100 Days of Indo // Part 6

In the start of the episode I head off to the airport on my way home to surprise my family for Thanksgiving! But after that the boys get a few more fun waves all over Bali, and the ending footage makes you want to boo your ticket to the disneyland island of surfing right now!

If you haven't yet, get caught up by watching Episode 1 / Episode 2 / Episode 3 / Episode 4 / Episode 5 !



We get back to Bali for the final leg of the trip, hit Kuta for a party night, and enjoy the last couple weeks of the trip.

A SOVRN Republic Web Series
SovrnRepublic.com (Use promo code "travelsurflive for %15 off!)
In Association With Funkhouse Media
facebook.com/funkhousemedia

Music:
Hit The Road by Gyom
Way Out by Kaptain
Fried Eggs by Vitamin Pets
Wounded Butterfly by REW
World of Beauty by Ryan Taubert

100 Days of Indo // Part 1

Last year I was able to do a trip with some good mates to Indonesia for 3 months. With the help of Sovrn Republic and Funkhouse Media were able to get together all the footage into an epic 6 part series, enjoy!



Watch Episode 2 Next ►

So it begins. As we land on Bali and get acclimated to Southeast Asia, we explore the southern part of the island, known as the Bukit, and explore the options for surf. As we cruise around the island for the first week, we make stops at Bingin, Balangan and Uluwatu. Testing our language skills, we get indigenous with some elderly locals near Nyang Nyang.

A SOVRN Republic Web Series
SovrnRepublic.com (Use promo code "travelsurflive for %15 off!)
In Association With Funkhouse Media
Facebook.com/Funkhousemedia

Music:
Hit The Road by Gyom
Kingston Shuffle by Good New Tunes
Parametaphoriquement by gmz
Brake Dub by belaf
Feet in the Sand by Morgantj

From L-R: Brian Daigneault, Travis Lindsey, David Elliot, Jeremy Jennings, Jay Neyer, Alex Arkeilpane

Family trip to Bali didn't start so well!

Taipei, Taiwan

TRAVEL UPDATE

"Not all traveling can go perfectly to plan nor can be the funnest, but its the times that aren't fun or when nothing is going right that you look back on and have a laugh or tell a story about..." -Brian Daigneault

     Usually the travel time between California and Bali is around 30-36 hours between getting to airport, checking in, flight, layover, another flight, visa line, and transport to the accommodation. And for this trip being with the family it would have been nice to have it all only take about 30 hours, but it didn't quite go that way....

     Everything went south when we got to my grandparents house for dinner before they were going to give us a lift to the airport where our flight was scheduled to depart at midnight Monday. As we were about to leave the airport, my dad said maybe we should just check to see if the flight was delayed, and sure enough it was, 9 hour delay for a typhoon warning in Taipei where our layover was. Back home it was to get some sleep, we arrived at LAX and asked the counter now that our flight was delayed we would miss our connector flight. They told us that they didn't know and the counter in Taiwan would let us know, great that never is a good answer.

     Landing in Taiwan after a 14 hr flight we then found out we had to spend the night and the next available flight wasn't until 9:15am now Thursday because of the time change. The airlines took the 20 or so of us that were trying to get to Bali to a pretty nice hotel outside Taipei where my family got there first culture shock of asian life. Duck and pork was on the dinner menu as well as other interesting vegetables that our taste buds have never tasted before. We all crashed pretty hard since none of us got much sleep on the flight and we have been up for over 20 hours.

     Finally arriving in Bali at 2:30pm local time we went through the visa line and waited for our luggage for long enough to start wondering and looking around. Ourselves and another few passengers that were now our friends since we had been together the last few days went to the counter and they told us our luggage was stuck in Taipei and would hopefully arrive tomorrow. Once we took the hour taxi ride up to our first spot were staying we walked down the cliff to grab dinner watching the beautiful sunset! Waking up to our first morning on Bali I can't wait to rent a couple scooters and show the family my favorite places...stay tuned.

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.....

My personal travel information community!

