Off to Lombok - Part 1

 So a day or two after the last of my friends left, and I got sick of the book I was reading I decided to go to Kuta Lombok. I ran into a guy I'd seen a bunch staying at the Sandat, Kent, and it turned out he was planning on heading there as well. Long story short we were on the road at 4 am the following day. 

Leaving Kuta at that time was more intense than I could have imagined. There was still a full fledged party going on and traffic was backed up on Poppies 2 all the way to our street. With some skillful maneuvering we worked our way down the tiny sidewalk and eventually out of town. One wouldn't think to bring a hoody or jeans to Indonesia, but both would have been handy that morning, definitely shivering on the drive. 

  We got a bit lost on the drive to Padangbai, but made it after all, Kent had to bribe some fake looking cops to get his bike across to Lombok, and soon after we parked our bikes on the boat and rented a couple mattresses upstairs. We both got a couple hours of sleep, then sat around eating nasi campur, peanuts, and cannon balls for the remainder of the ferry ride.

We drove off the ferry and it almost felt like a different country. There were horse drawn carriages ripping down the highway, the landscape was a lot different, and the overall vibe seemed different, for the better.

 

Of course we took the longest route possible to Kuta, but made it, and stopped for lunch at a random cafe. Met an old Aussie couple who gave us some tips on where to stay, then we drove around to all the surf breaks and checked them out, all blown out by the afternoon. 

We made our way to Grupuk and met a rad dude named Sudi, who owned a company that makes surfboards, Banyu. We looked out over the bay, but couldn't see any waves. 

 Sudi told us we had to hire a boat to get to the bay where the waves were, we decided to get a hotel then come back for an evening surf. How nice it was to surf a right again...

 The following day we started off at Grupuk again, then rode out to Mawi in the afternoon.

 

The roads were an absolute shit show, 16 kilometers took about an hour. Here is what we had to deal with: I know Duncan misses these roads...

We pulled up to the beach, and we were the only ones there apart from the local vendors shouting, "Bintang Time! Beng-Beng!" And other random items that could be bought. Kent went out for a surf. 

 

I stayed onshore and shot photographs. There was a little kid hanging out there with the locals who wouldn't leave my side the whole time we were there. He was interested in everything I was doing, so I set him up with one of my cameras and he took some photos as well.

This is Kent and the local vendor that was yelling things. He was an absolute gem, pure comedy.

 

That evening we were on the hunt for a chicken satay, when a couple bracelet selling kids, and there are lots of these there, came up and tried to sell us bracelets. We chatted with them, they introduced themselves and Thomas and Pablo. Over the next few days we would become quite good friends with these two. They were awesome little kids with sayings like: "Long hair long life, big banana happy wife."

  They showed us to a decent restaurant where we could find satay, then continued trying to sell bracelets to other tourists.

Over the next couple days we would try and get up early to surf Grupuk, but somehow it never happened. Either the alarm was set wrong, or I'd wake up and shut it off, or we would just get lazy and wait until after breakfast. 

When we would show up (somewhat early) the locals would be on the beach gathering little fish from nets, they would take their insides out and dry them on tables near Sudi's shop. I don't know what they were used for but the local stray cats sure loved them. 

For a couple evenings I would go and try and find a new spot to shoot the sunset, here were the first two nights:

One night Kent came back to our hotel and said I'd be stoked on what he found earlier that day. The next day after a surf he brought me here:

Unfortunately I left my shoes and skateboard in Bali, but there were a couple spare boards laying around that I cruised on. I think I found my paradise, super fun waves with much less of a crowd, streets you can walk on without almost being run over 40 times in 50 meters, and super friendly locals with a laid back vibe.

The next night I went on another photo mission, I started shooting in this cool little mangrove forest at the end of the beach, but was soon after chased out by wild dogs. I had to walk backwards out of there because every time I would turn around they would shorten the distance between us. I would have to swing my photo bag at them to back them up. Our friends Thomas and Pablo said it was because the mangrove forest was located at the base of a hill where many monkeys lived, and they would torment the dogs. Hopefully they learn to throw big rocks soon..

 

I'm going to leave it at that for now, part 2 will tell the rest...

Hangovers and Goodbyes.

Well it has been so long since I've posted, plus the fact that I'm so far behind I can barely rememeber what happened. I'll try my best.

Keri, Alex, Duncan, Eddy and I surfed a bunch, Canggu and Airport reef. Nothing fantastic, actually one day Keri ended up dropping in on a local and getting swarmed by about 6 of them, full on punching him in the head and pulling his hair. He got out unscathed but probably doesn't wanna surf Padma anymore. Another day Alex, Duncan and I surfed an onshore Canggu and Julian Wilson was out, pretty cool to see one of the top pro's surfing in real life. 

Keri had a flight home first of the bunch. Somehow he got 2 last nights out of the deal too, he told us his flight was one day so we all went out for a big one, then when he checked the internet the next morning he realized he still had one more day. I think on the actual last night we kept it mellow. We saw him off one evening from Sandat. 

Alex and Rory were to leave next, they had under a week left, we pretty much hung around in Kuta, surfed a bit and partied a bunch. Duncan introduced us to one of his friends from home who joined the Sky Garden festivities, Tom was his name. 

Here's a hungover Alex just before heading home:

The crew continually got smaller. Bye Alex and Rory. 

 It seems Tom was hit the hardest in the morning. 

Here he is about to puke, and then after a beach nap. Classic.

 

A few days later Duncan, Kirsty, and Tom head to Gili, and that was the last I saw of Duncan and Kirsty, until next time guys.. 

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.