worth a try in a flat spell

Finally got round to the padang padang surf camp post. What a spot, located about 40 mins from kuta and 5 minutes drive to Uluwatu. In my usual style, presumed there’d  be room at the inn without actually booking. I had pretty much fixated on the place after checking out their website and was fairly desperate to escape Kuta when Andrew the welsh owner told me over the bad phone line that he was fully booked for the next four days. He must have sensed the desperation in my voice when he emailed me to let me know he would sort something out. Sorting something out eventually involved bedding down for three night on a comfortable Tom and Jerry mattress on the living room floor of his villa. A finer living room floor you could not hope to sleep on. 

Andrew and Ina host this incredible relaxed place. The days are primarily organised around tide times, meaning the first surf of the day can be anywhere between 5.20am and midday depending on whether there is enough water on the reefs. When the tides too low to surf my hours where whiled away hammock swinging, eating and the odd game of tennis. Didn’t think i liked tennis, but it seems the key to enjoyable games seems to be picking an opponent will a similiar skill level (ie low) to yourself, honorable mention here to Toby for some cracking barefoot, blistering (literally) games.

But the main event is obviously the surfing, the surf went from quality (see Uluwatu below) to pretty much flat, to cracking in the time i was around. After enduring a two day flat spell, my final three days at ’secret spot’ were probably some of the best waves i have ever surfed. Starting with a sunset surf on a rising swell, cleaned up by a gentle offshore breeze, water  glowing orange from the reflected rays, and a crowd of three of us. Back again the following day with the swell growing by the hour we had a three hour session, so perfect that it was near on impossible to leave the water, even though my arms so heavy with paddle fatigue  had pretty much stopped functioning. The swell God really layed it on for my final day, back at secrets for some super powerful chunks that seemed to jack up from nowhere as they hit the reef. One of the blighters ripped my leash in two, resulting in a pretty tiring session involving many a paddle to the shore to retrieve my grounded board, a frustrating but worthwhile exercise. 

Update - returned to Bali late Feb check out the post paradise found

kind of says everything

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