Outter reefs in Sanur

     Thursday was our first day in the new town were in called Sanur, we headed down to get some breakfast and rent a scooter. Had a nice lil breakfast downstairs while waiting for our scooter, we packed up the boards and went down to the beach to check the surf out front. We ended up in front of a resort where I saw some white wash way out there, started talking to a few guys with boats to see if could get a ride out there, ended up finding a guy that would take us out there and pick us up when were done for $5 each. We hopped on the skiff and cruised out to where we saw a decent left coming through, there were a few local guys out, they were nice and we all surfed this left for about an hour and half. It was really weird being about a mile off the beach in the middle of the ocean surfing, both of us caught some really long waves, getting 8 turns on a few for over 100 yards! It was a fun session and there were other waves breaking farther out and both off to the right and left of us, we think this place has some great potential but the waves and swell direction have to be right for it to get over here. After we got back to the beach, ran into a local guy that looked like he had just gone surfing also, talked to him for awhile and he said he goes and checks a few spots around there area, so said we would meet him down here tomorrow and hop a ride with him to the reefs. We got back to the hotel and both grabbed a burger for lunch since it was so good the night before, Jeremy was stoked to get a decent size burger also. Sat back and relaxed for a bit in our room which has AC and a TV which is both new to us haha, we wanted to go cruise around a bit, so hopped on the scooter and explored. Went down the beach road and saw all the cool lil shops and food, saw a sweet place we wanted to try for dinner. Got onto the bypass which is basically a big 2 lane highway that takes you around the island, except lanes aren't really put into use here. It looks like a nascar race with people on scooters all over the road not in a lane just weaving in and out of the cars going about 50mph, it is madness, you have to be alert and have your fingers on both brakes, gas, and horn at all times! We were on our way to Kerama's to see the setup, we made a turn onto a new highway in the right direction and were immediately pulled over at a checkpoint. Basically they ask for your scooter registration and an international driver license that both of us don't have, we tried to haggle with the guy for a bit. But ended up having to go to an atm to get some money out and come back to pay the guy so we could get our registration back. Gave him the $25 bucks, took back our registration and got the F outta there, pretty crappy situation but it is what it is, we got to Kerama's and it was windy, choppy, and no one out.  We hung around for a few but not long then headed back for dinner, went to a cool little Italian place called Sale Pepe that we saw earlier in the day. Each of us got a pizza that was pretty tasty, at the end of the meal they offered us a free lemon cello shot, both smelt the liquor and then just said eh and went for it. The shot ended up being pretty tasty, got back to the hotel which was literally around the corner and watched some TV before both passing out.
     Friday we got up early to meet our new friend Wayan down at the beach so we could go on the boat with him out to the reefs, another guy joined us also, his name was Rory and he was from New Zealand. We cruised out on the boat to check out a few spots, ended up surfing next to a large shipwreck, the waves were pretty fun at first lil overhead, then a few larger sets rolled through that were big and washed us down the reef. All of us ended up surfing a good size left for about 2 hours, it's so weird being so far out to sea, kinda sucks though since there is so much water moving around your getting sucked every which way and sometimes you might have to duck dive 15 or more waves just to get back out! Headed back to the beach and hung out for awhile and chatted with Rory and Wayan, Rory was telling me about an adventure he took with a friend. He and a friend sailed form Newport Beach to Fiji and in a year, since I got into sailing a few years back, I get very interested in these kinds of adventures that I would like to do someday. I picked his brain with 100 questions about the trip and how he prepared, I was also talking to Wayan for awhile about the kite surfing lessons he gives and how to kite, which is also something I would like to try when I get back home. After chatting and playing with a lil puppy running around, headed back to our hotel and both grabbed lunch and chilled in the room for awhile before dinner. For dinner we tried an italian place that Rory mentioned was the best in town, we got there just in time before it got busy, both of us had the Ravioli's that I thought were delicious. After paid the bill we were then introduced to one of our most frequented places on the trip, gelato... it was delicious and gone in less than a few minutes!
