I could have done both, but, as this post will show, it's not that in Bali I'm getting bored...
In fact, a lovely 5f 15s swell arrived and on July 31st I first surfed Airport left (fun, but crowded as usual) and then went to Uluwatu for a low tide session at my favorite peak.
Little I knew I would have arrived just in time for the semi finals of the qualifications for the Padang Padang contest that will happen sometimes in August (it's on when it's on).
So I leisurely ate my lunch at a well positioned warung and took a bunch of photos. So many barrels down at Race Track on a mid outgoing tide.
Same wave, different section.
A good bottom turn is key for a good top turn.
Here's the demonstration of that.
I called the size head and a half, but there were some occasional doubles. Dreamy wall.
Free surfer about to get pounded during the break before the final.
The four finalist performing the walk on the reef at ease with no shoes.
The right tide was calling for my peak, so I didn't watch the whole final. A local Uluwatu surfer won and earned the spot for the main contest. I met him on the mystical stairs and it was radiating stoke.
This is a section of the gopro shots of my session.
I'm gonna start with a sequence that illustrates how much of a kook I still am.
Despite the fact that I'm actually looking if there's someone deeper than me, I somehow failed seeing that guy.
I only saw him when I got on my feet, tried a last minute bail so that I wouldn't drop right on his head. Didn't quite succeed and you can see how close my board got to him. That's his feet. Fortunately, I didn't hit him.
After checking he was ok, I immediately apologized. He was pissed. "That was a fucking good wave!", he was yelling. And he was right.
Guilty face paddling back to the peak. I HATE doing shit like that. Next time I'm gonna turn my head a bit more to make sure no one is paddling for the wave I'm going. Never stop learning.
I'm not good at getting barreled the normal way, so I have to come up with alternative ways of doing it.
Seen my limited air drop skills, I think it was a good call not to go.
Finally I did pretty good on my last wave and this is the stoked yell of joy. It only takes one good wave to get to that place.
That was yesterday.
This morning I timed the tide to perfection and hit my favorite river mouth at 7am. Nobody out. At least one hour before someone else showed up. That's how it looked from the parking lot.
An hour and a half later, the high tide was making it break way closer to the beach. Still some fun ones, but a lot more wobbly and a bit backwashy.
Let's end with a bit of peacefulness.
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