Week 6 // Part 2 // Indo Coffee, Coconuts, and Instant Noodles

The palm tree window.....

     There is nothing like falling asleep to rain pounding on the roof and a cool breeze wafting in
through the window making it’s way into your mosquito net. Then knowing your waking up the next day to a picturesque beach on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. As my mind starts to slowly awaken from my 5th REM cycle and my hearing goes from peace fading into the sound of crashing waves in the distance. Once my eyes fade from black to the vision of our wall full of palm fawn’s swaying with the light morning wind. If only this could be the way I woke up from a night’s sleep every morning, then everyday would be bliss. But for now this is life in Indonesia and has been for the last 42 days.

     The following days were filled with lots of surfing just out front, where we could view the wave right through the arch of palm trees out front. Waking up around 7:00am each morning, wandering onto the patio for a quick 5-minute surf check usually followed by a trip down stairs to get the thermos of hot water for our packet IndoCafe Cappuccino coffee we had all got addicted to. Once I had prepared my packet of coffee the guessing begins, since this spot impeticular was frequented by boat charter surf trips. We would all guess how many boats were moored in the channel hiding behind the palms trees to our left. Chest high waves, a lil bump on the ocean’s surface, 15 guys out, must be at least two boats on there first day of the trip and maybe a few guys from the land camp down the beach.

     By the time 8:00am comes around I’m getting restless after finishing my coffee, and sweeping the table and floor. Yes I am on a 3-month surf trip to surf and relax, but as most of my friend’s and family know, I don’t really lounge around. I am always tinkering with something or on the move to somewhere to do something active. So nothing has change even on the other side of the world, so I grab my board; scrap a lil wax on it, apply some sunscreen, and head out in the board shorts I had already woken up in. Walking down the stairs into the ground level of the losmen (local term for homestay) were staying in I make eye contact with one of the elders this morning being the grandma and exchange a sincere smile before walking out the door.

     Between the 200 feet of sand leaving the losmen ending at the beach, my ears are full of sounds; palms brushing against each other, every insect and birds chirp, and of course the waves breaking and rumbling across the reef. Upon reaching the sand and getting the full view of the bay, the peeling wave, and channel where I can confirm there are actually 3 boats. Submerging myself into the water for the first time today you can hardly feel any change since the water here is a warm 81-83°F. The
next few minute paddle to the lineup starts to loosen up the muscles, while I observe how the ocean is moving, and scope out a position to get some of the better waves. The lineup here is like most others with the beginner/intermediate surfers sitting inside and the more experienced surfers looking for better, longer, and bigger waves farther out! But luckily at this break since there are always new boats coming everyday anchoring up for only a 3 or 4-hour session, the people staying on land get priority and position on the better waves.

     The first few days of surf were epic, being head high to overhead and quite a few make able barrels coming through. Between dodging some people sitting or paddling in the wrong places we all had a few great waves. Travis on the other hand took the first 4 days off and shot some photos and video since he was still recovering from some pretty bad cuts that got infected again. It worked out for all of us since there were some good waves, since our two friends Alex and Jay had got caught up in Bali figuring out there Visa extension. Most evenings started at 6pm everyone usually out the water from the evening surf and watching the last few guys get some waves before you could only hear the ocean but not see it through the palm tree window. We all usually grab a beer and wait for dinner which is promptly served at 7pm, dinner consists of a bowl of rice big enough for a football team, a few bowls of veggies with a delicious broth, and hopefully a piece of chicken or fish! Everyone gathers around the table like a family and chows down hardly saying a word, after dinner the cards come out and we play games for hours. With the card games comes great laughs about the day, talks with Ben from Australia and advice on spots he has been and surfed in the area, which is always good knowledge to know from a first person perspective.

     Lunch was a mystery everyday, if Ibu (mom in Indonesian) was home then we had the choice of fried rice or fried noodle. If Ibu was not home then we were basically shit out of luck, so we had to resort to our bag of snacks and instant noodles. All of us had spent $20 or so on a huge bag full of our favorite goodies, I picked up 10 instant noodles, 3 lbs of peanuts, chips, Oreos, bread, peanut butter, and jelly. The other land camps on the beach were not much better except one 100 meters down or so that our friend Todd was staying at. They had a pretty decent menu he had told us multiple times out in the water, after drooling over him talking about the burger and fries he had I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Only eating rice and noodles for 5 days at this point I had to go check it out, but upon arriving and trying to order food they said no, guests only here. We were all disappointed but what can you do but go back and have another PBJ and instant noodle soup before heading out for the second surf of the day.

     At this point we had been on the island for 5 days with no internet, so we were wondering where or if our friend’s Alex and Jay would even show up? They were supposed to arrive Wednesday evening if all had gone to plan with flights, ferries, etc. The waves were a bit smaller today so Jeremy,

Wrangling some coconuts!

Travis, and I decided to go for a walk down the beach we told David and other new Aussie friend Ben that we’ll be back in an hour or so. After getting around the first point and seeing a few other in sight we just wanted to keep going and explore around the next bay and the next bay! All we had were our two GoPros, a hat, and sunglasses, no water haha. Obviously after 30 minutes or so in the sun, walking on the hot sand paralleling the thousands of scenic coconut trees lining the beach, we were thirsty. We tried our hand at wrangling ourselves a coconut from the treetops, our first goal, get up the tree trunk!

     Most of the tree trunks had these little steps cut into them at a 45° angle every 2 ft or so, we could now get pretty far up the tree. But once at the top of the steps the inch or so groove that our feet were in would get uncomfortable and the coconuts were just at our finger tips, with nothing to cut them off with other than hitting them with a stick of bamboo found nearby. After getting nowhere the 3 of us resorted to throwing rocks and pieces of coral at the low hanging coconuts to our surprise we got a pretty decent sized one down. Now step two opening the damn coconut with anything we could find, I initiated the attempt with a solid coral head that I pounded into the soft part of the coconut head. After a few minutes I was getting somewhere but was also exhausting, took myself about 20 minutes to finally crack it open. The first sip was actually delicious even though there was a good amount of sand mixed in, we didn’t care much, after finishing the coconut the wandering continued down the beach. Finally returning back to the losmen with a few coconuts to properly chop open with a machete 3 hours later…..

Week 5 // Part 1 // The journey to the perfect right....

