Products Description
ULU 32 chronicles the last 32 years of surfing history in Bali, Indonesia. Produced by Steve Cooney, the film features both recent and archival footage of over 50 of the world's best surfers in the world's best waves.
Steve was the first person to ever surf Uluwatu, Bali in 1971 (for the film Morning Of The Earth at the age of 15) and he has a very personal attachment to the region.
The idea for the film was born in 1996 when Steve returned to Bali to document the region for a magazine and celebrate 25 years after his first trip. He has been compiling material for the film ever since.
Steve Cooney met Alby Falzon in 1970 they travelled the east coast of Australia and then went to Bali in August 1971 to film the Indonesian sequence for the classic surf film 'Morning of the Earth". The movie was the first time the world had seen the world-class waves of Uluwatu. Steve remembers the unique experience of his first, and subsequent trips to Indonesia.
THE FIRST TRIP "What a great year 1971 was for me! I'd started hitting my straps as a competitive surfer by winning the NSW junior title; the headmaster at Narrabeen High agreed with my mother that I was showing too much intrest in surfing to expect me to concentrate on my scholastic future; and I'd picked up a couple of sponsors (Rip Curl and Hutchinson Surfboards), Which made it almost financially viable to just surf all the time. I met Alby Falzon the year before in his role as owner of Tracks magazine, and had done a couple of trips with him and Frank Pithers (Tracks staff photographer) to shoot editorial and advertising stills for the magazine Alby asked me to become involved in a movie project called which initially meant chasing waves up and down the east coast of Australia but eventually led to my introduction to Bali.
The lead-up to leaving was fairly hectic. It was obviously a big deal for Alby and the rest of the crew as they were sticking a fair bit of faith (not to mention the movie budget) in an untried destination, with only sketchy information about the 'known' surfing spots and conditions.
We planned to be away for six weeks - four to five weeks in Bali and the rest spent travelling through Java. There was Alby, Tanya Binning, David Elfick & Lisa, Paul and Geoff Hutchinson and Peter De Bono (my main sponsors), and Rusty Miller all on the same aircraft heading for this place none of us knew existed until a couple of months before. There was a real feeling of camaraderie among the group despite the differences in ages - Alby and Rusty were pretty close to 30, I think David Elfick was a touch older than that, and De Bono was even older than that. Paul and Geoff were about 18 and it was hard to tell how old the girls were. As for me, I was the youngest - due to turn 15 in October '71.
We all had one train of thought that seemed to act as a catalyst - find waves at any cost - which made us feel real comfortable with each other. I had no feeling of trepidation going to a strange country, away from my family and friends with these people. There was a general feeling of confidence and great excitement. Everyone made me feel part of the team even though I was just a grommet. All of us were actually on the same Garuda flight looking at the red centre of Australia from a great height - all starting to wind up on what we would find, if we'd get waves, who we'd meet and what they'd be like. To put it mildly, the five hours on the plane were pretty exciting!
By the time we started circling the island to land at Denpasar we were all amped and checking the windows for any sign of swell. As we came around the southern end of the island and headed down the side of the Bhukit Peninsula toward the Airport, The size of the swell was obvious. Left-handers were spotted and we were all hooting at the very real prospect of great waves!
My first impressions of Bali are fairly vague after the plane's approach. Seeing the wave situation from the air, I just couldn't wait to get out there and locate some of this untapped juice. My brain had gone into surf overload and it was impossible to concentrate on anything else.
The usual cultural observations were there but all that could wait. I was there to surf, and the sweat that was seeping through my clothing while we stood in the customs queue in the then window cooled terminal building accentuated my need fo the ocean.
First we had to get settled. Forget air-conditioning. In those days it was strictly bungalow-style accommodation with no running water or sit down toilets. Squat over a well maintained hole in the ground and wash your arse with your hand and a bucket of water, while showers were cold buckets of water over the head and breakfast was a couple of sugar bananas and a very strong glass of kopi (coffee). The facilities were not exactly flash, but when I felt a little too hot I'd hug the marble floor of my room or just go and pour another bucket of cold water over my head.
