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...

anzac day

Picture this: you're at a Sydney bar at 4:30 in the afternoon with more people than you've ever seen there on a Saturday night. Everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder around a fenced off area, holding 5, 10, 20, and sometimes even 50 dollar bills in the air. People are shouting, hollering, clapping, speaking in accents from all across the globe, using slang words that you don't understand, and of course, trying to get you to gamble with them (everyone is friendly, don't worry). This event only happens once a year. They're all betting on a coin flipping game known as Two-Up, which is incredibly simple, but very entertaining. You win some bets, lose some bets, have a blast, and miraculously leave the bar with more money than you showed up with.

This is what happens all across Australia and New Zealand only one day of the year, April 25th, ANZAC Day, which celebrates the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). It's similar to Memorial Day or Veteran's Day back in the USA, but the attitude is more of a combination between the 4th of July and St. Patrick's day, everyone is looking to have a good time. It was definitely one of the best cultural experiences I've had so far in Australia.

To make the weekend even better, I woke up this morning to solid 8 foot surf right out front at Bondi. The wind was on-shore, meaning it was a bit choppy out there, but there were still some great waves rolling through. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded because of the size of the waves and the strength of the currents. People were also probably recovering from Anzac Day. I had a great session this afternoon and am now relaxing on the couch, reflecting back on one of the best weekends I've had so far in Australia. Hard to believe I've been here for three months and only have two more left before I head back.

In terms of school (yes, I do in fact go to school here in case you were wondering), I had my most strenuous week of work last week, so it was great to be able to have an authentic Australian weekend in order to celebrate. Two presentations and a paper all crammed into one week was difficult to manage considering I live right next to the beach. When I come home from class all I want to do is surf, so I usually save my school work for later on when it's dark outside. I wrote a paper about Australian surfing legend Mark Occhilupo for my Sport, Law, and Society in Australia class, which was pretty interesting. The paper basically hailed him as the most significant Australian surfer of the modern era. It outlined his impact on the sport and his legendary comeback from obscurity to win his first and only World Championship in 1999 at age 33, one of the greatest feats in sports history. It's great to know that I'm becoming a student of the sport.

In terms of what's next for me, I'm looking into making some travel plans for our time off either before or after exams in June. Jordan and I are exploring a few options right now. It could be quite epic. I'll have more information at a later date. Until then, hang loose.

"heaps of swell, mate"

That's a kangaroo crossing sign if you've never seen one. It's been far too long since I've updated, sorry about that. The remote regions of New South Wales don't exactly provide the best options for regular internet usage, especially when you're gone for 10 days. The McDonald's free internet just doesn't cut it (so slow). No need to worry though, I'm alive and I surf every day, what more could I ask for?

Before I begin, I want to point out that I've updated the map on the right side to include all of the spots I've surfed while here, which now totals 15. Also, please feel free to sound off in the comments section. It's good to hear from people and know that somebody actually looks at this thing. Even though this post is long, please make sure to check out the pictures and videos. They're well worth it. Anyways, back to business.

My semester break was a spectacular journey to say the least. The epic adventure featured ripping right hand point breaks, 10 foot beach break swell, new surf spots, barrels, a shark siting (holy shit), classic campsite dinners, Australian hospitality, and some great laughs. After my third tour of the coastline, I feel like I know the area quite well. This surfing and camping exploration went a little something like this:

On Thursday (April 1st), I hopped on the Sydney public transit and picked up our rental campervan (it was really just a minivan with a bed in the back). Jordan and I began the journey by ourselves, traveling north to stay at Yagon for the first night. After waking up the following morning to nearly flat conditions, we decided to get right back on the road and head to Crescent Head. The surf forecast for Crescent was one of the best I've seen so far in Australia and it ended up holding true, with solid swell rolling through for a full three days. When we pulled up Friday afternoon the surf was head high and pumping off the point. See the pictures below for confirmation. Make sure to click on them to see the enlarged versions. The first photo was taken on Friday and the second on Saturday morning.