So since i have been home form my last trip I started putting out all the information I have on all these great places I have been. Its been awesome getting all the info down and categorizing it so hopefully others can use this when they go travel to a destination I have listed. All the information is from first hand experiences and all the little things people and tourist sites won't include. All of my experiences are authentic and all of them include surfboards, HINT read the section on Getting There Sumbawa if you ever plan on going. Check them out on the links at the top right of my blog, thanks and stay posted! Instagram: @travelsurflive

No boards for 5 days in Sumbawa...

     We arrived to the airport at 1:00 am Wednesday morning, our flight didn't leave until 9:20am, the reason for us getting to the airport so early was to get our boards on the plane for sure. We couldn't get into the terminal until around 4am so we just hung out, I got some sleep and Jeremy listened to music and wrote a bit in the journal. Got into the terminal and had to wait again at the ticket window to grab our boarding passes and check in the board bag, we put all our boards in my big coffin bag to make it easier. We got into the line right as it opened and hassled a bit to check our bag, but payed for it and checked it in, in line made a few friend's with some aussies. As we watched them check in there bags one of them would crouch behind the counter and lift up slightly on the board bag so it would show it weighing less. It was so perfectly executed we were laughing so hard in line and none of the workers new what was going on! Got into the boarding area and waited yet again, finally boarded the flight and snapped some pics in the air before getting a small nap on the hour long flight. As we arrived in the airport and found our driver we waited for the board bags coming in, and of course ours wasn't F***ing there, after all we did to make sure, we were pissed. The transport driver said he would pick them up if they came in tomorrow, we split taxis with the aussies and had two cars packed since we were headed to the same place. We arrived to our place were staying at after a 2 hour car ride, all the aussies were frothing so we rented some scooters and headed down the coast to find this good right hander we had heard of. The road there was awesome, about 2 miles on a dirt road of mud, rocks, holes, and it was pouring rain haha, had a great time flying through mud getting wet and racing around. They got out to surf as we watched them for a few minutes then headed back since didn't have our boards, both of us were starving when we got back so munched down some great pasta here at the restaurant. Both of us passed out shortly after dinner since we had been up for over 48 hours.
     Thursday was boring mostly sitting around and eating at the restaurant, we took a lil adventure before the taxi drivers were supposed to arrive from the airport. We adventured down the road to another wave we had heard of, the beach was littered with cobblestones very similar to trestles. The wave as a cool setup breaking into a bay, with a mushy right but looked like a decent left, the swell was a lil big for the spot so might be better when it gets smaller in a few days. As we got back the boards did not arrive, I cruised around to all the other hotels and still no luck, everyone had told us that if they didn't make it on the flight they would come the next day. Disappointed once again being in such an awesome place staring at great waves all day and nothing to do about it, of course we had some friend's say we could borrow boards but there's always the possibility of breaking them. We sat down for an early dinner and started chatting with an older aussie guy named Larry that seemed pretty interesting, he started telling us about his life and traveling in Indo since the 70's. He had literally been everywhere in the world to surf for the passed 40 years in his life, of course I asked him about every place I could think of I wanted to go and search for waves. Larry knew everything about the country and spots, time of the year to go, and what he thought of the area, living in Bali now he chases swells around the area all year. Larry's new adventure is buying a sailing catamaran next year and sailing from Mentawis down Indo, over Aus through New Guinea and through Soloman, Marshall, and Tahitian islands, turn around and keep doing it until he gets bored, legend.

