The next couple days back on the Bukit feel great. Out here it is luxury compared with Desert Point. Everything is too convenient, all types of restaurants everywhere you look, clean sheets, hot water showers at the end of every day. Need something, just hop on a scooter and find it around town. Looking to surf, just hop on a scooter and pick whichever peak at Uluwatu is working. Diego introduces me to Joe Duerr, a Venice kid his age that’s around for the next couple weeks. I totally recognize him from surfing back home and as a lifeguard at Venice/SM. Kind of crazy we’ve never actually met until now in Bali.
The waves at Uluwatu simmered down for a bit, still in the head high range but not as big as Desert or how it was before we left. Unfortunately when it is smaller like this, I’ve found the other spots on the Bukit to not work that great. Armed with the reef booties that Scott gifted me, I can walk across the reef at low tide no problem, again, luxury. Surfing in them isn’t so bad either. I’m used to moving around the board a bunch when I surf, especially since we move up and down the board so much surfing at Malibu, but here on the smaller boards I’ve got to plant my feet more. The booties really grip to the board. Got my first surf session up at Temples, on Griffin’s recommendation, one of the deeper sections of the reef, and had an absolute blast. Total scene change from the Peak and Racetrack, it was more of a wedgelike wave that hits the reef and then lines up for some high pro sections and the occasional barrel, way better than the Uluwatu I’d been surfing previously. Actually did manage a small tube there.
Sep 29
Today the swell picked up. Uluwatu is 6-10ft, big bombs out the back, a couple exhilarating drops. Did manage a few nice waves but after paddling for 3 hours straight battling the current, I’m kind of getting sick of Uluwatu. It’s not as perfect as I thought it was. Sometimes it barrels, sometimes it doesn't and is more for turns or big lines, very crowded. At low tide the racetrack turns on and the crowd condenses there, and then it’s even harder to get the proper wave you want in order to make it through and avoid the shallow reef.
Leaving Uluwatu I run into Diego, “I’m glad I found you, it’s Padang Padang time, and you’re going.” He thinks I might chicken out because of its reputation but I am down to try it or at least check it out. He assures me that it won’t be too gnarly. “It’s basically flat out there.” Padang is Diego’s favorite wave and the crown jewel of the Bukit/Bali. There needs to be a big swell in order for Padang to even look like a semblance of its actual glory and when it does, it barrels incredibly hard over a twisted, shallow reef. Make the wave all the way through and it lets you out to safety into a deep water channel where no waves break.
Sit in the shade, have some lunch, walk down about 100 stairs to the beach, paddle out around 4ish. I hang in the channel to get a good look at what a set wave looks like today. It’s small Padang but it is breaking, probably 4-6ft, only the bigger waves barrel. I make my way into the lineup and no one is out, just me, Diego and this Brazilian dude JP, getting the best waves and truly weaving through barrels.
On Diego's first wave he breaks his board. What happened to Diego? I see him walking out across the reef with his board broken down the middle in two, all bummed. He did exactly what he coached me not to do, take a smaller medium one, didn’t make the barrel and got smashed up. The smaller the wave, the closer you are to the reef, and the more likely that the barrel clamps. Now that Diego’s gone, JP and I strike up a conversation, just the two of us out here. I shamelessly tell JP that it’s my first time surfing here, I’m asking him which ones are good ones to go on, etc. It's one of the world's best waves and can be one the heaviest too. I have some confidence because of the successful Desert Point mission but out here I’m a little nervous still, butterflies in my stomach, I don’t know the reef and don’t want to fuck it up. He’s become my guide out here while he’s filming clips for his Youtube channel, gopro POV raw footage from within the tube. Watch him get a few set waves, super barreled.
I feel like I’m getting the hang of it and it’s time for my first wave. Drop in, the wave is a seemingly mellow take off and then it jacks up and throws over you after you have a little time to set your line. It’s overhead, about 6ft California standards, glide right through it, in the pocket (not deep) and kick out in the channel, heart pounding. I can’t believe I just got my first Padang wave, adrenaline pumping. Then I got a second one under my feet, an amazing wave, and it’s on.