Some of the rides on the biggest waves could easily last for over 200 meters. Pretty hard to believe. Unfortunately it was quite crowded, due to Easter Weekend, which became frustrating by the middle of Saturday when there were over a hundred people out there. Due to the crowds, we decided to explore some of the nearby beaches, which ended up being more exposed to the incoming swell direction. We surfed at a beach break close by with only a few other people out. The wind was offshore and the surf was a solid 8 feet with occasional sets rolling through that were 10 feet. It was definitely the heaviest session I've surfed in Australia, but I didn't at all feel in danger because it was so clean. Most of the waves were closing out, but I ended up getting a couple good ones that stayed open. Here's a picture I took from the parking lot.


On Sunday we drove up to Scotts Head, which is about an hour from Crescent. We were able to score an excellent and uncrowded beach break session there that was honestly some of the most fun I've had surfing in a long time. Jordan and I were out for around two hours and caught about 30 waves each. It was near head high and very clean, but not too difficult to catch and ride. I didn't bring my camera for the long walk down the beach. Sucks.

That afternoon we made the drive back to Crescent, where we decided to surf the beach break right next to the point before sunset, little did we know this wouldn't be such a good idea. Most people were surfing the point and there were only a few others out at the beach break. We'd only been out there for probably 20 minutes when the unthinkable happened.

After I caught a wave that took me near the inside, I heard Jordan yelling my name from about 40 yards away. He was signaling toward the beach, saying that we needed to get out. I was in about waist deep water, so I hopped onto a bit of whitewash and headed in easily. Once I reached the shore, I could hear what he was saying. "Holy shit I just saw a shark out there." I quickly turned to survey the water, and just as a big wave was rolling through, I briefly saw a triangular shaped fin and a dark outline glide parallel to the beach and disappear shortly after. If I had to guess it was probably in the 6-8 foot range. I've seen dolphins before, and this definitely wasn't one. It made sense as it was near sunset, which is typically when they feed close to shore. After consulting a fisherman down the beach, we learned that you can sometimes spot what he referred to as "Bronze Whalers" or Copper Sharks on this stretch of beach at that time of day. They are somewhat dangerous, but attacks are rare, as they typically hunt bait fish. Scary stuff, but the journey rolled along.

The following day (Monday) we stopped in for a quick surf at Scotts Head again, which was excellent, before we headed about three hours inland to meet up with our friends Garrett and Nick in a small town called Armidale. They had been visiting with family friends on a private ranch for Easter weekend and had taken a train to meet up with us. After breaking out the tent and spending the night in a campsite in Armidale, we continued along toward Byron Bay, where we would meet up with our fifth and final traveler, our friend Jason, who'd been in Byron for a music festival that weekend. We spent two nights in Byron and the solid swell continued during our time there. Here's two photos from nearby Broken Head, where we scored some great waves. The waves pictured here are actually at the back beach at Broken. I wanted to paddle out there, but the other guys weren't so keen on surfing alone, so we paddled out at the front beach break where it wasn't quite the same, but still very good and hardly crowded. I guess the shark story had some of us a bit rattled.


After our two nights in Byron, we headed back down the coast toward Sydney, spending Thursday night in Scotts Head and Friday night in Yagon. The surfed wasn't quite the same as before at Scotts Head, but we were able to find a nice point break that was working well on the way down to Yagon at a place called Wallabi Beach. It wasn't at all crowded which made for a great session. It doesn't get much better that surfing an uncrowded point break. Here's a couple photos from the spot.


The final leg of the trip went well, even though Yagon didn't serve up too much clean surf. We managed to sneak in a great session on Saturday at Avoca Beach before returning the camper back to Sydney. Overall, the trip was a major success, as I got to surf some of the best waves of my life, see some amazing parts of the country, and spend some quality time with everyone on the trip. If the previous photos weren't already enough, here are a few more pictures and a few candid videos of us that were shot with Jason's flip video camera. Captions included.

Our whole crew, L to R: Jason, Garrett, Jordan, Nick, me.

Atop a headland checking out yet another surf spot.

Garrett walking on his slack line. I've started to learn. Very difficult but great for balance.

Beautiful shorebreak at back Crescent on the return leg.

Leaving Scotts Head to search for waves.

After the session at Wallabi Beach.

