Bali Odyssey
We spent another day in Kuta, still a little jet lagged but managed to check out the other world class breaks in the area, namely 'Kuta Reef' , 'Airport Left' and 'Airport Rights'. 'Kuta Reef' is Bali's' most crowded reef break so we didn't spend too long there and paddled a little further south and rode the fun but short 'Airport Lefts'.
Two days in and it was great to be surfing in just my boardies and a rashy and we started to get used to the local drop ins! There was no localism to be seen and the local surfers were just so friendly it was difficult to get mad at them for dropping in on you!
Over next couple of days we hired a jeep and headed west of the Island to escape the crowds. I got myself the 'Surfing Indonesia' book to direct us to the breaks in west Bali. First stop was 'Canggu' 30 mins north of Kuta and supposedly a good intermediate break, best first thing in the morning but we didn't arrive until midday. We saw some surfers out but thought we'd head further west and check out 'Balian'. Again this is best surfed at sunrise. It was the end of dry season and the breaks further west were best in the wet season so the swell was small.
Back in the jeep, the next break was 'Medewi'. Arguably the longest left point break in Bali this break is perfect for longboarders - fat and slow, so I had great fun! We decided not to go in with booties...big mistake! The waves were quality, 4-6 ft lefts but then disaster struck for Jon. Him and another surfer collided, leashes became tangled and the waves washed them both up onto the reef.
I was completely oblivious to this and continued surfing for another couple hours. I just presumed Jon had decided to head back to shore. That was until I saw him sitting on the bar overlooking the beach with his feet cut to pieces and his legs bruised and battered from the collision! He was out of surf commission for a couple days!
That actually gave us the opportunity to take the jeep and visit non surfing parts of the island, while his cuts and bruises healed. We got some great photos of rice paddies, local people, the monkey forest and numerous temples - Balinese are very devout Hindus.
Our mate Anish arrived on the Saturday. He's taking a year out at the moment working in Sydney and joined us for the second half of the trip. His board was no match for my 7'2" Pura Vida Mini Mal!
He arrived around midnight and Jon and I were well on our way to an all mighty drinking session! He managed to play catch up and next thing we knew, we were stumbling back to our hotel at 6am.
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