JP and I trade waves, just he and I, for an hour or more. Some sets have 3-4 waves in them and we let some go unridden, there weren't enough surfers in the water for the amount of waves coming through, truly special, 6ft+ glassy barrels. Tripping out of our minds on how good it is. The waves are perfect, my board feels incredible getting in early on my 6’6” Ordainer, setting my line early, go fast off the bottom, and the thing unloads over you. Of course most of my waves are pocket rides (JP fully disappears in the tube) but still great for me, I’d love to see if I can get deeper in. The crazy thing is that this isn’t good Padang, it’s still kinda “flat”, which is why it’s uncrowded, the swell isn’t quite big enough for it to really go off. Only the biggest sets actually go top to bottom cylinders rifling down the reef. This is a short, fast intense wave, unlike Desert Point that barrels for a while. My most memorable ride was a beautiful turquoise, green, and transparent wave. Make it all the way through as this little ferry boat motors up the channel, its passengers cheering and screaming, throwing me shakas as I kick out near them in the channel. So fun. Turn around and I see JP full on air dropping, knifing the take off into the barrel and get gobbled by the wave, insane. It’s too good right now for just two guys out. “When was the last time you surfed it out here like this with no one out?” “It’s always crowded, probably not since Covid. You have amazing karma, man, only us two and this is your first time surfing Padang.”
A couple more guys paddle out, including Diego on a channel bottom single fin, and now it’s a crowd of maybe 6-8 guys, I was the worst surfer of the bunch (but the most blessed). Diego’s friend Ella, a photographer, is in the channel getting a few film shots around sundown. It’s not heavily crowded by any means, but since it’s such a gnarly wave and we can only take sets because of the size, it means everyone is taking turns. Now there’s waiting and patience in the equation. Honestly, it’s great this way, no hassling, there’s a rotation, no one wants to get hurt. With more people out JP has his game face on, he’s a little less social with Diego and I. “What happened?” I get the story from Diego. He took off, went down the line, pulled in the tube and it clamped on him. He cracked his board on his head, got grazed up by the reef, kinda fucked up. His head is bleeding a little from where his board smacked him. We decide he doesn’t need stitches probably. Reminiscing about it later perhaps his bail onto the board saved him from getting pelted into the reef, who knows. Earlier he was complaining that he didn’t love the board, “it’s too wide and thick, horrible color job. Fuck that board!” Well now he’s got that board off his hands. “What did I miss?” I don’t want to rub it in how good it was while he was gone. “I scored!” I think Ella may have gotten a film photo of me on my last one, can’t wait to see it.
I can’t believe my luck. Truly the best possible introduction to Padang Padang I could have asked for. The waves were as small and user friendly as can be while still offering the barrel. Just JP and I trading emerald waves, he’s giving me all the pointers, and inspiring me to take off on the good ones. I was getting one on one coaching from one of the best barrel riders/surfers I’ve seen around here. So magical for my first time, couldn’t have gone better at this world class wave. How cool, last week we traveled all the way to Lombok for a perfect wave out there, when perfection was here under our nose all along. Even sweeter, this surf session was a spontaneous go out for me and on the heels of kinda being soured on surfing Uluwatu. Bliss.
Later that night, JP sends some of his GoPro clips from the session. He sent clips of a couple of my drop ins, a clip of him telling me to go on my first wave and paddling into it, and an interview with me about my first Padang session! All this is in a Youtube video he posted to his channel about the session, where you’ll see just how barreled he got at small Padang. You’ll see me in my orange shorts and black rash guard. Thank You JP!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsTLYjtlFiQ&t=397s&ab_channel=IronSurf
For dinner I enjoyed a double cheeseburger at Mana, the bougie restaurant at the prestigious Uluwatu Surf Villas hotel, while I watched a surf photography presentation with Diego, Ella, and Joe. What a day!
Here is Surfline’s blurb about Padang Padang:
When it's on, Padang Padang is a beast, truly "The Balinese Pipeline." On the biggest days of the year, huge swells march down the reef from Uluwatu, forming some of the biggest and heaviest barrels anywhere in Indonesia when they hit the Padang reef. Though Padang Padang breaks relatively frequently during the season, classic Padang is rare. For it all to come together, a strong, long-period SW swell, mid tides, and light offshores are required. Even with all of the elements in place, sometimes Padang Padang can pinch, or mutate halfway through the barrel. Not good when you consider that a wipeout in these conditions is very serious and means almost certain injury, broken boards, or both. When Padang Padang is classic, surfers can expect deep, dry, heavy, big tubes. When surfing Padang Padang it is important to understand the tides. During the lower tides of the month, Padang Padang can become absurdly dangerous as the end section breaks below sea level and directly in front of exposed, jagged reef. Even professional surfers find Padang's twisting barrel a challenge to negotiate, and most wipeouts mean a trip to a very unforgiving reef.
