Lembongan Round 2

 After being in Balangan for a few days of peace and quiet, occasionally heading back to the hectic-ness to stream the Canucks losing, I moved back to Kuta. After a couple nights I was over it and had Lembongan on the mind again, I tried convincing Keri and Rory who weren't too keen at the start, but after Alex agreed they decided to join. We booked our tickets and head out the next morning, well, Keri, Rory and I at least. Alex had decided it would be a good idea to party and just stay up until our 6 am transport, we found him passed out on a mattress on his balcony, open beer beside him and laptop on his chest blasting Tom Petty. He wasn't fully coherent so we had to leave without him. 

We boarded the bus to Sanur, then took the slow boat to Lembongan. 

  We arrived around 9 am, checked into the hotel and went to see if there were any waves. Shipwrecks had a little something going on, but the tide was off. We saw our buddy Duncan paddling in. He had gone there a night before with his girlfriend Kirsty. We all went for breakfast then lazed around until the tide filled in a bit. 

 I went to check the waves an hour or so later, and when heading back up the dirt road to our hotel I saw Alex getting doubled on a motorbike, still drunk. He moved in with us and soon after we all went surfing. 

There was one more addition to the gang actually, I had told my good buddy Eddy that I would take him to Lembongan the next time I went, Alex and I paid his way and he was more than stoked on the few days away from work.

 

 One evening the two of us were hanging out on our porch and he told me that this was actually his first vacation ever. Eddy is one of the raddest dudes I have ever met. He rips at surfing too:

 We spent our days surfing when the tide allowed, taking naps, drinking peanut butter banana milkshakes and sitting in comfy chairs with this for the view:

 After two nights Rory and Keri were having intense Sky Garden cravings so they head back to Kuta, and the rest of us stayed behind. The next day we rented motorbikes and cruised around the Island. Duncan and Eddy ended up going for a surf at Cennigan Point, a different wave a bit hidden, and Alex and I went to Devils Tears. There was nothing happening because the tide was too low, it seems like we are always waiting on the tide dammit. This would be a good place to insert Duncan's quote, 

"Time and tide waits for no man."

 Anyways, Alex and I went for lunch then back to Devils Tears, it was going off. We found a cool geyser thing-o and started taking photos, Alex then decided to get in there for one:

 I took the shot then yelled at him to get out of there, this being the reason:

 

Pretty sure he would have got washed out to sea after this one, and then the next geyser would have had red throughout it.

 We all met up afterward and went to the jumping cliff. It had changed since the last time, now there were cement tables and chairs, and you had to pay to jump, although there was a sweet ladder to get out now. Alex, Duncan and Kirsty jumped, did flips, whatever. Eddy and I wussed out. 

 

If you look close it actually looks like Duncan is standing on the rope, CRAZY HUH?

 

We all had dinner together on our last night, it was actually the first time we didn't go to Ketut and Ketut's little Thai food place. At 8 am we took the fast boat back to Kuta, I mean Sky Garden.

Balangan

 I needed to escape the Kuta vortex for a bit so I decided to head out to Balangan Beach for the swell that was coming in. I met my friend Duncan's friend Ross who was thinking the same thing, so we packed up and headed out together. We got there late in the afternoon, checked in to a straw hut on the beach and went out for an evening surf. 

 

Had a lot of early nights there, quite the nice change. Here was the view from our porch:

 

I spent one day out of the water just taking photos and eating at a nearby local restaurant with the cheapest meals I've found yet. Here are a few shots from the day:

 

 All the locals that work out there are extremely friendly, the food was all amazing, I planned to stay only 2 nights but got caught up for 5. The best part of all was the sunsets. 

 

The day I finally decided to leave I heard a bit of a commotion coming from below the deck, I looked over and saw a little local kid playing with the resident monkey in the water. Or more so dragging it into the water then watching it swim back to the sand bank, and repeating. All the staff from a nearby restaurant was looking off the deck laughing and cheering him on. 

Airport Reef

 After the partying was out of the system, the waves started rolling in. I spent a lot of time surfing out at the airport reefs. Probably my favorite spot to surf in Indo so far. You can just grab a boat from the end of Kuta beach and it will drop you off about 1km out at sea where the waves are breaking. There are many spots to choose from, I've only surfed three of the five.

When you are finished your surf session you just flag a boat down and get a ride back in. When it's not busy they aren't running in and out too often so it's not uncommon to get stuck out there for hours:

This was after the first time I got stuck out at Middles with Duncan and Eddy.

 

 Once the trade winds started blowing you could sure notice a difference in the water temperature. I was cold surfing, actually getting numb hands some days. With the colder water brought on the jellyfish. They come up from the bottom to soak up some of the sun. The first day wasn't too bad, maybe got stung once while surfing, but then paddling in from the boat Keri, Alex and I got hammered by them.  I took one down the shorts. 

 

 

  The following day we surfed again, not knowing what we were getting into. We got off the boat and started paddling to the break, I remember making a joke, "Whoever gets stung first wins." About 4 seconds later Alex screamed like a girl. Followed by a shout from Keri, and then of course me, and then Eddy. It was the wrong day to not wear a shirt. We eventually made our way to the break, and noticed hundreds of jelly fish surrounding us.

It would have been funny to be out there and hear four guys, the only ones out, screaming like 4 girls. After a few minutes Eddy paddled over to Insides, Keri, Alex and I stayed at Kuta Reef, and later Eddy had told us he could hear us from a couple hundred meters away shouting like girls. Apparently he wasn't even getting stung over there, unfair. 

 

 Here's one arm, didn't manage to get a photo of my back, stomach, armpit, legs or ass. Yes that's right, one of the little fuckers made it up my shorts, glad it took the outside route if you know what I mean. 

A few days later Eddy and I took our chances and went out again. Thank God there were no jellies, unfortunately word had caught on and we were surfing with a crew of 28 people. 200 meters to the right Insides was breaking and there was no one on it, we paddled over and just the two of us shared waves for maybe 15 minutes until the others caught on and a few more paddled over. After one of the longer surfs I'd had out there my arms turned to Jello and we waited for the boat. It came eventually, but didn't stop and pick us up, go figure, there were about 7 people in total and no one saw us flagging it down. So we were stuck until another one finally came. 

 

That was from Insides. 

And here is my most prized possession:

 

My leash tan.

Kuta for TOO LONG

 Well I arrived back in Kuta, and checked in at the Sandat again. Everybody was staying there except Lars who was a couple hotels away. I met up with everybody and just hung around the rest of the afternoon. We spent that evening, along with most others, drinking at the hotel playing dice or cards by the pool, followed by Alley Cats, Crusoe's and Sky Garden.

 

 It wasn't an ugly place to start the night. 

This continued for about 2 weeks straight. There was no swell, and withing the next week or so we were to see Ty and Lars off. Ty left first, and that fucker went without a goodbye photo with the boys.

  There isn't much else to write, we partied. Had a bunch of 6 am nights, followed by 8 am surf missions where it would look like this:

 

  We tried Balangan, Canggu, even rented longboards a few days and had some real fun sessions out front. Hung out with Deepak from California and the Scottish homies we'd met, Duncan and Fraser, who were always eager to convince us to go out if we were thinking about a chill night...

 

We said our good byes to Lars about a week in to the madness. 

Here's the rest of the damage...

 

One morning I woke up and found a cool bug on my porch. That is all.