thenalu

Last Surf in Indo

thenalu — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 03:39:32 +0000

My last surf session in Bali was short and alone. Emily had contracted some unknown stomach virus the night before and felt like shit. She threw up after breakfast and there was no way she had the energy to surf this last morning. I felt so bad for her, but she encouraged me to get a few rides on this last day.

We had to take our rental boards back to Pro Surf and the quickest way was down the beach. As we got to halfway she took shelter in the shade of the palm trees and I headed out to try to catch a few rides.

The tide was incoming and the rip was strong but I managed to catch 4 rides fairly quickly. I’m not sure when I’ll return to Bali, however, I think it will be sooner than I thought when I arrived there.

#87 / #45 for 2010 10:30 am

Crazy Double Sesh in Bali

thenalu — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:03:51 +0000

We had an awesome day surfing in Bali today. We started out in Kuta, and Halfway in the morning and then had a sunset surf somewhere between halfway and Legion. There was a swell coming in today and the waves were nuts. The outside was HH to double HH barrels all the way down the beach. It was funny to see all the locals making the barrels and what looked like the visitors getting creamed. The beach tubes are rather short and to make one you have to be dead on perfect and exit at the right time. It was mesmerizing to watch both form the beach and out in the break. As I found out today you don’t want to get caught in one of those monsters unless you know what you’re doing.

During the morning session I got too close to one and payed the price. I saw a wave coming in and thought maybe I could make the whitewater section. Unfortunately for me it jacked up and hit me in the back to the head so hard that it hurt for four hours. Then my leash wrapped around both of my legs and hog-tied them together. The incredible power of the wave then drug my board and me feet first underwater for longer than I could count. It was a scary and very strange feeling to be completely out of control with my feet tied together and water shooting up my nose at a very high speed. Eventually, it stopped and after choking for a while on all of the water I made it to the beach. Unless you know how to ride one these waves my advise is to stay on the inside.

Beside that nasty experience the inside rides were great. Again, I caught more rides than I could count – even with my pounding head pain. The wave were so consistent that you could ride one struggle back out and there was another awesome on waiting for you. My plan is to forget about Hawaii and come to Indo as often as possible. As I’m writing this post I can hear the waves pounding the beach from hundreds a kilometers away.

I love Bali.

#85 #86 / #43 #44 for 2010 11:00 am and 5:00 pm

Indo Rocks!

thenalu — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:43:36 +0000

Why can 10 year olds do 360’s in the white water, and rip double overhead barrels? It’s simple – they grew up in Bali. These are all things I witnessed here today. The sets are consistent, and the waves that come in between are crazy. You never have to wait more than a few seconds for a wave to surf. It’s 5 km of perfect beach, and waves from Kuta to Seminyak, and as I said yesterday the locals are helpful and awesome people. I wish the entire world had their attitude towards surfing.

Today was another epic day of surfing for both Emily and I. Again I caught more waves than I could count with several stand out rides. The outside was crazy big most of the day as there was a major swell coming in all day. We surfed Kuta Poppies 2 and halfway which were both going off.

It was also fun to see and feel double overhead plus barrels on the outside at high tide. I didn’t even know that was possible at a beach break with a perfect sandy bottom. Indo is such a great place to surf for everyone from beginners to super advanced experts, and everyone in between. If you haven’t surfed here before you should, ASAP.

To quote Jimi Hendrix from the song Easy Rider, “Freedoms coming our way”. Indo rocks!

#84 / #42 for 2010 10:50 am

Tasty Day at Kuta Halfways and Legian

thenalu — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:27:21 +0000

The awesome thing about where we’re surfing in Bali is because of the curve in the beach, and the bottom topography there are breaks that are good at low, mid-rising and high tide all within walking distance of where we are staying. It’s as easy as starting south and moving north as the tide progresses throughout the day. Plus you can get water and food from beach vendors, so you don’t even need to leave the beach all day.

Today we rented some boards from a local surf school / shop at the incredible price of 11 US dollars per day. We rented them for 3 days, so the board problem is solved, and we get to keep them overnight. We both got 7.0 boards that are 20 inches wide with a lot of rocker. They turned out to be perfect shapes and sizes for the wave here.

Anyway, the surf was awesome today. I stopped counting the number of rides I got at around 20, however, there were many more than that. I got several lefts and scored the biggest drop I’ve ever gotten. Emily also caught so many rides I couldn’t count any more. She also got the wipe out of the day award on a screaming HH plus wave. She also got several rights.

The locals here are so awesome that they will bail a wave for a outsider and then give you a big smile at the end. I love the people here in Bali. They’re great surfers and very humble and friendly. I wish Nor Cal had the same awesome vibe. They call surfing “play” which is the same way I feel about it. This vibe makes surfing so much fun.

I’ve been surfing for 1 year and 8 days now, and have surfed Nor Cal, Hawaii and Bali. Indo is by far the best place I’ve ever surfed. I feel fortunate to be here right now.

#83 / #41 for 2010 3:00 pm

Surfing Legian, Bali

thenalu — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:31:50 +0000

We arrived at our third and final stop on our trip to HK and Bali last night. Finally, all of the family / wedding stuff is done and we can start having some fun surfing. We chose Legian since it is a beach break, and fairly safe even when it’s big, and believe me it does get big here. In fact it’s considered by many to be the most power-packed beach breaks in the world. It seems that all of the breaks here in Bali are very fast and powerful with the possible exception of parts of Kuta.

It was fun watching Uluwatu the last week, but it’s not a break I’ll be surfing anytime soon. It’s for experts only. Last Saturday someone died there, and we were told by a British surfer that on most days you have a one in three chance of getting seriously hurt there. The waves are HH to double HH on a normal day and break onto one to four feet of sharp reef. So, we decided to head to Legian for some awesome but safe surf.

