $7 fee after my bank fee, although you can only withdrowel 1.2 million rupia at a time (about $137 American). I know that from my checking my online bank statement. So I either recommend you get your money converted at the Bali airport or withdrawal from the atm’s. I did a little bit of both. It really helps to have American money, you need $25 US to get a visa when you arrive. Also the US dollar is still stronger than the Australian dollar so you can get better deals with the US dollar, especially when you bargain with the locals in Bali.

So anyway it only costs about $4 roundtrip for a motorbike ride to a spot that would take you 40 minutes to walk to each way. And the motorbike guys hang out and film us while we surf. They also care for our stuff we leave on the beach. We ended up paying them about $5 a day to ride us around.

Back to the motorbike ride to surfing; we ended up at Nungas. It was the standard 15- to 20-minute paddle to the break. We all got some fun lefts, and Benny got a good pic of me grabbing the rail on a solid wave. The waves were a bit smaller than Lakey Peak, averaging about 4-5 foot.

Later that night Benny, Brogan, and Pabbs surfed a sunset session out front at Lakey Peak. The sun sets about 6pm and stays light to 630pm. They said they got some fun waves. It was low tide and the wave looked fast. I opted to rest for the following days to come. That night we relaxed and got a small dinner and went to bed early. I got on the Internet for a little bit. They have about 5 computers with a very slow connection and no wireless. I was a bit surprised they had Internet.

The following day, Saturday, we woke at 530am to get out to Lakey Peak again. It was about 5-6 foot and breaking clean. There was more of a crowd, about 20 including us. All of the surfers are way better than me too; maybe a few are equal in skill but not many. Most of the surfers were killing the waves with turns and big airs. I struggled to get a left but had to give way a bunch. I ended up surfing the right after a while of getting frustrated at the left. The right was fun but not too long. I watched Benny take off on a few big lefts and was immediately slotted in the barrel. It looked awesome.

We took a quick breakfast and headed on the motorbikes back to Cobblestones. Cobblestones breaks to the right. You can surf another portion at the south end of Cobblestones, this one breaks to the left fast into shallow waters. We surfed at the right. There looked to be somewhat of a left that was working. Butch and I both tried it and it wasn’t really makeable, I had a solid fast left but touched on the reef after it closed out. I got a bit of reef or sea urchin stuck in my foot and paddled to the rest of the crew on the main peak. There was a strong current pulling north so you had to constantly paddle against it to stay at the good takeoff spot. I took off a bit outside a bunch and couldn’t make the wave section, I would drop in and the wave would close out ahead of me. I watched our crew get a bunch of good rides. You had to catch the wave more inside of the main peak but the currents made it hard to get there.

Later that day the motorcycle guys picked up Brogan, Butch, and I to take us to their town and to a soccer game. My motorcycle driver, Dino, was playing in the game. They even let Brogan play in it. It was a major game between two of the local villages. It ended up being tied 1-1 so they had a shoot out at the end. They let everyone come close to the net and around the outside of the kickers. They tied in the shootout and decided the winner with a coin toss! Dino’s village team won the toss.

On Sunday we got up early to surf Nungas to the north. We were all feeling a bit beat up by this point. Everybody’s arms felt sore but kept surfing. The wave was clean and fast, a solid 5-6 foot. I got a few rides but took some heavy beatings. It was a little work to make it back out to the wave after taking one, you would have to paddle all the way around the wave. Waves were breaking at different areas of Nungas, there were about 8 people on the inside section by the end. All our guys were at the main point. By the end of the session I was feeling pretty exhausted.

The winds have been picking up around 10 am each day causing choppy conditions after that. So you have to get in the surf early to beat off the winds.  Monday morning we arranged a boat trip to Maggie Boy. I am not exact on the naming but it’s what I understood from the locals, it could well as been Magic Boy. It was about an hours boat ride away. They hooked up fishing rods to the side of the boat to try and catch some marlin. We saw one large marlin jumping out of the water chasing fish; it must have been 3-4 feet long. We chased it for a bit.

Maggie Boy was a right hand point break over coral. Nobody was there as it is mainly accessible by boat. I didn’t see any signs of villages nearby. It was more of a fat wave that was easier and slower to get on. It was a solid 4-5 foot. I got a few long rights but the wave was somewhat choppy once you were on it. On the way back to the hotel it was a wavy, bumpy, and wet ride. We all hung on to the boat hard so we wouldn’t get thrown off.

The hotel we are staying at (Amin Gati) is very mellow and catered to surfers. Within the restaurant they have a projection screen that plays DVD’s. They have stacks of surf videos and you can just throw one in. There’s always surf flicks playing while you eat. The entertainment in each room is also cool in that they have TV’s and you call reception and ask them to put on movies and they play them on the first 3 channels. Channel 6 is live streaming video of the webcam facing Lakey Point out front of the hotel. We can see the break from our balcony and the restaurant but it was nice to lie down and watch too after surfing for hours.

