‘This weekend marks the third anniversary of my Dad passing away. I am sharing this story I previously wrote to celebrate him and because it’s a great story. To this day I still feel him and especially when surfing the special place mentioned below. I paddle out and always give Dad a nod before getting my first wave and I then I surf like he’s watching, as I know he is. Following this I always, without fail, seem to have an awesome session as he is watching from the Bali skies above. Thinking of you always Dad. RIP.’
So today was the day we scattered Dads ashes at ‘Lacerations Reef’ on Lembongan Island, Bali. This is Dads favourite spot in Bali where he & I had some awesome surfs together with him ripping the waves up on his local dodgy hired surf ski We spent many late afternoons here chatting in between waves and just enjoying the moment. Some of my fondest memories are from these times. It just seemed right to scatter some of his ashes here.
It was just before sunset, the weather perfect & the ocean so glassy there was not a ripple of water out of place. Nemo Captian, who knew Dad well, took us out just past the break of Lacerations. I paddle a few meters off the boat on a nice long Malibu that Made’ from the local shop loaned me & scattered the ashes over the glassy surface and watched as they drifted across the reef. This way whenever I surfed ‘Lacerations’ from now on, I would be surfing with Dad at one of his favourite spots. We then placed the beautiful wreath that our local friend Mandy organized for us in the water & watched as it drifted out into the unknown of the Lombok Straight. Mum and my wife Leanne went ashore & I paddled to ‘Lacerations’ to have a few waves for Dad. This is where we started to wonder if he was watching from above. You see Dad had left several skin grafts on the sharp reef over the last few years but was always complaining why him yet I get away injury free. There is just one huge rock that sticks out on the reef, which I’ve always managed to avoid but on this day guess what, I found it. In fact my foot, knee & shin found it and took some of my skin aswell. There you go Dad I finally found it too.
Shortly after I then took the long 15 minute paddle back in as Mum, Leanne and I were going to dinner at Dads favourite restaurant on the island where we all used to go. It seems Dad wasn’t happy about us going there without him. You see we sat at our favourite table & noticed after a few mins it stunk a little of sewage. Not unbearable so we decided to put up with it, hey its Bali. We then ordered our entree & main. I ordered Tom Yum Gong soup, my staple, as had been really keen to get the whole trip yet hadn’t had the chance. We all ordered peppered steak for main, as we knew how good it was here. Excited about finally getting a decent steak and me getting my Tom Yum Gong we chatted while we waited. Then after a little while the waitress came back to say they had no steak. Ok, then so we re-ordered & noticed they had corn on cob so got that too as really felt like corn. Again after a few minutes she came back to say ‘sorry no corn’. Mmmm, happy with Tom Yum Gong soup & our new mains we thought oh well. So then we waited, and waited, and waited, thinking although we made it so clear to bring entree first, they’re going to bring it all together. Well they actually didn’t. They brought out mains out and we asked where is our Tom Yum Gong. ‘So sorry’ they apologized as they had forgot to cook it. Mmmmm, not much we could do at this point. We ate our mains waiting for Dads favourite classic live band to appear as usual, singing Johny Cash which dad loved so much, but they never appeared. In fact the CD music was terrible and all we could do is laugh now as so many things were going wrong. We ate in minutes and were keen to pay the bill and just get out of there. We were asked to come pay upstairs as were paying by card so had to climb a thousands massive stairs to do this.
Once paid, as we finally left, we all apologized to Dad for going here without him we promised him we wouldn’t go back. I also apologised for surfing Lacerations without him and promised to give him a nod every time I do.
Without a doubt Dad was watching from the Bali skies above.
‘This weekend marks the third anniversary of my Dad passing away. I am sharing this story I previously wrote to celebrate him and because it’s a great story. To this day I still feel him and especially when surfing the special place mentioned below. I paddle out and always give Dad a nod before getting my first wave and I then I surf like he’s watching, as I know he is. Following this I always, without fail, seem to have an awesome session as he is watching from the Bali skies above. Thinking of you always Dad. RIP.’
So today was the day we scattered Dads ashes at ‘Lacerations Reef’ on Lembongan Island, Bali. This is Dads favourite spot in Bali where he & I had some awesome surfs together with him ripping the waves up on his local dodgy hired surf ski We spent many late afternoons here chatting in between waves and just enjoying the moment. Some of my fondest memories are from these times. It just seemed right to scatter some of his ashes here.
It was just before sunset, the weather perfect & the ocean so glassy there was not a ripple of water out of place. Nemo Captian, who knew Dad well, took us out just past the break of Lacerations. I paddle a few meters off the boat on a nice long Malibu that Made’ from the local shop loaned me & scattered the ashes over the glassy surface and watched as they drifted across the reef. This way whenever I surfed ‘Lacerations’ from now on, I would be surfing with Dad at one of his favourite spots. We then placed the beautiful wreath that our local friend Mandy organized for us in the water & watched as it drifted out into the unknown of the Lombok Straight. Mum and my wife Leanne went ashore & I paddled to ‘Lacerations’ to have a few waves for Dad. This is where we started to wonder if he was watching from above. You see Dad had left several skin grafts on the sharp reef over the last few years but was always complaining why him yet I get away injury free. There is just one huge rock that sticks out on the reef, which I’ve always managed to avoid but on this day guess what, I found it. In fact my foot, knee & shin found it and took some of my skin aswell. There you go Dad I finally found it too.
Shortly after I then took the long 15 minute paddle back in as Mum, Leanne and I were going to dinner at Dads favourite restaurant on the island where we all used to go. It seems Dad wasn’t happy about us going there without him. You see we sat at our favourite table & noticed after a few mins it stunk a little of sewage. Not unbearable so we decided to put up with it, hey its Bali. We then ordered our entree & main. I ordered Tom Yum Gong soup, my staple, as had been really keen to get the whole trip yet hadn’t had the chance. We all ordered peppered steak for main, as we knew how good it was here. Excited about finally getting a decent steak and me getting my Tom Yum Gong we chatted while we waited. Then after a little while the waitress came back to say they had no steak. Ok, then so we re-ordered & noticed they had corn on cob so got that too as really felt like corn. Again after a few minutes she came back to say ‘sorry no corn’. Mmmm, happy with Tom Yum Gong soup & our new mains we thought oh well. So then we waited, and waited, and waited, thinking although we made it so clear to bring entree first, they’re going to bring it all together. Well they actually didn’t. They brought out mains out and we asked where is our Tom Yum Gong. ‘So sorry’ they apologized as they had forgot to cook it. Mmmmm, not much we could do at this point. We ate our mains waiting for Dads favourite classic live band to appear as usual, singing Johny Cash which dad loved so much, but they never appeared. In fact the CD music was terrible and all we could do is laugh now as so many things were going wrong. We ate in minutes and were keen to pay the bill and just get out of there. We were asked to come pay upstairs as were paying by card so had to climb a thousands massive stairs to do this.
Once paid, as we finally left, we all apologized to Dad for going here without him we promised him we wouldn’t go back. I also apologised for surfing Lacerations without him and promised to give him a nod every time I do.
Without a doubt Dad was watching from the Bali skies above.
Love this story. Thinking of him always x