Adventures in South East Asia

30 ~ Surf

Bali, Indonesia

We decided to check out of our dingy Kuta hotel the after the first night. One of the toilets had stopped working and cleanliness wasn't at the top of their list either. I had first thought my towel had a floral design and that turned out to be very much not the case.

We spent the next three days at a local surf shop owned by Indonesian brothers. I had done my research to make sure we weren't throwing our money away to foreign owned surf camps or some other multinational.

The surf instructors were a lot of fun, pretty big goofballs, like many of the men who worked in the tourism industry and dealt directly with clients. Sabrina and I had surfed before, she in Mexico and I in Hawaii. My experience had left me with so many rash burns I had been scared they wouldn't let me back through airport security since the H1N1 epidemic had been big around that time. I wore a one-piece and shorts this time to save my stomach and luckily they gave us rash guards.

After a quick lesson on the upstairs balcony, where we practised going from laying on our stomachs, to crouched to standing with bent knees. We were set to hit the waters we had been eyeing all morning.

Taylor and I would be with the instructor Made -- a common enough name so far. It took Taylor a little bit to get more comfortable with the idea of surfing as she had never gone before and hated the prospect of being stung by jellyfish in the ocean, but after about half an hour her progress was surpassing mine.

At the beginning, Made would hold onto the end of our board and tell us which wave to take as well as when to start paddling and stand. The push he gave along with the wave gave us momentum to take on smaller ones. For the most part, my descents mainly involved me jumping off the board onto the shallow beach tide with the occasional slip.

My goal after a two hour lesson that morning, was to stand up properly without using my knee to help. I had picked up the technique right away since the stance from snowboarding to surfing wasn't all that different. I also had decent board control. I just needed to pop up a bit faster and with a little more confidence. We booked more lessons for the following day.

On day two, our first task was to learn how to swim out and do an 'Eskimo' roll. As the waves grew nearer, our instructor called out "roll!". Our hands gripped both sides of the surf board as we flipped it over our head -- at the water's surface -- so the waves would pass over us. The process involved swallowing a fair amount of salt water. We weren't the best at it and we stuck to shallower waters.

An extra girl we didn't know had joined our group and we seemed to have less instructors today. The two to one ratio we had been spoiled with the previous day was great, but it was all four of us to one now. The waves were bigger and the current stronger. Not great facts for beginners like ourselves. We always ended up in a diagonal line from where we started in the water and had to walk back a fair distance. My friends' enthusiasm surpassed my own.

By the third day, the waves were even worse. We saved a bit of money by just opting for a rental instead of a lesson on the instructor's recommendation. There wouldn't be much they could teach us with those conditions; however, they welcomed any questions.

I lost my confidence about as easily as my board slipped out from under my feet, over and over again. Luckily, I had a leash and it didn't go very far. Unfortunately, the other surf school with the hard boards didn't take such precautions -- only equipping their students with helmets -- and I received one of their boards to the head. Not enough to knock me off, but enough to put me in a foul mood. The woman didn't even apologize and I tried to stay far away from any of those dangerous jokers.

The rough waves continued and Sabrina, who was also the birthday girl that day, got hit in the nose with her board. Blood came pouring out and we all ventured back in to the shore to take a break. The staff at the surf shop helped get her patched up and she took back off surfing. I was still feeling iffy about the safety factor with these currents and waves, plus I was discouraged with my lack of progress, so I offered to be our unofficial photographer for the day.

It was at the point I met Gede, another instructor at the school who we hadn't worked with yet. Like most of the people I'd met in Seminyak so far, he was young and attractive. He began complimenting the pictures I was taking, even though I knew they were junk and they only looked blurry on the screen. It was reminded me of the 'vegetarian glow' compliments I had gotten back in Java and I couldn't help but laugh lightly.

Once my friends had gotten their fill of surfing, we came back to the surf shop. The staff had helped us organize a birthday surprise. Arta snuck behind Sabrina, who had been told to sit on a stool and dumped a whole bag of flour over her wet blond braided hair and her body. Next, Made came with eggs and cracked them in her hair as well. She was a good sport and could only react with laughter that couldn't match our howling. I still had the camera, so I was shooting away when I wasn't shaking in laughter.

Before they let her get cleaned off, we all came around to the front where the big birthday cake had been brought out. Taylor, Chloe and I had all chipped when one of the staff members had offered to run out and get one for us. We sang and celebrated  with the large cake, after which Sabrina could finally rinse the flour, egg and salt water out of her hair. We shared the cake with the whole shop as it we'd really enjoyed our experience with them. Plus, whatever would we do with so much cake?

Gede and Kadek, who was the photographer of the shop, mentioned we should meet up with them later to celebrate. Maybe go out dancing or drinking. The girls weren't so sure, but I was intrigued. I missed having a night life and it would be my last night in Bali. I also found an unreasonable amount of men my age in the city attractive. I told Sabrina later and she laughed. She had gone through a similar phrase in Mexico when she did an exchange program down there.

We took off from the shop to relax and eat as we typically did in the afternoons. I took the first shower and my energy kicked in after that. Between the four of us, we had a few missions to accomplish. Sabrina wanted to go for a birthday massage and we all agreed that sounded delightful. Taylor, had gotten her surf shop pamphlet all wet, and being a travel scrapbooker, she was bummed out. I needed a shuttle tomorrow morning and didn't want to give this boxy and characterless hotel anymore money on a car service. Chloe was easy to please, she simply wanted the shower after I was done.

I channelled my restlessness and set off in search of a spa parlour with reasonable prices. Along the way, I found a sandwich shop with vegetarian option that Made had recommended a few days ago where we could all eat later. I booked a few massages for us mid afternoon, failed to find a shuttle, and set off to the surf shop. I may have had an ulterior motive to find out more about these plans the guys were talking about.

Ni Luh, the woman who worked at the front desk, offered me a pamphlet and asked me if we had decided on out plans for the night. She was sweet, had very short hair and dressed in baggy clothes so she could be mistaken for one of the guys. I was a bit surprised to hear she was dating one of our instructors that my friends had feared was hitting on them. It would relieve them to now he was taken and that another woman was coming.

They suggested clubbing, but I told them my friends wouldn't go for it as it wasn't really their style. They did come out clubbing in Thailand, but because everyone would go and they wanted to explore new places, not because they necessarily had much of a desire to drink and dance.

Ni Luh suggested a nearby island, and she said the rest of the guys could easily take us on motorbikes for a sunset beach bonfire. I assumed there was some kind of bridge to reach it. That I could work with. I told them I'd work my hardest to convince them and come back with an answer regardless. They began to laugh at my enthusiasm before I ran back to the hotel to share my findings.

After a bit of convincing, the decision was left up to the birthday girl who, lucky for me, has a wild streak and we quickly set about getting fed and pampered. It turned out the massage parlour could only accommodate two with our newly tight schedule, so Chloe and I walked back to the hotel for a nap. We ran into Gede on the way. He seemed rather pleased when we shared the news that we'd be joining them for the beach barbeque.