I’ve been travelling to Bali since 2010 and have nearly clocked up around twenty trips but on the most recent in August 2023 I surfed some of the most perfect waves I ever had. This is just one of those sessions.
You see, it’s not only knowing where the perfect waves are in Bali, you also need to know what tide suits it best, what winds suit it best and then sometimes you must rely not only on the number of surfers that are out, but also what skill level of surfers are out if you want to snag that perfect wave. Most waves in Bali often need a mid to high tide to break and make them surfable. On the West Coast Bukit there is only a couple of waves that you can surf at low tide. ‘Deamlands’ is one of these and not only does it break at low tide, but it gets bigger and better at low tide. I’ve surfed here a handful of times but it’s either been too small or too crowded to score ‘that’ perfect wave. However, on this one day in August it all came together.
There was defiantly swell around the island. My nephew Lachlan and I were frothing for a surf, but the tide was dropping fast, so our options were limited. We decided to scooter down to Dreamlands from Uluwatu to see what was going on. The adventure started with just getting there as we decided to take some ‘shortcuts’ through Bingin, the nearby village. After a few wrong turns and near misses with dogs, chickens and amateur riders, we finally made it to the southern ‘carpark’ which was close to the actual beach, but also one I had not parked at before. We rode down a skinny dirt track with literally over 200 scooters parked either side along it. You see Dreamalnds is a very popular beach. Not only for the surf but it is one best beaches as easily accessible, stunning blue water, a beautiful white sand beach and great for swimming. As Bali Karma had it, we rode up the track past what seemed an endless line of parked scooters and as we got to the end, two people were just leaving. The surfer girl that was leaving backed her scooter out and straight into the opposite scooter knocking it over. That scooter fell into the one beside it and that one into the next one & it was a domino effect until four scooters were tipped over. She turned looking at me and asked, ‘was that me?’ I laughed and answered ‘it certainly was’. We helped her upright the fallen scooters and she was off. Then once we started to walk down the track onto the beach a guy walking back clipped a parked one with his surfboard and knocked over two more scooters. Were seriously doubted ours would be upright on our return but wasn’t going to stop us going surfing right then.
At first viewing we were slightly disappointed as it appeared smaller than we expected but being such a beautiful day and the water looking so inviting and this time of year it’s clean offshore winds & conditions were impeccable so we just had to get out there no matter what. There are a few peaks you can surf but because right handers are a rare sight on the West Coast, we rolled the dice and chose the peak with the right, which on occasion over the years, I have seen going off. As we entered the water paddling through the shore break, I could feel some energy in the ocean and wondered if we had just seen a lull at first viewing and there was more size than we thought. Another thing in Bali is sometimes the ocean can look completely flat but then every twenty minutes or even up to thirty minutes a maxing bombing set arrives and unwittingly you find yourself in immediate danger. We paddled out through the channel and arriving at the line up saw a mix of surfers but mostly just a couple of local Balinese surfers and a bunch of learners on the inside. This was a welcomed sight as a lot of spots can be very challenging with all the good surfers out, especially the Balinese. So we both paddled the furthest out the back and waited. It felt like sixty seconds, then suddenly, just like can happen in Bali, a huge set lurked on the horizon. You could see the swell lines come from way out.
Heart pounding, I wasted no time getting into position and paddled like hell for the first one. If i missed it I knew what was behind it, so I was paddling hard! As I stood up the strong howling offshore trade wind held me in the lip and I was staring down very solid wave wondering if I was about to get launched into oblivion. Eventually it let me enter the wave into a huge, long, fast and extremely steep drop before a perfect open face lined up for me and I attacked it. It was by far the biggest and best wave I had ever got at Dreamlands. Paddling back out I proudly watched Lauchlan taking one of the other set waves and all I could think was ‘don’t fall off mate, don’t fall off mate!’ He held on for his life and thank god made it. As we met back out at the peak, we looked at each other, both with huge adrenaline fuelled grins, from ear to ear, both thinking the exact same thing. How perfect were those waves and it’s a lot bigger than we thought! We noted our land line ups so we wouldn’t get caught out of position and cleaned up. I turned to Lauchlan and said ‘you know I’d be stoked with just three or four of these’.
As Bali Karma had it, we each traded wave after wave after wave until the sun set and we could surf no more. Paddling out after each wave we were in awe of how perfect the waves looked. Huge green faces, with the sun shining through them and a perfect split peak. Although, we stuck to the rights as we had the safety of the channel to escape any danger getting back out and hey, it was a right. If someone was to draw the perfect waves, these would be them! After some waves, paddling back out, you would just stop half way, sit and just watch the waves roll thru and take in the moment. Other times you paddled as hard as you could to get back out and get another one! As we paddled in, the sun fading away until it’s next rise, the waves had dropped and conditions were not as perfect as the previous two hours we had shared. We realized we had timed our session to perfection.
Over the next two days we surfed the same peak at the same tide and although the size was dropping with each passing set and each passing day, the waves and conditions were still absolutely perfect. I feel very blessed to have scored these sessions and even more blessed to have shared them with my nephew as he charged.
Thank you to the Bali Surfing Gods once again.
‘Only a surfer knows the feeling’