     First off sorry everybody for not keeping this blog as up to date as promised, sometimes it is very hard to sit down and concentrate for hours on typing up an interesting post. I do post as regular as possible on my instagram ( @travelsurflive ) and on facebook ( www.facebook.com/travelsurflive ). I like to keep all my blog post full of story and adventure, I have a few backed up half written posts still saved to be published later on. But this part of my trip was way to cool to wait and post so I want to tell you now!

Airport, Bali, Indonesia prior to departure.

     The journey to the Mentawi islands and this specific island in general is quite a bit of planning involved, my mate David has done it twice so he had a good idea on what we need to do. None the less last time he traveled there was 2 years ago and everything in this country changes everyday without notice or updates to websites! The whole journey would take an estimated 30 hours of traveling going something like this taxi, plane, plane, taxi, ferry, taxi, boat...... After we all sat down and went over prices for a few hours couple days in a row, the decision was made and we headed to the airport to book flights leaving on Thursday morning in two days. After getting all our gear packed and inside and on top a van heading to the airport for the 7 am flight to Jakarta (Java), which was of course delayed an hour. Arriving from Jakarta to the city of Padang (Sumatra) at 2 in the afternoon we waited for our bags to come out the baggage claim door. Once realizing we were the last ones standing there and no more bags on there way out we instantly had all sorts of thoughts and emotions. A friendly local Indonesian in the same situation told us to come with him to the counter and told us this happened to him before, after some translating we found out the bags will be on the next flight arriving from Jakarta in 4 hours.

Approaching the beach after a 2 hour boat ride.

     We had heard form some other traveling surfers that the ferry we were trying to get onto is being fixed and is not working anyways so we wrote off that were not getting onto that later in the evening. So wait we did for 4 hours and sure as shit our bags had finally arrived we got outta that airport as fast as possible right as the rain had started.... Getting to a hostel near the port the ticket office for the boat was closing in 10 minutes, we threw the bags off the car while David and myself hurried to the ticket office 1 minute away. Upon arriving they told us the boat the next morning (Friday) was now full, just like most third world countries pulling out a stack of cash will change there minds pretty quick. Walking out of there with 4 tickets for the 7am boat the next morning, finishing off the night with a few beers, and some locals lounging out front the hostel talking about the season and the people they have come to meet.

Heading to the village to find some necessities.

     Walking through the humid morning down the street with 70lbs of board bags and backpacks sweating in places you didn't know you had is a wonderful start the 2nd day of travel. Getting onto the ferry finding out the last minute tickets we got were basically standing room only, but screw it we were almost there, or so we thought. We didn't mind much until 30 minutes into a 3 hour boat ride were surrounded by 30 people chain smoking/ throwing up from being sea sick. I think we all agreed that was one of the worst parts of our trip by far! Finally landed on the island of Sipora, all the bags off the boat and put off to the side we had another surfer join us trying to get tot he same place we were, a guy from California named Todd. After trying to haggle with a few people trying to get a ride to our destination on the other side of the island we decided to find a spot for the night to get a shower, some food, and relax after two full days of travel.
     Having a walk around the small town of Tuapajet there is not much going on other than what is the necessities in life. You won't find WiFi, a nice restaurant, warm shower, maybe just a little TV if you really search for it. After a bit to eat the hammock I had purchased the day before we left sounded awfully nice to sprawl out in, play some cards and wait for dinner. Dinner was a fish curry, everyone knows I'm not the biggest fan of fish but when you know that meat is a rarity on this island you eat all of it you can. a good nights sleep and we were off on a boat to the south tip of the island where our destination was. I would more so call the boat a canoe hollowed out from a large tree, with a make shift roof, and two 25hp engines on the back. Surprisingly we fit all 5 board bags and gear in the boat without it tipping over, and to our surprise it actually made it's way through the water decently fast. After two hours of mild choppy conditions, water squirting through multiple holes whenever the boat smashed a good size wave, we cruised right up onto a perfect white sand beach in paradise.

     Now the two weeks on an island in the middle of the Indian ocean begins. The place we are staying is located right in front of the wave, it is a families house that they have added some extra rooms to. The family is much older now but still very nice, helpful, and still cooking and cleaning everything for the guests. The price was 60K (5 USD) a night including dinner, over looking a white sand beach, with a view of a perfect right through the over hanging palm trees. The four of us took over 2 rooms upstairs with a nice big room to keep our boards bags in and a large patio with dinning table to converse. There were two other people staying as we arrived, one being Francisco from Spain and the other Ben from Australia. Both super easy going guys, Francisco did a lot of spearfishing, basically all day everyday unless he was fixing his spear gun or the waves were to big. Ben on the other hand loved to lounge in his hammock and read whenever he wasn't getting ridiculously barreled sitting way out the back ever session getting some of deepest barrels I've seen in person!

     A few hours after arriving, settling in, unpacking, and getting a quick mie goreng (fried noodle and vegetables) Jeremy and I headed out for a surf. There was nobody out and we saw a few fun lil waist to chest high fun rippable waves coming through with nobody out. We were careful for the first few waves since it was lowtide and quite shallow on the inside, after about 30 minutes we slowly made our way deeper and farther out to better waves. On my 4th wave, 45 minutes into our first session I took off on the biggest wave we had seen so far only about 5ft and had a late drop, air dropping a few feet before landing and unfortunately sticking the nose and falling over the front of the board. I had penetrated the water luckily and popped out the back unscathed until I pulled my board toward sme and saw there was only half remaining. I quickly yelled out a few curse words as it was a basically brand new board and one of the favorite shaped I've had in a long time, but what can you do.
     It wasn't the best way to start the two weeks here but luckily I have 3 more boards knowing this would happen eventually. I didn't surf the rest of the day but sat behind the camera lense and got some shots of the boys getting some fun ones till the sun went down and the Beer caps started popping of the bottles......

Look out for Part II coming in the next few weeks!

Week 2 // Soccer in Sanur

     Sanur is one of those places to stay on the island that is highly over looked, mostly because it is filled with older people and honeymooners. But none the less there are waves if you know the right spots as well as lots of good places to eat! We arrived in Sanur and got settled into our homestay with 3 different rooms across from each other, and a communal table in the middle it is an awesome setup. There is a Hardy's across the street from our homestay which is like a lil Walmart with anything you can imagine for super cheap inside, except the Goldfish snacks are $6! After loading up on snacks for the week we went for a nice dinner down the street and planned out our week.

