Surfing in Bali, Indonesia

In early April 2008 I had the chance to go to the island of Bali, Indonesia on a surf trip. A friend of mine from college was teaching English over in Thailand so we decided to meet up in Bali after his contract was over. This was to be my first trip to Bali, and really my first time traveling in that part of the world.

Just to let you know, I am just an average surfer in Southern California. My job as a professional sheet salesman allows me free time to surf whenever I like, so I try to hit the swells when they are best, but pretty much there is nothing exciting about the way I surf. I try to do a few tricks like floaters, cut backs, and tail slides, but overall I would imagine these “tricks” look better to me in my head, than they do from the beach. Especially since most of these moves are done at local beach breaks like San Onofre, Trestles, and Strands, which are not exactly fast moving shallow reef breaks. But I really don’t care since I love to surf, and Bali was calling me to her.

I am married with two young children and, getting a 10 day trip to Bali was not exactly easy, but the wife knew I had to go. So I booked an economy plane ticket for @ $1000.00 and started doing my research on Bali and Indonesia.

The actual trip to Bali from Los Angeles is a pretty serious haul. The international flights didn’t leave from LAX until 1am, and then it is a 14 hour plane ride to Taipei, Taiwan. From here you have a 2 – 3 hour layover, then another 5 hour plane ride into Bali. You are literally traveling for 24hrs straight. I was tore up by the time I got through customs and into a Balinese taxi cab, even after sucking down a sleeping pill for the plane ride.

It was the middle of the day when my plane got into Bali, and their one airport is actually pretty nice. It reminded me of Honolulu for some reason, but it could have been the lack of sleep and excitement to finally be off the airplane.