     Saturday we headed back down to the get on the boat with Wayan, this time found a pretty big right that was in between the waves we surfed the last 2 days. There were a few other people out but not for long, we each caught some double overhead waves and a few that we got some good snaps and turns on. But it was once again a lot of work to keep in the same spot, and you don't have anywhere to judge how far in or out to sit since your no where near a beach or land. On my last wave I got caught on a turn and went over the falls, and while falling I landed on my tailbone right on the rail of my board, my back got super sore, and as I started paddling in I noticed my board got a pretty bad crack on the rail, so I headed back to the boat. We motored back in as the wind started to pick up and the tide was getting super high, the water was washing up the beach and over a lil seawall in front of some locals shops and almost getting to there food and clothes that they sell. On our way back we  hit a cool lil warung on the corner, I got a mei goreng which is a local Indonesian meal with noodles, veggies, and chicken, I liked it and it's nice to try something different. Jeremy had a pretty bad headache so he chilled in the room but I went to explore this lil island nearby, it's called Serangon and supposed to have a surf break on it. I got onto the island and was exploring for awhile trying to get to the spot where I thought the wave was, on the way I went through some awesome areas of small lakes and bays that reminded me of going to Lake Havasu back home. The island was like it's own little world, most people that lived on it never left, there were places to eat, temples, lil warung's, hotels, and some fun boat  and water rental activities in the harbor. I finally got the wave after some searching, it's a sweet lil beach with 6 or so warung's lined up looking out into the ocean, I sat down at the only one still open by this time and got a snack and coca cola. A lady walked up and I started chatting and I ended up buying these cool lil hand made turtles she made, she didn't have changed for the $5 I gave her so instead she offered a massage, I said sure why not sounds like a good deal! It was a great shoulder massage while enjoying a cola and chatting about all her friend's she had met over the years from America and of course she asked me if I knew all of them haha! I had to start heading back since it was getting dark and I didn't want to get stuck on the scooter on the busy by pass on the way back, as I got back Jeremy was feeling a bit better from having a lil snack downstairs. I got something to eat for dinner also and went to pick up my surfboard from a ding guy down the street that fixed my crack for a few bucks, wanted to get it done right since its a brand new board!
     Sunday we packed up and headed down to a spot I saw the day before when dropping my board off at the ding guy, it looked like a cool setup and there was nobody out! We watched for about 20 minutes, this perfect lil over head peak coming in with nobody around. It looked kinda shallow,but any surfer will tell you how awesome it is finding new waves that you have never surfed before, especially when there's nobody out you get way more stoked. I said F it lets go and Jeremy said alright I'm in, we paddled out through a shallow channel and then a few hundred feet to the wave, halfway out we saw another guy paddle out behind us, when we got out there it ended up being a local guy. We asked him a bit about the wave since he said he surfed here all the time, just sitting there it was shallow about 3-4 ft deep, and not just reef, but live coral, like colorful coral you would basically go snorkel in, pretty heavy... I caught the first left and took it easy and got outta there before it bowled up to super shallow section, after a few more I found out the right was actually pretty fun and a lil more rippable. We surfed the peak for hour and half and as a few guys paddled out during the end of the sesh, we decided to paddle a few hundred yards up the beach to a long point break looking wave we noticed. This spot was now a lot more crowded but looked like a longer wave, the reef was also sketchy, we both caught a few goods ones before heading in for good. Both of us were dead since we just surfed for almost 3 hours and paddled around a lot bunch, we brought some money so grabbed a sandwich with fries at a nice spot right on the sand, I had been looking into the zoo here on Bali and really wanted to go check it out. We got back from lunch and chilled for a few before heading out to the zoo, it was less than a 30 min scooter ride away, got there and Jeremy immediately headed for the tigers. Checked out the whole zoo for over 2 hours and saw every animal and got some great GoPro footage for my new webisode. The zoo is much different form one back home, we were able to walk into some of animals habitats and get up close and personal with some large and baby deer, bats, peacocks, and other exotic birds. I love animals so I was stoked to see some that I had not seen in a long time and definitely a few I had never seen before, just all in all a great experience. We got back and grabbed some dinner downstairs and watched Rugby with all the aussies that stay here, the owner is aussie and I guess this is just the hotel they come to and watch there rugby!