     Sanur is close to the now well known wave of Kerama's where they had an ASP World Tour stop last year and now there is a huge resort on the beach. But in the nooks and crannies around the area are still some great waves we got out to surf a few times. We all explored some places Jeremy and myself had been to before and a couple new ones, its just always fun to hop on the scooter with your surfboard and just see where ya end up.
     The homestay were at in Sanur is run by a family like usual, the mother cooks, the father does transport, the aunts and uncles clean and fix stuff, and the son Dadu who we have become good friends with books rooms. Dadu is an awesome guy around our age that loves soccer, we started chatting about it one afternoon and he said he had a game the next day on Sunday! Everybody was getting excited because it was something different, getting into the culture with the locals and we had no idea what to expect. We expected it to be a full on game and maybe we could sub one of the six of us in here and there, but we found out once we got there it was a pick up game.

     We arrived about an hour after they had started playing and finished there first match, all the guys were spread out from 18 years old to 60 years old and pretty good with there quick feet since it was indoor soccer. After passing around a bit the game started all 5 of us playing, one goalie and 4 on the field while Travis sidelined with some reef cuts filmed. It was so much fun, but after about 5 minutes I was more sweaty than any time in my whole life! The humidity was crazy so we were all dripping sweat for the next hour, but had so much fun and made some new friends.
     In the next few days we explored some waves and while we didn't get them perfect we had them fun with only a few guys out! In those few days the group tried to plan the next adventure which we were thinking about Bangko Bangko in Lombok. After talking about it for an afternoon we pulled the trigger, packed up everything we had, payed the bill for our home stay and set the alarm for 5:30am the next morning. Sitting in the van on the way to Padang Bai harbor boarding the boat to Lombok in an hour we were ready for the next adventure.

Week 1 // Kuta and Bingin

     The trip started in LAX showing up to the airport with 3 large board bags, 8 backpacks, and 2 camera cases, yaaaaa we gotta lot of shit. It just so happened that the lady working at the Cathay Pacific desk was Indonesian, so David my mate that studied in Bali started chatting with her. She loved it and that basically set us up to get hooked up with our luggage which everyone knows you get screwed for oversize/overweight usually. After 20 minutes or so we all had boarding passes and were outta there paying nothing for our bags which should have been at least 400 total! Off to a great start and on the plane we settled in for the 13 hour flight to Hong Kong where we had a 4 hour layover to grab a bite to eat before the final 5 hour flight to Bali!

Photo: Alex Arkeilpane

      Landing in Bali you have to wait in line to get your visa upon arrival, that took about 1.5 hours, then we picked up our bags and heading for customs check out. We got stopped, David and Travis bags got checked for how many boards and had to end up paying $1,000,000 RPH (just over $80 USD) for having more than 3 boards. After finding a transport driver in the sea of hundreds of people asking, we got all the boards on top and packed the 4 of us inside, quick 30 min drive to our hotel in Kuta where were staying for few nights. Hotel was traditional 2 beds and bathroom very simple, 50K RPH a night ($4.20 USD) per person. Once we settled in we sorted motorbikes out, which we got 4 for 30K RPH each per day ($2.50 USD), I love this country! Walking down the street we found a traditional Nasi Goreng plate (fried rice, veggies, chicken) we all ordered the same along with a Bintang, the local beer. There was a large shopping store nearby where we all headed to get some legit nice helmets since we'll be here for awhile and the helmets the rentals give you are shit.
      After few hours of laying around we got on the scooters for a ride up to Uluwatu, since the swell was small, Ulu's would be the only decent wave breaking. All of us had a couple decent ones, only out for an hour, munched down another nasi goreng for lunch and then cruised around looking for a place to move to the next day. After going to about 8 different homestays/villas we found a nice one that we could all split for a decent price then headed back to Kuta since our 5th friend Jay was supposed to arrive around 5 pm. We waited for him by sipping a Bintang while watching the crazy traffic down the back ally of Poppies St 2. When Jay arrived the vibe got a lot funner by hearing his story getting here, walking down the street finding another great spot to grub was a perfect ending to our second night on the island of Bali.

Photo: Alex Arkeilpane

      Day 3 was off to a slow start since a few people were hungover from the Bintangs the night before, but Alex, Jay, and I went for a walk down to the beach to check out what it was like. We encountered a baby monkey that we played with for a bit and got some really cool photos of! When we all got back to the hotel few guys went off to get a massage as I started packing up. After a few hours of getting all our gear together we were on the road following the van with our stuff and Jay in it while we were on our 4 scooters. I got separated from the group and doubled back a few times but still couldn't find em so I took off cruising up the windy roads of the bukit, I finally arrived at Bingin Sari our home stay we picked out. The family were staying with is awesome, the mom Made runs the place cooking, cleaning, and booking rooms. She has a few lil girls which I gave a nick name Kachang Kecil (Ka-chong Ca-chill, means little peanut), the rest of our time there they would smile and sing Kachang Kecil Kachang Kecil, it was super funny.
     We ended up staying at this home stay for 6 nights, the setup was beautiful, location was great, and breakfast was cheap and good! The homestay is up on the cliff and a lil back from the surf break at Bingin Beach, just up the point is another famous wave of Impossibles. We all got out to Dream land a wave down the beach that is a sand bottom wave with usually pretty crowded with beginners as it was this day. But Alex was filming and got a couple sick shots of just the lifestyle on the beach and a few of our waves even thought there wasn't much going on in the surf!
     The next few days we explored a few different spots I had surfed before but they weren't really turning on like they had when I surfed them before. But no the less we had some fun getting more footage romping around on the scooters and flying the drone! On Sunday we went out to Single Fin a bar at the top of the famous surf break Uluwatu, Sundays it goes off with live music and hundreds of people having a good time. We also went to a sick full moon party on the beach that had a reggae band and DJ until about 1 or 2 in the morning at Padang Padang. The bukit is beautiful place with pretty mellow roads to all the surf spots and hundreds of home stays and restaurants tucked into every corner and crevasse, it would take months to go to them all.

Photo: Alex Arkeilpane

     Towards the end of our stay on the bukit at Bingin Sari my mate Jeremy that I actually traveled to Indonesia with last year arrived on Wednesday. He linked up with us and we got a bed for him to crash on for a few nights before we headed out to a new area of the island called Sanur! We got our last surf in at Impossibles for a few hours before making the trek over to Sanur again with a van full of gear/surfboard bags while 4 scooters followed!

