So... i spend 2 weeks early September in the west coast of Bali celebrating my 46 b-day with my lovely non surfing wife! We went to Balian/Medewi area for 5 days, then Ubud for few days and finally a week in Canggu. One big problem was that i couldn’t find any sup rental or sup guide/school on the west coast so i had no choice but to take my sup board.
few things to bear in mind before reading my experience in Bali....I was "allowed" to go sup surfing once a day in the early in the morning and I've been SUP surfing for only 1.5 years after I injure my ACL, i have a simsup ST 8' that i got in July, so still getting the hang of it... i had a handful of very good session in Santa Cruz, CA and Rockaway, NY on my new simsup during the summer before my Bali trip... i'm a not so good New Yorker goofy rider comfortable with slow shoulder height breaks... the good/bad news was that a big swell 2-3 times overhead (10 -15ft Occ. 20 ft) was hitting Bali during my visit!!!!!
Getting there & back:Took forever! we left on a Saturday morning and we got to Bali on Sunday middnight, so the route was Newark Aiport to Chicago on United (It cost me 200 dollars to bring my board with me and you have to book in advance) Chicago - Seoul - Bali with Asiana ( no charge on my board
) on the way back we did Bali to Singapore (we spent half day there...amazing food) with silkair - no charge on my board! then Singapore - Paris - JFK New York with Air France and my board was for free! Also, uber is a board friendly taxi service...
We have arranged a driver to pick us up from the airport so no dramas on arrival... the only issue was that the paddle handle made a 1/2 inch hole in my board
Balian After driving for 1.5 hours we got to our villa in Balian around 3:30am, i had already arrange to be pick at 6:30am by Ali (
www.ayolah-surfing.com) my surf guide to show me around the different breaks… He is fantastic local guy i truly recommend him to anybody!
The villa has an amazing view of Balian beach…. and i could see to my horror that the swell was huge! no chance of me going out there… A bunch of surfer were getting out with a jet-ski to keep them safe!!!!!
Finally Ali picked me up and we drove to Medewi… i must say i was terrified, my first day in Bali and the swell was way to big for my crappy skills, so thanks for Ali’s encouragement i paddle out through the channel… once i managed to get the the back i felt for the first time the power of overhead swell passing underneath my board…so i went from really scare to OMG i might drown here state!
Day 2 was even bigger! the highlight of this day was that i got caught in the inside on a big set… and i got 5 waves on my head in a row… i really felt like drowning!
Day 3 was smaller but super windy… so i hang out in the reform break that is more shelter from the wind.. and to be honest way less scary than the outer break!
Day 4 i tried the right hander cause the tide was too low on the main break… not as fun and clean as the left hander!
Anyhow Medewi is a fantastic spot if you are after slowish crumbling long left break with an easy channel to paddle out, the big plus for me was that the line up is not that busy… on low tide gets really really shallows and there are lots of big rocks so all the locals always wait until the tide is rising. There is a right break nearby that works on low tide but not as clean or long rides while i was there…
There is a weird thing going on with the locals trying to sell you a t-shirt to support the children school, I know is a bit of a scam but i was so happy riding in this spot that i don’t mind paying a small “fee" for surfing there! I must say that i never felt out of place on my SUP board even when i had to totally ditch my board cause the big swell was about to hit me or several times the local surfer gave me priority on waves on the line up!
UbudWhat a contrast… in Balian we saw hardly nobody in the beach and then bang… super busy streets, traffic, lots of people! and to be honest that is not my thing… we stayed at
http://bisma-eight.com/ and hardly never went out! i wish we had stayed less days in Ubud..
CangguCanggu area is passing Kuta and Seminyak, it is full of really amazing hipster coffee places and small restaurants all reachable by a short ride in a scooter (which i think is a must to have there)… so if you like having flat whites, asian fusion food and have a ironic mustache this is your place! plus you can always buy a motorbike at
http://deuscustoms.com/ 
Batu bolong, old’s man and punch breakI surf 6 days out of 7… and another big swell hit Bali while i was there… the real problem in this area is the wind and the line up is super crowded so early sessions are a must… Also, SUP riders are not very welcome
One thing i really recommend to anybody that goes SUP surfing there is focusing on controlling your board at all times! is very crowded so ditching your board is a NO NO thing there… there are few techniques about controlling your board so practice that, i wish i have done it… i got shout twice for loosing control of the board so be very careful!
i got a surf guide from
http://www.surfguidingbali.com/ nice guy and took me to the right spots during the week! Old’s man was my fav spot in Canggu but the line up was super busy… So most days we went out around 5:45-6:00am so i had a empty line up for at least 30-45 minutes!
Will be back!Although is a pain in the ass to get to Bali and Canggu’s breaks are pack, i will be back next year! i really understand now why people talk about world class breaks! next trip i will spend time in Medewi, Canggu and Lombok…. hopefully my knee will be fix after surgery so i could do both surfing and sup surfing!
/Pedro
https://instagram.com/superpedro
