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

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.

Break in, hospital visit, and haggling

     After a long day of surfing Uluwatu the day before, we decided to check out a new spot on Sunday. We were trying to find Dreamland, but ended up at a spot we both have heard of called Balangan (Ba-lang-in). It was a dream like beach with 100ft cliffs straight into the water 30 ft from the take off spot, exactly what I picture a wave in Bali to look like. It looked fun, about chest high, ripable, and way less crowded than Uluwatu where we had been surfing last few days. We grabbed our boards off the scooter and walked down the hill, down the beach, got a quick stretch and then paddled out into the line up while watching chest high lefts reel off. Both Jeremy and I found our spot and traded off some fast waves we had to race down the line dodging sections to get a few quick check turns and either a barrel section or a big snap at the end. One thing that has been very weird to me about surfing here in Bali is what they call sea lice, there these little microscopic tadpole looking things that will bite you. It's nothing to crazy but some of them kinda hurt and it's just annoying haha, I didn't get any the first few days, but they were pretty bad at this spot. After surfing for over 2 hours and getting some of the longest waves I've had a in a long time (200ft+) we got out to get a bit to eat at the warung. Jeremy had his usual local style banana pancake, they basically through a bunch of mushed bananas into a waffle style press that fry's a pancake. It's pretty delicious, filling, but super fatty, who cares were surfing close to 5 hours a day and sweating more than enough to burn it off :) haha. I tryed a local dish I had been seeing recently, fried rice plate which was also good and filling. As we got back to the scooter and I opened the seat I realized that someone had broken in and stole my phone and a few bucks I had in there. We had my phone with us because we use it for the navigation since some of these roads are super confusing, and rarely haves street signs over there names. I was of course mad, devastated, and just a lil sad since I had so many photos, videos, and memories from my trip so far on there! We raced back to the room so I could try to locate it with some software I had on it, but it wasn't working they must have already turned it off and erased it. I called my mom to tell her what happened and to report it to verizon and started changing my passwords just in case even though I doubt they wanted my facebook haha. While I was talking to mom, Jeremy headed down to the beach out front to catch a few waves, I finished skyping and headed out to meet him. I got out there and he was nowhere to be found, I couldn't have missed him since there is only one path down tot he beach. A friend of ours staying at our place swam out and after it took a minute to understand what she said since she was out of breath and has a thick british accent, but I guess Jeremy hit his head and got a pretty good gash. I got into the beach and up to the warung to take a look at it, he was already wrapped up by a nurse that luckily was there visiting from California! He was a lil nervous having his first head injury in a foreign country, but we kept him calm and I got him back to the room to grab a few things then we went to the hospital. We ended up at a private clinic and he got 6 stitches, took about 30 minutes, cost us about $50 and we were good to go. Grabbed few things at the store on our way back and hit some traffic, we got back around 5pm, chilled for awhile then went out with some friends from the place were staying at. We went to a bar on the cliff at Ulu (uluwatu's) called Single Fin, super fun cool environment, we had some drinks after a long day, and got back and to bed by midnight.
     Monday we woke up around 8 and just cruised around the the property, hopped in the pool, then helped Jeremy buzz around his cut and clean it up to put a new bandage on. After I skyped the family, it was nice seeing them all since I hadn't skyped all of them together in a few weeks, they are all jealous of all the pictures I have been posting. We chatted about what they have been ding the past week, and how everything is around the house, my dad had just gone to the desert for the weekend so heard some funny stories form that. Then I showed them around our room and where were staying with the webcam, explained how the money works, and how busy the roads are! It was over an hour skype sesh but was really nice to have time to talk about so much and explain everything I could about my experience's so far. When we finished Jeremy relaxed and took it easy while I went over to Uluwatu's to grab a surf and pick up some photos they got of me a few days ago, there were some cool shots! The waves were really fun, about chest to head high, got quite a few fun ones, perfect lil quick evening session. On my way back I had to get some petrol (what they call gas here) for the scooter, and we needed some water since we have been going through it so fast, we had been drinking 2-3 waters ( over a gallon) between both of us per day. I found a small market that I went into and ended up haggling for a whole box of 12 bottles which comes out to almost 5 gallons, got it all for $4 :), literally 33 cents each. It works great for us since the waters at the warung's and where were staying are close to a buck each, now we can just grab a water before we leave and be good to go! We chilled for awhile, went and watched the sunset and had a smoothie, came back and Jeremy was out early, I was up for awhile munching, working on this blog and editing the surf pix, ended up passing out around 11:30pm.