Once again thanks for following and stay tuned for the next post!
Check out www.sovrnrepublic.com and grab some gear for your next adventure, enter "Brian" at checkout for 30% off your whole order!
 

The packing starts again....

     Friends, family, and followers I am off on another adventure in a few days. Back to Indonesia with a couple friends to surf over a dozen islands and many spots we have been researching and searching for over the past few months. My one friend that has planned the trip that I'm jumping onto is David that has started an awesome new brand out of San Diego, Sovrn Republic. The companies motto is In search of distant shores, and their main product is travel backpack's made to hold the essentials of traveling in comfortable and accessible way. I am specifically excited for this trip because we are heading to many waves I have been dreaming of for years and bringing a full time photographer/filmer to get every moment/wave of the trip!
     That is the sum of the trip so far, everything changes once the plan hits the Indonesian tarmac. Basically all that is planned is our flights taking off September 3rd then flying home December 17, all the spots and waves on our list will be last minute missions if we know there will be waves to get them at there best.
     The packing has started, just getting everything laid out making sure nothing is left out. After my last few trips I have started to narrow down to to things, what I NEED and what I can GET. So what I usually need to bring is obviously clothes, but not to much because you can always buy more wherever you are. But it is hard to get rid of to many clothes you bring wherever you are. Other items I NEED that are harder to find where I'm going are obviously my surfboards, GoPro camera/accessories, and some medical supplies. The items I don't bring or worry about as much since I know I can buy them when I arrive are soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, etc. Dumb things that always cause problems at airports and can explode in your bag anyways.
     So here is a few pictures and a list of what I have for this trip, I thought it would be cool since I haven't done it before and if some traveler/surfers are wondering what to pack on a similar adventure.

The quiver for this trip is looking pretty good!

1. 6'3" x 18.5" x 2.2"
This is a board I bought specifically for this trip, when I was in Indo a few months ago the swell got huge a few days and I didn't have a board big enough to ride. Now I do this trip and it will help for a few waves were going to that you need to get into early!
2. 6'0" x 18.12" x 2.25"
One of my dad's older boards but a nice step up for waves that you need that lil extra foam to hold your line and get your rail to catch.
3. 5'8' x 19" x 2.5"
My baby, first board I've ever had a 5 five setup on and I love it, got her before my trip to Australia at the beginning of the year. Riding a quad is a love hate relationship for me sometimes I have so much fun on  them and other times I can't stand it.
4. 5'7' x 19" x 2.5"
The freshy from my mate Forrest Michinton had been getting into shaping last few years with his dad being legendary shaper Mike Michinton shaping for Robert August for decades! He has his own label Sistem Surfboards I am so stoked on this board because it's different from any board I have had before. Lil shorter than usual but with a 5 fin setup and lil more foam to float, paddle, and hold in bigger waves well!

1. Mint Condition Brand hats and apparel.
2. Polar Pro Filters for Go Pro camera, color correction lenses to get the best shot possible in any weather condition. There array of lenses for under water range from macro, magenta, and red for diving. And above water they offer polarized, neutral density, and macro. There newest product is the Pro Mic to get better sound out of your Go Pro video!
3. Leashes, 3 different ones for different conditions and size. I have been awfully lucky not breaking to many on my recent trips but its crucial to not lose your board especially over reef or rocks.
4. A bag full of all kinds of Go Pro accessories ranging from mounts, 4 extra batteries, extra housing, time lapse, window mount, wall charger, extra SD card, and more.
5. FCS car straps are a must on any surf trip, they come in handy at the worst times Ive learned. Especially when your traveling with a  few surfers where your board bags can't fit in the car, they must go on top!
6. Sovrn Republic backpack "The Drifter", the best gear I have come across my mate has started a great company made by surfers/travelers for travelers. The motto "In pursuit of distant shores" says it all, get out there and find the adventure that excites you!
7. Medical pack, I set this up a few trips ago my first time to Indo, it is essential. I have never had to dig to deep into it but I hvae the essentials in case sometimes crazy happens. Inside I have a lil of everything, gauze, tape, vitamin c, tums, bandages, stitches, anti infection pills, numbing shots, asprin, asthma inhalers, and a few more things.
8. Diving mask, it doesn't take up much room and I rarely use it but it is always nice to have if you wanna go out for a dive. Check out the reef when it's flat, get a work out, or check out some sea life and get some Go Pro shots!
9. The surfboard bag accessory pouch, In here I have all my fins two sets of quads and a pair of FCS for my 6'3". Also in here is some solar res/sand paper for quick ding repairs, Vaseline for rashes from surfing for hours, extra fins screws, like 5 fin keys because they always get lost and misplaced, and couple randoms zip ties because fuck you never know but they come in handy.
10. First time bringing this and I don't know how it will work but giving it a shot. It is a Dolphin hand pump for a 5 gallon water jug, in Indo there liter of water is roughly a dollar, a 5 gallon jug is roughly 1.75. It will hopefully save money, time, plastic bottles, and just be much more convenient!

1. Airplane pillow, so great for any traveling, literally anywhere. On a boat, in plane, sleeping in an airport, in the board bag for more padding.

2. Swiss army knife, pretty sure this explains itself, swiss know whats up!

3. IDP (International Driving Permit) a treaty between over 140 countries honor this as a driver license. Comes in handy because police can spot a tourist a mile away, you will get pulled over a lot anywhere. Basically helps to not spend money on pay off police when you don't need to. 

4. Headlamp

5. Converter and mini power strip, So much easier to have one converter and a strip instead of multiple converters.

So that is a sum up of what I am bringing and where our thoughts for surfing are when we arrive. Once again I am very excited to get out of America and explore another culture on the other side of the world. I don't leave America and my family in Southern California because we don't get a long or that I don't like where I live. But it is the complete opposite, I love my family and friends and leaving for a period of time just make them all that more special. Whenever I come home from a trip I am more grateful to have them in my life and appreciative of where I live even more! As of now in my life all I think about is the next adventure or next year where I want to go or how I want to see it. There are so many thoughts going through my head from road tripping in my truck from California to panama or sailing the Mediterranean or maybe cycle through Europe.
     Through the last 6 months I have seen a huge change in the age range I grew up in, some are just graduated from college and looking for there life long careers. Some are either on the road to getting married or already have tied the knot and are now just thinking money money money. Then there's the few friends who have babies and believe me I think that is wonderful, I can't wait to have a kid that is a mini me. But something 90% of the people I just listed will more then likely not do in there life is travel..... and I am not talking about going to Yosemite, New Orleans, Florida, or New York for a week. I am talking about going to somewhere unknown, a different continent, Australia, South Africa, Dubai, Vietnam, Portugal, Scotland, Turkey, literally anywhere in the whole fucking world.