     Friday we got up and had some breakfast around 8, I was chatting with the owner of where were staying and he offered to let us borrow a few boards, after taking a look at them they were decent enough to surf. Jeremy laughed when he saw the boards and how my leash was basically duck taped on and his barely hanging from an eroded shoestring, literally... He paddled out to the left called Lakey pipe and i just headed to Lakey peak seeing a few fun ones roll through with no one going right. I had a fun session with how crappy the board was, nice to get in the water finally, Jeremy said he also got a few fun ones over at the pipe with 2 guys out haha. Of course after surfing for 2 hours and a pretty solid 15 minute paddle each way out to the wave we demolished our lunch and just relaxed for awhile. I got on the phone with my mom for awhile and also chatted with my dad, they were excited to hear from me and talked about what I had been doing last few days. I told them that they should move over to Bali and try out owning a hostel or small hotel for a year to try something totally different! They are both interested in the idea and have already started to minimize our possessions to try something different like that in a year or year and half. It's exciting to hear that and I hope it works out because I would love both of them to start enjoying life more and travel, since they have both worked hard for so long! I yet again went to all the hotels to see if our boards were here yet and they weren't, now 3 days without boards, we heard of a guy at another hotel getting a  full refund for his flight since his boards took three days also! We just cruised around where were staying listened to some music and played pool on the sketchy duck taped felt pool table, but hey it works and is just as competitive!
     Saturday we got up and scootered with some of the aussies and our local friend Jamaica down the road to check out a beach break. It was away's down the road through a few villages where you get the stares, like what the heck are you surfers doing down here there's no waves haha. And of course after the 30 minute scooter ride there wasn't, but cool seeing some more of the lifestyle around this area of the island! All if us headed back and surfed another spot we had been checking out, still had the old beat up boards the owner, Rachelle (Ra- shell, man's name in France) let us borrow. Both of us got a few waves, just frustrating because the boards aren't nearly close to what we ride on the daily basis. Arriving back to our place I got an email from some friend's that had left this morning and said they would check into our boards for us at the Bali airport. They said the check-in desk told them they have yet to and will not put the bag on the plane because the bag is to big, and that it is probably sitting in the lost and found office. We were both pissed of course but at least we knew where they were, I booked a flight right away back to Bali to figure the situation out, figured it would be easier and less money if just one of us goes! We tried to enjoy the rest of our day and I crashed early because had a long day ahead of me with the 2 hour taxi to the airport, wait for 2 hours, hour flight, then figure out the board bag situation.
     Sunday morning got up at 6:30am and had a bite to eat before hitting the road, the 2 hour drive from Lakey to the airport is filled with cows, monkeys, goats, dogs, and of course people all over the road! The driver gets you to the airport almost two hours before the flight, so just gotta sit and wait it out, luckily I chatted with an older guy that I met who was also staying at Lakey's but just now leaving. Like Larry that I had met a few days before he had to traveled Indonesia for a long time and has been quite a few places, he grew up in Morocco but is now living in France. As I have said before it's just really fun and interesting to me to meet new people from other parts of the world, and to also see what they have done with there life and if they are happy with there life! The hour flight wasn't bad, got into the airport in Bali and went straight to the Merpati airlines check in desk, I asked to talk to a manager and after some hassle saying "I don't want to explain everything twice". I basically explained to them what I had to go through to come back and get my boards and of course they speak english but act like they only understand a few things. If this were to happen in America it would have been a totally different situation, all that ended up happening was I got priority check in the next morning. I got the board bag from lost and found, and got our driver Putu to meet me at the aiport so I could get back to the hostel and separate the boards into 2 bags, so that they would for sure get on this time. I got back to Canggu and went straight to Bu Mi to get some food, it was pouring rain in Bali so I had to throw a poncho on and take it slow. When I arrived back at the hostel immediately dove into switching the board bags up, had to take everything out of Jeremy's which is the one we left there and move it into mine. Also grabbed one of Bryce's (hostel owner) extra board bag's n had to put 2 board's in each bag and take out as much weight as possible to make sure that they get on this time! It was pouring the rest of the day, so I just chilled out and watched a few movies, got to bed early since had to wake up and leave for the airport at 5:00am.
     Monday I was up early since our driver Putu came to pick me up at 5:00 am, I arrived at the check in desk at 5:45 and sat there waiting till they opened, which wasn't till 6:30. I was the first to get the two board bags checked in just taking all precautions, then when all was done with I still had 2 hours before my flight. Went over to a Starbucks and grabbed a smoothie and cinnamon roll, got onto there free wifi and started chatting with some family and friends on skype through my phone. It was nice chatting to a few buddies to see how they were doing and also give them a few funny stories from the trip, also got a hold of my grandma who was more than ecstatic to hear from me! After chilling out in the A/C and comfy chairs in Starbucks for hour n half, made my way back into the terminal to hop on the bus that takes you onto the runway where the semi small 60 person plane boards. Flight was quick and easy, landed and saw my board bags getting unloaded, thank god finally, yet again got on board for the 2 hour long, crazy, and uncomfortable car ride to the beach. Once I got back I was just done, it was such a mission and I had a headache and stomach ache since the night before I left 3 days ago, I got a bit of food then went straight to the bed to nap around 2:30pm. Jeremy was of course frothing and grabbed his board and was out there right away, super stoked. I woke up a few times but didn't get up until 5:00am the next day, felt so shitty, head ached and stomach ached so bad.

