Flat surf and Canggu

     Tuesday we decided to head down towards Uluwatu for a morning sesh again, we got in the water around 10. It seemed quite a bit less crowded today for some reason, but of course we were not complaining. We both caught lots of fun smaller waves down towards racetracks, also a few up toward the middle, ended up surfing for almost 2 hours. We got out and checked some pictures that the photo guys got, we each got a few sequences, and Jeremy had some sick backside snap shots. After running into our older lady friend Jodie, that we have been kidding joking around with the last week we had been surfing there. Shes funny speaks good English and is always saying something to make us laugh, we trucked it up the hundred or so stairs back to the top and scooted back to our place for lunch. We enjoyed another great lunch of pasta carbonara that we both have been obsessed with the  last few weeks, I also got my usual coca cola and french fry fix, that Jeremy always rags on me about. After lunch we both chilled on the balcony and tapped away at our computers looking up where we should travel to next. We decided to stay on Bali for the next two weeks but move to a few different spots like Canggu, Seminyak, and Sanur (near Kerama's) until we need to renew our Visa's again. Then we are going to try and make a big trip to either west Java home to Ombak and Turtle's or to Sumbawa where the infamous Lakey Peak is. We researched transportation, airfare, prices, roads, food, accomodation, surf forecasts, and spots, it really takes a lot sometimes to find a smart plan that will work out. After we had finished we decided to stop by the Flame Balls surf shop to pick up a surf movie I had been seeing displayed the whole time we have been here, it's called Indo (link to trailer), starring the islands best surfers. We looked through a few books he had on the shelves to check out the spots we had been researching, after getting some more info we headed back to Sunset Grill to get a pizza that sounded good to both of us! When we got back I started editing my second webisode that you can watch here , I have always been interested in making movies and this is the perfect opportunity to start my hand at it.
     Wednesday the waves were awful small so we didn't surf, I was on the computer for quite a bit trying to upload my second webisode. I had finished editing it the night before, the internet has it's times where it doesn't work at all so it took almost 4 hours to upload it. As I waited Jeremy and I went down to the water snorkeled, swam, and got some Go Pro footage, it was actually nice and relaxing to just float around and enjoy the ocean. We made the walk up the 150 or so stairs back to our place we were staying, enjoyed a great lunch once again, we started packing up and getting ready to leave in the morning for Canggu. We went back to Uluwatu to grab some photos we had saved on the photo guys computers from the last week and a half of surfing. Me and Jeremy both got some cool pictures from each and haggled them down to a fair price, then we went to our favorite lil warung Salin for our last meal there for awhile. The waves were small, it was super low tide, but the sunset and setting was beautiful, while leaving we ran into a taxi guy and negotiated a price to get to the hostel in Canggu, he agreed to be at our place at 7:30am the next morning. We got back and popped in the movie Indo that we had bought the night before, it is an awesome surf flick that any surfer would enjoy. It was especially cool to us since we have now surfed some of the spots in the movie and also have seen a few of the surfers in the movie out surfing since we have been here!
     Thursday morning we got up early and made sure we had everything, and the taxi was there shortly, loaded the bags inside and hit the road. It took about an hour and half to get to Canggu, which is about 20 miles away, but the traffic and scooters everywhere makes it hard for a car to go anywhere fast in the more populated areas of Bali. We got into town and the driver couldn't find the place with the address we had given him, It happens quite often when you ask for a ride somewhere they just say yes so they can get the ride and money. But more often than not they don't even exactly know where that place is, we drove around aimlessly for over a half hour, we were heading down the bumpy gang (alley) half asleep from not getting much sleep the night before, I saw out of the corner of my eye a hammock in the front porch of a yard. I had seen that hammock and small lounge area in the picture on the website, I yelled stop here it is, we finally arrived! The owner of the hostel Bryce popped out and greeted us, we moved our stuff into our lil two bed room, we hopped on the scooter he had gotten for us for $3 a day and followed him to go check the waves. It was small and crowded out front where were staying, he said he new of a chilled out secret spot a good ways up the road, we headed back to the house, packed on the boards and hit the road. I can usually keep up with the roads were going down and know how to get back, but I couldn't keep up after 10 minutes, this spot was so hard to get to, I can see how there was nobody there. It was beautiful scenery and much different than the bukit where we were staying, the roads wind in and out of small rolling hills through the colorful villages with terraced rice paddies filling any open land you can see in sight! Every person we scooted by gave a us a smile and the lil kids playing and riding there bikes wave and yell Hiiiiiiiii, it's truly amazing to be in a place where people are just happy to see somebody