Internetz lost todays blog, will havta try & recap tomorrow...will post a few pics from today instead

My funny arm pic



Local bloke was getting some long rides through racetracks on his LB, I would of liked one too today

How are those conditions? Strong, freezing SSE here today small swell thanks for the photos Mick

Yeah so yesterday arvo a big thunderstorm hit Bali effecting at least the Bukit to Tabanan. We had heavy rain all night. Cable channels started losing transmission & the wifi was hit & miss. I'd typed about 2000 words & thought I better try posting this before I type anymore. Sure enough I got an unable to connect message & hitting back didn't bring back what I'd typed. So I spent about 45mins uploading those pics instead while I watched CNN go on & on about a black guy who had been shot coz he had a gun. That & the swindling banker who got berated publicly seem to be the main stories atm.

But anyway one of the great things about the Bukit is there's no hurry to get out there before the trade wind hits unless your surfing somewhere like Green Ball or Nyang Nyang. Both of which would have been cranking yesterday morning with the small swell & light Northerly blowing. Would love to surf them one day, but it would have to be on my last day in Bali coz the stairs would probably give me stiff legs for days.

Not a great deal of movement in the tide yesterday by Bali standards. I was thinking the top of Impossibles would be fun if it was about the same size. With the tide at 0.9m to 1m between 9am & 12am. It would be a good idea to look at Dreamland which needs a low tide.

There's a couple of ways to get into Dreamland. You can either turn into the scandalous "New Kuta" development site, park, pay for a bus ticket, wait for bus, catch bus, get off bus & walk along a stagnant cesspool body of water down to a beach. Or you can meander your way through the back of Bingin & park at the South hillside overlooking dreamland & look down the coast over Bingin, Impossibles to Padang Padang. One of Bali's most beautiful lookouts. Its a lot easier these days coz the government gave the locals the materials to build bitumen roads behind Bingin a few years back & you have a nice road almost all the way there. It used to be a fairly lengthy bumpy ride.

Dreamland did look good with a nice chest high right coming through. Although there was about 40 soft top rental boards performing all kinds of amusing stunts. Like some kinda crazy aquatic smash'em up derby. I figured I'd keep on cruising, I love cruising around slowly on my lil scooter. Except when d1ckheads with no t-shirt or helment come flying round blind corners on the wrong side of the road & almost hit us. I make sure to hug the corners just in case coz of those idiots.

Thought I'd give the aquatic smash'em up derby a miss & check out Padang Padang on the way to Ulu's. I could already see if was pretty small, but maybe it would have the odd fun one...nope didn't. So bailed back to base & grabbed my board.

Ulu's was far from the smallest I'd seen it. I was staying at Blue Point Villas when the first Uluwatu night surfing competition was held by Single Fin a few years back. Waves were barely chest high for the 3 days we were there back then.

As the pics show above there was the occasional head & a 1/2 wedge rolling through & not too many people in the water by Ulu's standards. I got out about 1030 & sat about 1/2 way over to Temples. Most of the local crew were up there tearing the place apart. The section I was on had between 4 & 8 transients & inner main peak across racetracks had quite a few people.

Everyone was on shortboards except that one local bloke pictured above. He was just cleaning up linking through racetrack sections with ease. I really would have loved to have had my CW Whalebone on me. Although I did have my low rockered high volume Drifter which was heaps on fun. I mainly sat out further waiting for the sets & catching a few middle size ones too. By far the cruisiest surf I've ever had out at Ulu's in the way of just a fun size, non scary & not really having to compete for waves. Missus was even able to have a nice swim in clear blue water in front of the cave without fear. Nice

Coz we were heading back to Tuban at 12am today. I just thought I'd go straight to Ulu's. It was only a little bigger than yesterday & had a little morning sickness, which for Ulu's meant it still looked great & I was like wow no one out. I raced down the steps to the cave to find a river washing across the steps & a waterfall flowing down into the cave. With my limited experience of white water rafting I considered it technically possible to get down through the cave with the flow of the water. However I was more than a little concerned about getting back.

One of the locals saw me pondering the situation & offered an alternative of climbing over the top. I hadn't brought any mountain climbing gear with me either so sadly had to scratch this mornings surf to make it a rest day. It was really cool seeing such a torrent of water flowing through the cave, I've seen it many times before but nothing like today...& yes I did take pics of it on my phone to share when I get home

Now where is Ted

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IFocus said..

