Jacob Wester

(The waves are too big)

Left the Kuta area at 6 am this morning, to beat the hellish traffic and the cops that regularly will stop you and ask for bribes (happened yesterday, got out of it 10 bucks poorer), to head down to Uluwatu. I was hoping that the big swell hadn’t properly hit yet and that I could get an hour or two of nice sunrise waves. That was not the case, as I pulled up to the parking lot at 6:45 I saw at least 5 massive lines on the ocean, breaking at what I would estimate about 10-15 foot, or triple overhead. And not a surfer in the line-up. Hung around for a while and took some pictures as the first 5 guys or so paddled out, but I never saw one catching a wave, and decided to head two miles back the same road to give Impossibles, another one of Bali’s famous reefbreaks, a go. From the hilltop it looked managable but after spending half an hour just to get out in the line-up due to the currents and set-waves I realized it too was a bit out of my comfort zone. After chickening out on a few take-offs I got one good wave that was easily one of the biggest ones I’ve ever ridden, but as soon as I pulled off to paddle back out I saw that it had about 3 more of the same size behind it. Got washed up several hundred meters down the reef and walked back, arms and shoulders aching, to my motorbike to head back home. That one wave was so worth it all though!

Clifftop view of massive Uluwatu

view of Impossibles from the Padang-Padang bridge

Tomorrow the swell is supposed to stick around but hopefully with a slight decrease in size. Going to do another early mission, probably to Balangan. Stay tuned!

Jacob

~ by jacobwester on June 10, 2010.