It was March 2024 and the big swell was forecasted to hit Bali in two days. I’ve surfed Keramas on the East Coast of Bali at a solid size before, but I knew that this coming day was going to be a little beyond my capabilities, but I didn’t want to miss out on surfing the day. I knew that the further North along the East Coast I went, the more chance I would have at finding something more surfable. The question was, where…? Even though I’d surfed along the East Coast multiple times, I had never ventured too far North of Keramas. So, I enlisted the help of my Balinese friend Sadia and asked him to join me on a search. Instantly he was onboard.
The hightide was due at lunchtime, and this is normally when a swell is at its peak, so we headed off early to try and find a spot before things got too crazy. In addition the high can also’ flood out’ some reefs and the waves can really slow up, and we also needed to get out there while the winds were ideal. He picked me up from our accommodation at Komune, Keramas, and we set off. The first place we stopped to check out was a remote fishing village not far North with a perfect 3-4ft A-frame peaks out the front. There was only one guy out, but I felt we need to go further North as I knew this perfect A-frame peak would soon double in size and become a little more sinister than what we were looking at. I had also heard rumours of a long righthand point break further North and was very keen to find this ‘Secret Spot’.
We took a couple of wrong detours along the way, passing up some other very doable options, but after some time we found the turn off we were looking for. We then drove through beautiful, secluded Balinese farmland with hardly a sole in sight before reaching the coastline again. As we walked down toward the beach, I could see perfect waves rolling in straight out the front, but no pointbreak as I wondered if we had actually found the spot. Then as we got to the beach, and I looked to my right I saw it. A little over 500 metres walk along the beach was an absolutely beautiful sight. Long lines of perfect clean waves peeling off for an eternity. Trees and sugarcane lined the point, the beach covered in black volcanic sand and big black boulder rocks. It was an awesome set up. The next thing I saw was a surfer taking off on this huge looking wave, way up at the top of the point, and getting absolutely annihilated as he free fell down the face which looked to be a 10–12-foot drop easily. I looked at Sadia with a nervous look in my eyes as he says to me, ‘we go here brother’! It was the perfect right I had been searching for, but a lot bigger than I had hoped for. Nevertheless, it was on!
The area we were at was so remote compared to the rest of Bali. Really old school Bali, not many people around except for local fishermen and a small single Warung, no hotels or places to stay and a long walk to get to the paddle out zone, then a long paddle up to the take off zone. We thought the safest option was to leave everything in the car and we set off on the walk with just our boardies, boards and some rupia in our pockets, the whole time watching perfect waves rolling through. The closer we got it appeared to be about 4-6ft and the bomb set I saw on arrival was most likely one of those rogue sets that Bali is notorious for. The other hurdle we were seeing was the intense shore break that was caused by the steep beach. We soon reached the closest end of the point with another small, near empty warung that sold a few drinks and beng-beng bars, which we were to paddle out from. We waited patiently for a break in the shore break, and we were off.
Paddling out I was so stoked to be here. Mint conditions being warm water, offshore winds, sunny skies and hardly a surfer in sight. I honestly couldn’t believe it. We paddled a little way up the point before deciding to catch a few, as Sadia puts it, ‘practice waves’ before moving further up the point. Within moments I was on my first which must have run for a couple of hundred metres with a perfect face to work before kicking out in the inside channel. Besides finding the place, the other advantage of surfing with a Balinese friend, is that you gain instant respect from the locals in the line-up. You can still otherwise gain get respect, but you must earn it, and if they want one of the better waves, they generally take it. This particular day it was a small friendly crowd, and I found my line ups on the land so managed to be in the right spot a lot and hence got plenty of waves. Each wave I got seemed to be bigger, better, and longer than the last. As we moved further up the point it started to enter my mind that hightide was approaching and there also hadn’t been a ‘rogue set’ for quite a while. A few of the waves were up there with the best I’ve had in around twenty trips to Bali. Certainty the longest. Then they came…
I had just kicked out of a wave on the shore break and as I paddled back out, all I could see were lines of white water coming at me with a massive rogue set breaking way wider than any other waves all morning. Thankfully I was relatively close to shore so didn’t have any major issues getting under them. Though after the fifth wave that I duck dived I was virtually on the beach. We had been out quite a while, caught a heap of waves, paddled kilometres and then going under the rogue set all took me to near exhaustion. I sat on my board and watched Sadia catch a wave all the way into me. It was at this point I thought to myself, I’m done. I’m stoked, I’m surfed out, I’m alive, I’m done. But Sadia had other ideas, convincing me to paddle back out for ‘just one more’. The waves being so perfect, it didn’t take much to twist my arm.
We were about halfway out when I could see them approaching from way out the back. Another rogue set was on its way. I had my chance to turn and catch a wave before they came, and took that chance surfing it all the way in. I got to the beach and turned to see every surfer in the line-up get cleaned up by masses of white water. It was chaos. Again, I was so thankful I had avoided annihilation.
Sadia finally caught another wave and made it in safely. We downed the fluids and chocolate beng-beng bars and shared our stoke with what we had just experienced. We also met this random Balinese dude named Fluffy that happened to take a few random photos of us too. Then the tide filled in, winds started to change, and the waves weren’t quite the perfection that we had just surfed. It was certainly way bigger, but now a long long time between waves. As we were walking back, I turned at one stage and could not believe what I witnessed. A wave so big I couldn’t even put a size on it! It was a huge perfect barrelling beast that broke so much further out than any other wave I saw the whole morning. I am not even sure it was surfable it was that extreme. The hightide combining with this single rogue wave, a sight I will never forget. I was very happy to be on land at this moment. Thank you Bali and thank you Sadia, for one memorable session, we will go back!
‘Only a surfer knows the feeling’
