
8.12.08
Today was my first non-Saturday day off. I slept in until 9:00am, then stayed in another hour, just enjoying the AC, being alone, and starting a new book called "Flow," which is a psycho-analytic study of happiness. Then I took a long shower and shaved for the first time in about a month; kept the beard, just cleaned it up a bit.
After breakfast, I borrowed Simon's scooter and went in search of Rizal Tanjing, the godfather of Indonesian surfing. I checked out his surf shop, which had a perfect barrel board for me, a 6'3" YU hand-shape for Rizal with a thumb-tail and leopard print airbrush . . . but the asking price was 5.5 million.
I went across the alley to his restaurant, Balcony, where you can "dine with surf royalty" and his cell number from the hostess, after alot of failed attempts of communication in broken English.
I sent him a text message explaining our mutual friends at Chemistry Surfboards in San Diego, Jeremy Heit and Jason Bennett, but did not hear back from him today. In the afternoon, I drove the scooter out to Bingin where Nate Zoller and Dan Shea have a loft room above a warung right in front of the break.
They share a bed, but only pay $5/night and have one of the best views in Bali and a restaurant right below them.
We surfed it low tide with head high sets. I flailed the drop on my second wave and got caught inside with an approaching set. The incoming waves suck out nearly all the water off the reef, so duck-diving isn't even an available option.
I was right in the impact zone, and after taking one right on the head, the wave flipped me, still lying on the board, nose over tail, and slapped me right onto the reef, sandwiching me between the reef and the board, gashing my left heel and serrating my left shoulder blade through my 1.5mm wetsuit top.
After that, I pretty much surfed without abandon, knowing it couldn't get any worse. It did. I found myself in nearly identical situation about an hour later, except this time an inept Euro surfer came crashing down on top of me with the lip. Boards and bodies were in complete disarray.
Remarkably, my body and my board survived relatively unscathed, only a bad charlie-horse from the initial impact of breaking his free-fall into the reef.
Our leasches were badly tangled . . . but he was wearing reef booties (=kook) and was able to stand up and avoid the incoming onslaught of whitewater that I was taking in the face because he was too busy apologizing to realize he needed to take off his leasch.
The guy did have a sweet mustache though, and out of a respect for the 'stache alone, I smiled through the whole ordeal. It's impossible for me to get mad at any surfer with a mustache, mutual mustache respect.
Besides those two incidents, it was a great session . . . some very fine barrels, even ended on a perfect 'lil in-and-out, the stoke of the last ride lingering for the rest of the day.

uppppssss. Das ist eine Balangan
Es es un mi casa Balangan
To jest nasz dom w Balangan
C'est Balangan mon ami
PS what is happenin now is 1 am n we two are simply runnin out of Arak
so the mood is getiing quiet funny and more languages are coming to my hilarious mind...
said guesss who???
I also met Steve, another Laguna local, who spends about six months a year globe-trotting for surf. His love life and mine are in similar binds, and it was a relief to talk to someone with a similar burden on their heart. In the end, it boils down to: can you really make someone else happy, if you aren't happy? He seems to be set on his path; I feel like I'm just getting my footing on mine.
After a crazy rush-hour scooter ride home, where I learned the maxim that if you drive like you don't care about your life then people will give you your space, I attended an evening yoga session at Prana Spa, led by the lovely Aussie Mandi. Her sessions kick my ass every time and she does up to four sessions a day - amazing endurance. Along with Johnny, she will be leading the instructor course in October. Although I feel like I have alot of ground to cover from now until then, I'm looking forward to pushing my mind and body into new places.
1 comment:
Hey Trey, I'm digging the entries and the pics. Keep it up. Your posts let me momentarily escape to a different side of the world.
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