G-Land Blog readers: You probably seen those couple of epic waves I put up yesterday of empty waves going off at 6am? Well, that got me inspired. A typical late in the day G-Land surfer, I got up at 5am - a rarity. High tide was at 7am, 2meters. Swell was forecast to be solid today. First check 5:15am, no wind, 6-8ft sets, quite a good line in the swell, going right down to Launching Pads each set. Hmmm. What would the wind do? 5:50am an ever so slight spray came off some waves and it had potential. Changeover day today, I had to be in the restaurant to meet and greet the new guests. But they weren't coming till about 8:30 or 9. F*#k it, I think, I ran to my room, grabbed my 5'11 quad (weird early morning board choice?!), and ran up to the keyhole.
Upon paddling out, it was a whole lot wilder, bigger, and more powerful than I imagined! Punished trying to surf Money Trees, I drifted down to Launching Pads. Within a short time 8-10ft sets were coming through, I was belly boarding them off the foam edges, and going into Speedies... but it was so wobbly and sketchy I couldn't set up a tube. 7am a 12ft wave at the Pad broke way out and cleaned me up. 7:20am I catch one and it links into a clean Speedies section, and the offshore had been up for 20mins already. I set it up, got a BIG barrel, and got spat out so hard I almost got blown off my board. WOW! The other Jared, surf guide at Joyo's, was paddling out and that was his first sight. He was freaking. Willy caught it on camera from his zodiac. Stoked! Got one more great barrel the next wave. Then went in at 8am as the tide was draining and ruining it, plus the swell wasn't getting any smaller. And then I was back in the restaurant to do my duties. Bagus!
With a washed out reef for the day guests took to Chickens and 20-20's. late morning sounds like some great ones at Chickens that were solid 3-4ft. 20-20's similar size all day. Strong offshores. My friend Ryan Cantlon from Taranaki turned up today, we took motorbikes to Batu Lawang and checked that bay. Found a huge right hander, at least 6ft... but the wind was pretty cross shore there and it looked very raw. So we ended up 20-20's. Not much crowding at all down there. In fact it was empty when we left, although more people slowly made their way down for the 4pm session.
Ryan & I filmed each other with my GoPro. Here's him bottom turning at 20-20's
Ryan belting the top off a 20-20's pocket after the previous bottom turn
Ryan tucking into 20-20's vortex. Polar opposite to the recent 6days in the Kuta Vortex he just got stuck in!