Sleeping the airport night before flight to Sumbawa.

The old school shred sticks we borrowed for a day when our boards didn't come.

The restaurant at where were staying, looking out over the left side is the beach.

Low tide on the inside reef, boats get dry docked for the afternoon.

The left they call Lakey Pipe isn't bad either.

You can walk all the way out to the contest tower on low tide.

Canggu Part 2

     Sunday we got up early and scooted up to the secret beach we had been surfing at, we had it all to ourselves, waves were decent size but pretty walled. We found a corner that was letting up and went out there to get some Go Pro footage for a bit, we were only out for about hour n half, then we made our way back through the villages and rice patties back to town! We stopped at our favorite place again, warung Bu Mi and got our normal big plate of rice, veggies, and meat for about $1.50, got back to the hostel and I skyped the family and friends for a few hours. We decided to head down to the beach out front and try to get an evening sesh before it got dark, it was super choppy as it usually is in the evenings around here since it's so open to wind. We both caught a few and were going to catch another one in, I went to duck dive one of the bigger sets and came back up and the nose of my board was snapped off! I was just surprised that it had just happened but of course mad, since that was the board I had been riding the most. We got back to the house and cleaned up, as we were both super hungry for dinner, we went to a place called Bj's that was known for there burgers. We both got a burger and it was definitely the best we have had on the island, most places have lil thin patties and small buns. But this place was much better with bigger patties and buns, and some pretty tasty fries! We chatted with the owner for a bit while finishing the meal and admiring the cool design of the restaurant, we payed for the meal and scooted back home in the dark to watch a movie before crashing out.
     Monday we slept in a bit and headed down to Echo beach which is a 5 minute scoot out front, we got in the water and Jeremy surfed the main peak out front and I paddled down the beach a bit to the river mouth. I went down there since it was a bit bigger and I was riding my 6'2" back up board, there were some fun ones but a lil crowded, so it was hard to get the bigger sets. I got out and walked up the beach and Jeremy was already at the scooter, apparently he was only out for 15 minutes when someone paddled in front of him as he was taking off and he ran over the guys board and ended up cracking his own board bad enough to where he had to get out. I said everything must happened in two's like how I got my phone stolen then the same day he cut his head, now I broke my board and his got dinged up! We got lunch at our fav place again, relaxed for awhile then went to a local surf shop to check out boards but I couldn't find any decent ones. Jeremy had fixed his ding with some repair stuff he brought, and wanted to get a evening sesh in, I cruised out there with a fin and the Go Pro to try and get some water footage. We weren't out to long, since the wind picked up and it was a bit crowded, we went out to dinner at a 3 course meal warung we had the first night in Canggu, good food, cheap, and close to the house. Finished the night off with a few beers hanging with friends at the hostel,
     Tuesday we decided to head into Kuta to look into renewing our Visa's and look at more surf shops for my new board. On the way to the airport we stopped at KFC, it was a trip, nothing like home, the biggest KFC I've ever seen with barely anything on the menu! We munched up some good chicken and fries then kept on through the busy Kuta streets to the airport. As we parked in a sea of scooters, literally a parking lot with easily 2,000 scooters, we made our way to the information area and immediately got pointed in different directions by everybody! We finally found out we had to go to a building away from the airport, we arrived and of course with our luck they had close the Visa extension section 15 minutes before we arrived. So we hopped on the scooter and headed towards downtown Kuta where we had been directed towards some good surf shops, we ended up at a cool lil shop and one of the boards immediately struck my eye. It was a perfect shape, similar to what I usually surf, I talked the guy into making a deal for the board, including a leash, kick pad and fins! I was so stoked that when we got back we went out for a quick evening sesh so I could try it out, unfortunately it wasn't very good again since it was windy, but we ran into some friends down there after surfing and decided to meet back down for dinner. The dinner we had with friends was awesome, right on the beach was a bbq setup where you could go pick from fresh fish and meat that would get bbq'd right away. While you were waiting for them to grill up your meat of choice there was a great salad bar to fill your self up with, we chatted about our travels and what were planning to do the rest of the time in Bali. Always nice meeting new people while traveling with such a different background from yourself, we said our goodbyes and headed home for bed!
     Wednesday we had planned on going to a new area called Sanur, we got a late start and went to a great place called the Canteen for breakfast. We got back to the house and relaxed while watching a movie, and looking into transport vans and places to stay in Sanur, we picked out a place gave em a call and they saved us a room. We decided to stop by a Visa renewal office that Bryce had recommended to us, the guy was a bit hard to understand but we finally figured it out and gave him our passports so he could renew them and get them back within a week. We could now pack up and call a transport to take us down to Sanur, we hired a guy for $20 to take us about 15 miles but in traffic, so it took almost an hour. We arrived at the hotel which was a lil hidden down an alley way, but had a sweet lil bar food area downstairs, we took our boards and bags up to our room on the 3rd floor and got settled in. We were both starving so after unpacking and hanging in the ac for a bit we went down to grab dinner, I got a burger with fries that was actually really good. It had a decently thick patty (which is hard to find in Bali) and lots of toppings, we both mowed down our food and went back to relax before crashing out. Our room has a tv with 8 or so american channels, we haven't watched tv the whole time in Bali, so it was nice watching discovery channel and catching up on some cool shows.

