The entire reason I went to Bali was to surf. I really didn’t want to do much else; only a bit of desire arose in me to see the sights later. And, given that the surf on this particular island is world renowned, I figured that was a good enough reason to splurge on the absurdly cheap airfare from Malaysia.
If you’ve read my last post (the Intro to Bali) you know my initial screw up in location choice. Well, once that was remedied and I found myself at a hostel on the Buckit Peninnsula a mere 10 minute scooter ride from the famous Uluwatu cliffs, I was thrown headfirst into the world of chasing epic waves in Bali.
Unlike my hostel up in Canggu, this one was filled with surfers. In fact, I’m fairly certain I did not meet more than three people during my entire stay there that were not surfers. Upon realizing this, I knew I had arrived at the perfect spot for my time in the country.
During my drive to the hostel I was exceedingly careful on the scooter. I had a giant backpack on and was already witness to the insanity of Balinese drivers in their narrow, winding streets. I picked up a rental board at a tiny surf shop on the side of the road near my hostel and then decided to retire to my room and get a bit of research done regarding where I should surf first. However, the wifi didn’t reach my room and I was forced to hangout in the open air lobby with all the flys while I researched.
While it was less than ideal to be covered in flys, moving out to the lobby proved to be fortuitous as this is where I met Fab, a Scandinavian fellow of 25 years who had been traveling the world chasing waves and working for the past couple of years. He had seen me come by with a board and so when I came back into the lobby he asked if I wanted to go surf with him that evening, as one will when they are traveling alone and a friendly looking bloke offers to join them for something, I said yes.
That evening I chased Fab to Uluwatu. He had lived in Bali before, working as a surf instructor, and knew the place like the back of his hand. He also drove like a man possessed. I, with a healthy sense of self-preservation, struggled to keep up but was ultimately successful in following him to the cliffs. Along the way we met a guy from Margaret River West Australia who Fab had seen before. He, Lukas, was my age and decided to tag along for our evening surf so we headed off together to the parking lot atop the cliff.
The pace at which he and Fab moved down the cliffs and into the water was rapid and I barely had time to register the bustle of the shops and bars built into the cliffs and the incredible beauty of the remaining natural landscape abutting the buildings. We hopped into the water and began to paddle out with only a couple hours remaining until sunset. My back muscles, weakened by months of not surfing, throbbed as I attempted once again to keep up with Fab. Pretty quickly we made it past the breakers and into the lineup where I allowed Fab to get lost in the sea of gently bobbing surfers, paddling further south towards less crowded waves than me and my weak back cared to.
My first taste of surfing in Bali was not a pleasant one I must admit. Sure the waves were great, weather stellar, and the tides so perfect that I didn’t have the slightest hint of the hellish low-tide walks over reef that were to come, but still I was frustrated. Having learned to surf in the Pacific Northwest, I am not used to and never a fan of long line-ups and crowds. Back home, the water is sufficiantly cold enough to keep a vast number of potential surfers out of it and those that make it out are usually spread among a large enough swath of sea that there is little to no competition for waves. At Uluwatu however, this is far from the case.
The waves break predictably along the reef at Ulu and so large groups converge on each ride-able peak. I found myself being pushed past the peaks to the point where a drop in was still possible but actually making the wave was not just because everyone out there – all 200 of us – were fighting for the same 10 or so take-off areas.
Nevertheless, I did manage to drop on a couple decent waves (I also managed to wipe out on a decent number of waves as well). However, my board was new to me, and, as I would find out later, not very good (read as basically atrocious). But I realized this marked the point of a dream coming true, I had surfed in Bali as I always wanted to, and I realized as the sun dropped lower on the flat blue horizon, this was only the beginning.
I tired rapidly since I was so out of shape, and thus paddled into the cave (where the only beach for Uluwatu is) a while before Fab and Lukas would. I hiked my board up the many steps back to the Warung (restaurant) where we stashed our gear and began preparing to head back to the hostel. However, before I could run away, Fab’s head poked over the edge with a grin as he ascended the staircase and he called out to me, asking how it was. Naturally, I lied and said it was rad (Okay not really a lie, I was kinda stoked and kinda frustrated at the same time). He mentioned he was staying at that cliffside Warung to watch the sunset and I decided to join him.
He bought a beer, Lukas reunited with us – still dripping wet and stoked, and also got a beer which made me realize it was customary to actually purchase something at the restaurant when you store your stuff there and so while I looked at the smoothie menu, Lukas bought me a beer too (Sorry Mom). We sipped our pisswater, I’m sorry, Pilsner, while watching the sun dip below the horizon. It was quick, you could nearly see the bright orbs motion relative to it’s watery bed. Or perhaps that is more accurate the opposite way – the water coming up to embrace the sun. However you put it the result is the same, it was a beautiful ending to a pretty neat day.
NOTE: The lack of updates on the blog recently has been due to my current situation, I am living in a van and traveling through New Zealand at the moment which is not the most conducive lifestyle to writing blogs for many reasons. However, today I have some time on my hands (and a good wifi connection, rare in the land of Aotearoa) after crunching out a quick hike at Mt. Cook this morning.