     I feel like when people look at a map of the whole world they make it sound like somewhere other than America might as well be another planet. But realistically you can flight anywhere on this planet in a day and some driving. The planet is only becoming more and more accessible to travelers, and there are so many places to go for a budget. This map on the right shows the size of America to the rest of the world, America only takes up 2.5% of the land on this planet. There is so much to see and so many awesome people to meet, I can't stay in one place for to long until I feel like I have seen all I can!

Thank you to all my family, friends, and followers. Let the adventure start again.


Don't just be alive....Be living

Week 1 | Lombok

This is how my trip started...
      Woke up at 4am on Wed, got to the airport and flew out of Brisbane by 6am. After a 2.5 hr flight I had a 7 hr layover in Adelaide south Australia which I spent skyping the family then grabbed a bus to the beach nearby for some lunch. I got back to the airport and boarded my 4pm flight, 5 hrs later I landed in Bali, Indonesia 7:30pm local time. After an hour of waiting in airport to get through customs and get my visa finally got outta there, grabbed my board bag and hired a taxi, heading

Traffic on the road

straight for the ferry terminal in Padang Bai. 2 hours later now 10:30pm I walked onto the ferry with about 150 Indonesians, during the passage a couple people came up to me just wanting to talk. One guy approached me and after a bit of chatting the best we could in English we went through a lil language book I have and we taught each other some words. A bit later another man sat next to me and asked about my bracelets after I told him where I got them from he left and returned with a bag of some he had made. He picked out two and tied one to my wrist, before I could give him a couple rupiahs he said "for you my friend I want no money..." Where this kindness came from idk but this is Indonesia, a beautiful country everywhere from the people that inhabit it, the land, and of course the waves. Arriving on the island of Lombok at 3:30am I met a very nice and pretty Argentinian girl traveling alone, we decided to split a taxi since where she was going was on the way to my destination. Arriving at a hotel in the middle of Indonesia at 4:30 in the morning, let's just say the reception guy sleeping was very surprised to be woken up and asked in what room are my friends staying. My friends Eric and Zac from back home in California have been here in Indonesia for over a month. They were even more surprised to get a knock on the door and see me standing there after I txted them a few days prior saying "see you soon". We all were so excited to see each other we stayed up and talked about each others travels until the sun rose and it was time to surf. Now this picture comes into the story, after 24 of traveling including 2 flights, a bus, 2 taxis, a ferry, and quite a bit of walking with a large surfboard bag I am about to paddle out to a surf a perfect 6-8 ft right hand point with 2 good friends on the complete other side of the world.
     I stayed on the island of Lombok for 5 days and we scored waves everyday, and it even got so big that almost every spot was maxed out! My last time to Indonesia last year I had wanted to explore other places than Bali, I got out to the island of Sumbawa which was a amazing with semi uncrowded waves. This time to back to Indo I wanted to go somewhere new and Lombok was definitely high on the list, I was stoked to find out my mates were there. Once your off Bali, you see a whole different side of the Indonesian culture, it's beautiful and something I highly recommend if your ever in Bali. 

Lombok, Indonesia

     
     During the 5 days on Lombok I stayed at an awesome hotel that I have recommend in my Travel Surf Live Surf Guide to Lombok. The village we were living in is mostly made for surfers, all you see is lil warungs, couple surf shops, small surf hotels, and advertisements for boat trips and transport to other islands. My friends Zac and Eric had been there for a week before I arrived so they already knew the surf spots and everything so that was nice. We surfed 4 different waves in the 5 days, all rights over reef/rock bottoms. The food was alright, I ate mostly local food which is fried rice or fried noodle, but we did try a few burger places and also a pizza place which was actually pretty good! It's awfully rare to head to these countries and not have an upset stomach, some how I have yet to have food poisoning in a foreign country. What I found from traveling in foreign country it is easy to change most comforts except food, if you aren't feeling comfortable with what your eating it makes your trip very hard. 
     Some friend's I had made in Byron, a few swedish girls Elin, Jasmine, and Amanda had happened to be in Indonesia the same time I was there. They were on the Gili Islands just a short boat and an hour taxi from where I was at the time, so they decided to come by for a couple days to hang out. It was awesome seeing them again, my friends and the girls all hung out for a few days. Lounging by the pool after a surf, going for lunch, riding the scooters around, and hanging at the beach. After a few days they headed to Bali where we would soon meet up again!
     The first couple days on Lombok we surfed an epic right hander that is a 15 minute scooter ride outside the village. The setup up is beautiful with cliffs all around you and a couple small islands off the coast. The paddle is about 10 minutes at least so definitely gets you warmed up for the epic surf session your about to have. The next few days we switched off between a big bay about 30 minutes away where you can grab a small boat to 4 different waves in the bay. Its always fun getting on and off a boat to go surf, its basically the epic surf session to jump of a boat into the lineup. And for only 5 bucks round trip out to the waves, you can't complain at all!
     Lombok was much better than I had imagined it, so many opportunities to get out in the water to semi uncrowded line ups. The scenery is lush, jagged, extreme, and just plain beautiful. There is so much to explore with little to no people around, I can't wait to venture further and further next time. But for now 6 days was a perfect intro to the potentional of this 1 of the 10,000 Indonesian islands, back to Bali.....

Finding work on the Gold Coast!

     After Bryce and I had been in Aus for over a month we started to look for work, we had a bit of luck as I have wrote about in previous updates. But not as much as we thought, it turns out you need to be qualified for almost every kind of work here, that's a decent pay at least. So as we both didn't have working visas anyways we couldn't apply for some things necessary to get qualified for proper work. But none the less we still searched for work in between going to the beach and adventures. Once I got back from the sailing/Melbourne road trip I stayed in Byron for one week and ended up finding a job. The job is working for a guy that has bought a few houses that he wants fixed up so he can rent them out. The houses are in Gold Coast about an hour north of Byron, so I decided to hit the road to find some work. Bryce wanted to chill in Byron for a bit longer because he had some plans later that week.

