Hiyaz hope your all good...we made it to Bali, just!

I read the e-ticket wrong & thought the boarding time do by limit was the check in time do by limit. Then Perth traffic & roads suck, they really do. Not only is the infrastructure insufficient to meet the needs of the population explosion, important waypoints are not signposted well. Like you'll be just passing a turn off on a highway & then notice a little sign letting you know you should have got off & your now locked in to driving off down the road without a clue on what to do.

We got into Perth heading North at 5:30am & there is already a traffic jam taking precious time away, then we got lost just trying to hop off the highway to get to the international airport. My missus has broken into tears of frustration & fear that we're gonna miss our plane. Somehow we find our way to the airport with a vague idea of where it is, not from any help from any non existent signsposts. Some kinda construction means I can't drop the missis off with 3 boards & 2 suitacses at the door but luckily a very cool airport staff dude gives her a hand while I park the car down the road & catch a bus back. I get there at 7:10, 20 mins after the check in counter was supposed to close. Garuda are awesome, doubt other airlines would have waited. No ques at customs, running towards the gate, we get there as the last few peole are hopping on. I turn to the missus & say,'well its awesome how we havn't had to do any waiting". She just punches me in the arm lol

Surf has been small the last 2 days with the occasional head high wave. But not many out on the reef I've been surfing. Gonna try & get pics from Sunday onwards when the swell more than doubles. Bit hard coz I'm just surfing the outa reefs this trip, gonna buy a bumbag & take my waterproof cam to try & get a bit of video/pics.

Cheers

Great report mate keep then coming,its a terrible feeling running late for an OS flight happened to me in 07 thanks to our connection flight being canceled,made it just.

Yeah no worries Mac, should have more to say in a couple of days

Prices have gone up a little since I was here last September. Seafood Curry from my favourite restaurant has gone up a $1, bintang luckily only 10c, place I liked getting a massage $1.50, gonna havta find a new place. But still great value. Watched the awesome Jurassic World movie at the new cinema in the Lippo Mall & had Chinese dinner for 2 people for less than $20. Very comfy big chairs to watch movies in too.

Surf check at sunrise hinted at a little more size tomorrow, I'm thinking at least head & a 1/2 on sets. But big swells on the horizon for sure.

cheers mick,, have fun bro.

Everything in Indo is linked to the price of fuel and consequently after that fuel rise a few months back everything went up. Be greatful you do not live where we do - beers cost 350,000 RP for a long neck!

Looks like I will be passing through Sat on route to an unnamed location - lock me in for some beers n a feast - at your normal fav down the beach?

On route Mick. See ya tom for some cold ones n maybe a wave or 10

Awesome Ted, cya soon

Didn't surf today, saved some energy for the next few+ days...was expecting big, but just did a surf check & its already bigger than I was expecting. Scary

Took the missus snorkling at Nusa Dua, she loves snorkling. Always gets her stoked...so hopefully enough brownie points for turning up late for brekkie the next few days. Bumped into a bloke selling stuff on the beach over there who had bum bags & talked him down to $15 for what appears to be an authentic Quicksilver bum bag or a very well made copy. So I can take my camera out & some water. Unfortunately I found from filming our snorkling session this morning the battery now only holds 21mins charge. But 21mins footage is better than nothing & will add up over the next few days & allow me to make a 3 to 5 min vid after editing.

Here's a video I made a couple of years back at the spot we went snorkling today, heaps of fishies

Mate ,thats not snorkelling,thats frikken full tilt Jacque Cousteou apparatus,how many fathoms does that rig get down to,cool clip

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Ricardo1709 said..
Mate ,thats not snorkelling,thats frikken full tilt Jacque Cousteou apparatus,how many fathoms does that rig get down to,cool clip

LOL I loved the Cousteou doco's when I was a kid. The Sea Walker is basically a weighted helmet sitting on your shoulders with a constant pressure of air circulating through the helmet giving you fresh air to breathe. Deepest part of the ocean floor walk is about 6m. We snorkled the same spot yesterday, right next to people doing the sea walker thing. We did it for $50 each for 15mins underwater including pickup/dropoff from Tuban. Snorkling is only $30 for the 2 of us with pickup/dropoff, we're on a tighter budget this trip. Will do the sea walker again some day, it is pretty cool

Was up at 5am this morning after a restless night of anticipating epic surf. The surf was big, with all the usual boat channels now with breaking waves. Basically white water from the airport to past inside Kuta reef channel. None of the boats along the Tuban wanted to head out. I walked all the way past inside Kuta reef to the rockwall in front of Dynasty, non boats keen. I was standing there contemplating paddling out to Kuta reef. While I was watching I saw the G-land boat heading out through inside kuta reef channel, straight into a couple of waves that broke over the boat. I got my camera out of my bum bag in time to film the second wave breaking over it. It floored it out past the breakers & then floated out the back for a while before heading back in. Dunno why, maybe **** got messed up on board, engine got dodgy or they decided to post pone the crossing.

