Surfing Inspired Mid Life Crisis-Location Advice Appreciated

[MLC83]

Hi everyone. This forum has been a great read. This is my first post and I will try to condense it as much as possible. Potentially an eye bleeder though. Apologies in advance.

6 months ago I realised I was bored with my life. So I quit a spirit crushing job and moved to Bali to work as an English teacher. For the first 3 months I was in full Mid Life Crisis mode, chasing tanned Scandinavian women (limited success) and sunset Bintangs (a born natural).

This all changed when a bloke from the office took me surfing. Pretty soon I was going 3-4 times a week and was hooked. I won't bore with you with my surfing journey or try and articulate the post surf feeling that you all know and could express a thousand times better than me. I'll just give you the response, word for word, that I received from a whatsapp group containing my three brothers in England when I tried to explain it:

"It's 9AM here. On a freezing cold Monday morning. I have just sat down to a job that makes me want to top myself and I have to read you rambling on about a semi-spiritual soul cleansing surf in a tropical paradise. ON A MONDAY F*CKING MORNING? Shove your ten foot surfboard up your arse. You're having a mid life crisis and the locals all laugh at you."

I still smile reading it now. The 5pm Monday text has become a staple of my surfing life. They still bite.

So yeah, I'm hooked. There's only one problem. I'm terrible. I didn't know how bad until a workmate/amateur photographer filmed us surfing. The only way I can describe my footage is it looked like the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz had taken up surfing. Who on earth is the perfectly perpendicular beanpole who can't even turn his board?

Safe to say I have no plans for hitting the tour anytime soon or getting barrelled in Hawaii. But I would like this past time to be in my life from here on. Keeping the Mid Life Crisis Train rolling, I am thinking about combining a newfound love of travelling with this bug of surfing and travelling around surf spots in Central/South America or Europe for 6 months. But obviously I would need to be able to surf to a 'respectable' level. To me this would just be popping up and cruising sideways along a reasonable sized wave.

I'm prepared to work to get to this level. I had plans to take some lessons in Bali after returning to the UK for Christmas and getting in the water everyday, but I didn't account for the wet season which has now kicked in. The winds have changed, the ocean is full of trash on my side of the island and it rains almost everyday with semi-regular lightning. My surfing partner has also left the island.

I am told the East Coast is now the spot for the next 4/5 months. I am also informed the waves/current/reef would potentially be the end of me quicker than the Balinese roads, which is impressive as I feel the Reaper slide behind me for a backie every time I get behind the wheel out here. Does anyone have any knowledge of Bali and know if I would be able to surf here everyday in the wet season?

I am currently in the process of selling an investment which will give me a small sum of money, enough for me to quit working for a few months and just surf everyday. I know that may sound crazy to some people (my friends/family mainly) but this is a unique period in my life where I have zero commitments and I want to develop a skill I can enjoy for the rest of my life.

So my question is...if you wanted to go somewhere in the world to learn how to surf for a few months i.e. have a lesson a week (as an example...More? Less?) and surf everyday practicing...

Where would you go?

Dates would be from Jan-April. I'm open to suggestions anywhere in the world. I just want a bar available nearby to watch the Premiership and Champions League. I like warm weather and I prefer my sharks on youtube, but I'm flexible.

Any advice or suggestions would be hugely appreciated. Any abuse would make me smile and a little homesick.

Cheers

MidLifeCrisis83

[MLC83]

Been reading the forum further and seen that a lot of my questions have been answered. Sorry for the length of the post and the rambling content.

Anyway, I'm thinking Nicaragua.

[Big H]

I’m here in Bali and surf everyday just about. Actually this time of year is better for a beginner IMO in that swell is down, west side waves are fat and crumbly, less people surfing this time of year and there are a few east side breaks that usually break half the size of the more exposed reefs (good for learning). I won’t say which they are; get a teacher/guide and they will most certainly take you there, or look at the daily surf report online at Padang2 Surfcamp and see where they take their beginners (pictures posted 6 days a week).

[MLC83]

Thanks a lot for your reply man I really appreciate it. That's good news that Bali is surfable in the wet season I just heard some horror stories. Are Padang Padang a decent school to learn with?

[jaffa1949]

You don’t need to go anywhere else just, bethoughtfully selective on where you surf.
Lessons and a guide and markedly less crowds, and regale your poorly bleeding heart , winter bound pommy friends with how you are suffering for your MLC under the the doom skies of Gunung Agung.
Enjoy yourself, enhance their suffering, the world offer all exactly what want!

[TeeBee89]

How'd you end up making out MLC? Curious to hear an update on this story, especially since I'd just left Bali around that time in 2017.

[jaffa1949]

He has never been back since 2017, hope he is well,and happy

[TeeBee89]

Ha, thanks Jaffa! Jeez, I'd like to imagine he took your advice and was a better surfer for it after the 2017-18 wet season. Oh well, hope he is safe and happy too!

[steveylang]

His post was a great read, hope he is doing well both in and out of the water! Would be awesome if he gave an update.

[oldmansurfer]

All of our lives are an unfinished manuscript waiting for the author to finish it

[steveylang]

All of our lives are an unfinished manuscript waiting for the author to finish it

That was just as good (or even better) way to end the thread.

[IB_Surfer]

I would stay in Bali, your money will go on longer there...

[TeeBee89]

All of our lives are an unfinished manuscript waiting for the author to finish it

That was just as good (or even better) way to end the thread.

Well said! Would be super awesome to get an update, but like to think it remains an unfinished manuscript with still limitless possibilities.