My ride to work for a day, thanks to my mate Dillon!

     I headed up to Gold Coast on a Friday evening to stay with some good friends I met a month earlier, and they had found jobs up here as well. My friend Dillon and I went for a surf at Burleigh Heads just a few km's down the road from there house. The waves were ok head high and a bit walled but fun to get in the water at a new spot none the less. After a lil surf sesh we headed up into Surfer's Paradise where his girlfriend Roxanne was working in the mall. We hit an Australian classic food spot called Nando's, basically really good bbq/smoked chicken, beef, ribs, etc accompanied by a handful of chips (french fries). Later that night I went up to Brisbane to go to a friends birthday party, it was nice meeting some new people, a majority of them being french! I always try to learn a bit of french so that when I get home I can speak some to my grandparents who speak it fluently.

D-Bah in Coolangatta!

     Sunday was a fun day I spent roaming the city of Brisbane with my friends Emilie, Roxanne, and Dillon. A pretty clean city with lots of good lil food joints, a beautiful botanical garden, and great beaches along the river the city is built on. On the other side of the river is an awesome lagoon style beach themed watering hole that hundred of kids and families gather around on the weekends. I've never seen anything like it, all man made but gives the feeling of being in paradise with a sky scrapper backdrop in the distance. Had a great time in the city but it was time to go back to the Gold Coast to have my first day of work in the morning.
     The house this guy had bought is beyond a fixer upper, termite damage everywhere, and nothing was put together right the first time. But it is work that I know how to do and all I can find at the moment so I'm giving it a shot. For the first few days me and another guy working Luke, just tore out existing kitchen/drywall and reinforced some of the rotten walls the best we could. Put up all new drywall, installed a kitchen he bought at a salvage yard, put in a new toilet, and did lots of painting! I worked for 8 days and saved enough money along with some money from another gig to go to Bali. Between working for a week and a half I got a couple fun sessions in at Burleigh Heads and D-Bah, both waves I have heard about and always wanted to surf. After finishing work on Tuesday I headed up to Brisbane and started packing my bags for my flight to Bali then next day!

Sailing Gold Coast to Melbourne!

One week ago I replied to an ad on the internet looking for people to help deliver a boat from gold coast to Melbourne, I replied with my experienced and prayed I would get a call back. Today I am sitting on a 43ft catamaran and leave in a couple hours for a 6-10 day sailing voyage down the coast of Australia. How I have been so lucky on this trip I don't know but let the adventure start again. 

43 ft Catamaran in Gold Coast, Australia

Day 1 update: Leaving the harbor was a bit hairy, 12ft swells chop and wind for the first couple hours. Had a seagull hope on the boat and hung out till the morning for a free ride. I got some sleep before I had night watch from 8-11pm and then 2-5am wasn't to bad. Woke up to a delicious omelet breakfast and the sun rising on the horizon. Pod of dolphins followed us for 10 minutes a bit ago it was beautiful. Were cruising about 15-20 miles off shore, motor sailing at about 6 knots, the sea is a lot calmer today and the sun's out! Should pull into Sydney harbor by Sunday morning, get some fuel an some more supplies.

Day 3 update: the last 24 hours have been quite interesting, other than making good timing from gold coast to Sydney. Had watch this am from 5-8 and witnessed by far the most beautiful sunrise I have very seen in my life, photos wouldn't do it justice. After a quick nap some fighter planes flew over head doing some training maneuvers, followed by a pod of 100 pilot whales! Later on after playing a couple cards games we noticed a storm with a waterspout following us from behind, so we prepared for the worst. There are a couple in cyclones in the area that we have somehow have been barely dodging, just before sunset our port engine went out. For dinner I prepared a huge pot of spaghetti Bolognase, then we worked on the engine while still motoring towards Sydney about 50 miles away at the time. After an hour of helping work on the engine I bunked down for a nap before my watch later that night. Woke up to lightning storms all around us, the port engine running again, and the wind howling. Had to immediately attach lifelines to myself to stay on the boat and reef the sails to make them smaller so the wind wouldn't toss the boat around as much. We rode out the wind for awhile, it's now 3am and were about 5 miles away from entering Sydney harbor finishing our first leg, going to anchor for the night, get some sleep, gas up in the morning, and head out again! An amazing experience so far and it's not even half over yet, the craziest leg is yet to come, the bass strait....known as one of the worst seas in the world, but luck has been on our side so far!
 

Off the coast of New South Wales, most beautiful sunsets ever!

Day 5 update: Yesterday we got into Sydney harbor at 5 am, tied up to a mooring and all got some good sleep, since we had been non stop sailing for 3 days. After waking up and getting some breakfast, the captain and I bleed the fuel system of the port engine which was the problem why it was acting up and cutting out on us the day before. When finished we headed to shore to get some food from the store, a weather update, refueled, filled up the water tank, and lastly cruised by the Sydney opera house for a quick photo session! We departed the harbor around 5pm yesterday and headed south into some moderately choppy conditions, was a pretty low key night but made some good miles. All day today was quite bumpy and not to eventful, except we tried to get close to an island that had said in the book there are little penguin species and fur seals that live there. We didn't see any which was disappointing, but at least we tried, about 24 hrs after leaving Sydney we had sailed about 200 miles which is much better than we expected. It is now a Lil after 1am on Saturday morning and the wind is howling, but we are cruising at about 10 knots, hopefully making it into the bass strait by sunrise! Some crazy conditions out here, couple good knock arounds, some how have yet to be sea sick, and been dodging some storms passing by us as if were in a lil bubble. At the moment we are on course to make it to Melbourne Sunday evening or early Monday morning which would be a great accomplishment! Wish us luck 