Was about to start paddling out when a couple of aussie blokes asked me if I was planning on heading out & I told them I wanted to check out airport rights, but couldn't get a boat. They'd had the same problem, but found a captain willing to go for 200k Rp (usually 100k Rp). He wanted some danger money, we got him down to 150k there was now 3 of us. So off we went out way, way around the back, this guy wasn't taking any chances. Passing Kuta Reef it was about double overhead & middles was just plain bloody big.

The offshore trade wind was a lot stronger once we got round to Jimbaran bay, probably 15knts. But what was surprising was the 20 people already out there. Apparently they'd headed out from the Jimbaran side bugger it. Waves were consistent with waves about 2.5 overhead, or say 18 foot face coming about every 10 mins. I'd expected it to be a bit bigger, but was happy it was smaller. Coz the place packs some punch when your caught inside.

I caught my first wave, worked for some speed & a big middle section shut down in front of me. I straightened up, kicked the board forward & was a little surprised at how worked I got. Lost my beloved surfing hat & felt like a bootie almost got ripped off too. I had the same kinda experience for the next couple of waves. Then had a couple of wide set waves that were fun, but my little 6'2 was chattering away like buggery in the bumps.

I sat inside off the shoulder grabbing some video. The blokes that caught the boat with me both got a couple of deep set waves with a bit of a barrel before shutting down in the middle. Filmed about 5 set waves in a row & then a big set wave threatened to drill me. So I'm paddling with this camera in my hand & just scraped under it.

Repositioned myself to get a bit more video, the camera wouldn't turn on. Damn batteries I thought, probably got 10mins out of that charge. Went back caught a few more waves, nothing exceptional. But I was stoked, coz if I had not made it out there, I would have thought I'd missed epic waves. I can rest easy tonight knowing it wasn't too flash, but fun to get a bit of size.

Unfortunately though, it turns out the water pressure duckdiving that set wave must have exceeded the 1.5m max depth of my camera lol
I can see a bunch of water is washing around behind the LCD viewfinder, no more outer reef surf footage. Actually none coz the camera died before saving the surfing video I took. Not a total loss though, coz the footage of the wave breaking over the G-land boat looks great.

Catching up with Ted for beers in a few hours & swells hanging around a few more days...fingers crossed that trade wind holds off later tomorrow...cheers

Great report better you than me

Think it might be time to bring out a 7' gun by the sounds of that,nothing worse than being under gunned and having to edge your turns around so you don't spin out,any pics of the swell??

Good report there Mick. Can imagine how big Ulu's must have been.

Mick found your hat

Nice mick.

Can't imagine myself out there.

Those days are well past me anyway after my incident.
Not that I have any problems.


Keep up reports

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Ricardo1709 said..
Think it might be time to bring out a 7' gun by the sounds of that,nothing worse than being under gunned and having to edge your turns around so you don't spin out,any pics of the swell??

An 18 inch wide 7'0 gun would have been perfect with that offshore wind. But my goto board at the moment is a 6'2 x 19.75 x 2.5 which usually serves me well over here. The trade wind doesn't usually start so early...I took a few pics today, but didn't really get any good shots. No one was riding the big sets, so there's no indicator for the size of the wave. One looks to be about double & that was a mid size wave, there were triple overhead bombs coming through frequently.

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smh said..
Good report there Mick. Can imagine how big Ulu's must have been.

Apparently the swell was not as big at Ulu's Friday arvo as it was on the Tuban reefs & had about 50 Brazilian's according to one of the blokes I caught the boat to airport rights with. But I think thta's coz the swell hit late arvo after he left. Slim uploaded Ulu's pics to baliwaves for the 26th, but I havn't had a chance to look at them yet. Net was super slow last night. So that would give you an idea, I'd say yesterday was probably 4x overhead with like 2 guys out. Forgot to mention the South side of Jimbaran bay had like an 8 foot wave peeling along the cliffs yesterday, don't usually see that...would have been wind affected too though.

