Indo, last week :(

Finally a swell...For the past 3 and a bit weeks I’ve not had a single swell out here in Bali. I’ve had the odd ok surf at Blackstone and Canggu, but nothing with any size really and certainly not the sort of waves you come to Indo for. Fortunately though a few days before i head home the biggest swell in the past 6 months was predicted, and although I had a few doubts, everyone was talking about it so it seemed a little more certain then the past few swells. Yesterday i went up to Keramas for a surf, and had a few fun waves, but not quite lined up like it can be. The afternoon surf was again at Blackstone, but yet again nothing special.

The next day i went back to Keramas expecting it to be solid. Turned out to be smaller than the day before. Although it was down to swell direction I still thought the swell was nothing on what it was meant to be. I got a text off a photographer saying Padang was 6-8 foot which I couldn’t believe as Keramas was so small. We had a surf at a spot called Shindu and it looked amazing. Long right hand point, really hollow and no one out. Turned out to be a little faster than expected though. A bit of a slow closeout really, so two bad surfs on the best swell of the year. Would have been a good photo of the line up, although that’s not any conciliation. I spoke to the photographer again and he was adamant that Padang would be on so I headed down there. Turned out that it was a good size on that coast and Padang looked around 4 feet. After about 10 minutes a few bigger sets rolled through and it started to look all time. The sets were around 6 feet and firing, not too busy either, although the people who were in were mainly spongers bar one or two. It was a little inconsistent at first but after a 2 hour surf managed to get a few good ones, along with a broken board on the last wave. The board is still probably floating round out there somewhere and the swim in was ridiculous. But turned out to be a good day in the end, and hopefully the same again tomorrow.