A childhood memory floods my mind as I begin to recap my 3 week trip to Indonesia. I was 12 and headed for the Bahamas with my dad and his friend. We motored in Jay's boat straight across the gulf stream current to West End. It was here that I learned how ocean currents affect navigation, how to spear fish, catch lobster, and floss with a strand of my hair. Throughout those four days, I began to understand the peacefulness of living in sync with the ocean.
Fast forward 15 years, and I set out on another adventure to live on a boat and explore new lands in search of hollow perfect barrels.
I arrived to Kuta airport at 1:00am, after I showed my passport, I was pulled aside by an immigration guy and told I wasn't allowed into the country. "You go home now. No entry, passport is not valid for 6 months." Be aware of that if you ever travel to Indonesia! After some explaining of my life long dream of surfing perfect waves and downright begging and some bargaining I got in with a quick $250 into my donation funds to Indo. But I was in and G-land was on my mind.
The next day I made it out to the Bukit Peninsula desperately in need of a cleansing session. Insert surfing playground here: Uluwatus! I caught fun waves, coming close to some illusive barrels, and then the tide dropped and the Race Track section was breaking in less than two feet of water. mhhhmmmm...Then I nose-dived one and came up to see one unloading on top of me, and thus the Welcome to Ulus experience transcended. The bulldozing mass of white water flipped me 180 degrees and jammed me and my board to the reef. Cut up and winded, I went in and my trip to G-land materialized from there.
As I was doing the beat-up walk of shame, getting hounded to look at my surfing photos, and people offering to fix my board I met "Doggy the Man." He organized my trip to G-land and that night me and my bruised body and ego were off to the jungle.
9/1/2010 G-land Awakens!
1st Sesh: After 7 days of patient waiting, the swell arrived. 6am I'm out there. Six to Ten foot faces. I waited at the top of the reef at Money Trees. Crowd wasn't so bad. Dropped in on a bomb and drew out my bottom turn and slid back into the pocket and waited for the overhead lip to pitch. Deep in and out. Tunnel Vision! Awwww...G-land barrels can be much more welcoming than Uluwatus.
Yummy breakfast omelet and mellow rest, then out for session 2. More peeps on the peak. I waited and kept my position paddling against the current. Finally, "My turn!" Is all I remember saying as I stroked into a 10 footer. "Hmmm" I thought to myself with a sloppy faced grin starting to form, "What do you think is going to happen here?" I know the barrel is around here somewhere, I just have to find it. So I went straight towards shore on the drop and drew out a long bottom turn, small carve..."Oh look! There she is. I found it." And I was slotted through a sick section, deep, zoomed out with tons of speed right into a carve. "Alright, there's more fun to be had." A put down a soft bottom turn, and took a high line into the inside barrel section. I made sure to keep all hands and objects inside the cavern for fear of getting them ripped off and then shredded on the bottom. "Yeahhhhhh!" Stoked!
3rd Sesh: Last wave of the day. Found a decent sized one and tried to slow down for the barrel, but moving too fast. I saw the wave lining up for the next 100 yards. "Plenty of time to try that again. Ohh! What do you know an inside drainer! Butt and hands in close..." Zooooom. "Wooooooooo!"
Beautiful Sunset! Magical...Thank you G-land!
9/2/2010 Barrel Hunting Continues
The morning session was fun, but no whomping barrels. One giant carve that felt oh soooo good on my 6'3 Bushman. Couple more long waves up at Kongs. I came in, ate breaky, took a nice nap, and had some lunch before I paddled out for round 2.
I paddled up to Fan Palms and waited for a goody which came and provided a beautiful canvas for an assortment of carves and turns,5 or 6 to be exact, all the way to Money Trees, legs burning and out of breath. I surfed at Moneys with my friend Curry from California who was already stoked out of his mind on the barrels he was getting this session. He let me in on the secret end bowl section and I picked off a juicy one nobody could get on the outside. You know the routine by now...Draw out the bottom turn time it right, what for it to throw, and head high barrel. Nice and easy! Stoked, paddled out again and repeat...except 2 barrel sections. Da barrels are so mellow, love it!
After G-land, I cruised Uluwatu for a few days and booked a 6 day boat trip to some barrel worthy Islands to the east of Bali. Here's a short recap of what we found.
9/10/2010 Boat Trip!
Barrels of a lifetime today! Straight out of my dreams becoming reality. I woke up on the boat at 5:30am, walked out of the cabin and saw 8 foot barrels grinding down Scar Reef off the coast of Sumbawa. Matty and I were the first to hit the water and it was epic. Right when we got to the lineup a monster set stacked in. I let the first two go as we paddled out farther and spun on the third. It was the first of several 8 foot tubes. This went on for about two hours. Another one I got was sooo good. I was on the outside and no one was around. The last wave of the set rolled right to me and I was laughing from the take off until the end. I was in the pit standing tall with my arm straight up. Epic!
4:04pm: Mountains to the sea. Distant rain and lightning, skip jack tunas popping the surface, strong currents, and glassy waters. This is it! The boat trip I've always dreamed of. We just scored Super Suck! Heaving 4-6 foot barrels for 200 yards. Screaming down the line, section after section. So fast...Insane...Oh my god... Last wave my toes were holding tightly gripped to my board as I settled into the only position possible as the barrel went square in one foot of water.
The next day we motored back to Super Suck. I injured my shoulder the last session yesterday and decided to take the role of camera man. I videod the boat crew. The Hawaiians, Nicky and Matty, were ripping. Catching tons of waves and boosting airs, and gnarly floaters, and then something happened. The airs sections morphed into barrel sections and they started pulling in.
I put the camera down and paddled out one armed. I threw some froggy leg kicks as I approached Nicky in the water. His face beaming a huge smile, stoke emanating from his pours. We were once again flipping on the scenario; minor crowd, surrounded by an arena of rocks and mountains, and a barreling left point break! We proceeded to get shacked silly. Laughing and smiling so much our faces hurt! Two barrels go down in my history. One was an airdrop to lip in the face around the section and park in the barrel foreeeeevvvvveeeeeerrrrr. Like time stopped and ultimate relaxation blowing through my body. Another I took off and saw the section standing 30 yards away, pump pump pumped to it and speedy tunnel vision ensued. Everyone eventually paddled in as the tide inched lower and lower and the reef shallower and shallower and the barrels more and more square. I stayed out and waited and got one more smaller grinding barrel.
I came in and realized this session was why I came on this trip. I reached that giddy point. The ultimate high. I'm sure some of you have seen this face and it's what I live for. Need I say more?
Click on the title to check out the other photos from the trip.
