Surfing Waves

Hello, I have been reading this forum for some time now and like to introduce myself. I found this forum by doing a google search that let me to the topic 'Later in life beginners', which i appreciated very much.
Ever since i was a kid surfing waves was somehow in my mind. But in my country, The Netherlands, conditions were not attractive to me, I had visions of perfect waves in warm weather. Only on holidays, later in life, I did a bit of wavesurfing on a BIC 7'9". Progress was accordingly, as in not there. I was to be a lifelong beginner.
That changed a couple of years ago when I decided to permanently move to Bali and pursue my dream of surfing beautiful waves in warm weather.
Unfortunately the physical difficulties older age (52) brings, has reduced my time in the water drastically. Lucky for me I'm open to the balancing qualities of life that makes me enjoy surfing maybe even more then in my younger times.
I hope to share some of my passion for surfing among fellow compassionados in this forum. After all, what is life without passion?

Great introduction, Lots of older surfers here, I am 61. We have another surfer from Bali "Big H'. Lots of passionate surfers here also. Welcome to the forum

Spa kabah ? Baik baik, Banyak bagus , I hope , depending on where you are in Bali , make Dreamland and that end of the Bukit peninsula your learning ground. I feel the Kuta, Legian stretch. Is not kind to beginners with the amount of water moving around.
Small days maybe!


At least at Dreamland the breaks are settled in position by the reef.

About your age well pelan, pelan is the only way to go! Suggest some yoga and Pilates at an easy stretch level and a long board. What are you riding at the moment. BTW I'm 66 so age is no barrier!
Welcome tidak apa apa!

Wow, 61 and 66 and still surfing, u guys give me some hope for the next 10 years
How often do u surf and how long are ur sessions? I was out of the water for some time due back injury and try building up some more frequently now, but my muscles are sore for 3 or 4 days. I learned the hard way I better wait then. Pelan pelan indeed! I hope soon I can go 2x a week, 2 days rest in between surfs.

I use a Firewire Dominator 606 and recently bought an Addvance 606 cos the Dominator is way too overvolumed when the waves are about shoulder high. The Addvance has more volume (48l) then the Dominator (45l) but it has a much thinner tail that keeps good in overhead waves. I think I keep the Dom for small waves until shoulder high and play around with twin fins or single fin for maximising speed, just want to do some experimentation.

The wave catching ability of the Dominator was already very good but I found the Addvance to be phenomenal at catching waves for such a short board. On my very first surf I could catch anything. But on my last surf on another wave, just now, I was terrible and screwed up every takeoff. Did ugly knee-first popups and spent more time under the water then above, or so it felt. I was paddling out feeling confident to the bone on my wavecatching monster, but came out of the water as an humbled old man

My homebreak is Oldmans (what's in a name) at Changgu's Batubolong, but to avoid the crowd I sometimes move to a wave more to the west of Changgu. But I haven't figured that wave out, to say the least..

Thanks for the welcome guys, I already start feeling at home on the forum.

jaffa1949 wrote:make Dreamland and that end of the Bukit peninsula your learning ground.

That is a very good suggestion. I surfed Dreamland 1 time before, but that's a long time ago. I was thinking of trying it again, u just gave me a decisive little push.Terimah kasih!

I surf funboards, not quite a longboard or quite a shortboard, basically a shortboard with lots of floatation. I surf twice a week for 30 minutes. It has more to do with me being on call at work than for my health but it keeps me healthy and motivates me to do other exercises to get into and stay in shape. I know the old guys who surf the most are the ones who are going down the hardest with repetitive motion injuries. My friends who I used to know from surfing as a youth have mostly switched to SUP because they get injuries that hamper their regular surfing.

For me 2x/week 30min would be a good compromise, but i have this discipline challenge..
It often happens that because of tiredness I decide to save some energy and ride my last wave for the day. But then see some great waves on the inside and go for it, until I cannot paddle out or accelerate for an takeoff anymore. Then, dead tired but stoked, paddle to the beach and quit.
This is basically the way I did it when younger and would bring me in shape the quickest. I remember a time, i was 29 and on a 5 week holiday in Bali, I fell in love with the island there and then and decided I wanted to live here. I bought a surfboard from the guys on the beach the longest I could find, no malibu's in sight all very small shortboards. Later I learned I had bought a Gun for my first learnings..
Non of my friends surfed and in that time u couldn't simply Google "surfboard Bali".. So basically I had no idea what i was doing, but had loads of energy and strenght and was stoked every day. My only problem was deciding between nightlife or surflife, both doesn't work in the tropics, i soon found out.
After returning home I picked up my boxing training, and my mates were in line to fight me in the ring, I hadn't been boxing for 5 weeks right The surfing had given me so much strength and endurance I handled 3 in a row without any troubles
But now things are a bit different, after surfing until my arms fall of I need 4 days rest to stay out of injuries. I still feel slight improvement, so I hope i can bring surfing frequency up to every 3rd day or maybe even 3x a week.
I feel I'm very close to the next level, and very eager to reach it.

