After our 54-day campervan tour through New Zealand and a whirlwind week in Singapore we moved on to Bali, Indonesia – the 6th new country of our adventure.
Bali is an excellent place to chill out, but our first location on the island – Canggu – is very temptingly well known as a great spot for beginners’ surfing.
The waves are modestly-sized, the beach is sandy throughout, and there aren’t severe rip currents – drawing surfers out into the water each and every day.
As further enticement, many businesses are cheaply renting out surfboards and offering lessons up and down the beach all day.
I (Clint) could not resist this temptation, and at age 35 decided to try my hand at riding the waves. I’ve been boogie-boarding (body-surfing) before, and am a snowboarder – so how hard could it be, right?
I didn’t go out right away…spent a few days watching people surf from the beachside bars to see technique. The night before, I also checked out this wikihow article for some additional pointers.
Truth be told I wasn’t all that confident, but decided I had to give it a shot! Also, the board rental was only 50,000 rupiah ($3.23 USD, Indonesia’s currency is crazy) for the day, so not too big an investment. I got the board:
Kaitlin posted up at a beachside bar to watch, and I paddled out!
So – surfing is a bit more difficult than it looks. From watching others before I knew you had to push/jump out over the waves on the shore, and from wikihow I knew to find the “sweet” spot on the board for paddling, but I was not fully prepared for the level of shoulder workout involved in paddling on the board. Also, the waves just don’t stop – this is obvious to anyone who’s ever seen the ocean, but it’s a much more visceral reality when you’re trying to paddle out past them. And this is before you even attempt to catch a wave!
Nevertheless, I persisted, and made it out to the shallow-water breakers for some attempts. I actually went out 3 separate times (about 25-30 min sessions each – seriously its tiring) and tried to catch about 15-20 or so waves.
Headline of the results – I stood up and rode one wave! Balancing like newborn Bambi and only about a 5 second ride before I fell down, but still – I surfed!
Sub-headline – Kaitlin did not get my epic wave-ride on camera. She did capture several of my failed attempts though (in her defense I failed every attempt but one), so enjoy these videos of me wiping out:
Moral of the story – try new things! Despite being very tired, full of sand, and sore for 2 days after, I had a great time attempting to surf. If/when we ever stay at another good surfing beach, I will most likely give it another go – maybe I’ll get up twice next time!
Also – since I stood up and surfed once I’m counting it, I am a surfer now.