Broken stick

Living room and Kitchen of the hostel.

Improvise Go Pro stand, coconut and bamboo!

New board, yewww!

Love the scenery on the beach everytime you go for a surf in indo.

Riding on the beach

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..

Getting off the beaten path....

     We have now been on Bali for a week, Thursday we got an earlier start and wanted to check out another spot called Green Bowls, also on the other side of the bukit. We packed up the backpack with a few snacks and waters, and then got the surfboard on the scooter and took off. Once again I looked at the map before we left to get a mental image of what roads to take to get there, I love looking at a map and then just heading off and hoping I get it right. Well we ended up at the place I wanted to get to, but it ended up being a resort that wanted 250k rupiah ($25 USD) just to go down to the beach, some spots I look for are just a dot on a map and usually not in the right spot, so they always take a lil extra finding to get to. So once again we head back to Uluwatu, grab some food at our favorite warung, and chill for a bit before I went for a surf. I had a good hour and half surf with not to to many people out, I also tried surfing a new peak that is a lil more up the point that I got some fun backside snaps on. We headed back to the room to take our mid day relax session which usually consists of a dip in the pool, maybe a coca cola or ice cream, and watch some funny or surfing youtube videos. We went down out in front of our place to Bingin for an evening surf and smoothie, it was max low tide and i had to basically walk 150 feet on the reef step by step, pretty painful and annoying. But from the beach we both saw perfect left draining barrels, it is a hard wave to surf because the take off spot is so small, there's basically about 15 guys within 10 sq ft all trying to get a wave. Most of the time a local gets it and makes it all look to easy, I got one barrel but tried to stall to hard and didn't make it, got a few more smaller ones, then caught one did a snap and my board slide way more than it should have. I knew exactly what was wrong, flipped my board over and of course a fin had fallen out, so that was the end of the session for me, on my way in I got a few cuts on my hands and feet from the reef being so shallow. Jeremy and I enjoyed a smoothie before heading back up to grab dinner and passing out because we both were exhausted.
     Friday morning I ate a quick pbj and headed towards town to ship a few things I had bought for a friend and also for somebody who had donated via my blog here. The whole process at the post office took almost an hour, the language barrier just makes everything take a lil longer, plus there were a few other people there, and I had to package the gifts and write out the addresses. Finally I got out of there stopped by the market to get more Peanut butter, stopped for more gas, then made my way back to the room where Jeremy was kicking it. We basically layed low most of the day, looked into some other spots and airfare where we might want to travel to, I started getting board so I took the scooter on some adventuring. Most of my friend's and family that know me know I always like to explore, especially when dirt biking, I'm always looking at different trails while riding and more often then not get separated from the group because I explored a new trail a saw. I can't help myself it's just who I am, well this exploring really paid off because I found a road into a dirt trail that took us right to a spot next door called Dreamland, the way the map shows its 6.5 miles, the way I found is not even 1.5 miles. So now it's like my go to spot when Bingin is to low tide, after I went over the other side of the bukit and literally took any road I could off the main road and towards the beach. Lots of dead ends, people asking where are you going nothing back here, but finally found some roads to look outs on the cliff to see some surfable spots. I also stumbled across a beautiful temple with lots of chinese tourists