not all who wander are lost.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Burrito, and More Big Waves.

Burrito and I have been having a hell of a time. At first neither of us were digging the vibe of the town. Then B's sneakers got stolen and he got into an argument with a local who was trying to rip us off with the price of our motorbike. Add onto that my being sick for a few days and our hot hot room (we are too cheap to pay for AC, plus it makes me congested, so we have a rinky dink little fan) and its worn us down a bit. BUT, we wake up every morning in surfers paradise, 5 steps from the worldclass wave Lakey Peak, and breakfast is included with our stay. Banana pancake with honey and lime, kopi susu sidakit gula (coffee with milk, little sugar) and boom, my day begins. For 7,000 rupiah B and I each buy a nasi campur packet from the Nasi Campur Lady around 630am, and thats our lunch. Not many choices for places to eat here, only 3 restaurants with tourist menus and tourist prices, but we have been eating our dinner every night at the same place: Lakey Peak Inn. Sahrul is the boss man, and he is one of the nicest locals that Ive ever met. He always greets me with a huge smile on his face, saying " CC!! CC MY FRIEND!! APA KABAR?!? ". I enjoy fresh fish every night here for dinner: either fried, sauteed or sashimi. Its heavenly. Because there are only 3 restaurants in town, its pretty much the watering hole for all of the surfers in the lineup. B and I try to arrive early to get a seat (yes, it gets that crowded), we share a big Bintang and play some ShitHead. Hes more competitive than me, so our rounds of shithead get pretty heated, and though Ive been steady beating him he still gives me a run for my money. Finally easing into the "surfer bro bro" vibe and crowd here, and have become friends with the local Australians and Irish (yes, there is a huge group of amazing surfing Irishmen) that spend half their year here. I wish that I could really charge and show them some of my LB skills, but instead Im floating around on this damn potato chip. Oh well. Still becoming accustomed to sitting in a lineup full of world class surfers, surfing the heaviest, most powerful waves Ive ever seen. Yesterday we surfed Nungas, a huge left just a few minutes walk down thebeach. My first few minutes out there I paddled for a bomb and got wrecked, over the falls. The next 2 hours I sat on the shoulder and watched amazing surfers have some of the most epic waves and epic wipeouts that Ive ever seen. The take off was a bit mushy, but then after one hit the wave fired across the reef, opening up a huge, fast, hollow, heart-thumping barrel. THe look on the surfers faces as they approached this heaving green room was priceless. The sections were fast and most people just ate shit, getting drilled into the reef below. But some just owned the shit outta the wave and the barrel....having such epic rides that MY heart was pumping and I was only watching from the channel. B had a thousand waves and was surfing better than most in the lineup. When he said it was time to go I figured that I HAD to have a wave...afterall, Ive never paddled in, and I dont plan to start now. Even if I was going to get wrecked, I had to atleast be pushed towards the shore by some whitewater. A bomb set came through, and instead of scratching for the horizon and channel I just turned on it, sure that I was going to die. To my absolute surprise I nailed the take off and had a perfect wave. Goddamnit, if I wasnt being such a pussy the past 2 hours I could have had a TON of waves like this. Lesson learned. Dont be a pussy. This morning B and I headed out to Periscopes for round 2 of deathbombs. Again, B was killing it. Again, I was a puss and had a small wave count. Oh well. It wasnt as AllTime as it was earlier in the week, but the sets were still heavy, fast and well overhead. I got a half dozen zippy waves, and had 2 that were actually really fantastic. Happy with our session, we got out, headed home, had nasi and now we are at the internet booking our next adventure. On Tuesday or Wednesday we are grabbing a flight from Bumi to Jakarta, and then taxi to West JAVA. My next surf mission is to find a RIGHT that isnt life or death on the takeoff, but is just FUN. Something that Ive learned from my time in Indonesia is that I am not a big wave death barrel charger. I LOVE LOVE LOVE surfing, more than anything Ive ever done. I even enjoy shortboarding!! I like big waves and barrels are okay on occasion...but combined, they simply arent my thing. So next time Im going to leave the big waves to the pros and the chargers, and Im going to be straight cruisin' on my LB, nose walking and trash talking my way to happiness :)

1 comment:

  1. missing you like cazy!! can we skype soon??? love you as big as the universe! julisa

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