The Tasman Sea is relentless

Day 6 update: About 2 hours after the last update I had posted shit went haywire, our so called safe bubble we have had all trip pop'd. We got around the southeast corner of Australia where New South Wales and Victoria border is, heading towards the bass strait right into a storm.... 8-12 ft swell and whitecaps smashing over the bow. The boat was rocking all over the place, water washing through the cockpit, and pots flying off the stove. Haven't had much of an appetite in the last couple days and it finally caught up to me this morning during my 5-8am watch had to throw up twice, then finally got to bed when my shift ended. Took about 30 minutes to get to sleep since waves hitting the side of the boat makes the inside of my cabin sound like a warzone. Trying to fall asleep in the seas were in is equivalent to trying to sleep in the back of a trophy truck doing an offroad race, but sleep is the only way to feel better and get rid of the stomach ache and nausea feeling. After waking up and being on watch again around 11am the sea had gotten worse, we had to bring the sails in(reef them) and slow down. Were not making much head way since the wind and swell is not in our favor, making it so we have to zig zag(tack) back and forth taking 3 times as long to go towards our destination. We've decided to head towards land and hug the coast a bit more in case we need to go for shelter (even tho the closest sheltered inlet is 80 miles away). Waking up after another small nap around 6pm the Tasman sea has calmed to a bare-able chop, wind has changed south (to our favor) and were finally making headway again. Got a bit of pasta and garlic bread for dinner in me and couple waters, crew and myself are hoping it stays like this throughout the night so we don't have to head for refuge and can just get to Melbourne on schedule! As crazy as this has been and even during the times of feeling like shit these couple days I wouldn't change this voyage at all, it has showed me mother nature and the sea in its most raw form, which not to many people get to experience. It has also got me thinking about my career path I have been working towards (becoming a captain), not that I don't want to anymore but that I need more experience just like these voyages. Being on a boat miles off the coast not being able to see land and at the mercy of the sea's raw power is the most adrenaline and mixed emotional excitement I've ever had in my life!

Lighthouse island somewhere in the Tasman Sea

Day 8 update: Haven't had any signal for the last couple days here in the Tasman sea about 30-45 miles off shore. After my last update we had a pretty calm morning, then later that day got hit by another decent storm, not as bad as the one I described before, but still a good amount of chop to knock shit around. Yesterday evening I got a pretty good nap in before getting some food in my stomach as well. Watch last night from 11pm - 2am was pretty bumpy, with a bit of action, dodging couple islands, a ferry, and fishing boat while heading around South East Point. As the rest of the crew has been sipping away at hot tea or coffee on night watch, I've been living of the delicious lil cup of noodle packets you dump into a mug then fill the rest with hot water, been keep me alive haha. It's been really fun navigating at night reading the chart and GPS, looking for the lighthouses and there light patterns. Then putting all that together to find out where you are on the chart and what points of references you need to stay between to navigate through safely. I've always loved navigation, maps, and geography for that matter so doing all of that while on the ocean has been a lot of fun! Last night the captain didn't wake us for our 5am watch and I didn't notice till I awoke at 7:30am, but he had it under control as well as getting us sailing at 11 knots for a couple hours. It's now 9am on Monday morning, were 83 miles from the entrance of Port Phillips (Melbourne), if we keep up our current speed should get to the entrance around 9pm tonight. Which would be good timing since the tide rising will help us get through the inlet which acts like a river since it's so narrow. After entering the inlet we would still have roughly 30 miles to the Marina we are delivering to, the bay which Melbourne sits on is huge and might as well be a sea of it's own, but at least we will be sheltered from the swell and be able to make good time once inside. So as of now our ETA to arriving at the docks ending our voyage is 2am tonight if everything goes to plan, that's about 17 hours from now, fingers crossed. Oh and we had a pretty epic rainbow pop up after sunrise this am so hopefully that will give us some good luck for the rest of the day.

Byron Bay.....

     It's been a couple weeks since I have got on the blog here and I have good reasons for that. I am currently in Byron Bay about 2 hours south of Brisbane and have been here for a couple weeks. When we arrived we instantly fell in love with the atmosphere, people, and scenery. The town has turned in a backpackers haven in the last decade, almost completely catering to a backpackers every need. The town is full of young people with stories from there travels around the world, I have met so many amazing people that are now friends for life.
     The first night we arrived in Byron we stayed at a hostel called Nomad's which is a well known world wide hostel business chain. It was a pretty cool spot, we grabbed some beer and had a couple drinks with friends before hitting the bars. The bar we went to was hilarious, it was a Wednesday night and it was packed, dancing on tables, pretty decent music, and 5 dollar beers. Basically danced the night away and had a last drink down on the beach before making our way back to the hostel and trying to find our room.

Art work all of over the hostel, its very inspiring.

     We had to leave our van at one of there other locations a couple minutes down the road at The Arts Factory Lodge, since it would fit in there underground car park. When we went to pick up the van we found out that at that hostel they have a car park where you can pay $15 a night to just camp in your van instead of the $46 a night bed in the dorms. You were still able to use all the amenities of the hostel including there showers, restrooms, laundry, cafe, pool tables, pool, ping pong, volleyball court, they have it all! We payed for a week since we knew we wanted to be here awhile then got some wifi to start looking for a couple lil jobs.
     We spent the first couple days meeting new people around the hostel, going to the beach, then to the library for some free wifi to look for small gigs to get some money. We struggled finding jobs for the first week and a half we were here, but finally the research and emails paid off with two labor jobs for 3 days of work! After a week at the hostel we were able to sign up to work for free accommodation at the hostel which would save us about $100 a week. Plus I was getting a lil bored and definitely wanted to do something, so we started working at the hostel last week. It has been a blast, the way it works is you work 2 days in a row 3 hrs each day, then you get two days off, then it starts over again. The 2 days you work gets you 4 nights accommodation, so it is really a good system plus when your working you get to meet some other great people that are working there as well and have been around for awhile.
    So the 3 days of work we had was going to be a crazy 60 hours but we decided to just push through it to make some good money! It went a lil something like this, woke up Monday morning and worked at the hostel for 4.5 hours since we weren't going to be there the next day. After we got in the van and headed straight to Burleigh Heads about 45 minutes north, we started work at 6pm. The job was renovating a section of a store called Big W (basically a Walmart), redoing the home entertainment section and moving things around. The work the first day was tough since we had to demolish some desks and clothing racks to throw away in a large dumpster, but the guys working were all really cool and easy to get along with. We finished at 4:30 am the next morning, 10 hours of work, when we got off we headed straight back to the Byron area and got a couple hours sleep. Our other job was helping an older lady move some of her things into a storage unit, cleaning her office, doing some yard work, and washing windows. The lady was awesome and had lived a very interesting life being married to an author for 45 years as well as traveling her self being a cook for archeologists on dig sites! We started at her house at 9:30, worked till noon and she made us a delicious lunch, worked a couple more hours and was off by 3:30 with $90 each in our pockets. We headed directly back to Burleigh again to work at the Big W for one more night, this time we started at 5:30pm and finished at 7:00am. After finishing in the early morning we jumped in the van and headed straight to the ocean for a refreshing morning swim! It woke us up a bit and then we cruised back down to the hostel to get some sleep.

