Day 109: Stuck

Asia » Indonesia » Sumbawa
September 11th 2010

Published: September 12th 2010

After our Hindu expedition through Bali, Muslim Lombok and Sumbawa have been fasting away. We hid snacks on the bus as not to offend and we tried to eat only one or two (or 3) meals during daylight hours as to sympathize. Already pretty rare, alcohol consumption was down to almost nothing (outside the surf compounds). People would come practice their English on us and tell us about the secret snacks they had that day while hiding a cigarette from view of the main road. Some are more devout than others I suppose.

After a quick and terribly shallow but small session at Supersuck, we went south further to another surf break called Yo-Yo's. Our ever-wrong guide book said we would probably be able to arrange motorbike hire from our hotel but just about everyone we have asked just gives us a sideways glance. There is no easy transport from this backwater. We are stuck in Yo-Yo's. Dry season on the island of Sumbawa is plagued by hard sideshore winds and, apparently, torrential downpours. This wind is supposed to start late morning but it pretty much blew day and night for 4 days. The break is called Yo-Yo's because although it is a reef, the peak shifts up and down the beach so when you catch a wave you often end up being dragged back to shore over shallow waters. Makes for a lot of paddling. It was choppy everyday, but the wind would sometimes slow down for an hour and the surf would get fun. Choppy with a chance of 100m rides.

Besides it being Ramadon, the other bonus in Sumbawa is the lack of English. We were lucky to find an ojek, a motorcycle taximan, who spoke good english and we got his phone number. Outside of the surf zones, English was slim to none. We struggled at hotels and with any other person we had to interact with. At least there aren't many other tourists to laugh at us.

We next headed to Lakeys Peak. My indonesian sucks pretty bad so finding a bus to Dompu, the third largest city and our transfer to the next surf break, was tricky. We got there 13 hours later after 3 buses, a few hours of waiting at a ferry terminal, and a taxi monopoly that gouges all surf tourists.

We arrived at night, 2 days before a swell was scheduled to arrive. The whole next day was windy and small surf so we slept the day away trying to catch up from the restless day of travel. The day after that surfing took over. The swell wasn't supposed to hit for another couple days but the surf had some size. Lakeys can certainly handle it. More developed than Yo-Yo's, there are a number of hotels and restaurants along the beach. 200m offshore sits a large wooden platform, cemented to the reef, for judges and photographers to sit during the contests that take place here each year.

The break itself is one of the best we have surfed. The Peak breaks as an A-frame with short rights and long lefts at all tides, with any swell, and even strong wind doesn't completely destroy its shape. It is also one scary motherfucker. In small surf, the wave is fast and hollow at low tide and slower and easier at high. When the surf gets big (8-14ft is big for me) it is hollow at high tide and insane at low. Consequently we took some beatings. The water is pretty deep and you can take a headfirst dive without threat to your life, but the power behind the set waves is incredible. The bigger the wave, the hollower it got until it was nearing triple overhead with gaping barrels. During one duckdive my board broke in 2 pieces. It was an old board which had already been snapped, but the force of the water went through my body and still broke it (only $40 to fix so no real loss). From then on I was surfing a 5'10" fish with not much rocker (the curve on the bottom of the board). Everyday before the tide got high enough I took facefull after facefull of water failing to make the drop. Thankfully, there are deep water channels on both sides of this beast so you can sit just outside the impact zone and paddle for smaller than set waves where the crowd is minimal. This channel also allows you to sit and watch the Ripcurl Team drop into huge barrels and do ridiculous tricks for the cameras on the platform, in the water and on the boats in the channel. I have never seen surfing like that before in my life nor do I wish to ever surf like that. We were surfing 3-5 hours a day and wore ourselves out pretty good, this meant we finally got some pictures of decent waves... with us on them.
The swell dropped off pretty quick but if another one comes up, I may never leave Lakeys.

As for other important events: Ramadan is over. HURRAY! Now we can all eat again! Not that any stores or restaurants were really closed, especially anywhere tourists reside, but you can imagine what it would be like. People all over are traveling home to be with family for the holiday. Some people are even sharing beers in public (Muslim no-no). To some, I suppose, Ramadan is kind of like secular Christmas, more of an excuse to see family and friends than to worship the Allah/Jesus. Local tourists from the inland cities have flooded the beach. Hundreds of kids and adults yell "Hello Mister!" and "Money Mister!" every other step you take so I have retreated to the hotel where I can read in peace. I understand you want to practice your english but so does ever other person I walk by and I want to go surf, sorry.

If the swell doesn't pick up soon Im off to Flores and Komodo where there is no surf but the diving and dragons are supposed to be cool. Flores is predominately Catholic which will be another full shift in visible daily life. I learned this the hard way while trying to procure information about Ramadan from hotel staff. He asked me my religion and I said Christian since its the easiest thing to do; of course he is from Flores and now he wants to use his English practice time to talk about Jesus. great. Im converting to Buddhism for the rest of the trip.

Eric went back to Bali yesterday. He is off to India where I originally planned to go. The surf here is just too good to leave. If my money wasn't running out I probably would never leave Indo. Its real easy to get stuck here. Real easy.

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