Destination: Bali

"We'd discovered the biggest candy store for surf there could ever be."
-Surfing pioneer Gerry Lopez, talking about the discovery of Bali in the 1970s.

The time has come for one of the most coveted surfing pilgrimages known to man. On June 4th Jordan and I will be traveling to the Indonesian island of Bali for what will likely be the trip of a lifetime. We will return to Sydney on June 14th, just in time to prepare for final exams. Words can hardly even begin to describe how I feel.

Planning this adventure had been on both of our minds since we arrived in Australia, and when the opportunity arose to book an affordable flight a few weeks back, we seized the moment. There was no point in waiting around any longer and continuing to dream about how awesome it would be to go to Bali. Thus, we decided to make that dream a reality.

In case you don't know much about the island of Bali, it's widely recognized as one of the world's top surfing destinations, and has even been referred to as "The Disneyland of surfing." As one of the 17,000 islands that comprise the Republic of Indonesia, Bali is home to over 3 million people, 90 percent of whom adhere to Hinduism. Compared to Australia, prices are incredibly cheap in Bali, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations for traveling Australians. Besides world class surfing, Bali also offers beautiful beaches, exotic wildlife, bargain shopping, and active nightlife. That being said, this will be a surfing intensive trip, so we won't have much time for anything besides eating, sleeping, and of course, surfing.

In terms of the waves, the southern portion of the island receives consistent swell nearly all year round, due to the fact that both its east and west coasts are exposed to the Indian ocean. It features a wide variety of waves to choose from, ranging from expert reef breaks to beginner beach breaks. On top of that, the island sits near the equator, so both the water and air temperatures remain warm all year. I checked the weather yesterday and it said that both the air and water temperatures were around 84 degrees, which would be the warmest ocean water I've ever been in. The photograph from above is a stunning view of the lineup at Uluwatu, one of Bali's most iconic reef breaks, located on the west side of Bali's southern peninsula. The island is littered with barreling waves, all of which are easily accessible within a short drive.

We're currently working out the specific logistics of our trip, but we'll likely be staying around the Kuta beach area for the first couple nights after we arrive. We've bought an Indonesian surfing guidebook as well as a Lonely Planet guidebook for Bali in order to help us do a bit of research. The overall plan at the moment is to warm up with some of the beach breaks and then make our way toward some of the reef and point breaks. There are plenty of waves to choose from in Bali, so we should have plenty of fun no matter where we surf. I'll have more information about the trip once we get closer to departure. If you know of anyone who has been to Bali, definitely let me know, as I'm trying to gather as much information as possible.

Bondi boom

How's everyone doing back in the states? It must feel great to be heading into the summer. In case you didn't realize, were actually heading into winter down here in the southern hemisphere (notice Nick and I are putting on our wetsuits). Calling it winter is a bit of an exaggeration though. It was sunny and close to 70 today with clean 6-8 foot surf and a water temperature of around 72, enough said.

I feel a little weird not being done with classes yet, but alas, I'm in Australia and I surf every day, what more could I ask for? It's hard to believe that at this time the past two years I was already back home on Martha's Vineyard dealing with water temperatures as low as 52 degrees. The thought of jumping into water that cold right now makes me nauseous. However, the thought of tearing into clean empty waves back in Chilmark always brings a smile to my face. Australia's only fault may be its crowds, but they don't cause problems too often.

School has been going well, but it's always a challenge to get work done seeing as I live so close to the beach. Whenever I get home after classes the first thing I usually do is head straight for the ocean, even if I'm exhausted or have work to do. It's great to be able to take my mind away from everything for a couple hours before having to buckle down and open up the books. I figure that I can do school work any time of day, but I can only surf when it's light outside. This train of thought has resulted in many endless afternoons of surf and many endless nights of work. Such is life in Australia. I once heard a saying that Australians don't live to work, they work to live. I couldn't agree with this more.

In terms of my social life (yes, I do have one here, how amazing) I have been going out a decent amount, but it's just as easy to stay in and try to save money, as the price of virtually everything around here can be quite daunting. That being said, the highlight of this past week was without a doubt when I headed into the city with a few friends to see Vampire Weekend (one of my favorite bands) play an excellent show. This had been planned for quite a while, as we bought tickets a couple months back when we learned they would be playing in Sydney during their inaugural Australian tour. The show was amazing and I will be sure to try to catch them next year in Nashville if I get the chance. Here are a few photos from the concert.


