Around The World In 80 Waves

Whilst still in the water at Inside Ekas I am met by most of the Wise Men who are passing in the boat which has managed to get out across the reef.

They want to see if a better wave is on offer at Outside Ekas. Now you may think I surfed this two breaks ago. It is indeed the same break, but I was several hundred metres further out to sea and a cove further on, so I was surfing entirely different waves and I’m claiming it as such rather than failing to correct my grammar.

The last time I got in the water at Outside Ekas it was practically the shore break of the beach in front of Ocean Heaven, but the boat took us all far closer to the entrance of the bay.

As you can see the Gopro which had already spent two hours in the water was completely fogged under the hot sun. There were loads of waves showing upon arrival and we all piled over the side of the boat.

I bagged this beauty early in the session and caught a few more like it but as the tide came in everything seemed to stop breaking.

I needed to get back and pack, so after getting stung by something which I didn’t see but wrapped itself all up my arm I had had enough.

To be fair I hadd been in the water for more than three hours by this stage today and having bagged both the main breaks in the bay in one session was happy to move on.

This picture shows the wave at Inside Ekas on one of the few occasions it was actually showing at high tide whilst I was in the area.

However after days of waiting for a swell which was supposed to arrive I can’t wait any longer. I was heading off later in the day and decided to try my luck in the small waves which were showing at low tide.

To get to them I put on the reef boots I had bought in the resort shop and walked down the steps from the resort to the beach and then around the base of the cliffs, before paddling out into the water over the reef.

As you can see here some of the rocks in the water are bigger than others so you still need to keep your wits about you on the way out and particularly once you are up and riding.

The waves themselves were only about thigh high at best so nothing too challenging, and the handful of us who couldn’t resist were soon joined in the water by a boat load of beginners which had travelled around the coast from the next bay.

I got some pictures of me riding these waves but there really wasn’t anything special about them so I have opted for this one of me after a wipe-out instead, because it shows both how clear the water is here and also how close or how far you might describe me from being to the reef when getting rolled over it.

I stayed in here for well over an hour due to the wave starvation of the previous few days, but was happy to get out when there was a better offer.

In search of waves the nine wise men and I take advantage of the boat at Heaven on the Planet to check out the next beach along. We have to wait until there is enough water covering the reef for the boat to get out, but head over to the sister location that is called Ocean Heaven and located nearer to the Outside Ekas break.

We jump over the side of the boat upon arrival and paddle into the shore to enjoy a lunch there and a change of scene.

I haven’t been surfing for days though and can’t look at the waves breaking off the beach in front of Ocean Heaven for long after the meal.

I grab my board and am running out over the coral sand you can see behind me to catch a few before the crowd joins me. The water is so warm it is bordering on hot, and it is a delight to be surfing in shorts again.

Outside Ekas usually breaks significantly bigger and a great deal further out than the small waves which were on offer for me on the inside section of the rock reef.

I still managed to bag quite a few waves here and even though this picture would suggest that it was far better than reality I did have an awful lot of fun before returning to the boat.

We had cut it a bit fine and scraped across one rock because there was no longer enough water covering the reef on the way back. However no harm done and time for victory beers to celebrate bagging another country on my surf tour.

The immodestly titled Heaven on the Planet sits high on the hillside above the Inside Ekas Break. I came here hoping to take advantage of the lights which have been installed over the break to facilitate some night surfing over the reef, but sadly there was not enough swell during my time here to warrant switching them on.

However regardless of that it is a majestic spot which has some stunning views of Mount Rinjani, the highest point on the island, peeking through the clouds across the bay in the distance.

All my meals are included in the package provided for me here, which leaves me only wondering about having enough beer tokens to cover my bar bill.

The flat spell through most of my stay means that I spend a significant amount of my time hanging out in the communal area which you see here hoping for a swell to arrive. It is sunny all day, everyday and you are grateful for the breeze which builds in the afternoon.

There are loads of great people here who I get to know well, including several couples, but I spend most of my time in and out of the water with The Nine Wise Men of Merimbula, who have centuries of surf experience between them. Merimbula Bar was one of the breaks I had checked out but been unable to get a wave whilst there on my journey from Victoria in Australia back towards Sydney.

I am offered loads of useful advice from them all about places to surf on my travels and some helpful guidance on what I should do next after my trip is over. They are a great bunch of guys and I am jealous of them having such a circle of friends to surf with for so long. I will leave to them to describe just how bad the rendition of Under the Boardwalk by The Drifters was that I was pushed into doing on my own to the whole bar the night that a local band came and played to us. It felt painful to me and I suspect was not easy on anybody’s ears!

The other new ‘friends’ I made and I use the term loosely are the local macaq monkeys which are all over the place. I have loads of pictures of them but none did them justice so I have borrowed this one from the net to better illustrate them.

They may look cuddly but it is getting towards the end of the dry season and they are desperate for food and particularly water. Most tend to run off whenever you approach but a few are quite aggressive running at you baring their sizeable fangs, and are only scared off by this particular ape doing the same in return.

This is my place set high in the tree tops, which was really quiet for most of my stay apart from the last two nights, when I got to share more of my new human neighbours mating rituals than I would have liked.

The local animals were quite keen on my place too. I was too slow to get the picture of two of the monkeys sitting on my surfboard one afternoon and sadly they discovered the water cooler in my bathroom, throwing it to the floor smashing it so they could get a drink. One came back the following day leaping into the bathroom looking for more, which would have been fine other than the fact that I was sat on the toilet with my trousers around my ankles at the moment he chose to do so. After some of the afore mentioned aggression shown by both sides, it wasn’t immediately obvious who would throw faeces at the other first! Thankfully a mutual retreat negated the need.

After an eighteen minute flight from Bali I am on the island of Lombok, where I will be for the next week. I will be based on the south of the island hoping to score some of the epic waves regularly seen there.

I am collected at the airport by the driver arranged for me and transferred to the place where I am staying, which is modestly called Heaven on the Planet. It was dark for most of the journey and because I didn’t want to look at what was happening on the road in front of me once more I don’t have a great deal to report here.

I have landed in Bali which is another location for one of the events on the ASP’s world tour. However the first thing I noticed here was the standard of Indonesian driving. It is a serious contender for Guatemala’s current crown of being the worst in the world.

Whilst being ferried from the airport to hotels I actually decided it was probably best not to look. Given how well documented my own lead feet are, that is certainly saying something.

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world, but unlike most of its parent nation Bali almost entirely adheres to Balinese Hinduism, and you can see that impact in the architecture everywhere on the island

I think after all the good press I had heard I was expecting too much here, but have to admit to being quite disappointed by my first impression. Kuta, where I am staying overnight before going on to Lombok, is awful. There are hawkers everywhere, massive shiny new hotels that don’t appear at all bothered about the broken streets and pavements in front of them, grotty shops and more ink work on display than at a motorcycle exhibition. Maybe I have got too used to the western trappings of Australia.

On that by the way I have a new phone number once more. Ring or text me on +62-821-4746-4858 if you need me urgently.

Indonesia has a population of more than 250 million people, who are spread across more than 17,000 islands.

A visit here on my travels was mandatory because since I started surfing people have been telling me to get myself to ‘Indo’ because I would love it.

Warm water, great waves and friendly locals. What more can you ask for?

There are truly epic waves that break along a significant part of the archipelago’s coastline.

I will be doing everything I can to add plenty of breaks to my tally here.