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. 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.
This particular session I surfed a few nice ones but decided to paddle way out the back for one last bigger bomb in. Depending what time you surf the crowds here can be intense when it’s firing. You have awesome Indo 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’.
Out the back I was when my chance came & I swung into action. There was an Indo guy inside me but he gave me the nod to go & I gracefully accepted. It was a solid 6ft+ set wave & I was in the perfect take off spot. A few short stroke & 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 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 turned straight after debating whether to pull in or not. I should have pulled in!
The timing couldn’t have been worst 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, one part attached to my leg rope and the other quickly being washed way down the beach. Like I said, I should have pulled in. 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. I was stunned but very impressed as she dove into the chaotic shore break & swam out grab half my board and then battled her way back in like in a scene from Baywatch. The whole time me 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 bought a new board the same day and I got the snapped board put back together “Bali style”at Uluwatu only to have it snap on my first surf back home at a big Dee Why Point. I was half way through a huge drawn out bottom turn and SNAP, it just crumbled under my and I was smashed, again! Not that I expected a “Bali fix” to last long…
Moral of the story, always pull in or you may just screw up your chance of ‘that wave’!
Sweet