Sep 30
Today’s a nice important day because I moved to a new homestay but first I had to get a new bike. I rented my first scooter for 10 days for 1M rupiah and learned from Diego that this was totally the gringo tax/price. My scooter was pretty nice but renting it on the day rate is much more expensive than renting a shittier scooter on the monthly rate. Everyone that spends a while out here goes for the monthly rental. I returned my bike, and from the same dude I got a one month rental for 1M = $64 usd. It’s a total no brainer, If you ever stay around for more than a week just get one for the month. My new bike is a total piece of shit but it is way cooler, I love it. The gas meter doesn’t work, it struggles to turn on, it hardly accelerates, and the handlebars are a bit crooked.
I pack up my shit at Seno Guesthouse, say goodbye to the caretakers, and off I was to Manta Guesthouse. The journey is hilarious, I’m completely packed up with my backpacking bag fully loaded on my back, my smaller orange bag stuffed on my front, my board bag weighing the left side of the bike down. Struggle to get the engine started, but on my 3rd try creep out of the driveway at a snail's place and bounce down the road on my tiny and overloaded scooter, everyone zooming past and honking. Manta is around 10 minutes to the interior of Bingin beach, a really cool rural zone with narrow winding roads, some of them dirt, way less developed and populated than my place at Seno. Every turn I have to stop to look at my phone for the map in the heat. The map says I’m 12 minutes away but it really took me more like 40 due to my pace and the constant stops. Down in this zone the dirt roads are more like a labyrinth, cows watch me go by, chickens speed across the road to the sound of the bike. Awesome scene change.
I arrive at Manta covered in sweat to find a really quiet, peaceful set of rooms in a circle around a small pool in the shade. Everyone here is super friendly, many of them have been here for months, it’s way more of a community. My last place was right off the road, it was loud but super convenient to just hit the road and be on my way to Uluwatu. Over here felt homier and a place where I could really take it easy, read, write now that I started to get the lay of the land and settle into life on the Bukit.
After getting settled and little work, I go up to Uluwatu for the afternoon/evening surf session. It’s not looking that great, kinda small low tide racetrack, ugh. It’s a decreasing swell from yesterday. Diego tells me to go check out Secrets, a section of the reef further up from Temples that only breaks on low tide. You can kinda see big burgery waves from far away but can’t really tell if anyone’s out there or not. At low tide much of the inside reef is totally exposed and you can walk nearly all the way to secrets, an easy task now that I have my reef booties. About 20 minutes of walking and then another 20 of paddling and I’ve reached my destination, Secrets, a part of the reef I’ve never surfed. The wave is breaking pretty far out, and even though it’s low tide it is a deep water wave. One of the older guys out there comments that I wont hit the reef out here, just pull in the barrel if you get the chance. Barrel where? This wave is pretty much a burger. That being said, it’s really fun and after the big drop, if the wave hits the reef properly, down the line it can get hollow/ high performance. My favorite ride was about an 8ft burgery drop into the bottom turn that set me up for a few pumps, the wave hollows out, race through/dodge the barrel, then the wave slows down for a series of 2 turns before kicking out as it closes out. Wow 3 different waves in 1. No way of telling from far away on the cliff at Uluwatu.
Back at Manta, Made is the nice lady who runs the kitchen and is basically down to cook whatever you want whenever you want for incredibly cheap. Just next door is a small convenience store loaded with refrigerated Milo! Between Made’s food and the delicious chilled Milo, I’m gonna be alright living here for the next 10 days.
Oct 1 - Oct 3
The swell really comes down, the wind even goes a bit onshore. The season is changing and we really are getting into the shoulder season. There are still days with plenty of swell on the forecast but the consistent trade winds that blow offshore all day long during the dry season are variable now. There’s still plenty of time with glassy and offshore conditions, epic windows of surf to be had.
