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.....

Slow week, but waves to come!

     I left the blog last Thursday, since then I surfed a few cool secret spots on Friday and fixed up the scooter a bit. Saturday was a slow day, got a quick surf and helped Salah fix up a few bikes for his bike rental business. That evening I set out on a lil hike by myself up to a bunker on the hill, below are some sweet pictures! I got tried to find a separate way down than the one i took up and got stuck on an hour long loop, when it only took me about 15 minutes to hike up. But in trying something different I found an awesome alternate hiking trail to the bunker, the trail made me wish I had my mountain bike from back home! I got back and grabbed a quick shower before buddy Casey picked me up and we went into town where he lives, had a fun night having some drinks at a friend's party.
Sunday some friends that were staying at Casey's and I went down to the beach for a bit to lay out and get an Acai bowl, which was delicious. Sunday was St. Patty's day, so that night we went out for a few drinks at the beer garden where they have $4 pitchers! After we went to a few fun bars to cap off the night, it was a rough morning for all of us on Monday after drinking.
     Monday we had a plan to head to the North Shore, we finally arrived back on the North Shore around 2pm. We stopped at Log Cabins, where i got a pretty fun lil surf while getting cheered on from my buddies on the beach. After the whole group of us headed over to Waimea to hang on the beach and do a lil body surfing to end the day!
     Tuesday morning I went back to Log Cabins to have another fun surf on some over head semi barreling rights and lefts. It's a pretty sketchy spot because the bottom can be all sand in some places or all rock/reef, and its only about 4ft deep. On one wave I got a lil snap off the top and straightened out to miss the close out, right in front of me was a rock showing through the water. I luckily kicked my board out and jumped over it, but definitely kept my eyes open the rest of the session. It so awesome to surf these sick spots that I've heard of with not to many people out. Most people have gone home or to another place in the world to get waves because the season in Hawaii is slowing down. When Chris got off work we met up with a few friend's at Turtle Bay for a surf at a cool reef right out front. Just like most spots it breaks over a reef with a few bigger rocks on the inside that boil when the waves pass, but can't complain with nobody out. After a long day in the ocean both Chris and I were starving, so we treated ourselves to a great dinner at Haleiwa Joe's down by the harbor, then ended the night early just watching some TV.
     Wednesday morning I spent on the phone and computer for about 3 hours trying to figure out my flight to Bali, which was a lot more work than I thought it would be! After I got everything situated I finally got a surf out at Kami's, little crowded but the weather was perfect and water was crystal clear. Since it was such a nice day out I got a quick snack and jumped back in the water with my Go Pro and fins to do some snorkeling and get some pics. When Chris got off work we went to a sick secret spot that when you looked back from the ocean to land you would have thought you were in Oregon with all the pine trees on shore! The wave reminded me of Trestles with some rights that I got 4 good turns off before it went to dry reef. We cruised over to Salah's and I jumped on the scooter to grab somethings for dinner at Foodland, on my way I got a call from Haleiwa Joe's. I had lost my glasses the day before and luckily someone had returned them, I was super stoked!
     Today Thursday the waves called out to be 10-15' close to 20' faces, I was stoked to get some bigger waves finally. But unfortunately I checked it this am and everywhere was a mess and not really working, other than Pipe. I scooted over there and watched some crazy waves like you see in the magazines, the wave doesn't do it justice unless you watch it in person. Since there weren't many waves to surf i took the scooter on a put all day up towards the east side and back down to Haleiwa, where I tried some Shaved Ice! Thanks for checking in, please read the UPDATE below to see what's next on the schedule!



OTHER TRAVEL UPDATE
I am headed to Maui next Thursday to Sunday, super stoked to visit the island again and since I was 13, and to hang with an old friend! My sister Brooke and good friend Jeremy are heading over here on in the beginning of April. My parents got my sister a ticket over here for her birthday to visit me and have a fun spring break vacation. Jeremy is coming over to hang for a bit before we start our trip over to Indo! We booked our tickets that depart from Honolulu on the 16th, couldn't be more excited to finally go to Bali and to have a good friend to travel with!

Inside bunker overlooking upper half of the North Shore

Looking out to Pipe on the far left and Sunset on the far right.

St. Patty's day, beach in town, so quite!

Acai bowl in town, at Lankai Juice

Shaved Ice at Aoki's.