How are those conditions? Strong, freezing SSE here today small swell thanks for the photos Mick

NP mate, wish I had more. Hopefully score some good waves on the East coast soon, easier to take pics there

Don't wanna think about those cold Southerlies for a while. But that does sound way better than Northerlies.

Sorry Mick. In town now but have to zoom to Oz for a meeting on Monday night. Might be able to have a beer with you on route to the airport if that works?

Staying at a mates palace in Semiyak tonight and will be working most of it. Spent today infront of the computer as have lots to do and I will lose half of Tom visiting a solar power guy and a lawyer.

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Ted the Kiwi said..
Sorry Mick. In town now but have to zoom to Oz for a meeting on Monday night. Might be able to have a beer with you on route to the airport if that works?

Staying at a mates palace in Semiyak tonight and will be working most of it. Spent today infront of the computer as have lots to do and I will lose half of Tom visiting a solar power guy and a lawyer.

Understandable bro, pop into Palm Beach behind Pantai if you have time. I'm doing the dawny out front & just cruising for the rest of the day. There's a short cut down a lane on the right side of Lippo. Makes it about 2 mins detour + beer time

Will PM Fumi's number in case you wanna sms a time you can drop by, my phone is out of credit. Anytime tomorrow arvo is cool with me

Surf69 - sent you a PM - hoping to meet Mick for some beers around 6pm tonight if you keen.

Great post and keep the photos coming.

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SP said..
Great post and keep the photos coming.

Fingers crossed I'll get a few on the East coast tomorrow mate

Was meant to be a 2m swell today, but it didn't appear to be making it to the outer reefs. I noticed that yesterday at Ulu's, pretty decent swell but it wasn't hitting around the lower West coast. Apparently yesterday arvo was fun on the outer reefs with the occasional double head at airport rights with only five out & that was what I was keen on this morning.

Got out there just after 6am & there were already three out. However it was the smallest I've ever surfed it with the occasional head high & fairly consistent waist to chest high waves. It was a lot of fun though coz I don't get the opportunity to go right much, there weren't many people out & I got heaps. It didn't have that usual inside & outside bubble you would choose from. All the waves were breaking on the inside & a little further inside meaning you didn't have to chase a shifting peak. Crowd peaked before 1/2 way through my session at about 10 & there were 6 guys when Mr Ketut picked me up 1/2 an hour late at 9am. Worked out well coz the easy conditions left me with extra energy not having to duckdive 10 bombs or paddle around a shifting peak.

Organised a trip to the East coast for tomorrow to chase more rights & some glass art from the Gianyar Focus warehouse.

Hopefully come back with some pics...cheers

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Ted the Kiwi said..
Surf69 - sent you a PM - hoping to meet Mick for some beers around 6pm tonight if you keen.

Yew! Yep got the message. Missed tonight but still around for a while. Be over at Lembongan for a week or so but will be back on Bali after that for another week And a bit. Be great to get some breeze beers in. Have secured the leave pass for next opportunity!

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MickPC said..
Was meant to be a 2m swell today, but it didn't appear to be making it to the outer reefs. I noticed that yesterday at Ulu's, pretty decent swell but it wasn't hitting around the lower West coast. Apparently yesterday arvo was fun on the outer reefs with the occasional double head at airport rights with only five out & that was what I was keen on this morning.

Got out there just after 6am & there were already three out. However it was the smallest I've ever surfed it with the occasional head high & fairly consistent waist to chest high waves. It was a lot of fun though coz I don't get the opportunity to go right much, there weren't many people out & I got heaps. It didn't have that usual inside & outside bubble you would choose from. All the waves were breaking on the inside & a little further inside meaning you didn't have to chase a shifting peak. Crowd peaked before 1/2 way through my session at about 10 & there were 6 guys when Mr Ketut picked me up 1/2 an hour late at 9am. Worked out well coz the easy conditions left me with extra energy not having to duckdive 10 bombs or paddle around a shifting peak.

Organised a trip to the East coast for tomorrow to chase more rights & some glass art from the Gianyar Focus warehouse.

