Around The World In 80 Waves

As well as all the other wildlife here in Java there also used to be Tigers. Sadly humans had hunted them to extinction by the seventies and they were formally declared extinct a decade later.

There are rumours that they still exist on the island, but it could only be in a tiny population even if it were true. However Tiger Tracks is a break named after the path towards it, which legend would have you believe occasionally sports some fresh footprints from the magnificent animals.

Myself and a few of the others from the camp took a boat over to the break to try and find something a bit more managable because a ridiculously big swell has arrived and the waves breaking in front of the camp were now somewhat above my pay grade.

After the heavy wipeouts at Kongs and Fan Palms I was feeling very nervous during this session which was again over a shallow reef, and I didn’t really bathe myself in glory as a consequence. Here is a shot of my board going airborne after one of any number of huge wipe outs that I experienced.

Here is another of me baling out of one of the waves which at times would just close out along the whole of the line up.

I’m trying to ditch the board in an attempt to avoid landing on it as I went over the falls once more.

I was surfing like it was my first ever time in the water and I have to say it was embarrassing because the standard of surfers who have made the pilgrimage to this area is unbelievably high.

As you can see it didn’t stop me having fun though, and I certainly was giving the other surfers a few laughs as I got hammered repeatedly.

Some of the guys felt I was paddling too shallow and thought that might be why I was not catching enough through the session so I tried to dig deeper with every stroke.

Sure enough the additional commitment paid off and I was soon into a couple of decent rides.

The best of these you can see here, but even on this one I managed to get up with my leash wrapped around both legs like a lasso so when I tried to adjust my stance I snared myself up, wiping out and then going over the falls once more.

I was glad of the boots and helmet and thankfully didn’t maim myself, but it really felt like it was more by luck than judgement today!
After a couple of hours in the water the boat returned to collect us. everybody took this option to avoid a very long walk through the jungle.

There was the added bonus of not being bait for the tigers too!

Back in Lombok some of the Nine Wise Men had actually suggested that I should consider giving a surf a miss at G-Land, describing it as a “death wave.” However I haven’t come this far just to chicken out when things get challenging.

All the waves here are over the reef surrounding the island, and inspecting some of the sharp rocks that you see here at low tide did little to settle my nerves. They were painful to walk on even with footwear, and I didn’t want to think too much about a hard landing upon them as a result of a wipe-out. A monster swell also arrived while I was here so I had plenty to think about when paddling out for the first time.

Kongs and Fan Palms are where the biggest waves break at G-Land, but they are also the least steep and have the most water under them. You get to both by paddling out through a narrow channel in the breaking waves, known as the key hole, and then turning left or right once through the white water. Where each break starts and ends is a bit vague so I am reporting on both together.

I surfed these breaks a few times over a number of days but decided that having bought one I should be wearing my helmet in the water for each session. On my first outing I did really well and bagged a number of the waves which were easily overhead, and on this one I actually out ran the breaking section by building up so much speed.

The waves were getting bigger all the time but the huge drop into the action seemed to be ok. The bottom turns were not too manic either but then you would swerve onto the unbroken section and see how long you could last.

This picture is of my best wave of the session and arguably of the trip so far. I had made a couple of turns and was charging down the line at Fan Palms when I heard a sound like being inside a drum roll. It was because the wave was jacking up as I travelled along it and then pushing the lip right over my head, and the sound was the drops of water falling on my helmet from above. By the time I had realised what was going on the wave dropped the lip on top of me and I got clattered. Sadly the two second interval between frames missed most of my tube time, but did catch the end of it as the wave landed on me.

The same two second interval can also be used to calculate that I then didn’t come up for air for 30 seconds because there were fifteen consecutive shot of the board being in or under the white water with me nowhere in sight. It felt far longer and I was gasping for air when I eventually came up. Panic levels were increasing during this process because I also got bounced rather heavily off the bottom, miraculously doing so without getting even a scratch.

This picture is from another stage in the sessions I had at these two breaks but shows me getting another pasting over the reef, with which I became intimately acquainted during my stay.

On the way back across the inlet in our boat like the ones you see here we went past the beginner wave called Don Don on our way towards the town of Grupuk. Don Don is more sheltered further inside the bay and therefore the waves there are not as gnarly.

There was a similar sized crowd to the break at Inside Grupuk but passing within metres of the waves I couldn’t resist stopping there. The battery on the GoPro had not been charged properly before the previous session so by this time the camera was dead and I have no pictures of this session that I can share with you as a consequence. 

However I had so much fun in the 40 minutes I was in the water here. None of the learners in the water were comfortable waiting right in front of the peek, which meant that I had it to myself so I caught wave after wave rolling right along the shoulder and through the pack before paddling back around the waves and doing it over again. I caught loads but didn’t stick around long a) because I was probably getting right up the noses of the other 50 surfers in the water by stealing all the waves and b) I had promised my boat skipper that I wouldn’t keep him waiting long. I could tell he was itching for another fare and probably another surf of his own!

Back in Grupuk I had a bite to eat before climbing back onto the pink surf wagon you see above, and then wobbled and bounced along the appalling road back to my hotel.

I got back to Bedrock just in time for sundowners under the shelters on the beach. Still no sign of Fred, Wilma, Barney or Betty but it was a glorious spot to end the day.

After breakfast I load my 8’0″ surfboard onto the side of the moped I have hired and then wobble and bump down the awful road towards Grupuk. Thankfully without puncturing any more tyres.

I hire a boat there to take me out to the break, but am then staggered and a bit put out when we arrive and the skipper produces a board out of thin air leaps over the side and then goes surfing. No wonder he is so happy in this picture, I am paying him to go surfing!

We have driven his boat across the bay and joined the mob loitering by the peak of this right hand reef break.