Life at Manta is incredibly chill. Far from the main road, it’s pretty quiet. Good for working and writing on these down days. Made is psyched to make me coffee and some breakfast every day, always asks me what I want. Pretty much always go for a pancake with some chocolate on the side, a veggie omelet with mushrooms and a strip of bacon, and a cup of joe, no sugar. She memorizes my order and laughs every time she emphasizes “no sugar.” If I have lunch or dinner here I always try to get something traditional like nasi goreng or mie goreng or something but always with a banana milkshake, again, “no sugar!”
Become friends with some of the other guests, many of them live here on a month to month lease situation, work from here, and some have been here for like 8 months to a year+. Cody is a 20 year old college kid from Colorado, doing his schooling online while he gets more and more into surfing. (Being out here is basically the same as being in college, it’s adult disneyland.) Ruth is a 27 year old British lady working on her online business out here for the past year. Tom is a tutor online for foreign kids trying to get into British private schools. He has classes he runs every now and then, otherwise he’s looking for surf.
I finally get around to checking out Bingin beach, closeish to my place but it takes me a while because I get lost in the labyrinth of dirt roads it takes me to get there. There’s a little lot for my scooter and down I go through a series of narrow alleyways. Then it is the longest staircase down the cliffside to the beach. Switchbacks take you by little businesses and nice restaurants, beautiful accommodations looking at the water. This zone looks like it's pretty fancy. On the lowish tide much of the reef is exposed creating beautiful tide pools, some big enough to take a dip in, while the sun sets. As the sky turns orange, the calm pools reflect the color of the sky for a truly magnificent sunset view. I take photos, many people do, but they just don’t do it justice. This was a breathtaking sunset. Up by the cliff there’s a cool looking fish restaurant on the sand. A cooler full of fish, you pick one, they grill it on a bbq in front of you, served with some veggies, rice and sambal sauce, a cold beer, plastic table and chair, barefeet in the sand, sun disappearing over the horizon. I got a fillet of mahi mahi. Goddamn, not too shabby.
Diego takes off, back to LA, back to reality. He’s kinda sad to be going because the last couple surf sessions have been in small Uluwatu and just not the most memorable send off. They were hilarious though. On one particular session the waist high waves were dumping onto the shallow reef and we were watching guys get tossed. I remember thinking someone is gonna get hurt out here today, it always happens when it’s small. “Let's get out of the water, what are we doing here?” Diego dubbed this the Barney sesh hahaha we laughed about it later. There’s a nice swell coming in over the next couple days, peaking on the 5th, and he considered extending a week or so to be able to get it. We had a final meal together, spaghetti carbonara, at one of the bougier Italian spots. He lent me his super cool Indo surfing guidebook, 15 years old or so, a classic that I need to take care of. It has information on tons of spots all around Indonesia as well as some Bahasa Indonesian surf related words and jargon to use around.
Goodbye Diego. Thank you for the last two weeks! He introduced me to a bunch of people around here as well as gave me good information on extending my visa, not getting ripped off for my scooter rental, where to sit in the line up, and where to park the scooter. Got me up and running in Uluwatu as well as got me in the water at Padang and for that I am super grateful. Great talks about surfing, our influences, surf style, and where we stand in our surf culture. We share much of the same philosophies there. See you back in LA, we’ll surf some El Niño back home this winter at the very least, and at best let's run it back to Indo one day my brother!
Oct 4
Today is the beginning of a swell that is filling in, building all day, maxing out tomorrow, and then fading off over the next two days. Really excited to get into some surf again after 3 down days. I totally took the first 10 days of surf here for granted. It was pumping when I showed up, was sick at Desert, and I thought it would just be a nice size and big the whole time. Today should be fun!
Chill wake up, usual nice big breakfast from Made, got my stuff together to go surf Impossibles for the first time with Cody. He surfs there a bunch and I’ve been meaning to check it out. Make it out around noon for some head high/ overhead surf, the forerunners of the incoming swell. Super fun. At first I take off on a couple close outs, thinking this wave kinda sucks. The wave breaks kind of slopey but then gets really fast as it walls up down the line, considered the great wall of the Bukit, a total pump track. If you go for a turn, the wave passes you by. My waves aren’t really connecting well and I’m starting to think that this is a wave for beginners to get the hang of dropping in and getting a few pumps in.