     Monday we went back down to the spot we surfed the day before with the fun peak, sat down for some breakfast while watching both of the spots, but the wind was just onshore making both waves really bad. Decided to go check out the other side by Kuta since the wind should be offshore or at least much much calmer there, we went back to the room to grab a few more bucks and look on the map for a quick direction to head. As we got over there to check out the beach, it was really big and pretty closed out, thought about trying to hop a boat out to the reefs, talked to a guy and he wanted $10 each. It looked pretty crowded out there from what we could see, so just decided to paddle out to the beach break, it wasn't very god at all but at least we were getting in the water. Both of us had to work pretty hard to get a good one but they would come through here and there, it was a lot of paddling and duck diving since it was a beach break and the waves were around 10ft faces. Got back onto the beach and enjoyed a coca cola while hanging with a few locals and chatted about some other surf spots in the area. It's really cool whenever you talk to a local surfer here, there not stingy or weird about telling you where the good waves are.  guess if your nice and they can tell that your a decent surfer they don;t mind sharing some tips on, they will tell you directions to the spots, tides, swell directions and everything, most people back home would never give up a decent spot! We were both starving so we hit the road to get back to grab lunch, on the way back I stopped by a post office to try and track a package my mom had sent me. After lunch I decided to scoot over to the post office in Denpasar, the biggest city here on Bali, to try and get my package, I then find out I have to pay $30 for customs and taxes before I can leave with the package! I was more than furious after everything I have gone through to try and get this package, I tried to negotiate since I disn't have that much on me, but apparently the customs office was already closed so I just left and hopefully could come back tomorrow and figure it out. We went back to our first lil Italian spot Sale Pepe, the owner was there again and she was excited to see us, we enjoyed another great meal accompanied with a Bintang!
     Tuesday we had planned to head down to a wave we were told was near Kerama's but way less crowded, after a lil exploring we found it and it was big with huge barrels. Paddled out there and I caught the first wave, paddling back out I got pretty worked and drug on the sharp rock bottom, which I can say wasn't very forgiving. I got a few cuts on my hand and arms, and a nice cherry on my lower back, nothing to serious though, I walked back up the beach and paddled back out, there were only a few guys out here and now I know why, as I watched the biggest most perfect and heaviest barrels I have ever seen in my life! We each caught a few smaller ones, one I got pretty shacked on and was stoked, but the bottom was just so sketchy we just decided to paddle down the point where some others were at a less sketchy wave. A local ripper from Newport that most surfers know of Alex Knost was out surfing with some friends, I have surfed with him a few times around Newp, and he is just a trip. In his mid 20's but just has the style and mind set of the 70's era, and of course doesn't wear a leash, but he got some of the sickest and stylish barrels I have ever seen. We both caught a good amount of waves but I personally didn't have a good session, but it was a super sick spot and always cool to surf somewhere new! On the way back to the hotel I swung by the post office again, now with some money, I tried to talk them down on the price but it just wasn't happening, I payed took my package and left. We grabbed lunch at the hotel, relaxed, and cleaned up a bit since we are leaving here tomorrow to head back to Canggu for a few days to get our passports sorted out. We finished our last night here by going down to the beach and watching the waves for a bit since the tide was super low it makes everything so much different. Ate at a cool spot that had a pool table and ping pong that caught our eye, while waiting for our food we shot a game of pool and had a beer. After eating our pasta that we both enjoyed we hit the ping pong table and Jeremy basically cleaned house, apparently he plays a lot and I guess is ambidextrous in ping pong? We stopped by our favorite gelato place yet again for the last time, this time we made it count and got like 5 scoops each, great last night in this awesome lil town!

Fisherman at low tide

Sign says it all

Tiger jumping for food!

Orangutan

I volunteered to hold a vulture

The elephants were awesome

Our sweet tooth spot, italian gelato

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.