Day 86: Lombok Bound

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Made it back from Singapore unharmed and cleaner than I've been in a while. First things first, I headed to Immigration for a 60 day visa. They have a saying in Indo, "NO". They say it a lot. Most of the time its because they don't know something, for example, airport immigration officials that don't know their own immigration laws. I asked enough people to figure out where the office was and what I could do for a longer stay, and after a few circles around the airport on motorbike I found the office. It only costs $25 for a visa extension but it takes 10 days. So our hopes of leaving for Lombok and some different waves were quashed.

I arrived a few days before Eric returned from Thailand to some of the bigger surf we've yet had. One 6-12ft morning at Kuta Middles had me scared shitless and wishing I had taken out a different board. I then waited for the tide to change and hit Legian Beach with sand-dredging 6-9ft barrels. As I was paddling out, the only other surfer in the water pulled into a 4 second barrel (good). Of course i wanted some of that glory, but after pulling into a few giant terrifying closeouts I had put a crease in my new board. I was pretty lucky it didn't snap with some of the stupid idiot drops I was taking. I took it back to the shop I had bought it from the week before and they were pretty defensive. "I know its my fault it creased" I had to repeat, "I just want it fixed". $7 (not too shabby) and 24 hours later it was ready to go again.

When Eric arrived the swell started to fade again so we headed over to Lembongan Island. Lembongan is a small island off the east coast of Bali totally devoted to tourism. There are a few surf breaks here that are apparently fickle. The only wave that was any good had a surf contest upon it the only day there was swell. Shipwrecks, Razors, Lacerations, and Playgrounds all sit in ultra-clear shallow water atop a very vibrant, very alive and terrifyingly sharp reef (hence the naming). Playgrounds is the only name that doesn't bring to mind some terrible accident requiring a long long boat ride to the hospital and this is because it is a slow mushy longboard wave (it sucks ass). Playgrounds was also the only wave that was remotely surfable the 2 days we stayed and we each scored a handful of ankle biting baby waves.

We came back a day early to Kuta where surf was still OK and swell was on the rise. After a night on the town we woke up dizzy and hungover and took a boat out to Kuta Middles for some head high super fun waves. And repeat the process and that is life in Kuta. My passport hopefully comes through in the morning and we are off to Gili Trawangan off the coast of Lombok. There is a big full moon party that happens on this island every month and supposedly a consistent (if small) right break. After a month of surfing mostly lefts, its about time for some rights.

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