eating and taking pictures with the view. I ended up meeting a surf that had just got out of the water named Peter from Aus, he had been coming to Bali for over 20 years and had some great knowledge. He explained how to get to a few surf spots I was looking for and what tide there good on, lots of good info to make surfing here in Bali a lil easier for us. When I got back me and Jeremy were both hungry, so we went to find a lil mexican place a friend had told me about, we had to explore for awhile until we finally found it down the road at Padang, it's called Sunset Grill, and it was decent mex, of course not as good as home but nice to mix it up!
     So Saturday I wanted to show Jeremy some of the spots I had explored and found the day before, after having some snacks for breakfast, we hit the road with my surfboard strapped on and a backpack. It took me a bit to find some of the spots since I went down so many different roads the day before, but we ended up getting to them and he was amazed how beautiful the scenery was and nobody around, we also brought the camera to take some pictures, as you can see below! Our goal was to find a spot I have been seeing on the map called Green Bowls, we looked for a it a few days before but weren't successful, since I had met the Australian Peter and he told me how to get there I thought we would give it another shot. I followed his directions and they were perfect everything he explained made since and we for sure would have gone down the wrong road without knowing it. As we got to the cliff to check the waves below, a lady came up to Jeremy asking if he wanted to buy a bracelet, he started looking at one ladies bracelet, then another lady came over to show him hers. I look over and say "here comes the heard", next thing you know Jeremy is surrounded by half dozen ladies trying to get him to buy their bracelet! I was just standing a bit away laughing and just saying no no, go ask him, pushing them all back to Jeremy, check the video below to get a lil idea, haha it was one of the funniest situations I've seen on this trip so far. After he haggled with all the ladies for about 15 minutes, he got a bracelet, and we headed down the 300 something steps to the beach. We got down there and the waves were probably 8ft faces and pretty mushy, but we came this far I said F it I'm going out, as I started to paddle out a few other guys came out as well so ended up being about 5 of us surfing for 45 minutes. It was okay to get some big drops and a few turns, and of course go right since every wave I have surfed here so far had been a left, and being regular you just want to go front side sometimes! We made our way back up the 300 steps, on the scooter, back to our place, to have a late lunch. I relaxed for awhile, then went over to Dreamland to catch a surf, it was super fun, the wave is like a shorter trestles/southside hb, can get a few rippable turns off hen pump to the inside to get another turn section. I got back and we sat down for dinner around 7, it was kinda busy here so took a lil longer for the food, but as always it's delicious and filling, another good day in Bali!
     Sunday was a mini holiday for Jeremy at least, since we were headed to the doctors to get his stitches out! We got to the doctors around 10am and got right into the room, the doctor to a few minutes to prep , then went to work on cut and removing the stitches, if you would like to watch and see my reactions, click here. They came out easily and pretty fast, after we asked the doctor if he could super glue over the cut and stitch marks, he gave us a blank stare as we handed him the super glue bottle. After a lil while of explaining and saying it's okay just go for it, he put a line of glue over the cut, I could tell it wasn't enough so I got the tube and went at it to fill the whole area and all the lil stitch holes! After paying the $15 it cost to remove the stitches we went next door for some groceries and I got Jeremy a lil ice cream, because he was such a lil trooper, haha. Once we were back to our place we had a snack and checked