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Macaha said..
Mick found your hat

LOL that looks a lot like it & the sweep was pretty strong yesterday. I hope you picked it up for me

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laceys lane said..
Nice mick.

Can't imagine myself out there.

Those days are well past me anyway after my incident.
Not that I have any problems.


Keep up reports

Charging certain conditions is over for me too mate...Reefs I don't mind, beachies can get unpredictable & sketchy when its big.

Ulu's this morning. Not for the faint hearted. Spoke to a few boys Last night who chances their arm at Balangan and did not make it out - snapped leggies on route. They said there were lots of people standing round with rubber necks n not too many brave souls. Hardly blame them

Yesterday at Ulu's

Check out 'Daniel.cha' on Insta. Has some wicked video footage of Ulu's n Julian Wilson at Padang Padang today. Well worth a few mins of ur time

Caught a taxi into the heart of Kuta yesterday arvo. Apparently being in the jungle has made Ted appreciate a bit of hustle & bustle. Enjoyed some bloody cold no bull**** bintang's & some interesting conversation on secret tropical island surfing life while about 7 guys tryed to sell us erectile dysfunction medication. Then walked back to Tuban.

Just couldn't be farked getting up at 5:30am this morning. I could see the trees blowing already with yet another early trade wind. Was planning on surfing Kuta reef if the wind was in & my lazy side convinced me the surf would be better once the 2m tide dropped. Slept in, had some late brekky, went for a walk (surf check) with the missus & took a bit of photo's/video of boats doing the dash through an untrustworthy channel that had the occasional wave breaking through it.

Kuta was looking like it was 2 to 3 times overhead with big plumes of spray blowing off the back. Most looked a bit fat mush burgery, but I saw a couple of quick barrels. About 12 guys out according to the boat guys. Missus liked a weird looking shell a bloke was selling she'd named the alien. So I talked him down from $40 to $12 in more time than it usually takes. He reckoned it must have been 2003 when I bought the other ones we have for $10 lol...they're red hot these days, too many people getting ripped off from other parts of the world...speaking of which.

So we took our new alien shell back to our room & I grabbed my board to go surfing. Boats I usually go with aren't working today & the boats that are want 100,000Rp for a ride to Kuta Reef. I turn them down saying too much, they're trying to tell me its because its big. Next bloke next door says the same & won't budge saying I can paddle out if I want to & I said yep, thats what I was thinking too.

So off I went paddling in protest of the bull**** 100,000Rp Kuta Reef scam...they were only charging 50,000Rp the day before & it was bigger. The surf looked pretty **** anyway, I was just going for a paddle anyway so it really didn't bother me. Its not as far as places I've surfed in the past & took about 15mins, I was happy with the end section which was still head & a 1/2 & a bit cleaner than out back. The 2 guys sitting on the sucky section were playing dodgems with the sets that were coming through frequently.

I surfed about 1.5 hrs catching head & a 1/2 fat but better than nothing fun waves. Then paddled across to a reef in front of Dynasty. There were sectiony lefties running down to in front of discovery mall. Four waves & a little bit of paddling to each take off spot in between brought straight out front of Discovery where 4 Japanese & 2 surf guides were surfing a fun head height wave that was walling up along the end of the reef. Those guys were there for like 5 mins & headed in. I stuck round for about 7 waves & then the tide was getting too low. I managed to get a set wave & rode it laying down on my board most of the way in, paddled with the sweep in front of those little groyne things in front of discovery & then another wave the rest of the way in...I was pretty happy with my little adventure, looking forward to tomorrow

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Ted the Kiwi said..
Ulu's this morning. Not for the faint hearted. Spoke to a few boys Last night who chances their arm at Balangan and did not make it out - snapped leggies on route. They said there were lots of people standing round with rubber necks n not too many brave souls. Hardly blame them

I'll head down in a couple of days when paddling out is not so much of a bitch...bloke I surfed with today said he couldn't make it out the back today either

loving the stories

nice to see you having a dig on a 6"2 mick! loving the reports !

Great stories . It's pumping

Top quality reporting bro!!

Thanks Mick.
Sitting in my office dreaming I was there with you. Keep them coming!!

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Prawnhead said..
nice to see you having a dig on a 6"2 mick! loving the reports !

Havn't really got any choice lol had no idea it was gonna be so big. I brought over 3 boards, but one I sold to a local. I've got a 6'0 & 6'2, but the 6'2 does go great in big clean waves...like today