Good things come from desperate situations. I'm sure it's well documented now that January and February 2009 was just about the worst period of swell east coast Aus has ever seen. The only good thing to come out of it personally for me was making the decision to book a surf trip out of pure frustration.
At the time, the biggest question was where? While most dedicated freaks are organising bo
at trips to the Mentawis 2 years in advance, I was trying to turn something around within a couple of weeks. After weighing up a few options, admit tingly at best, it wasn't too hard to make G-Land the call. (Being a goofy makes it an even easier selection) Not only was it in my top 5 waves a have to surf before I die list, any of the
following reasons pushed me over the edge: hot, cheap, easy to get to, limited crowds, guaranteed perfection, mechanical like consistency and 1 hour full body massages. Not to mention you can't argue with dirt cheap flights from Jetstar for about $600 a pop!
My bro Richy and I decided to go with Bobby's surf camp, known for being a little more pricey but certainly was worth the extra coin. So after about 10 emails of trying to confirm details and costs we decided to just go and sort it out when I got there in true Indo style. So after touching down and spending a day in Bali, going through the usual routine of hiring a bike, surf at Ulus with the rest of Bali and bribing police officers, we were more than ready to get the fuck out of dodge.
After weighing up the accommodation options available at Bobby's: Budget, Standard, Deluxe, Superior Deluxe...Tell me how could you NOT go with the something called 'Superior Deluxe'? As it turned out it wasn't your traditional 5 star, but certainly jungle 5 star which included your own room, air con, DVD, 'superior' meals and more beers than your liver can handle, and once you go the 'Superior Deluxe' option at Bobby's you can't really knock back the 2 hour fast boat to get there directly from Kuta beach. Sure beats the 13 hour overland trek which sounded a little less appealing. Life of the rich and famous eh.
Pretty much from the time you get to G-Land your daily routine falls all to easily in place:
sleep, eat, surf, eat, check the surf, surf, eat, drink beer, sleep...repeat.
Good bunch of guys too, in addition to the usual bunch of Aussies flying in when the swells on, it's a pretty mixed bunch but always carries a chilled out vibe. I ended up hanging out with a Swiss banker, a real-estate agent from Japan and an airline pilot from the states, who all charged.
As for the waves...well it's G-Land, do you need any further explanation? Although early May is only the shoulder season, it didn't disappoint. Probably with about 10% of the crowd that you would get in August, the waves barely got below 4ft for the whole two weeks, hovering around the 4-6ft mark with the crowd size depending on the comings and goings of the three separate surf camps.
For those that haven't been, it's made up of four spots:
Kongs: a bigger but softer wave up the reef
Launching Pads: nice takes offs as the names suggests
Money Trees: paparazzi central
Speedies: where its fairly hard not to get the barrel of your life, finding a wave to yourself out there was pretty easy to manage (OK, I lie except for Money Trees)
For a couple of days there it did get quite solid. A few sets were pushing 7-8ft on the outside and with the tide dropping as you whip down the line into Speedies it was 50/50 you were coming out. I managed to get by with only a few scrapes on the reef but it hit home on the Monday of week 2 when an American was medivac'd out after being scalped on a super dry Speedies close out. Apparently the helicopter was unavailable as it was on joyflight duties so the poor bastard had to stay a night after some makeshift facial stitching before being sent home on the next mornings fast boat. For the new arrivals that day it was a somber reminder that it's not all fun and games in paradise.
So for plenty of perfect waves, a few hairy ones and all round good times, make sure to get away from your local! All in all the 12 days Superior Deluxe (I just love saying that) package was only about $1,500 US! And depending on the exchange rate and how cheap you can score a flight, a 2 week stint in G-Land can easily come in under the $AUS 3K mark, literally half the guess work and half the cost of what a boat trip could end up setting you back.
source by : http://www.mesurf.com.au