Waking up at Yagon on the final day.

on the road again

My semester break has finally arrived and it's time to take yet another road trip. In roughly an hour I'll be embarking on a 9 day camping and surfing adventure that will include four friends from our apartment building. Our exact destinations are up in the air at the moment, depending on the conditions. However, the surf reports are some of the best I've seen since arriving in Australia, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find good spots. What I do know is that we'll eventually be arriving in Byron Bay on Tuesday to pick up our friend Jason who is flying there this weekend for a music festival. Until then we'll be exploring the northern New South Wales coastline in search of point break perfection. Now that we're more familiar with the area, it should make the trip much easier in terms of navigation and logistics. Check back soon for details. It should be epic. Don't want to jinx anything though....

yagon monster

There's nothing like going for a surf during sunset, especially when you're in rural Australia surrounded by fun waves, crystal clear water, three other surfers, and miles of empty beach. Let me put it this way: taking a 45-minute drive down dirt roads on the second night of our camping and surfing adventure last weekend was well worth it. Aside form an enjoyable beach break session at Scotts Head on Friday morning, our trip hadn't quite lived up to expectations until the late afternoon on Friday when we landed at a campground right next to the beach in an area called Yagon, just a few kilometers from Seal Rocks, roughly three hours north of Sydney. When I crossed over the dunes with my camera in hand, the picture above is exactly what I saw. Pumping left-hand waves were pressing up against the rocks and producing clean open faces as a result of the offshore winds, exactly what we needed after a long day of wave hunting. The picture is a bit deceiving, as most of the waves were breaking farther away from the rocks and were perfectly safe to ride. We didn't have much daylight left, so of course we hurried back to the van to grab our boards. I haven't run that fast in a while.

Overall, we definitely experienced mixed results during our trip, but at the end of the day we had a great time and got to surf fun waves, so I can't complain. Hanging out with a few Australians we met at the Yagon campsite was classic, and it's safe to say that I'll definitely be going back to Seal Rocks. The area has a wide variety of breaks to choose from and very few crowds. Most intriguing, though, is a local folktale about a wild ape-like bush creature that apparently haunts the area, known as the Yagon monster. We never saw anything while we were there, but there are countless testaments I found online of people claiming they'd seen some strange things moving around in the sand dunes at nightfall. Sounds like a plot to scare away surfers from crowding the waves if you ask me, but fascinating nonetheless. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The full crew outside our apartment with the van before leaving Thursday afternoon. It had a pretty crazy paint job. Also notice the coat hanger antenna, very classy. It also didn't even have power steering, gotta love cheap rentals. I look stoked, John looks like he's impatient and just wants to go surfing, Caleb = Cali bro, and Jordan has a phenomenal afro/cheesy grin combo going.

Guess what was listed on the protected species sign at Seal Rocks. Great Whites are extremely rare according to what we've heard. Pretty crazy stuff. Apparently there's a grey nurse shark (safe to humans) breeding ground somewhere close to the area that attracts a lot of scuba divers.

The view from the top of the point at Scotts Head (that's me checking out the setup). The scenery was quite a sight, which is normal for this part of the country. We were able to score some very fun chest high surf at the beach break on Friday morning. The water temperature was likely over 80 degrees. It was probably the warmest water I've ever surfed. The point break wasn't working that day, but from what a few locals told us it can really go off there during a big swell. Apparently it's possible to ride the waves up to 300 meters on a great day. Too bad we missed out on that.

Sorry for the delay on this post. Although it might not seem like it, I am in fact going to school (don't worry Dad). I had a busy week with a poetry test on Monday and a paper due in my Australian literature class on Thursday. School has been going great so far and the classes are much different from back home in terms of structure. It seems like they put more emphasis on having only a few major assignments in each class as opposed to lots of smaller ones.

Life in Bondi has been the same as usual. We got a couple days of great surf during the middle of this past week, but the crowds were as big as ever. There were easily a few hundred people in the water when I surfed on Wednesday. Sometimes it's hard to find waves to yourself here. I've never had that problem back home in Chilmark.

That's all for now. We have our semester break coming up at the end of this week and it should prove to be a lot of fun. I've just made plans with a few friends that I'll talk about in my next post. We plan on getting shacked in some pretty exotic locales.