     Tuesday we both slept in until about 8am, relaxed, cleaned Jeremy's cut, and changed the bandages. We took a dip in the pool then I got him setup to Skype his family on my computer, they hadn't talked to him much since we got to Bali, and hadn't seen him since he left for Hawaii almost two weeks ago! While he was doing that I hopped on the scooter and went to find a phone place since I explained earlier in the post mine got stolen, I had no luck but I adventured a bit too. I checked out a spot just a few miles down the beach called dreamland, to get there you enter this huge grand entrance like to a mansion or something. Its a trip like a whole new world in there, nice big paved road with no potholes, private villas, lil stores, and a few bigger hotels closer to the beach. I checked out the beach and the warung's, also grabbed a few things from a lady vendor, a few sarong's for some friends and was on my way back. I got back and Jeremy just finished Skyping the family, so we got on the scooter and headed to Uluwatu to get lunch and I wanted to get a surf in.  We ate at our local lil warung and watched the waves for 30 minutes, I paddled out for about an hour and had one of the worst sessions of my life. Just wasn't getting the right waves or in the right spot, it was very frustrating, I finally just gave up and figured it wasn't my day and headed in. When I get back Jeremy looked all nice and relaxed, apparently he had gotten a 30 min shoulder massage by lady that was walking around, he haggled her down from 60,000 to 30,000 (basically $3) and he said it was well worth it. I was so frustrated about my session I just wanted to leave, we got back to the room dropped everything off and packed up again to head to the clinic to get a check up on Jeremy's cut.  When we got there we asked about the price, and they said it was going to be another $25 to have them look at the wound and replace the bandage, we said no thanks, bought the ointment needed for $3 and went on our way, I have been taking care of the cut and it is healing great! We snagged more snacks at a market next door before heading back, we try to cut out one meal a day that we have to buy, so we get pbj's, crackers, wafers, pringles, and some other small things to snack on in between meals. We brought the GoPro with us on to take some video while scooting, we got some funny stuff that will be up in the Videos section a day or two after this is posted so check it out! I headed out to Bingin last night to get a quick evening sesh with the GoPro , I didn't get much footage but just practiced how to use it in the water, which if anybody has used a GoPro while surfing, it is very hard to get the right shot! We sat down for dinner around 8 and browsed through some local surf mags they had lying around, enjoyed dinner and crashed by 9pm, just another day traveling, surfing, and living the dream in a beautiful place!
     Wednesday we did our normal hang around till 9ish and then figured out what to do today, we decided to go check out a spot called Nusa Dua on the other side of the peninsula. We have both seen some sick pictures and videos of this reeling right hand point break, so I looked it up on the map and got a decent idea of where it was. We left around 11am towards the airport and followed the signs marked Nusa Dua, we arrived about 45 minutes later after a few wrong turns at the beach. It ended up not being the right day for the spot waves looked decent size and surfable but nobody out, guy we were talking to on the beach said tide and winds were wrong,it also looks like a hell of a paddle to get out there. Apparently when its firing you can hiring a boat to drop you of for about $3 bucks and at the end surf and catch white water back to the beach, just looking at the setup we could imagine how good it could get. After hanging at the beach for a bit, having a snack and some water while chatting we went on our way back up to Uluwatu. I went out for a surf but didn't have that great of a time, pretty crowded, and I was already tired from traveling a lot on the scooter earlier in the day. We cruised back to the room, went in the pool, had lunch, and watched some surf clips on youtube for awhile. I ended up going down to Bingin with my GoPro for a bit to get some clips but wasn't very successful, then ended the night with smoothies down on the beach at the usual warung while watching the waves and the sunset.

Jeremy's gash from surfing at Bingin, got 6 stitches

Always a lil scary when Jeremy pilots the scooter!

Our room here on the bukit, can see the ocean from the window, and that's the bathroom off to the right.

Surfing Bingin on Tuesday with the Go Pro didn't get to many surf shots but some cool sunset shots.