There is something pretty damn cool about taking a boat out to a surf break. Its kind of like going heli skiing. The only difference is, that when it comes to surfing, I can do the equivalent of 'snow plow' at best. But it still feels pretty neat.
After our recuperation time in Ubud, and our scooter trip to Lovina, we decided to check out Lombok, and island just to the east of Bali. Lombok is far less visited, less developed, and beautiful. Kuta-Lombok is a sleepy little fishing town on the south coast, now mostly a sleepy little surf town.
We caught a cheap, 30 minute, flight from Bali to Lombok and rolled into Kuta monday evening.
Getting to the only mellow break near Kuta (there are a number of world class breaks, but only one that is beginner friendly) involved riding our scooter 10 minutes down a bumpy rural road, past the rice and tobacco fields, through herds of cows, along the edge of a big turquoise bay, to the even smaller fishing town of Gerepuk. There, we rented boards from the one surf shop, and hired a boatman to take us the 5-10 minutes out to the break. The boatmen would anchor just next to the break, and wait 2-3 hours for us to tire ourselves out, then bring us back to shore (not surprisingly it turns out, most of the boatmen are awesome surfers, so we are really paying for them to go out surfing as well - not a bad job).
Thankfully a friendly couple from Colorado took us under their wing and showed us the ropes to figure all of this out, and gave me a bunch of surf lessons to boot.
Three days of surfing later, my arms feel like they are going to fall off, I'm sunburnt on 80% of my body, but I actually feel like I at least have an idea of what I'm doing on a surfboard, and for better or worse, might be addicted.
After a less than stellar experience in Kuta-Bali, our 4 days in Kuta-Lombok were a breath of fresh air. We met great folks, had good food, roared around the countryside on our scooter ('roar' might not be the most accurate descriptor of the sound made by a scooter, but it seems more dramatic than 'putt-putted around'), surfed, lounged by the pool drinking beer, watched the sunset from rocky outcrops, and generally had a grand ol' time.
After our recuperation time in Ubud, and our scooter trip to Lovina, we decided to check out Lombok, and island just to the east of Bali. Lombok is far less visited, less developed, and beautiful. Kuta-Lombok is a sleepy little fishing town on the south coast, now mostly a sleepy little surf town.
We caught a cheap, 30 minute, flight from Bali to Lombok and rolled into Kuta monday evening.
Getting to the only mellow break near Kuta (there are a number of world class breaks, but only one that is beginner friendly) involved riding our scooter 10 minutes down a bumpy rural road, past the rice and tobacco fields, through herds of cows, along the edge of a big turquoise bay, to the even smaller fishing town of Gerepuk. There, we rented boards from the one surf shop, and hired a boatman to take us the 5-10 minutes out to the break. The boatmen would anchor just next to the break, and wait 2-3 hours for us to tire ourselves out, then bring us back to shore (not surprisingly it turns out, most of the boatmen are awesome surfers, so we are really paying for them to go out surfing as well - not a bad job).
Thankfully a friendly couple from Colorado took us under their wing and showed us the ropes to figure all of this out, and gave me a bunch of surf lessons to boot.
Three days of surfing later, my arms feel like they are going to fall off, I'm sunburnt on 80% of my body, but I actually feel like I at least have an idea of what I'm doing on a surfboard, and for better or worse, might be addicted.
After a less than stellar experience in Kuta-Bali, our 4 days in Kuta-Lombok were a breath of fresh air. We met great folks, had good food, roared around the countryside on our scooter ('roar' might not be the most accurate descriptor of the sound made by a scooter, but it seems more dramatic than 'putt-putted around'), surfed, lounged by the pool drinking beer, watched the sunset from rocky outcrops, and generally had a grand ol' time.
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| View of the Kuta-Lombok area from a nearby hill. Lots of beaches, and not much else there. |
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| We never took our camera out surfing, so I stole this photo of the fishing boats that take you out to the break from a travel site. They would pile 3-4 boards onto a boat, and off we would go. http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/none/lombok-kuta-indonesias-other-kuta-832163 |
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| I stole this photo too. Its taken from where the boats would anchor, just to the side of the break. |
Hey, those look like pretty big waves for a "beginner"... ??? ( from a mom's point of view of course)
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