What is this place ? Has anyone stayed there before ? Where would you go surfing ?

off to Bali in the next week. been there a number of times (6 or 7), but haven't been outside of Kuta much TBH.
I would just go with a first boat for a dawn patrol reefs sesh. And during the day I would walk down to the beach just for a quick paddle. That was good enough for a family man.

We will be staying at the south end of the bay. I just checked the google map and its about 3 k's to the boats, where the pier is. How much do they charge in that part?
May be its better to go to Balangan instead ? How do I get there (apart from renting a scooter) ?
Any thoughts please ?

Jimbaran - you can get a boat about half way between the intercon (south end) and the pier. Look for the surf hire guys and they will call one of the boats to come down and get you. Cost about $8 to airport left's. Right's would be less I imagine. The boats don't generally come all the way to the beach so you gotta paddle out to him. Not much surf in Jimbaran, but you can sometimes get a wave down the south end of the beach on a decent swell at mid-low tide.

Balangan - you can get a cab there now. Since the hotel went in its a bit more popular and the cabs hang around for a return job.

I've never stayed in Jimbaran, its the South side of the airport between the airport & the hill heading up onto the Bukit. Used to be a great place for seafood on the beach, but pretty pricey these days. Should be about 25-30 mins to Balangan from there. Bit easier coming home in the arvo, coz your not gonna hit the choke point behind the airport (Ngurah Rai By Pass). Dunno what the boats charge round there, but vaguely remember someone saying it was 80k Rp. Your pretty close to the reefs on the East side. Transport in Bali is NP, just don't pay more than 400k Rp for the day if the drivers going to spend most of the time in a surf spot car park. 50k Rp is probably fair if your going to be driving around all day checking stuff out coz fuel has gone up heaps over the last 2 years.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Hey JSMatrix, just couple of more Qs please, the surf hire guys wouldn't be around at 6 a.m., would they ? Is Balangan a better option for a dawn patrol from intercon ? i just want to go as early as possible to avoid the crowds.
Do a cab driver let you in with the board and the water dripping all over ? How much is the fare to Balangan ?

The Last time I had a boat out to airports from Jimbaran it was about 8am, but depending on the tide I would assume they would be there earlier than that. To be on the safe side, take a walk down the beach the afternoon before and sort out a time with one of the crews.

Balangan is only about 3 kms from the Intercon, but about a 15-20 minute drive (give or take depending on the traffic), so will cost between 80-100'000IDR ($8-$10) You'll find that the bluebird cabs wont have any issue with taking the board, but keep in mind that most of the cabs are 4 door sedans.....How bigs your board? and they wont have any problem with you being wet and sandy. I normally take some cash in a zip-lock sandwich bag so it wont get wet.

Sunrise is at around 6.30am at the moment, so it wont be a supper early session.

All the drivers sit at the top of the steps at balangan waiting, and more often than not ask if you want a driver for the next day....so it might be worth seeing if one of them wants an early job for only a couple of hours and fix a price of say 180'000IDR (less than $20 and he can pick you up as early as you want).

^^^thanks for your info mate, much appreciated.

Boats to the reefs will be ready to go in the dark before sunrise. Just got to work out where they leave from. Maybe get a scooter to get yourself down there.

Update. Surf hire guys don't call a boat. The "4 seasons" resort at the south end run a boat for own organised group of guests only.
I walked all the way from intercon to the pier and beyond to find only one guy named Senios who would take me to the Rights for 100K rupees.

did that include hand relief or they either saw you coming a mile off