Tuesday we went to Nunga Doras surf spot, which is south of Cobblestones. It is a left break over coral reef but has the occasional right. The waves were about 4-5 foot and easy to ride. It is a bit of a fast takeoff and then the wave fattens out. While I was in the water I noticed my fin on my board was loose and my plugs for the fin were coming out. I had the motorist take me to a surfboard repair guy next to our hotel (Johny at Pumas); I had heard they were really cheap. He charged me $250,000 rupia for the plug fix, a fix on the top of the board, sand down two of my other fixes I roughly did, and for a surfboard rental for the day. So that’s just over $25 for something that would have cost close to $100 anywhere else. The repairs were finished the next day and came out well.

Buy this point my surfboard and myself are pretty worn out. I came here with a cut on my finger that was small but started ulcerating which usually happens when you constantly get a cut wet, it starts to eat away at the surrounding skin. The best way to heal it is with liquid band-aid but I had dropped my container and broke it a few weeks back. And in Australia they just took it off the market. The only other thing that works is super glue, and I did not think I would be able to find that. I went on the search for the super glue and actually found it at a shop next to my hotel for $0.70. I have 2 cuts on my left foot big toe, a few little holes on the bottom of my right foot, and another cut on another finger; these are all from barley touching down on the reef and sea urchins. I also twisted my left ankle and tweaked my left knee twice while turning and dropping in on waves. The rest of our crew is all scratched up as well; Rabbs has scrapped his back and shin on the reef pretty bad (Check the photo). Benny had to take 2 days off because his neck was so tight and sore. My neck, back, and arms are really feeling it by this point. Pabbs ended up taking a big fall on the last day and cutting up his back pretty pad, his rash guard was all ripped and bloody.

Later that morning we borrowed our motorist’s motorcycles. They were happy to loan out there bikes, I was a little nervous as my guy, Dino had a brand new nice scooter. We were looking for these Japanese caves so we rode up a dirt/cobble path to this shack. Apparently we were supposed to take a path right but we took it left, as that was a bigger path. It brought us to these huge boulders after about 20 minutes up the path. We decided to climb the boulders as we thought the caves were on top of the mountain. We climbed for about 30 minutes up these treacherous boulders and then gave up. We later found out the path to the right is 5 minutes to the caves. We then took the bikes to the north to a spot called Periscopes, which is a fast wave that breaks best in high tide. It was all blown out and not working so we headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday morning we headed back to Nunga Dores and surfed there. Again nobody was there as it is off the hotel areas. It was about 4-5 foot again and had some decent rights and lefts. Later that day we checked out several other spots as out front at Lakey Peak was somewhat crowded (about 8 guys). Cobblestones had a great left on the south part of it but there were 8 guys out. The south part is shallow, hollow, fast, and pulls left. Nunga Dores and Nungas were not looking good so we headed back to where we started, Lakey Peak. It was about 4-5 foot and breaking long on the lefts and rights. It was one of my better sessions as I got some great rides and didn’t get worked to bad. Only Pabbs, Butch, and I went out on this mission.

The next day, Thursday, we all got in the water by 545am and were the first ones in the lineup. I could imagine other surfer’s faces when they saw 6 people out in the water before sunrise. Usually anything over 6 people is a crowd around here. The waves had dropped again to about 4 foot. It was low tide so the wave is a bit harder to ride as it sucks into a fast wave when there is too little water. I was getting thrown over the top of the wave a bunch as the wave sucked me and closed out quick. I still managed to get a few rides. By about 7am there were about 11 of us so it got a bit more crowded. My neck was really sore at this point so I had to give it a rest by 8am. Most of the other guys were heading to Nungas for a night surf session but I tried to resist because I was so sore but ended up going due to the peer pressure. It was about 4-5 foot and there were some real clean waves coming through; I’m glad I made it out.

The following day, Friday, was our last day. We went out at Nungas again in the early morning. It was about 5-foot with some 6-foot waves pumping through. The conditions were pretty clean and the crowd factor was just the six of us. Nungas breaks in different sections too so you can sit at about four areas on the wave and they haven’t been connecting so your not dropping in on anybody.

It was payday for our food and motorbike rides. We ended up paying our guys about $50 each for about 8 days of driving us around and letting us use there scooters, they were more than happy with that as the daily wages in Indonesia is about $3 a day. 8 days of eating 2-3 meals a day with at least one desert a day, and drinking Bintangs (the Indonesian beer) came to about $120. One 24 once Bintang was almost as expensive as a meal, about $2.50. I came to find out Sumbawa was a lot cheaper than the main popular island of Indonesia, Bali.