The first few days in Bali were spent getting a handle on what was going on and where we should be heading to locate the best waves. We had a few pleasant, small sessions on the beach brakes at Kuta and Legian, but nothing substantial. I was starting to enjoy the place. The surrounding were idyllic (even around Kuta) the people were great and completely fascinated by my long blond hair, and Rusty, Alby and I had started to suss out the surf potential. We'd bumped into Mark Warren, Col Smith and veteran surf movie maker Bob Evans earlier in the week, but they were on their way home. They'd stayed a couple of weeks and said they had some reasonable beach brakes down towards the temple along the beach from Kuta, but hadn't had a great deal of success finding any substantial waves. We quickly tired of surfing beach breaks and one day sitting on Kuta beach we noticed what looked like a left breaking a half-mile from shore toward the airport. Needless to say, this turned out to be Kuta Reef. Rusty and I surfed there for a week or more, in waves varying from three to six feet without seeing another surfer and not knowing wether there were, in fact, any other surfers on the island. On one particular day we were paddling out to the reef, and as we reached the deepest part of the channel we noticed a sizeable shark circling us. Rusty's advice was to keep paddling at a steady rate and act confident. It was unnerving at the time but a valuable lesson which has helped me through a number of similar situations since.
At this stage I really felt like the luckiest grommet in the world. I was surfing perfect waves in perfect conditions with a keen and experienced surfer as a partner and getting paid to do it!
Then the swell backed off and Kuta Reef was hardly breaking. Alby had decided to trust me with a motor bike so we took off early one morning to try and locate the lefts we'd seen breaking as we came to land. We covered some miles that day, veering off onto goat tracks that looked like they might get us down to the bit of coast we knew we needed to find.
Whole villages of one hundred or more people would come out of the bush to check us out and help us if they could. Their English was terrible and our Indonesian was even worse so we kept going, our noses to the breeze, hoping that over the next small hill would be the perfect peeler.
Unfortunately, that day was not to be the day of discovery, but for a young bloke from Sydney it sure was incredible getting a close-up view of the culture and the day-today rituals of life in the Balinese bush. The following day I slept in and didn't take much notice that Alby wasn't around. I'll never forget when he did get back later in the afternoon. I could tell by the look on his face that he'd actually found it! He was spaced out with just the thought of what was to come. The conversation over dinner focused on only one thing and by dinner the following evening all was ready to head out with the boards, cameras and supplies to stay out there and surf what we knew was an unsurfed reef.
Unlike today, it took hours of preparation and then hours more to get out to the beginning of the track, and then a couple of hours to walk in. The road from Kuta to the Uluwatu temple was a winding mess of potholes, barely wide enough for two bemos to pass each other, and it had only the occasional piece of tar clinging to dirt to let the driver know he was still on the main drag. The nicest thing about the road to Ulu was that the majority of the people up there didn't seem to have ever seen a whitey, and as we travelled slowly up towards the temple, scores of people lined the road waving and smiling, just happy to see something new coming along their battered stretch of road.
Some of these people would literally go berserk when we passed, and over the following weeks we came to recognise some of the characters along the way. We nicknamed one particular guy "Rock n' Roll" because when he'd hear the motor he'd race out to the side of the road and start rocking back and forward in a fairly rhythmic fashion. Someone said that he reminded them of Mick Jagger . I couldn't see the resemblance. The path from the road to the coast was nothing more than a cattle track which petered out when we reached a newly-ploughed field, and it was the locals who knew at what point on the other side of the field the track continued.
The bemos felt like they were going to fail on the hills or fall apart from the constant jarring of nearly bottoming out, but let's face it, this was a real adventure and nothing was going to stop us from reaching the waves.