Eventually I figured out which were the good ones and started getting super long rides, longer than anything on this trip thus far. At the end of the wave, some of the waves would barrel as it would get shallow in the end section, an amazing bonus, I didn’t know it would do that. Big swooping pumps all the way down the line on the Ordainer until the closeout barrel section at the end. Once you pull in or are in the curl, you are behind and the wave rushes past. I came thinking I’d give it a shot with Cody but was totally pleasantly surprised on how fun this wave is when you get the right one. One of the dudes in the water explained that on the right swell you can get the longest waves of your life that travel across the whole reef for like 400 meters or something. “Just stay ahead of it and don’t stop pumping!”
Up on the cliff I watch the waves at Impossibles, it is so beautiful. Long lines stacking up in the blue ocean over patchy dark reef. It looks straight out of a surfer's dream, so mind-surfable. Watch it for an hour and then head to Uluwatu to see how the swell is filling in up there. (It’s still too small for Padang.) Much much bigger at Uluwatu probably in the 8ft range or something, it’s getting towards the end of the day and it’s been building all day.
Low tide. I don't want to surf the Racetrack, after the first couple times. There are nice waves and barrels there, but it is so crowded and the inside gets super shallow, fast. With this crowd it’s tough to get a good one that actually works properly so the ones you end up getting can be kind of sketchy and let you off in a bad situation. Secondly, there are people that paddled out earlier while the swell was smaller, and now the waves have gotten larger as the tide dropped, you can tell some of the guys out there shouldn’t be. Low tide Secrets it is for me.
Walk along the exposed reef all the way up to Temples or as far as I can go, and paddle out and head even further up. It is starting to get big. There’s a guy on a 9ft board dropping in on massive burgers outside. I got a couple nice long burgery waves but also some nice beatings. After taking a wave down the way a bit and kicking out, I got dropped off in no-man’s land and took four 6-8ft waves on the head. Just stuck in the impact zone. Exhausting. On another wave I had to take off under the lip and tumbled down, landed on my neck on the face, didn’t get too pounded, a weird fall. Feeling pretty tired. So cool watching the swell march in up here. By the time I go in at sundown there are easily 12+ footers (on the California scale). I wonder if Padang got just big enough to barrel right at nightfall?
Oct 5
Swell day! Wake up later than I wish I did, unfortunately, miss the morning Padang window, and I’m kicking myself. Get to Padang at like 9am and it’s kinda too high tide, not really barreling the way it’s supposed to. 30 guys out, watched it for like an hour and only saw one good barrel all the way through. I know it was good at 6am, I watched the camera rewind and saw a bunch of barrel opportunities. Ugh what the fuck did I do, I blew this window, how sad.
Cruise up to Uluwatu, it’s humongous. Guys are paddling into the Bombie on guns, the swell is 10.5ft at 16s, crazy numbers, this is my first real Indo swell. Surfline’s calling it 10-15ft, I swear there may be some that are bigger at the Bombie. People are catching long waves off the Outside Corner on 7-8ft boards. The swell is totally passing by Temples etc. it’s focusing on Bombie and then filtering into the Peak and Outside Corner. Totally different view today at Ulus, super cool.
Had some breakfast and a smoothie and watched the show go down. Became friendly with this Thai guy who just wants to go out there and feel the energy, he’s never seen waves this big. He runs a surf school in Thailand, he got a bunch of kids into surfing from the local school, and now has 8 dedicated surfer students. It’s gotten to the point where a couple of them are ripping harder than him now and he cannot teach them anymore. He’s out here looking for a more advanced coach for his excellent students. Super cool to hear his stoke.
Anyways, the surf is absolutely pumping. I watched an actual 12ft barrel go rifling across the reef, no one on it, fast, insane, an incredible sight. Where am I going to surf today? Kinda on the fence about paddling out on my 6’6” it would be one of the smallest boards in the lineup today. Guess I’ll just go to Impossibles, it’ll be smaller and more manageable down there I figure. On my way out I run into Joe. He’s fully loaded with his water housing camera gear and fins, planning to swim out there to get water angle footage. He’s prepared to swim from Uluwatu all the way to Bingin, 3.5+ miles as the crow flies, luckily the current is ripping in that direction. He’s been getting ready all morning for this, he has his phone and wallet waiting for him at a hotel in Bingin so he can get a lift back up to Uluwatu. “Wish you luck, man. I’m gonna try Impossibles so maybe I’ll see you passing by down there.” Impossibles is the reef right before Bingin so he’d have to pass through at the end of his swim. Dude’s a crazy man.