We got our shuttle to the airport in Sumbawa in the late morning. Benny put his bag in another shuttle bus as he thought everyone else did. I had all my things in my surfbag, which was on our shuttle, and everyone else had there’s with them. This guy eventually showed up with Benny’s bag more than an hour later; I told him to check his bag before he checked it as there’s problems with people stashing drugs in your bags and this was the classic opportunity. When the guy got to the airport he through it through the x-ray right away and Benny never had a chance to check it! But it ended up being fine. There method of security in Sumbawa was pretty funny, they have an x-ray machine right as you open the main doors for you to put your bags through and you walk through a metal detector. When the metal detector went off for Pabbs the guy just smiled and told him it was fine, and waved him through. Then you check in and walk outside and get on the plane. The plane was very small and didn’t look to stable; the wheels were bald and didn’t look very well maintained. But we made it to Bali fine. The Bali airport is a lot safer with security checks. You go through about two x-ray checks and two bag checks before you get on. That is because of the Bali bombings in the recent years that have taken the lives of several Australians. I actually met one of the survivors while I was staying at my friend John’s place in Wollongong. John’s roommate, Brendan, is friends with him and was friends with two others that passed away in the same bombing that took place in a bar.

Well, we got into Bali and headed to our hotel, Rocky Point, which was in Uluwatu (Ulu’s). It overlooked one of the best surf breaks in all of Indonesia. The Ripcurl Professional Surf Championships just had taken place here last week. Everybody was amazed at the place we got, a little to fancy for my taste but it was the last two nights and the rest of the group wanted to stay here. Ulu’s is about an hour and a half from the main tourist city Kuta. That’s where all the main shops, restaurants, bars, and cheaper hotels are. It is very crowded and somewhat dirty.

The following day, Saturday, we woke up to see nice clean waves with not too many people out. But by the time we paddled out at around noon there was about 50 people in the water lined up and down the break. Ulu’s breaks left for hundreds of meters but is a very fast wave that is difficult to make sections sometimes. It barrels up and down the wave and the reef is shallow. You have to walk down a steep cliff to get there but they have built steps most of the way. There are surf shops and restaurants built on the way down the cliff. We had to rent boards the first day because the airline couldn’t fit anybody’s surfboard on the tiny plane we took. There are also wooden decks that you can stand on if you dare to watch the surf. Once you get to the bottom you have to duck and climb through caves to get to the beach. I can’t imagine how people used to get down here to surf before they made the stairs. There’s a small area to lie at the beach.

The waves were about 4-5 foot and breaking nice. I stayed on the inside away from most of the surfers. Everyone closer to the main peak was at an expert level. Mick Fanning, one of the best surfers in the world, was there at the peak. It was pretty intimidating but I mostly watched people surfing. My second wave I almost hit some big guy paddling out, he wasn’t too stoked. The whole vibe in the water wasn’t too good; it was very aggressive and unfriendly. Neither of the other guys I was with got too many waves. Benny and I decided to go out again later that night. When we paddled out at 530 it was a bit crowded so we stayed on the inside. The waves died off a foot or two but were still clean and hollow. My first wave I took was about 1-2 foot and I pushed for the barrel and ended up nicking the reef with my arm, it didn’t hurt too much but I had a good scrape. At about 6pm the crowd nearly disappeared and at 630pm it was just Benny, I and maybe a few others. I ended up pulling into a nice barrel at one wave during the takeoff and pulled out, and did the same on another where I got covered again during the ride. It was sweet; the waves were only 2-3 foot too.

We surfed to pure blackness, which was about 7pm. We were the last two out. When we couldn’t see each other anymore and when the bats started flying overhead Benny and I new it was time to get out. By this point it was low tide and we had to climb the reef to get out, and then find our way through the cave in the dark. It was a good adventure.
That night we went out to dinner near the Intercontinental hotel. They have seafood places right on the beach. The seating is literally 20 feet from the bay water. They set up the tables and chairs on the beach sand. You could choose from several fresh fish, it was great. I scored the Red Snapper.

We then ventured to Kuta to check out the nightlife. We went to a hookah bar first, then a few other club/bars. It was a good time. The next day we went to Kuta to do some shopping and then we would get on the airplane, which was in Kuta. Bali sells CD’s and DVD’s for about $.75; they are burned copies but most seem to work. We all got some movies and seasons of TV series. So it cost about $10 for every season of family guy! Yeah.

Our flight worked out ok and we made it to Sydney fine. Now I am back to the expensive lifestyle in Australia. I stayed in Manly for the night on Monday at Benny’s and the following day, Tuesday; I hopped the ferry to the train to Wollongong to see John.