We got to the break around high tide and rented some boards. The waves were powerful and perfect. We saw shortboarders doing tricks in the whitewater which is something I’ve never seen before. We stayed on the inside today to get used to the break, and we watched the outside which looked to be four feet to HH. Emily caught 15 waves in 50 minutes. I didn’t do that well but still managed to catch a few awesome rides with two nice drops. I kept slipping off my rental board as there was not enough wax on it. Tomorrow we’ve arranged to rent some boards for the next four days so the wax issue won’t happen again. There is also a SSW swell on tap so we should see better formed faster waves at high tide.

BTW, the above photo was taken at low tide – not when we surfed so the waves don’t look quite as good.

This is definitely the best place I’ve ever surfed. So stoked right now!

#82 / #40 for 2010 3:45 pm

SW Wind + SW Groundswell

thenalu — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:04:34 +0000

Because of the above listed conditions we were told by a friend via Twiiter that everything was blown out south of Linda Mar. So, we head to LM. When we got to the parking lot the conditions looked awesome. Lefts, rights and a-frames everywhere. By the time we got in the water everything had turned to mush. I tried for a couple of promising looking waves but they all mushed out. It turned out to be a fairly short session.

However, by the time we were leaving an hour later the conditions were back on. Should have hung outside for another hour. I guess you live and learn.

#81 / #39 for 2010 3:45 pm

Regional Summary: SSW(190-200) groundswell holds today as some NW windswell mixes in. Most better breaks have waist-chest-shoulder high surf with the standout spots pulling in some head high to slightly overhead sets. Surface conditions are generally jumbled and bumpy with steady onshore flow out of the SSW.

Surfed

thenalu — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:41:49 +0000

Yes this day sort of matches the title of this post. At times HMB looked pretty good, and other times it was so so to so so minus. We seemed to be in the later category. We kept seeing great sets going off around us, but we seemed to keep missing it.

It’s not even that the day was bad. I caught a couple of rides and so did Emily. We also both got tossed around a few times. Nothing too bad though.

I was a beautiful day today, and we had a great time at the beach. The south swell is coming on strong tomorrow so maybe the surf will be a bit better.

#80 / #38 for 2010 4:15 pm

Regional Summary: A mix of NW windswell and S/SSW energy produces waist-shoulder-head high surf this morning, while standout breaks occasionally hit the overhead mark. Conditions stay a bit funky overall due to light onshore wind.

My First Standing Right

thenalu — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:28:06 +0000

We had a sunny day at the Jetty with lots of good vibes in the lineup. The sets were coming in at about 10 minute intervals and the rights were going off so we finally decided to head down to the north end. Wow, what a difference a few hundred yards can make.

Emily sat on her board for a while, and then caught an awesome wave and landed a great drop! Then she rode it all the way to the beach. Stoked!

I stood up a few times in the wash and then decided to try a right. I tried to spot where the wave was breaking and lined myself up. A few minutes later I was in a perfect spot and paddled into the wave at an angle to the right. I caught the wave popped up and rode it for a few seconds going right. I’ve never felt that on my feet before and it just made me want more. That didn’t happen today, but I won’t forget that awesome feeling of riding a real right anytime soon. I still have a stoke smile 6 hours later.

#79 / #37 for 2010 3:45 pm

Regional Summary: A crumbly, jumbled mix of mainly sloppy NW windswell and small S/SSW swell is on tap this morning. Surf for better breaks is in the waist-chest-head high zone, with standout exposures pulling in some overhead sets. Winds are steady out of the NW putting a good amount of texture/chop to the surface at most exposed breaks. There are some ride-able corners to be found, they’re just under a decent amount of surface chop.

Shutout at the Jetty

thenalu — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 05:24:56 +0000

We were going to work today, however, we got news from two of our friends that the Jetty was going off, so we packed up and headed south. We got there just as the surf was transitioning from high to low tide, and the sets looked pretty good at the north end. In fact the surf look a bit too big for us as we are currently transitioning to shorter boards. We decided to stay a little south of the main peaks as the waves look a bit more manageable.

The surf seemed way more powerful than we’d seen at the Jetty so far. I was getting tossed around pretty well and took a few on the head. Every time I tried to stand up there seemed to be a foamy churning mess under my board. I never got to my feet today. If we make it out tomorrow I may try to snag one on the north end when it’s less crowded. I need to make the transition to catching shoulders on the shortboard instead of waisting all of my time in the white water slop.

BTW, it may not sound like it, but I did have fun today. :)

#78 / #36 for 2010 2:45 pm
Regional Summary: NW windswell mixes with building SSW(195-210) energy for semi-peaky surf in the waist-chest-shoulder high range. Top breaks go bigger on occasion. Shape is generally a bit funky but rideable overall. Light wind on tap early.

Foggy Day and Short Rides

thenalu — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:28:06 +0000

Emily, and I had another small but fun day at the HMB Jetty. It was very foggy at HMB today, but I actually love surfing in the fog. The waves were small but there was enough force behind them to get up on the SB a few times today.

My next big move is to head to the north end and start to try to catch some nice rights. There was only one other surfer down there and I wish I had just gone for it. Maybe tomorrow if it’s not too big.

#77 / #35 for 2010 1:00 pm

Regional Summary: A small new mix of NW-WNW(285-310) mid-period swell and building SW(210-220) Southern Hemi swell are on tap this morning as some small/leftover NW windswell is in the mix. Most breaks have knee-waist-chest high surf, with standout NW exposures pulling in a few sets up to shoulder high at times. Conditions are still looking fairly jumbled across the region this morning with steady onshore flow out of the W/WNW.