Hopefully come back with some pics...cheers

Head high out the front here, nice right, quick though on most of the tide, smaller next couple of days. :(

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MickPC said..
Was meant to be a 2m swell today, but it didn't appear to be making it to the outer reefs. I noticed that yesterday at Ulu's, pretty decent swell but it wasn't hitting around the lower West coast. Apparently yesterday arvo was fun on the outer reefs with the occasional double head at airport rights with only five out & that was what I was keen on this morning.

Got out there just after 6am & there were already three out. However it was the smallest I've ever surfed it with the occasional head high & fairly consistent waist to chest high waves. It was a lot of fun though coz I don't get the opportunity to go right much, there weren't many people out & I got heaps. It didn't have that usual inside & outside bubble you would choose from. All the waves were breaking on the inside & a little further inside meaning you didn't have to chase a shifting peak. Crowd peaked before 1/2 way through my session at about 10 & there were 6 guys when Mr Ketut picked me up 1/2 an hour late at 9am. Worked out well coz the easy conditions left me with extra energy not having to duckdive 10 bombs or paddle around a shifting peak.

Organised a trip to the East coast for tomorrow to chase more rights & some glass art from the Gianyar Focus warehouse.

Hopefully come back with some pics...cheers

Head high out the front here, nice right, quick though on most of the tide, smaller next couple of days. :(

Probably about time I wrapped up this thread since I've been home since Friday. Last I said I was heading to the East coast & hoping to get some good pics. Well bacically that did not happen. I mean we did hit the East coast in a big way. Getting there early & I did have a fun surf all to myself. However it was waist to chest high & not so clean...& I didn't get any barrel shotz I was deseperately chasing.

The lack of epic waves was one reasonnot to write home about. The other was our move to Palm Beach hotel. The Palm beach hotel is located a short walk from what was my goto place to stay in South Kuta/Tuban, the Green Garden on Jalan Segara was knocked down a couple of years back to build a new hotel thats gonna be called "Suli's". Great location, quiet street over the road from water taxi's, cheap room service & a great pool...was knocked down. I imagine the new place (Suli's) is going to be above what I would like to pay for a hotel in Bali. Although you can see the top 2 floors when you get off a boat taxi & the top floors got a pool with a shady roof. Which means you could take some binoculars up there to do a surf check & take out the right board for the day.

After we moved to Palm beach the routine changed to doing beach stuff in the morning, chilling by the pool in the arvo, Hatten Rose (not a bad Bali wine), massage, dinner & the best internet I've ever had in Bali. Their chicken steak with black pepper sauce is awesome, I couldn't make it over to Pantai restraunt for their Seafood Curry. I was able to watch youtube movies in 480p without download issues. Anywhere else the net slowed to the point of just reading web pages of text & a few pics could be an issue early evening. Good internetz a big plus for me & old school Bali design. Ok the trip hazards with so many unnecessary stairs with older Bali architecture can be an issue, but you gotta love wide opens spaces with beautiful green gardens provided they have a good mosquito kill program. Which Palm beach appears to have. So I have a new goto place for the start & end parts of Bali holidays for $40 per night sweet ($20/pn for older unrenovated rooms, although could have guys hammering away next door renovating)

But anyway the good thing about the Bali East day trip was checking out a few places I've wanted to check out & although the swell was only 1.4m I could see the potential on bigger days. So yeah not so epic, but a bit of exploritory fun. Then went to a "Focus" glass art place on Jalan Raya Gianyar. I'll upload a couple of pics of glass art, they have awesome stuff for amazing prices. Some peices you can imagine going for around $5k give or take a couple of k, but they're not even $500au.

Day after was a dismal swell perfect for snorkling. So we did another Benoa beach snorkling trip with a diff company.

Final day swell picked up to about 2m. I was keen for another small but fun trip to airport rights & scored it a little bigger. But with only 8 people & really consistent head high waves. I had a spot on the inside to myself while everyone seemed to be waiting for sets. Fell in love with the HS psychedelic germ again that day, really fun surf & a great way to finish the trip.