impossibles which looked pretty decent form the cliff, we both grabbed our step ups and headed out there. It ended up being super messy, sideways winds, pretty walled, just all around not that fun, we got out after about 40 minutes. We had lunch, chilled around the room and pool for awhile, and started checking some forecasts again, we decided to try to get out to Dreamland which I got pretty fun the day before. We headed to the beach quite awhile before low tide was going to start hitting to hopefully get some waves before the tide stated dropping more and gets to crowded. That basically exactly happened, got a few waves to ourselves and within 30 min there was 10 other guys out and waves were getting better, after about an hour there were 30 of us out and waves were even better. We were both pretty stoked though since we got our fair share of waves and they were all rights, Jeremy was having a blast being back in the water and it was nice to have somebody to sit with and chat to out there. Got back to the room showered up and hit an early dinner at the mex place we had tried a few days before but instead we ordered a large pizza and two large Bintang's, great end to the day I must say!
     Monday we were attempting dawn patrol and did our best by getting to Uluwatu by 7:30am, it was sprinkling a bit on our way, as we arrived and was checking the surf it just started absolutely pouring out of nowhere. It turned the already steep, sketchy, messed up path down to the beach into a river, we decided we probably couldn't scooter back in the rain so might as well surf. We basically floated downt o the water as if we were on a water slide and paddled out as it was still pouring rain, but after about 30 minutes it let up and turned the sky into the most vivid double rainbow I had ever seen. The rainbow only lasted 10 min or so and throughout the rain and rainbows we still managed to have a fun 2 hour sesh with a few less people out then normal. We did our usual walk up the stairs check some photos the guys got of us then sat down to enjoy a meal at our favorite spot Salen Warung and watched the waves. We had our normal relax sesh for a few hours during the middle of the day with a few pbj's to hold us over, and we both got to skype the family again, since the internet had been on and off the past few days. We decided to attempt to go back over to Green Bowls and try to get an uncrowded mid tide session, but the wind was onshore and just a mess, so we made our way back across the bukit to Balangan and also checked Dreamland, but nothing looked to decent enough to get us excited. We called it quits, I worked on this blog for awhile then we hit a new spot for dinner we had stopped by earlier for gas, there prices were a bit cheaper than where we had been eating and seemed like a fun environment. The food was great, cheap filling, we stayed around and chatted with the owner for awhile telling her we will come back tomorrow, unfortunately she was closing down for a few days to prep meals and gifts for huge ceremony her family was having in a few days. We poked into the surf shop called Flame Balls next door to check out a few boards that caught our eye, ended up also chatting with the owner. Super cool guy we assumed was from Germany with his accent, he gave us lots of info on our thoughts of trying to travel to other islands nearby. We ended the night sitting on out balcony, scoping the internet researching islands, surf spots, accommodations, and prices to travel nearby. We haven't put anything in ink yet but we are seriously considering trying to do a trip in a few weeks to the island of Sumbawa, home to Lakey Peak.

Jeremy trying to buy a bracelet and getting bombarded buy all the ladies trying to sell him one, watch the video by clicking the video tab above!

A look at the reef out front on a semi low tide, you can now imagine what the bottom looks like, but covered with urchins.

One of the cool cliff spots I found with a lil run down hangout.

The abandoned resort I came across and brought Jeremy back to, he was just as confused as I was.