In other news, we've had an incredible run of swell here this past week. Luckily, our friend Garrett, who is currently learning to surf, decided to head down to the beach with his camera a couple times this week when the surf was a bit too big for him to paddle out. It was pretty choppy, but there were some decent waves rolling through. The first few were taken from the south section of the beach, while the others were taken from the north section of the beach a couple days later. Here they are, captions included.

Nick and I gearing up to paddle out

Nick rolling down the line on a messy one

Unknown surfer taking off on a bomb

Me pulling away from a massive closeout, well overhead

A huge one rolling through by the North Bondi rocks

Me ducking under the lip of one, heading for the back door

Unknown surfer heading down the line on a great one

Nick getting ready to snap the lip, notice his leotard wetsuit, very retro

Me trying to pump down the line and beat the section

We had excellent waves this afternoon, which were much cleaner than the ones in the photos. Unfortunately, our new found surf photographer Garrett didn't make it down to the beach to document it. Hopefully we'll be able to get him out there again sometime soon.

It's crazy to think that I've only got a little over one month left here. As a result, Jordan and I have officially decided that we need to make the most of it. Now, you might be asking yourself, what exactly does that mean? In my next post I will be releasing the information about our next surfing expedition, which we just planned two days ago. All I will say at this point is that we're heading to Mecca (figuratively, not literally). So long until next time.

urban surfing

Greetings to everyone back home. Stay away from those floods if you're in Nashville. The pictures I've seen look crazy. Just so you know, it drizzled here today for the first time in a couple weeks. The air temperature has still been in the 70s though, so no need to panic. I surfed in my trunks today, but got cold after about an hour and a half, not too bad. It's getting close to permanent wetsuit weather, but that's nothing I can't handle. Surfing back home in Chilmark often requires a wetsuit during the summer, particularly in the mornings. I'm convinced that Australia doesn't have a Fall season. It still feels like summer here, how wonderful.

On the whole we've had above average surf this week. The swell has been consistent for the most part, but the crowds this weekend became a bit frustrating, so my friend Nick and I decided to take one session off to get some good photograghs. On Sunday afternoon we walked around Bondi to take a few photos with our friend John's camera (zoom lens, expensive, etc.). Sunday tends to be a particularly active time of the week around town. The surf photos are from nearby Tamarama Beach, which has become my surf spot of choice as of late. We surfed the waves in the photos earlier that morning. As always, make sure to click on them to see the enlarged versions. I'm going to let the images do most of the talking. Here they are for your enjoyment, there's a whole bunch (captions included):

Apparently parrots that sit on people's shoulders are normal around here.


The Sunday markets at the Bondi elementary school. Typically a hipster haven. Trendy gear sold separately

Art tent at the markets.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Jim Morrison."

Campbell Parade, Bondi's main drag. Busy as ever. Notice the palms. Florida?


Pool at the Bondi skatepark overlooking the beach.


Local ripper. I'd hurt myself if I tried to drop into that pool. The surf was small at Bondi, so we headed down the road to Mackenzie's Bay and Tamarama...


Cliff meditation at Mackenzie's Bay. Very Zen.


Bodysurfer at Mackenzie's. Just about as close to nature as man can get.


Opposite side of Mackenzie's. Boogie Boarding is alive and well in Australia. Surfers here call them "speed bumps." How fitting.


Massive wave rolling into the rocks. The people give a good idea of scale.


Tamarama freight train. Look out for the lip.


Our Australian friend Christian and I checking out the action from the rocks. We ran into him getting out of the water when we arrived.


Our other Australian friend Paedor (pronounced Pada with an Australian accent) taking off on one close to the rocks at Tamarama.


A heavy wall rolling through. Steep takeoff. How about that for a left?

That's all for now around these parts. I'm looking into planning another camping excursion sometime soon, so I will update with those details if and when they become available. As always, thanks for checking out the pictures and feel free to leave a comment (if anyone actually read this far). It didn't work out too well last time I had a huge post...