Sumbawa Surf Odyssey

Now in my mind I imagined posting my first awesome surf flick. But the movie editor on this computer isn't up to the task (yeah, its the computers fault!). Not even a soundtrack! So, as usual, you get a strung together series of clips...View it if you can stand it...Oh wait, for reasons beyond my control it will be posted on a following blog.

Sumbawa is one of the Indonesia Islands, about an hour flight east of Bali. I was invited (or invited myself?) to join Michael for nearly 12 days of surfing there. If you recall, we met Michael and Hedda in Vietnam, and re-met them in Bali a month and a half later. I would be joining Michael, and his cousin, Rich, for our third meeting while Hedda flew to Malaysia to meet Christine for their diving course (Hedda has a great photo collection of their course together here).

Impressions. A beautiful corner of a tropical island, not much more than villages, farm animals, and surfers. Lots of waves breaking on reefs. As usual the reefs were beautiful and interesting. Endless seafood options (As some of you know I avoid prawns at home, but couldn't do it here, and was delighted I hadn't withheld. Nearly the finest thing I've ever eaten) punctuated by lots of nasi and mee goreng and, of course, big bottles of Bintang (though we consumed nowhere NEAR as much as the Aussies - those lads have a special talent).

Next, (I think I said this in an earlier blog) the world's surfers gather here. I usually feel like I can surf about as well as at least half of the people in the water. Here, I was lucky to be in the bottom 10th percentile (to put it in SAT terms). We met people from Australia (a lot of them), New Zealand, France (including the owner of the place we stayed), Spain, Brazil, the U.S. (mostly California, though there was another surfer there from Seattle!), and other countries in between. The wave climate and set-up were incredible, and I found myself looking forward to the SMALLER swells (unlike nearly all of the other surfers) because they afforded me a chance to surf w/o fearing instant decapacitating injury at the bottom of what felt to me like steep death drops. My fears were made all of the worse because I was surfing one of Michael's boards and didn't want to break it. That would have been bad.

All that being said, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to go, and loved each minute. I survived completely unscathed and, perhaps more importantly from my perspective, so did Michael's board. As a surfer, as bad as I am, it was incredible to watch the others, and, even though I was trying to pick off the smaller waves, each wave I did catch was better than almost anything else I've ever ridden - long, with lots of shoulder to work with. Michael and Rich set me up completely - board, rash guard, booties (thanks to Paul!), books, sunscreen, bug spray... the list goes on and on. On top of that, both have experience surfing all over the world, and have been surfing since childhood. As a late comer to the sport I tried to osmose as much as I could off of them.

I also had to learn, being as restless as I am, the Sumbawan art of HAMMOCKING. Michael (on top in the photo) and Rich (on bottom) seemed to take it in stride, and demonstrated flawless form. Its great fun, though, and is the perfect antidote to the ridiculous afternoon sun in Indonesia. The stuff is crazy there. Hopefully I will be able to bring a bit of surfing and a bit of Hammocking skills back home with me.

Back in Kuta now, waiting to fly back to Kuala Lumpur and meet Christine. From there, its on our way up to Bangkok and flying to Paris on the 24th...