Bryce taking the Go Pro out for fun in the water.

     The following days we definitely took it easy and relaxed at the hostel and hit the beach a couple times. The waves were picking up so I got down there for a couple of fun sessions. Thursday I had a feeling this one beach break right out front the hostel was going to be good so we went to check it out and it was so fun! Had a bunch of good waves and got some fun Go Pro shots as well, until I somehow snap my fin box on my board out and ended the session :( . After we grabbed some lunch I stopped by Patagonia where my friend Emilie works here in Byron. We chatted for awhile and I got a number form a good ding repair guy. I went to drop my boards off asap so I could get them back soon before the swell dropped!
     The next couple days we worked at the hostel in the morning and kept improving our tent setup we had going. It an awesome setup we have here at the hostel and couldn’t be more stoked to be in such an awesome environment where everyone is stoked everyday. A couple days earlier as Bryce and I were at the library getting some wifi, Bryce found an ad looking for a couple people interested in delivering a boat from Gold Coast to Melbourne. I instantly jumped on the opportunity since this is the career path I’m working to get into and it would be a great opportunity to get some great experience. We both sent emails and awaited a reply, the reply had come and I was going to be heading to the Gold Coast Sunday night to board the boat Monday morning.

Surfer's Paradise skyline

     Flash forward to Monday morning and I’m standing on the dock looking at a beautiful 43 foot catamaran that I will be sailing with 3 other crew members for the next 7-10 days down the east coast of Australia. The captain Ed Brennan is 28 years old from England, he has been sailing and on boats his whole life, and in the recent years doing deliveries all around Australia. He also heads of to the Mediterranean to work over there during there season as well, lots of experience and a super cool guy none the less. After I got my backpack on board and got a tour, we headed for the store to get food for the next week! The other two guys were flying in from Sydney and their plane was running a bit late so we decided to get some things done in the mean time. After a couple hours and $500 later at the store we made our way back to the boat to start putting everything away and get ready to depart later that evening.

Our way to Byron Bay

     After having a great night camping on the beach we got back on the road heading North! We stayed overnight in the town of Forester, pretty low key night cooking up some chicken rice and beans. We have been eating very well on this trip, all of our cooking while were camping is always delicious and filling. Waking up in Forester we headed down to the water for a morning dip and brought the mask to do a little diving. Nice relaxing morning before a couple hour drive up to our next destination Port Macquarie, where we were going to catch a ferry across the river! As we got into town we searched for a quick lunch and went to the mall to get some wifi for a bit. After chatting with the fam and some friends we decided to go down to a cool lil beach and get in the water and find out what to do for the night. As we got outta the water and had a look at the map we realized were only another 45 minutes or so from Crescent Heads.

     Flash forward an hour and I'm looking over at Bryce with the biggest smile on his face driving down this dirt road, the van shaking so much we wouldn't be surprised if it falls apart. After hoping on a quick ferry and dodging potholes for about an hour we had finally arrived in the lil town of Crescent head, we immediately left the town again in search of camp for the night. After finding a perfect spot on the beach outside of town we started cooking dinner under a tarp held down with a couple sticks and string as it started raining. When we had finally finished dinner the rain had stopped and the millons of stars had appeared behind the clouds. I thought being out in the middle of the desert I saw a lot of stars but nothing compares to the nights here on a deserted beach!

     Waking up to a couple cars nearby I knew there had to be some waves, I suited up and got out to head high peaks with 3 guys out and plenty of waves for everyone. Surfing is getting so popular nowadays, when surfing at home in Huntington Beach with a hundred people in the water and hassling for every wave, it makes me wonder. I wonder why don't more people stop complaining about going out to crowded waves, just being on this trip I've surfed by myself multiple times without

having to go that far to search for that wave. The waves were hardly perfect, but it makes you appreciate surfing and the ocean so much more when your relaxed and not getting angered by other people in the water. Anyways, we chilled on the beach for a bit cleaning up the van and making some improvement, and of course as I look back out at the water I see another fun head high wave roll through. Being a surfer seeing unridden waves coming you have to go out if it's the middle of Australia and there could be a shark out haha. It was hard leaving that beach since it was such a beautiful setup with nobody around, but I know I will come back here again soon and I'm sure it won't change.
     We hit the road back to the highway and to our next stop Coffs Harbor which was about 120km (75miles) so a pretty easy day. We try to not drive far or fast everyday so we can keep the van running good and not breaking down. Coffs harbor was a cool area but we didn't do much but take a nap and cook up some dinner before hitting the bed.

Iluke, NSW, Australia

     From Coffs Harbor we cruised for a couple hours to the town of Grafton where we stopped for awhile to get some good internet at the library. It's hard to find a decent internet spot on the road and that's also why I have had a hard time updating the blog! On our way towards Byron we had one more night to stop, we decided on a super chilled spot in Iluka, just north of Yamba. We got to the parking area and immediately headed down to the water to go for a dip, fun lil bodysurf waves out front. After chillen on the beach and taking in the sun and scenery we headed back to start cooking up dinner. Nobody around but the sound of the wind through the trees and birds chirping in the distance, after no time dinner was ready and we chowed. It started pouring rain during the night which sounds like guns shots on the metal roof of the van! In the morning I got up a bit early to check the surf, I met a guy named Pete down by the beach the only other person around for miles. He ended u being a super cool guy as we chatted for awhile about where we were from before deciding to hit the water with no one around. As I found out he had worked on private yachts for the last 8 years and has traveled the world by boat, we exchanged emails so I could send him my resume to potentially get a job around here. After surfing with 2 other guys out for 2 hours I finally headed in to snag some breakfast and decide where we were headed next.
     On the road again headed towards Byron with no plans what so ever, getting into town we already saw that this place was special! We parked the van and just walked around for awhile checking out all the shops, food, and went to a pawn shop to look at longboards (mauw, they call it here) for Bryce. Couple minutes later as Bryce was at the ATM I ran into my friend Emilie who had been living here for a couple months. I hadn't seen her since I was in Bali last year and it was awesome catching up and we planned to hang out while we were in town. After asking a couple people the best option for the night we ended up at Nomad's probably the most famous hostel in Australia. There were young fun people everywhere and we knew it was going to be a good night, stay tuned for what else to come from our stay in Byron!