Finally, with the help of our Balo guide, we reached the edge of the cliff and what greeted us was truly inspirational. Line after line of marching swell pouring down the side of the cliff towards the airport. Another couple of miles and we reached the top of the cave and watched and hooted as wave after unsurfed wave poured through at Uluwatu. The cave was a pleasant respite from the heat, and after a short rest and liquid intake I made the first paddle out through the cave and into the line-up. As I paddled out I could feel the excitement of this whole situation taking hold. As I turned to take the first wave of the session everything seemed to go into slow motion. This wasn't really the best wave of the days to follow, but it was certainly the most memorable. Stroking in on my backhand, I really wasn't sure how to handle the whole set up, and as it lifted I angled across the face and tried for the most distance. It was overhead, felt pretty quick and as I sensed the lip catching up with me I ducked, thinking it would just chew me up. Fortunately, Ulu was feeling kind that day and spat me out the end of the section.
It was the start of a very good session and the beginning of a great few weeks. The Balinese were very wary of Uluwatu and regarded it as an evil place to be treated very carefully. When they realised we were actually going to get out there in the water they seemed to become nervous and a little suspicious of our intentions. As we paddled out there were 100 people lining the headland. They'd cheer and hoot from the time we took off until we pulled out at the end of each wave. This ritual was maintained for the entire time we were there.
We lived out at Ulu for two weeks, apart from the odd return trip to Kuta for supplies and a shower, and saw a number of swells ranging between four and 12 feet without seeing another white person. We slept on the beach and interacted with the locals as best we could, a number of them being constant companions during the time. Old Made is still carrying gear and boards in for visitors today.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of Ulu was the abundance of seas life. At high tide a dugong would come over the reef with its calf and loll about in the shallow, going back outside the reef as the tide dropped. If we were surfing at low tide the same pair would surface near us. They were there the whole time and seemed to be as interested in us as we were in them. There were turtles, reef sharks, heaps of fish, sea birds and sea snakes and we never felt as if we were on our own in the water. Aside from surfing, we did a few trips around the place - up to the mountains, over Sanur, etc - and came to appreciate the people and the cultural history of one of the most unique places on earth.
But for a grommet in 71, absolutely nothing could compare with being involved in the discovery of an unknown break with the quality and power of Uluwatu."
ULU 32 Running Time: 50 mins
--Steve Cooney
Yeah I am really looking forward to viewing this. I can not wait to see some of the early footage again and and setups pre-development. My cousin has some old footage and photo's from the mid to late 70's from Indo and its just epic.
Thanks for reminding me about this movie e0422713.
Ted the footage of the faces and scenery are timeless
my first trip in 79 had a old man packing chillams for 30 rupiah Luckily i didnt inhale ........at the base of the ladder
I have this movie in my collection and its a real good one,so as Molly would say,do yourself a fav' and watch it
I first went there in 89 when you had to walk from the main road down a goat track all the way. Loved kicking back up in those huts on the cliff, munching on the ham & cheese jaffles and the hot Italian chicks on the beach until they raised their arms.
I recall watching from up top this bloke surfing solo a few hundred metres down the stretch and was carving it up. That Jim Banks could surf. 
where was that taken??
where was that taken??
The killer was the 121 wide steps up the hill after surfing all day,sunburnt,with a belly full of jaffles and 3-4 warm bintangs sculled before the warung shut up for the night.
The 4km walk back to the bike shed hoping your fuel hadn't been totally siphoned from your trusty DT100(i quite often only got a far as pecatu and the old guy at the corner shop selling bensin was always pleased to see me and you could fill up for $2) and the ride back to kuta for a night out at the Sari club was a pretty integral part of the experience. Late afternoon waves on the racetrack were a highlight ,my board carrier used to stand on top of the cliff and sometimes signal me with a torch to get me to come in on dark when he wanted to go home ! Happy days indeed !!
Beautiful shots!!!!!!!!! Keep them coming. I remember those 3 huts on the side of the hill!!
Love this photo, now its in favorites, brings back some nice memories walking down the track frothing to see how big it was today
Mmmm ulu's
