By now you may have gathered that my favourite wave in Bali is Dreamland.
I have a few favourite waves around the island and have certainly had some memorable surfs at other spots, but when I find myself day dreaming about Bali, it’s always Dreamland.
Dreamland thrives on a low tide, especially the A-frame peak on the northern side of the beach. The left is normally longer and can get hollow but the rights are always my go-to. On an ‘island of a thousand lefts’, being a natural stance surfer, means that if there is a right in sight, I’m on it!
Most times when we have been staying on the Bukit and I’ve been surfing Dreamland, the low tide has fallen in the late afternoon. I love surfing it at this time of day. The offshore trade winds have been grooming the waves all day, the sky takes on a golden glow as the sun starts to fall and the locals are playing on the beach and in the shorebreak. It is just such an awesome vibe as the day begins to end. I have actually never had a morning surf here until this trip.
I didn’t even look at the tides before booking this trip. We just picked the dates that worked with our schedule and left it the Bali god of the sea, Dewa Baruna, as to what time of day I would be surfing. Dewa is believed to control the swells, currents and tides of Bali.
It worked out that low tide was to fall first thing in the morning which meant I would be surfing Dreamland around sunrise. For me, it was going to be Dreamland with a difference.
PART ONE: THE FAIL
The first morning was an epic failure on all fronts.
Arriving late the night before, although very tired, I left on the scooter bright and early in great anticipation of what waves were to come. Normally, it’s a relaxing ten minute ride to the main carpark at the northern end of the beach. The first problem came when I reached the turn off for the shortcut. It was closed off because of construction. For years this had always been a very handy shortcut for scooters. From there I decided to continue in the direction I thought would eventually get me there. I could have and probably should have turned back, as there is another small carpark on the other side of the beach. I figured the way I was going would only take a little while longer. I was very wrong!
For a while, I had no idea where I was going before finally joining a road I remembered being on other times. I knew this road would get me there. This road was used as another alternative shortcut to get from Dreamland to Bingin. It had always been a little dodgy in the past but this time it was horrendous. It was in terrible condition after the previous wet season rain with massive potholes filled with mud and sections of the road were completely broken up into pieces creating jagged craters.
The other issue was all the scooters using it because the other shortcut was closed. Not to mention all the cars that are always using it. It was a long and sketchy ride with plenty of hold ups as it’s such a narrow road in stages. Cars and scooters are constantly pulling over to allow others to squeeze past. Basically, the terrain was throwing everything it could at me and my NMAX scooter.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally made it to the carpark. I reckon the whole ride took about thirty minutes longer than it normally would have using the shortcut. Right then I made the decision that when I ride back to the bungalow, I was definitely not going that way again.
I stepped off the scooter, my legs feeling like jelly, my forearms burning and I was covered in mud. Although not quite as excited as I had been when I left, the gruelling track was behind me and I was finally at Dreamland.
I headed down with my board to see what waves were on offer, hopefully to be rewarded for my efforts to get there. Well, to make the whole misadventure even worse, the waves were absolute rubbish. The ocean’s ‘morning sickness’ was in full effect. The waves were mushy and closing out and at this point I was tired and majorly disappointed. My adrenaline had plummeted and I just wanted to click my fingers and be back at our beautiful bungalow back at Bodhi Bingin. I sat and watched the waves for around ten minutes, looking for that one wave to invite me out for a surf, but it never came.
The plan to get back was simple. Just ride up to the main road which would be in much better condition and cruise back. It’s normally a longer commute back to Bingin, but it would sure beat the obstacle course I had to overcome to get here and the amount of time that took! Saying that, anyone who has ridden a scooter in Bali knows that distances on the road can have absolutely nothing to do with the reality of travel time.
Once I got to the main road, I could see the traffic was dense. This was nothing new to me and I filtered through it well, although with hyper focused concentration as you never know what to expect.
Well, this all changed when I came to the Bingin turn off. After the Bingin turn off. There is one long steep hill that leads down into Bingin and Padang Padang. Normally it’s a fun, easy ride but this time, it was chaos! It was jam packed with scooters and cars bumper-to-bumper. They were doing road works on the sides on the road and it was just pure pandemonium. At one stage no one moved for ten minutes! A car was trying to turn around in the mayhem and the traffic just came to a complete deadlock. It was an extremely slow annoying ride down the hill but eventually, I arrived back at the bungalow. Not the best start to the trip, but I was still excited, as I knew what was to come over the following days.
As it turns out, Bali is building a new major road connecting Jimbaran and Uluwatu which will make a massive improvement to the traffic conditions, especially around Bingin. By the time we come back next year it should be finished. Bali’s traffic has always been an issue with the sheer number of people their but, slowly, they are making improvements.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating and catching up with a few of our local Balinese friends.