The first thing that happens to me is that I nearly lose my board shorts going through a wave, when the water washes them down my legs because I haven’t tied them up properly, Schoolboy error! 

I paddled straight up to the peak once I am sure of maintaining my clothed status and wait for the sets to come through to see what is on offer.

It was about shoulder high, and maybe a bit more on the sets which certainly felt chunky. They usually cleaned out the line up behind me, which was helpful because there were far too many trying to catch this wave. Sadly that meant that almost every time I snagged one my ride would be ruined by any number of people dropping into my fun.

One guy even surfed the whole way in front of me with me screaming at him to get out of the way, with the result only being a smile and a worthless apology at the end.

I sat as usual as far out as I thought the wave would break but got a bit of a shock with two other guys when a large grey fish started splashing close to us in the water. I can’t say for certain that it was a shark but it was at least as big as a surf board and there was an ominous shadow just under the water for five minutes!

As a consequence I didn’t stay in long after the one wave I caught without anybody dropping in. This is a groovy shot of that.

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.

Yallingup Reef is a serious wave and the home break of Taj Burrow who is a regular contender on the world tour. The wave breaks from the left of this shot over the edge of the rock reef which runs all the way out from the shore under the flat water you can see on the right.

You wade and paddle across that until the edge of the reef and then try to time launching yourself into the white water in a spell when not many waves are coming through. On that score I didn’t do so well and had a real battle paddling out into the waves which were well over head high. Each one hitting you sends you back a bit towards the rocks behind you so there is no choice but to dig deep and paddle like a man possessed until you get clear of the white water and are able to catch your breath out back.

The consensus opinion when catching the waves is to then surf rightwards back towards the edge of the shelf because it will be less of a paddle back out after your ride, as opposed to battling through about thirty waves having gone left.

However once clear of the white water there are all kinds of shadows beneath you due to the rocks, and because there is so much swell you can’t tell if anything is moving or not. Knowing what is in the water here I have to say I didn’t enjoy myself a great deal and I think this photo says more about that than I can.

To make matters worse all the wax on my board started flaking off making it very slippy and I then got stung by something all the way up both my forearms.

I did catch a few rides though, but not knowing the break more than once found myself having to violently swerve around rocks breaking the surface just in front of me.

Not really my cup of tea this sort of thing so I got out before too long managing to muddle my way back up on to the reef having ridden a wave to the edge of it and bailing off at the last minute to stop my board hitting the rocks.

I dried off and got changed before going back to watch some of the locals who were really charging.

This fantastic statue has been erected next to the car park to celebrate the surf pioneers from Perth who first came down this way decades ago searching for more challenging waves.

I had another chat about the angry fish with somebody whilst there who sincerely believed that my life was under more threat from the local kangaroos population jumping out in front of my car.

I can’t say I am convinced by this argument.

I drove three hours south of Perth and after checking out a couple of breaks opted to get in the water at Smiths Beach where there are a good number of others are already in the water.

Whilst being no guarantee of not being attacked being part of a crowd obviously improves your chances of not being the chosen meal! You would have to be staggeringly unlucky to get attacked but this article should give you some idea about why I am concerned so much in this part of the world.

All the people in the water are really friendly and the sea is so clear you could see all the way to the sandy bottom, which settles me down because you would at least see anything coming you way.

This is a great picture of me having second thoughts about taking the drop on one of the head high waves because it it about to thump down right across the bay.

I did manage to make a few drops though and even a handful of turns on one wave before the broken section would catch up with me.

It is hard to tell whether I am surfing the wave or it was surfing me in this shot, but I managed to stay upright a while longer. It was quite a heavy wave breaking over the sand here and more than once I surfaced after wiping out wondering if my board would be in two pieces.

It was late in the afternoon when I arrived and there really wasn’t much daylight left by the time I caught this ride in at the end of my session.

The number of surfers in the water was thinning out and I didn’t want to be the only thing on the menu!

Ten years ago myself and some other surfers from London raised loads of money for MIND, the mental health charity, by swimming across the English Channel from the UK to France. It was done as a relay with each swimmer getting in and swimming as hard as they could in rotation.

We all did a stint in the dark or half light, in the middle of the shipping lanes and as we approached the French coast until the distance was covered taking 12 hours to get there. Wes, who you see here about to do a dance to Queens of The Stone Age that was immediately followed by a comedy fall off the back of the boat, has since returned back to his native Australia and I arranged to meet up with him for a surf whilst I am in the area.

He lives on the coast near Freemantle which is only half an hour from where I am staying so we arrange to meet up at first light because the wind was predicted to drop for a few hours.

Checking out a few breaks we were both particular pleased about our early start because whilst at Cottesloe Beach a particularly attractive young woman ran past us laughing and throwing her clothes off before running naked into the water. This meant we got to see a full moon as well as enjoying this sunrise at the same time.

Rottnest Island located just off the coast here gets in the way of most of the swell, so even though there should be good waves on offer here it was all a bit disappointing apart from the streaker. However it seems the whole of Western Australia is aware that the wind has dropped and it is packed in the water anyway at the break called Isolators where we decide to paddle out.

This takes us through a huge patch of seaweed which I get completely tangled up in, and knowing how I feel about what else is in the water you can imagine how it brushing up my legs does to my nervous system.

Wes and I find a little peak to enjoy surfing over the rock reef off the side of the main crowd, but in all honesty spend most of our time in the water catching up rather than bagging loads of waves.

Wes, who I discover has entered the dirty business of politics since I last saw him, is giving you a wave from behind me in this shot.

We do catch a few little rides though of which this was the best picture.

After a fun session with an old friend, we decide to go into Freemantle for breakfast and continue our catch up. Whilst there Wes convinces me that I must drive south to where the waves aren’t sheltered by the Island.