indo report 5

I officially lost the count of the days, so I can't be more precise (I know you guys don't care, but I do!) in my day by day reports.
Anyway, I'm still in Ulu Watu and I'm still enjoying my quasi-solo sessions at Secrets. Two days ago it got so good at around 1pm (with a lower tide) that I had to stay out till 3. It was still pretty damn good when I got out, but considering that I got in at 10, I just couldn't do it anymore. More than the exhaustion, it was the hunger... a tuna salad never tested better.

Despite the good times, I thought that if I applied the saying "never leave waves to find waves", I would never leave this place. So yesterday I forced myself to go to a short exploration trip.
The plan was to be by 9 at Sanur to catch a fast boat to the island of Nusa Lebongan, catch a few waves at one of the local spots before the tide got too low, find a place where to sleep, surf in the morning the day after and catch the boat to be back to Ulu Watu in the afternoon.

That's how the beautiful beach looked when we landed. The kids are digging worms out of the sand (for later use as fishing bates).



I quickly organized a boat to Shipwrecks only to find out that it was head high and 30 people out!!!
There was a little left on the other side with two local guys out and I asked to boat man to drop me there. I had a couple of fun ones (it looked like a mini version of Kuta's airport left), but it was waist high. I was sitting there and thinking about those overhead blue walls of water I was missing out on at Secrets... not a good session.
Here's the Wave Finder description of the spots.




When I went back in I noticed that Playground started to show and looked kinda fun.



Here's the view from the path that leads to the launching spot.
Of course, by the time I got out the tide was too low and it wasn't working anymore. I then decided that I would go back the same day... I couldn't afford to waste another day of good waves at Ulu's...

Plenty of these seeweed patches drying in the sun. Just imagine the smell.


Here's a look at the seeweed farms. How do the harvest it? They just wait for the low tide (see below).


Most locals still enjoy eating their food with bare hands. Nothing really wrong with that. That's how we survived for millions of years.



And these women are strong and got good balancing skills (and skulls).



Standup paddling a small canoe to get to around with the low tide.


Here's a moment of the harvest. The big tube was used to make the basket float in deeper water.


Tide went out a lot!


The simple game of flying a one line kite. You don't see that much anymore in "more advanced" countries.


Very happy to be back in Ulu Watu, today I surfed Secrets again. I was starting to get real good (it definitely likes the low tide) when I broke the leash. No big deal, but I had to go back home and replace it. It was about 4pm and I chose to go for the sunset session at Impossibles.
I really would like to get a good wave there (and I will!), but once again the most I could do was catch it, pump like crazy staying as high as possible and kick out before getting shut down. Not my favorite kind of surfing.
But it seems that it needs to be bigger. Or maybe I need to sit somewhere else. Tomorrow the waves are supposed to come up and I'll try again.
Here's the Surfline forecast, that has unexpectedly proofed to be quite inaccurate.




Believe it or not, even windguru had better wave forecast (the wind doesn't mean absolutely anything here, since it's all sheltered and offshore). As you can see, it should get big, really big next week. Not too sure I'm happy about that, but we'll see.


The plan for tomorrow is to hit Secrets at Dawn, hoping that the tide is still low enough. I have a loose agreement with a guy called Pete at the homestay to be ready at 5.45. And after that, we are thinking of hitting Impossibles (which likes low tide too) around 1. Tides are key over here, and here's the tide table of the month. The numbers are in meter and 0 is the lowest tide of the year (not sure when that happens).
So I better go to sleep soon, but I do feel like mentioning a few random things happened today:
- I stopped at one of those warungs to fill up the tank and the guy, all of sudden, out of nowhere, smiled at me and with friendly manners... pinched my nipple.
"Do not do that again!" was my shocked reaction. "What was up with that?!?!"
I don't really know. Maybe it's a common local habit, or he really liked me. What I know is that he lost a customer forever. I'd rather push my bike on the side of the road that gas up again there!
- sitting in the lineup at Impossible, I heard my name called. It was with big surprise and pleasure that I saw the smile of a friend who, being a bit of a international star, asked me to remain unnamed.
- I finished a book called "The book thief". One of the best I ever read. It definitely made me teary a few times. The power of the words...
It's a story based in Hitler's Germany's and I feel like thanking Sharon for recommend it (and lending it) and also for providing her FB friends with a very apropos link about cats that look like Hitler.
Now I started a new one called "Damage done" and it's so intense that I read 100 pages just like that (I had time to kill waiting for the right tide).