Welcome to the board....Dreamland is a good spot when it's working, been calling it my home break for the last few months....problem is it isn't working more than it does do....and trying to learn on the inside reform that finishes on the beach is a hard way to go if you're not quick enough on your kick out.....long way from Canggu too with traffic.....I like Oldman's...go there as often as I can (traffic)....I'm here on Bukit, so mainly stay down here....Went out to Oldman's on Sunday and had my lunch handed to me....just wasn't happening for me that day and got caught inside after screwing up drop after drop....was a good workout anyway.....I can't get a straight answer from anyone about which peak out there is named what....I usually go out at the "river" to the right of the big rock as you're facing the ocean....paddle out to the break that is more or less straight out from the big rock (Batu bolong being the big rock I assume so I would guess that peak is Batu Bolong)....there is another break, a left that lately has had better shape and more interest out to the right from that paddle out point...(Old Man's ? ...at least that is what one surf map listed it as....same one listed the batu bolong break as being called Tuguu and Canggu as "The Ledge"....bottom line is it is a surfing smorgassabord up there and I don't care too much about the names....good times!!!)....going out to that one next time I get up there....good waves up there, always picks up on the swell, wicked shorebreak at times (waited awhile before getting an entry and then an exit window sitting just outside the shorebreak last Sunday), tough getting in and out, and sooooo crowded at times.....anyone would do well to develop at that break...only thing is that it is really not a beginner wave despite the place being covered with them....there is a choice though, inside sections to the left of the parking lot facing out have waves smaller than those out back....but out back is where it's at....get down to dreamland on a day when the swell is +1.8m at mid tide to high, period at least 14sec and it will be breaking out back with room for a ride that doesn't end on the beach.....

Anyhow, if Jaffa follows up on his threats to come to Bali for a surf, we meet up and surf there....one of the breaks will be working and good food not far away...

All booked for Lombok only one day in Bali ( just an evening really) of the 9th September and a fly over to Lombok next day. At 15.30

Bintang friendly hours to meet either of you so will talk as it comes closer!
Surf unlikely though.... Sorry! Heaven on th Planet beckons , Teluk Ekas .

Ha ha ha, "Which break is Oldmans?" yes it is very difficult in Bali to get any hard info, even something simple as the name of the surfspot.
U must walk a bit further over the mentioned river, Oldmans is in front of the new big project for The Intercontinental, with that ugly wall facing the ocean. If arriving on motorbike just take the last street going right after Tugu hotel, it goes until mentioned wall, and there's a little warung called Oldmans, to take away ur last doubts
The wave works from low to mid tide and handles up to 8ft (magicseaweed swell prediction) more at higher tides. It has a very nice right and a great left, it's basically 2 A-frames, well sort of. So technically it has 4 takeoff points, but in the middle it's a collision course from both sides. If ur there at a small to medium swell at higher tides, Oldmans doesn't break, tidak ada
I'm a regular and like the right at lowest tides, there is a nice channel to bring u back to the peak. But if working there is a crowd factor, and on lower tides it's a small takeoff area that concentrates the crowd.
The wave in front of the big rock in Batubolong gives a massive and fat left on higher tides. It's attracts more surfers then Oldmans because everybody can easy see it and the whole area works at all tides. But the crowd is nicely spread over a big area because of the moving peaks, the right often closes out and doesn't have a channel for an easy escape but if u catch a good one it can be fantastic.
Thanks for the info on Dreamland I didn't knew it worked at higher tides, I will certainly check it out. The distance is not a problem, my house is in west denpasar, thats a central location to most breaks and i go there by car. I already lost my western cepat cepat driving style, it's now all pelan pelan

And hey, it looks we got a date with om Jaffa the evening of 9 sepember

Funny....my driving style after living in Jakarta is pretty much indescribable but would definitely be a more cepat cepat style than I had previous to my time here.....made it from Nusa Dua to Sunset McD's to buy a leash from a guy off the buy and sell (great Facebook page for local deals BTW) in 23 min just now via toll road and a heavy foot.....