they have never seen before. We ended up at the surf spot and took the scooters on the beach and drove a mile or so down for a surf check, took me back to a trip deep into Mex when we drove the trucks down on to the black sand beach, always love mixing my love of motorcycles and the beach! We parked the scooters and paddled out to some fun 3-4ft, beach break waves coming in with nobody out, surfed for a few hours till the wind picked up. Grabbed a liter water from the lil warung on the beach for $8,000rp (approx 80 cents) , chugged it and back onto the scooter for the adventurous ride back. We stopped at a awesome lil food joint Bryce frequents and each made our own hand picked bowl of rice, veggies, and meat for about a buck and half, we all woofed it down hen finally got back to the house. We sifted through the hundred something movies he has accumulated over the years he has been here, there all in a think plastic sleeve, you can buy each movie for about a buck and there was everything from endless summer 2 up to Taken 2. We all layed down and watched a few movies, later Bryce to us to a sweet dinner, 3 course meal for lil over 5 bux, we all got our own plate that sounded good and talked story and munched for the next hour. It was an awesome first day here in Canggu and can't wait for what were going to find to do tomorrow!
     Friday we went down towards the same area we went the first day but tried a new spot lil farther past, explored a bit to find a new spot. We went out and caught a few lil nuggets, it was small like waist high but you could find a few here and there that wouldn't wall up. We made the 45 minute mission back to the house, stopped by the mart to get some ice cream and snacks, literally just sat down n watch movie for 3 hours! It gets tiring waking up early, scootering for a few hours round trip and then surfing, all in the sun and humidity, so we need a lil relax time midday. One of our friend's we have met here had a volleyball, so we all decided to play some pepper down at the beach before Sunset. It was actually really fun since I haven't played volleyball in a long time, a few locals on the beach ended up playing with us the whole time! We took a dip in the water before heading back to the house, we met up with some friend's down at the beach for dinner at a great lil local spot. We finished the night with the movie Blow which is a personal favorite of mine and our hostel owner Bryce's
     Saturday we had all decided the night before to wake up early to try and get to the spot we surfed the day before early enough so the wind didn't come up! We got down there by 8am and it looked fun like the day before but still small, it's just nice to go on a drive like that deep into some villages with lil kids smiling and waving as you fly by on the scooter. On the way back we stopped at our local favorite already, Warung Bu Mi, where you can pick between 20 dinner sorts of meat, veggies, rice, sauce, and sides. You basically make what you want on a big plate, usually costs around 15,000 Rupiah ($1.50USD), the food is so flavorful and fresh. We did the usual chills sesh for a few hours at the house, one of Bryce's friend's from Australia (where he is from also) came to visit the night before from Singapore where he works. It's a quick 3 hour plan flight, and he says it's nice to get away from there come here for the weekend to surf and kick it with his mate. We packed up the scooters again to head back to the secret beach to hopefully grab an evening sesh, we got there to a blown out 2 ft wind chop, so we headed back to our local break. On the way back Jeremy and I got separated from Bryce and his mate Cameron, we got stuck behind a tourist charter bus, which basically takes up the whole road since the roads are small enough as it is. As I went for a sketchy pass on the bus around the corner, I had to slow down to dodge a scooter coming head on and then a stopped car behind him. At the speed we were going, which wasn't very fast but fast enough to not be able to stop in time to avoid hitting the stopped car, I had to make the quick decision of dodging the car and threading the needle between the now 3 ft gap next to the bus still turning the corner about to pinch us. Within 2 seconds we went from going head on with a scooter, dodging a van, then slipping in between the bus and van, and finally straightening out to not fly off the side of the road into the rice paddies, I forgot to also mention with surfboards strapped on the side of our scooter. Lets just say after Jeremy opened his eyes thinking we were dead or on the hood of a van, he was a bit mad, since it probably wasn't the smartest decision but we were still alive. Finally arriving at the sandbar surf spot just out front we got a quick evening surf in some okay choppy shoulder high peaks. We decided on hitting a pizza joint we had passed many times on our way to surf, and pizza is something we can both agree on and enjoy, must say it was pretty good but my standards. We got back to the house and some new guys had showed up, they were from Germany and had been staying here before we left, but just got back from Nusa Lembongan (an island a quick ferry away). Super cool guys that rip at BMX back home, they are also just traveling around Asia seeing as much as they can, we had a few beers with them, I passed out early and Jeremy stayed up a bit later just chatting.

Just another dinner watching an unbelievable sunset in Bali!

Offerings they make a few times a week and are put out every morning to wish a good day of business.

Impossibles on low tide.

Stuffed in the back of a taxi for the ride to Canggu

Beach to ourselves..