Indonesian awe

My latest surf adventure saw me in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. In a town famed for its surfing, Arugam Bay, is a small area with a huge amount of surfers all competing for a three foot right hand point break over a shallow reef.

We took their advice, booked some last minute flights and chased what was said and promised to be the most powerful swell this decade

Greg and I were supposed to be there for a little over a month, surfing and experiencing their vibrant and exciting culture, but a few weeks into the trip we saw an article pop up on Facebook. How sad are we, browsing Facebook whilst on a surf trip, but nonetheless we were glad we did. We saw a huge Indian Ocean swell lighting up the charts with the headline of the piece being ‘Fly To Indo Now’ so we took their advice, booked some last minute flights and chased what was said and promised to be the most powerful swell this decade. We were not disappointed…

We landed in Denpasar on the day before the main swell hit, expecting to see at least some movement in the water already, but nothing…

Anyone that has been to Bali will know you can see numerous surf breaks just before landing, all the way from Ulus down to the airport reefs.

We made it through immigration very quickly due to new laws meaning we didn’t need to pay for a visa on arrival. Result, more Bintang’s for us. During the day the swell slowly started to pick up, and we managed to get in for a sunset session at Uluwatu, six foot and busy.

The next morning we headed down to Ulus again, at the top of the cliff we could hear what sounded like an aeroplane going straight over us. This turned out not to be a plane, but the huge 15 foot monsters peeling round the headland and smashing into the reef.

The number of surfers in the water had dropped significantly, leaving the ballsy few who had flown in with their Jerry Lopez guns. The first morning was carnage, beloved boards being destroyed and leashes giving up the fight with no struggle.

The swell was big and powerful, hitting the submerged coral reef and jacking up to three story barrels.

For the next three days the whole of the Bukit peninsular was firing, in fact the whole of Indo was firing closely followed by Western Oz and well… everywhere.

Pictures of big waves started to come filtering through on Instagram and Facebook. Looked like everyone was either watching or surfing waves they will never forget. It was an impressive swell, well done Indian Ocean, you have done it again.

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