I'll upload a few pics

Thanks for taking the time to put that thread together Mick - pretty sure lots of folks will get use out of that info going forward. Shame you did not get what you were speaking over the east side. Bloody annoying / tough juggling a lady and a surf trip

Agreed, good job Mick, bummer we couldn't tee up a catch up with Ted.
We've just landed back at Bali and set up at Balangan. Nusa Lembongan was fun, couple of days decent swell usually pretty small so got to surf both the long and the short. Shiippes ****z me still always guaranteed 65-70% drop on rate,msurfed it once same result left it alone for the rest of the time. Couple of epic sessions at Lacerations and always managed at least an hour out at playgrounds with grom, which surprisingly was where I had my best waves.
Arrived straight into clean conditions this arvo on a dropping tide at Balangan. Looks better that it is, quick and sections at head height and a bit, pick the ones with more South in them and you'll get a nice long ride.

looking small for tomorrow, which will be great for the Mrs Groms's and some long board action

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Ted the Kiwi said..
Thanks for taking the time to put that thread together Mick - pretty sure lots of folks will get use out of that info going forward. Shame you did not get what you were speaking over the east side. Bloody annoying / tough juggling a lady and a surf trip

NP mate, enjoyed it. Someone said I should be a foreign correspondent & I can tell you I'd love to do a travel show...unfortunately I have a have a head for radio lol although my old Japan Youtube channel did pretty good back in the day & I still have a lot of friends to visit in Japan through my participation in that community.

Right on about the East side sojourn, I was hoping for more joy like the pic to the left there. But still fun & I discovered a couple of new waves

True about travelling with a lady when your keen to surf. I tryed to get Fumi into surfing & although her Yoga is about a million times better than mine, she could barely balance just paddling a surfboard lol We forget how hard it is to learn when we've grown up by the beach...but someone said to me once that if my missus was out surfing too. There would be no one to take Pics & vids. Not only is she a pretty cool chick, I really appreciate her sitting on the beach with a camera aimed at a kook like me

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Surf69 said..
Agreed, good job Mick, bummer we couldn't tee up a catch up with Ted.
We've just landed back at Bali and set up at Balangan. Nusa Lembongan was fun, couple of days decent swell usually pretty small so got to surf both the long and the short. Shiippes ****z me still always guaranteed 65-70% drop on rate,msurfed it once same result left it alone for the rest of the time. Couple of epic sessions at Lacerations and always managed at least an hour out at playgrounds with grom, which surprisingly was where I had my best waves.
Arrived straight into clean conditions this arvo on a dropping tide at Balangan. Looks better that it is, quick and sections at head height and a bit, pick the ones with more South in them and you'll get a nice long ride.

looking small for tomorrow, which will be great for the Mrs Groms's and some long board action

Yeah better luck next time mate, got a feeling we will all be regs for years to come...I had a similar experience at Nusa Lembongan last time I there. Also had a big swell & a mid day tide. So you got people swarming over for the swell & everyone's had plenty of time to wake up, have brekky & wait for the tide to make the place surf'able. It's nice if you can get a double high tide early & late in the day. Playgrounds is a great wave & the rights a lot of fun when you get a big swell hey?!...Balangan is a great beach for the missus & grom, really fun warungs & beautiful place. Should of popped over myself but I didn't feel like the long windy road on the scooter with the missus on the back.

Hope you score more great waves & come home with some pics to share

Great post Mick and good input surf69.

Cheers for taking the time to post.

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SP said..
Great post Mick and good input surf69.

Cheers for taking the time to post.

Cheers mate...Hopefully Surf69 uploads some pics for us when he gets back, he would of got better shots fer sure

Desperately seeking barrels on the East coast

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Surf69 said..
Agreed, good job Mick, bummer we couldn't tee up a catch up with Ted.

Ted's turned into a snob,blew me off also hang on maybe not Pup didn't invite me on his road trip see a pattern

The final blockade to Bingin, with an hour to go I gave up & had a quick one at Impossibles coz water was still chest high around the corner. Din't wanna leave the missus stranded here with our gear. My bad, I thought the tide would be lower by then

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Macaha said..

Surf69 said..
Agreed, good job Mick, bummer we couldn't tee up a catch up with Ted.

Ted's turned into a snob,blew me off also hang on maybe not Pup didn't invite me on his road trip see a pattern

lol...but would you have gone if Pup invited you

We'll all catch up some time for sure mate

Please Huey, just one....Huey says no

Denied again...but...really fun, warm & I'd be stoked with it now after a week of cold devil winds & rain at home

I'll upload some more pics later, I've run out of time. Seabreeze upload keeps jumbling my sequences, cool to have the feature though not complaining

Some great shots there Mick

Some great shots except for the head in the fifth shot. Looks like you just turned around and looked in the bottom of the toilet bowl.