The Indo Surf Trip - is this a sport?

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(Edited)

I surf. I ride bikes too, but if I had to choose between surfing or biking, surfing would always win. If I could start over again in S.E. Asia I would go back in time 20 years to when I first settled here in Thailand and do it all over again but in Indonesia somewhere. Somewhere with amazing waves in every direction. Phuket is a stone's throw from Indonesia, so surf trips to Indo are a main stay of my lifestyle here. I can be in a taxi to Phuket airport in the morning and surfing glass bombs at sunset either in Bali or Sumatra the same day.

The Indo surf trip is an iconic rite of passage for every Australian surfer, perhaps comparable to the Californian surfer making the trip to Hawaii the first time. We grow up hearing about mythical waves with exotic names like Uluwatu, and Padang Padang. Waves that are impossibly perfect on youtube and for us older guys, pictures of waves in surf magazines that are so perfect it's almost incomprehensible to believe they exist.

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This little post is about a trip to a little known spot, in fact so little known it borders on, dare I say it, secret. It's far from the crowded and pumping left handers of Bali, or the famous glass barrels of the Mentawais. It is instead in an entirely unromantic, often dirty, swell battered section of rocky coastline on the far western tip of Java. Getting there is a long shitty taxi ride from Jakarta (picture above) south to the industrialized coastline with our first destination a crappy little town called Cimaja. Here there is a nice wave that breaks on a black volcanic beach year round though best in the months of may thru to October when the trades blow and the wind is consistently offshore. Here are some pics from Cimaja.

Me and my bro checking out the waves ready to enter. The water is kinda mucky and behind the break are fishing boats and tankers, down the coast a little is a filthy commercial port.

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Pretty small waves that day but we didn't mind - good shape, no wind and uncrowded.

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So it's from this crappy port town of Cimaja that the the fun begins. From here you can find your way along the coast to the villages and townships that are scattered between the headlands as you head further west towards the end of Java - the straights that separate Indonesias most populous island from the wilds of Sumatra and the volcano that everyone has heard of - Krakatoa. There's a little village somewhere along here called Sarwana - Its not my habit to tell people about it but I feel like here at Hive it's a safe secret. An in this tiny village which by the way has no cars - its just walking and small scooters, is a long windswept, wave battered beach with impossible waves. And at the far end of this beach is a rocky headland with a reef that creates a bloody perfect 300m long lefthand wave that holds swell from 2 - 20 foot. The water is clear and clean and turtles and sharks join you in the lineup. Each time you get a wave it takes 20 mins to paddles back to the peak. And the best part of all - there's bloody nobody there except you and your surf buddy.

Here's me on that wave - its a pic I posted in my post about Kelly Slater so I figured it was fair to expand on where this pic was taken. This was on a small but perfect day, no wind and a solid 4 foot swell pumping like a wave machine.

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Here's what the wave is like from the shoreline. Locals come down to fish, swim and play in the rocky pools in front of the break. This pic is the last 100m of the wave. Its already run a solid 20mm from the top of the point. Its epic!

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Me and my bro shared a room at a little homestay in the village. Im not kidding - we had an aircon room and three meals a day for 10$ each. The Indo 4g network is as good as anything in the west and costs nearly nothing so we were able to keep working (we both are digital nomads).

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To make the surf trip just perfect was delicious cheap ice cold beer after surf every day, and meeting awesome people visiting from Jakarta - because although this place is well off the international surfer's radar, it's a popular getway for the young middle class of Jakarta.

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Im jobiker and surf trips to Indo are my favourite thing! Peace!



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11 comments
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The people doing V2K want me to believe it is this lady @battleaxe Investigate what she has been up to for 5 years. Its the next step to stopping this. Make her prove where she has been for 5 years or where she is now. She is involved deeply with @fyrstikken and his group. Her discord is Battleaxe#1003. I cant say she is the one directly doing the v2k. Make her prove it. They have tried to kill me and are still trying to kill me. I bet nobody does anything at all. Make @battleaxe prove it. I bet she wont. They want me to believe the v2k in me is being broadcasted from her location. @battleaxe what is your location? https://ecency.com/fyrstikken/@fairandbalanced/i-am-the-only-motherfucker-on-the-internet-pointing-to-a-direct-source-for-voice-to-skull-electronic-terrorism

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The people doing V2K want me to believe it is this lady @battleaxe Investigate what she has been up to for 5 years. Its the next step to stopping this. Make her prove where she has been for 5 years or where she is now. She is involved deeply with @fyrstikken and his group. Her discord is Battleaxe#1003. I cant say she is the one directly doing the v2k. Make her prove it. They have tried to kill me and are still trying to kill me. I bet nobody does anything at all. Make @battleaxe prove it. I bet she wont. They want me to believe the v2k in me is being broadcasted from her location. @battleaxe what is your location? https://ecency.com/fyrstikken/@fairandbalanced/i-am-the-only-motherfucker-on-the-internet-pointing-to-a-direct-source-for-voice-to-skull-electronic-terrorism

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$10 a day is a steal including meals and don't blame you for being a digital nomad.

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Sadly it didn't include beers...:)

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looks pretty wild. I live far from a coast but had a go at it many years ago on the east coast of the States. Needless to say I sucked at it and got lazy and tried to surf shorebreak and ended up crashing and burning and the fins actually made a massive gash into one of my legs. I have not been surfing since then :)

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Crashing and burning is part of the learning process. You got unlucky with that fin gash though. Glad you are still here to tell the story..;)

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Your life looks very nice! Surfing trips to exotic locations and still being able to work. What a dream that must be for many people (me too haha). Beautiful pictures. U You look very expert at surfing!

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Thank you! Your life looks more busy than mine it's true, but your work is amazing. I just love surfing so much. I wish I didnt have to work and I would surf and ride bikes every day....:)

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Dude! That wave that you're surfing, it's no joke! You're a damn good surfer!!! Can we give that man a round of applause?

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I don't like those rocks, I know it doesn't matter when you fall in the water because the water will hurt you before the rocks, but it can't be good, that many sharp rocks just waiting to cut you.

And then you got the sharks, waiting for you to cut yourselves on the rocks, it just feels that everything is just waiting for those rocks to finish the job.

You got the good life though, lonely at times I am sure, but the good life!

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Hey thanks man! That wave is just fantastic and yes need to be careful of the rocks! My buddy broke his leash and his board got washed in and smashed on the shallow rocks there. He had a long swim back to the beach.

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Hi! I'm a surfer from Cape Town, South Africa that is new to Hive/Ecency. I'm definitely going to follow your page in case you post more surf-related material like this! Even here in Cape Town some of the more consistent surf spots get crowded so we always look for conditions and opportunities to find less crowded spots - so what you have just explained sounds like the dream (especially as I believe the Bali spots can get very crowded too now!) How did you come across this long left point in the first place?

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