Make it out to Impossibles and it’s a bitch. Big 8-10ft waves are rolling through, the paddle out sucks, there’s no channel, it’s the “great wall of the Bukit.” On the inside there is a bit of lip that slaps down but as I paddle out further it's just duck dive after duck dive of 6-8ft whitewater rollers with no scoop. Exhausting, takes me like 10 duck dives to just get out to the lineup, start resting, and then a massive wave breaks like 30 yards further out. Wash-throughs keeping the crowd super dispersed. This swell direction today was closing the wave out much more than yesterday. Did manage to pick off a few long rides that were really exhilarating but then the paddle back out would suck all over again. Not sure if those rides justified the work it took. So much paddling and getting smacked by waves that are hard to duck dive. What I thought would be more manageable than 10-15ft Uluwatu, ended up being savage work. In the end I probably should've just paddled out at Ulus, even though I’d be fighting the current out there probably overall chiller than this Impossibles session.
Kinda bummed, thoroughly tired. Surfed a lot yesterday and after this session I’m exhausted. “Wow, today's the big swell day and I’ve kinda blown it.” Missed Padang in the early morning, probably should've paddled out to Ulus, Impossibles wasn’t that sick, maybe Bingin was the call. Get to the crib and pass out, alarm 40 minutes later, a power nap. Force myself out of bed. “I’m going to Padang for the final surf of this swell!” The tide is lower, swell is dying down, it’s still big, so off I go.
I arrive to Padang, it is in the 6-8ft range, pretty much exactly the same as when I had my miracle sesh with JP last week but with way more people in the water. I paddle out, drift through the channel, watch the waves, see who’s catching what, etc. JP is out at the very top with some of his boys waiting for sets. There is a total order out here. I sit amongst the crowd and wait my turn. I know to only go for big ones, stay off the reef and commit to my line. After an hour, hair fully dry, I caught a little shitty one. OK cool, got my feet in the wax, good to get that out of the way. Get a second one 30 minutes later, a nice drop in, a nice long barrel, traveled through it and got a sweet vision but the wave clamps down on me, doesn't let me out. “Fuck, Padang is so much better than anything else around here, such a good wave.” Beautiful wave, totally have my confidence out here, I can do this. It’s so crazy it needs a huge swell to break. Uluwatu is humongous right now and Padang is maybe a third or half the size, but that third is perfection. Not a big playing field, easy, don’t have to get your hair wet on the paddle out, then a banger of a wave.
Right before dark, crowd has thinned out a bunch, I get my third, final, and best wave of the day. It’s this wide one that is coming right to me. The other guys are kinda too deep, right where I’m sitting it looks to peak up perfectly. I turn around and start paddling for it. Another guy paddles but he’s a hair too deep. “Go go go!” Drop in, one of those perfect waves where all I do is stand up on my 6’6, set my line, and the wave just throws super open over me. It was so wide around that it didn’t even look like a barrel vision. As I’m riding I'm looking at people looking at me in this thing. Make it all the way through and into the channel, a spectacular, beautiful ride. It’s kind of this weird, spooky sunset, maybe some rain over up by Uluwatu, grey skies, not the pink and orange Bali sunsets I’ve gotten used to. An eerie night time setting with this perfect gem and I. I am totally buzzing. That jolt of energy just sends me right back out into the lineup. “I’m surprised you’re back out here, I would’ve just gone in off of that one.” I am being totally greedy. That was such a beauty and I’m back in the lineup about to levitate with adrenaline and joy. After a little while of bliss the sun really starts going down, I know I’m not catching another one, and I paddle in through the channel as a few boys get totally shacked beside me, the last set of the day.
After bumming about my surf choices, and not loving my performance at Impossibles, all of that was washed away by this one terrific wave. Made my day really. Ended on the best possible note. Went out with Oscar and the boys, had a good night.
Oct 6
Wake up a little bit later, well rested after so much surfing yesterday. Poor Cody got the skin behind his ear slashed by the nose of his board at Impossibles, and had to get 6 stitches. He was all excited to surf today, yesterday was too big for him, so he was really looking forward to this morning's session. I see him in front of my room, grinning, “dude look what happened! There was so much blood, I had to run to the clinic.”