PART TWO: THE REDEMPTION
The forecast for the next few days, in fact, the next two weeks, was for plenty of swell. It was going to get extremely big over the coming days, so I was keen to get a few sessions in before the size got beyond my limits. The next morning at sunrise, I set off again, this time with my wife Leanne. The roads around Bingin had changed a bit from the previous years because of all the development but I said to her, “let’s turn left here instead of right”, as I was sure it would take us to the other carpark at the southern end of the beach. I had been to this carpark once before but it was down a very narrow track and with absolutely packed with hundreds of scooters that previous time. But that was late afternoon. the difference here was that it was sunrise.
As it turned out, that left turn took us straight to the car park and we rode right down the path, parking right on the beach, with hardly any other scooters there. It was a three minute ride from our bungalow compared to the massive ordeal the day before. Three minutes and you end up on the other side of the Dreamland canal, then you just walk twenty meters along the beach to get to the other side. I really should have just gone this way the day before!
As far as the waves, well, it was absolutely pumping! The ocean had transformed overnight and was now offering perfect overhead waves with no morning sickness, just pure glassy conditions and only a handful of surfers out.
I was so pumped for this session and so excited to be paddling back out at Dreamland. It certainly felt different though. I had never surfed it at this time of the day before. The sun was rising from the east instead of starting to set in the west as it had done during all my other sessions. The morning air was cool and crisp replacing the burning afternoon sun I was used to. There was just a light breeze instead of the howling offshore trade winds. There was also hardly anyone around. There were no signs of any surf schools and the warungs weren’t even open yet. Such a different vibe to my normal late afternoon sessions here. A much quieter, more peaceful stillness and just completely different.
I didn’t waste a single second. I just wanted to get out there! While standing on the beach waiting for a break to enter the water, I could tell by the shore break that there was quite a bit of energy. As I paddled closer to the lineup, a set rolled through. It was then that I realised it was well overhead. Not the biggest I had surfed it, but certainly bigger than I had expected.
The redemption paying off.
There were only a handful of surfers out, a few locals and a few others. As I always do first, I paddled over to the locals and said Selamat Pagi (good morning) and asked them how the waves were. One of them said to me “We’re about to find out” and started paddling towards the horizon. A set was fast approaching. I couldn’t see the set coming but if a local starts paddling for the horizon, so do you! Then suddenly, I could see the long lines approaching. As we kept paddling, he turned to me and said, “I go left, you go right”. I wasn’t sure if he was asking me the question or actually telling me, but I replied, “I’m happy with that my friend”. He laughed and we both got into position. Dreamlands on a good day is a flawless A-frame. When surfers talk about A-frames, this is exactly what they mean. It really is the epitome of the perfect wave.
We were paddling side by side for the same wave. He knew he was going left and I knew I was going right. With a huge smile on his face, he started yelling at me, “Kayuh! Kayuh! Kayuh keras!”. At the time I had no idea what he was yelling but later found out it means, “Paddle! Paddle! Paddle hard!”. Being early morning, there was little wind so the wave let me in very easily. Normally in the afternoons you’re fighting against the strong offshore trade winds can be in full force. Once I was confident I was into the wave, I jumped to my feet and took the drop. A vertical drop that felt never ending. After I reached the bottom, I did a long, drawn out bottom turn and as I looked ahead, I couldn’t believe how perfect the rest of the wave was. Not a drop of water was out of place. The face stood tall and the speed I had generated from the drop stayed with me as I transitioned into my turns.
As I rode this perfect wave, highlining perfect sections, I noticed it was longer than a lot of my previous waves out here. It kept walling up through the inside section which would normally flatten out into the deep channel. I started thinking to myself, I could ride this all the way in. So, I did. It wasn’t even as though I had to keep pumping my board to get the reform. The wave just kept going, walling up all the way to the beach and allowing me to do cutbacks and manoeuvres the whole way.
I finished the wave and literally stepped off onto the sand. It was the first time I had ever ridden a wave here all the way in. The rights normally fade out in the deep channel halfway to shore. I couldn’t believe it.
I have had so many sessions here, caught so many waves and had heard that some had ridden waves all the way through but, until this day, I had never experienced it for myself.
My face says it all after getting my first wave at Dreamland that I had ever rode all the way through to the inside section stepping off on the sand!
I then had to walk all the way around rock shelf to the northern side of the beach to where you paddle out. Well, you’ll never guess what happened once I got back onto the lineup. I caught my next wave all the way into the beach, again! My first two waves of the trip had both been the longest waves I’d ever ridden at Dreamland!
I could have ended my session right then being totally stoked. Of course, I didn’t and ended up having yet another awesome session. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch any more waves all the way through but I still caught plenty of perfect ones in beautiful conditions. I sat furthest out the back with the local Balinese surfer the whole time. We both waited patiently, chatting as we waited for the sets. He always went left and I always went right. The perfect scenario. We continued this routine until the tide started filling in and the waves started slowing down and we both decided to catch our last wave in.
Another Dreamland session complete, but this one with a difference.
On my longest wave at Dreamland ever, taking me all the way in to the beach.
Perfection.
Bombs away.