Thanks for the info on Oldmans....I get out there and with the shifty peaks out in front of batu bolong and everything else going on out there it's hard to decide where to plant your flag....only a handful of people seem to know how to actually surf a given area....everyone else is just following each other....I've gotten the fat left figured out more or less on batu bolong but was looking over at what I now know is Oldmans thinking that looked pretty good (so did the other 30 or so heads at 06:45am that morning which ended my personal debate as we were about 12 deep over on the batu)....I've seen the channel/paddle out route to Oldmans....maybe the next time I'm out there if it's not too crowded and the tide is right.....saw someone take totally different lines at batu bolong than I've seen previously.....he was good, dropped in to a hang five up on top of the wave, two cutbacks down to the flats then back up to a hang five again...the interesting part was his takeoff point and the line he took....he was inside a bit to the left of the rock as you look out maybe 75m-100m and he took a left all the way past the rock from that point......so many ways to ride the waves out there.....and changes seemingly every time I go there.....fun.....

Dreamland should start working this week on Thursday.....going to check it out then.....cheers!

Here's a picture of the guy taking the line I never tried....next time, next time........

Big H wrote:Dreamland should start working this week on Thursday.....going to check it out then.....cheers!

Wow that's a big day! Not sure I can handle that on a new wave. Very tempting though.. What time/tide ur planning on going out?

Nice pics of Batubolong, it can be so wonderfull there. Unfortunately there is so incredible much surftourism development in that whole area now, the crowds are already the big spoiler there. With all this development the crowds will grow until it's not possible to enjoy ur surfing anymore

In 2008 I slept in the backroom of the restaurant Sol, that place changed names a couple of times already since then. It's the restaurant in front of the big Sentosa project, smack on the rocks. And not to forget, square in front of Oldmans

Oldmans is about 100m behind that wave, but not working at the time of the photo because hightide/small swell.


How things would chance, in so little time..

What do you know.....there is a wave with my name on it......hmmm gonna have to thiink about that one.....

Work your way up to the bigger sizes out there.....I still am, like I said I had it handed to me that day but I've been out there on bigger and fared better.....was a little overconfident on Sunday and was too deep and too far inside hunting for tweener waves when a set rolled in that I couldn't get out of the way of.....and then I did that a few more times.....managed to find the worst spot (the bowl) and just got worked....deep water out there so it's just a matter of holding your breath and hanging on to your board, but you go for a ride for sure.... Anyway, the bigger the waves the smaller the crowds.....natural selection and all....was out there on a shoulder high day and there were multiple people dropping in on every wave, dropping in on each other, running over each other, etc....must have been nearly 70 people scattered over that break that day......wooooffff!!!

Waxing nostalgic about what was here in Bali won't get you far....I remember 2006 and driving down the country lane called Sunset with nothing but rice paddies on each side.......

.....forget yesterday and enjoy the moment.....development is rolling through so fast that these actually are the good old days evaporating right in front of our eyes.....so enjoy it while it is still here.......

I started going to Bali in 1979, when I was 30, Kuta was all rice paddies and cattle.
The trek to Ulus was a mega work and there would be 8 surfers at the most.
At that stage surfing was considered a real Bule thing and even the fishermen were scared of the sea
I've seen Kuta and the whole stretch just morph into something I wish it hadn't.
The Balinese still work through it all with a dignity and grace I would love to see extended to more of the world.
Pretty much like genuine aloha can be

Bali in transition....posted this the bali photo thread but meant to go here....

jaffa1949 wrote:Surf unlikely though.... Sorry! Heaven on th Planet beckons , Teluk Ekas .

It this where you went a few years ago (although I seem to recall that was somewhere a bit more remote)? Or is it the location of the famous Jaffa 'rails in the wave' photo?

Or am I imagining things...I was actually looking at their website last month for 'some reason'.

Jaffa went to Heaven in 2009 for his 60th birthday. The "famous" rail in wave shot was in the Mentawais at Beng Beng's in 2010 much further along the archipelago! Then a break to reenergise the wallet and Rote in Nusa tengarra timur in 2013 and 14.

This year I return to Heaven, which is ridiculous since I live close to Eden.