Big breakfast, got some work done, some writing, and off to Uluwatu around 12:30 to see what the surf is like today. It’s higher tide and I think I’m going for the Temples session but upon getting to the lineup, the surf is still nice and big, the current is ripping in the opposite direction. I end up surfing high tide Peak for some nice drops, some fun waves, a surf that now I am fully used to and comfortable with on the Ordainer. Stayed in the water for a long time as the tide dropped.
On one particularly ledgy wave, I took off on a steep double up, somehow didn’t poke the nose and went down the line a bit as it stood up and barreled behind me. Not even gonna call this a barrel dodge, the oncoming session smashed me, I got pounded, lightly touched the reef on my feet thanks to the booties, and got washed down the reef over to Racetrack/Outside corner zone. The wave itself was kinda cool but not too long of a ride but it really served as a repositioning moment for me to realize that Racetrack and Outside corner were doing their thing. The swell was big enough for the Outside to feather out and crumble towards the inside reef and the medium ones would hug the Racetrack and zoom towards the same inside reef. “Oh man, it’s good down here!”
I got more barreled on this particular session than all the other Uluwatu sessions thus far combined. The waves I went for would break outside and I would pick up the whitewater and milk it through doing S-turns as it reformed and then unload over me as it hit the inside reef. If it didn’t hit the reef properly, it gave me enough time to kick out unscathed or just ride a burgery wave. When it did hit the reef properly, I could anticipate the oncoming barrel section and just set the line and sit pretty through the tube. Vision after vision, stoked out of my mind.
Locked in, tuned in, I caught a shouldery wave and Joe hopped in front of me on his shortboard. “Party Wave!” he screams. Oh shit, he cuts back into me, I’m kinda nervous for a sec, I’ve never done crossovers going left before, a bunch going right at Malibu though. We cross back and forth until I get infront for the inside reef section. It doesn't really barrel. “Dude, that was sick, I saw you soul arch in the pocket while I was behind you!” “Let's do that again, Joe,” I yell as I paddle back out. We get another wave like that and Joe is ripping in front of me while I kinda cruise, awesome session, I’m grinning from ear to ear. Joe brought Malibu to Uluwatu, “maliwatu” as we called it, except going left and with the potential for a hollow inside over shallow reef. For the first time I’m excited to see what the photography businesses on the cliff have captured of this session. I want to see the party waves with Joe, maybe a barrel, but they stop filming at 2pm or something due to the backlit glare of the sun. Too bad.
I eat a quick meal, the Brazilian plate from By the Cliff, the source of comforting black beans and rice I’ve found out here. On the bar over by the edge overlooking Racetrack, I have a beer with Duran, an Oceanside ripper Joe introduced me to, he got some beautiful waves today too, as the sun sets. They’ve introduced me to Choc, a ripper of mid sized twin fins with cool style, and he’s lent Joe a 7’0 to try. Up on the cliff I try to get some footage of them surfing as we cheer them on and watch the show, surfed out and frothing, good vibes! Griffin invites me to his place for some pizza and beer, and he and John and I just kinda chill and play some video games for a few hours before I go back to the crib for bed. I thought I might go out and party, but honestly having a mellow xbox night, haven't played video games like this in years, is not too shabby.
Swell largely decreases over these next two days. Once again I’m confronted with what to do in this touristy Bali vortex while the waves are small. I do go out for some fun surfs, nothing too exciting, my surf standards are out of wack now. Chill at home working, watch some nice sunsets, and go out with Joel, an Aussie from Newcastle I met at Ulus, Oscar, Duran, Joe, the boys. Everyone’s cool and the times are good.
On October 9th I take care of some last minute logistics for my upcoming birthday present trip to G-Land! The historic wave on the eastern tip of Java is calling and I treated myself to a 6 day package at Bobby’s camp. I made a deal with Teddyy, my Manta House caretaker, to house my scooter and some stuff in my backpack while I’m gone. Assure him I’ll return for it and promise I’ll be back in Bali after a week of surfing in Java. Super cool guy and accommodating. Pull out a bunch of cash, I assume there will be no way to get money in the jungle, and sort out my ride situation for tomorrow. Bring on G-Land!
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