Keramas, on the East side of Island, is one of the best waves in Bali. It is also one of the few rights too! It breaks along a flat pebbled type reef, not that sharp but certainly potentially dangerous if you decide to hit it. In the right conditions it can be an awesome hollow wave with potential for awesome barrels. Depending what time you surf the crowds here can be intense when it’s firing. You have awesome Balinese surfers to respect and often pro surfers in the line up too. It makes for some hassle but all worth it if you get ‘that wave’. I have had a few sessions here over the years so was quietly confident of my ability but still felt I hadn’t got ‘that wave’ that I always dream about getting here.
This particular session I had surfed a few nice ones but decided to paddle way out the back and wait for one last bomb in. I waited a good ten minutes before the set came. There was an Balinese surfer inside me but he gave me the nod to go and I gracefully accepted. It was a solid set wave nudging 6 feet and I was in the perfect take off spot, well I thought I was. A few short strokes got me into it and already, as I was taking the steep drop, I could see a long hollow section waiting for me down the line. My heart was racing as it was a much thicker, heavier wave than I thought. A huge opening appeared as the water drew off the reef making it shallower by the second. In a split second decision I hesitated turning straight after debating whether to pull in or not. I should have pulled in!
The timing couldn’t have been worse as the lip landed directly on my head and smashed me to oblivion driving me down to the bottom. After getting washed around and bouncing off the bottom a couple of times I came to the surface. My board was in two pieces and my legrope had snapped. The top half of my board was right next to me which I grabbed onto. The back half was being washed way down the beach. Like I said, I should have pulled in as when you hesitate, it generally is not a good outcome. Thankful I was in one piece, I turned my attention to the beach to see my wife running like mad down the beach in an attempt to rescue the other half of my board and my new fins attached. I was stunned, but very impressed as she dove into the chaotic shore break and swam out grab half my board and then battled her way back in like in a scene from Baywatch. The whole time I was thinking, here we go, now I’ll have to rescue her. But she made it in just fine happy to have retrieved my board. I was very proud of my ‘Pamela’.
I bought a new board the same day and I had the snapped board put back together ‘Bali style’ at Uluwatu. My first surf back home at a big Dee Why Point it snapped again. I was half way through a huge drawn out bottom turn when SNAP, it just crumbled under my feet and I was smashed, again!
Moral of the story, never hesitate and snapped boards can’t be fixed!
Sweet