The state of play

Well partners there is a new toy on the block and I thought that you all will need to see it. Actually thinking about this, you don't get to see it, it's a camera, I am not going to film it! It's a GoPro Surf camera. Click on the link if you want to see the camera.

All starts with a big plastic patch stuck on the nose of my board with bulletproof 3M tape. Love your work 3M. Anyway, that provides a mount onto which the camera is either able to be faced forward in the direction one is going or back at the rider. Which in this case, would be me, your pilot! A friend called it this morning 'My Coach' because in his view it made me slow down my movements and turns making me surf better. Mind you it also made me prance about a bit more. I call it showing off in front of the camera myself. Bound to happen on day one. Geez, I think you will always see a bit of it. But between, you me and a lamp post, that is not a bad thing if at the end of the day I surf better.

So with no further a due, here is a wave I got this morning. It is a single wave, the ride out at Canggu is long, it's great as it gives you time to think, to turn. I could have gone for another 10-20 seconds if I didn't act as a kook and move to much weight back. Oops slight giveaway there, sorry! Oh well you get that.

Let me know what you think as I am keen to publish some more videos if you all like them. Bugger it I might just publish them regardless.

Now sit back and enjoy the show...


Peace.

Up, up and away

My week is broken into two very distinct sections, actually there are three but I will keep it simple for the sake of the blog. Don't want you readers glazing over while I set the parameters of my little story now do we?

I have the a "without kids" section which is from Sunday arvo to wed arvo. and the "with kids" part that takes the rest. So today, being Friday is a with kids. My surfing is curtailed as I have to do kid run in the morning and afternoon. Editors Note:Please do not get me wrong, I want to. When I say have to, I do not say that I am doing it under pressure, duress or threat of bodily harm. If that were the case, and given where I live, I could quite easily hire a driver or maid to look after the delivery and pick up of my charges. No sir-ey Bob!

So anyway where were we, yes. The surfing part of the weekend therefore doesn't include Thursday or Friday mornings unless I go for a late one. Now I have been very lucky or karma has been smiling on me but up until late I hadn't missed too many of the swells that came through. But that all changed in April. Waves after waves would come through and each would arrive when I was unavailable due to local commitments or when I was out of the country. Why is that?

Today I missed out on surfing. The school drop off, heavy traffic and we arrived laste to school as well. Do not do that of a rule! Also had some errands to run. Gabi needed the car, she had a big drop off for her company, Bali Baby. Check it out it is going great guns! After that I had to go to Andrews to drop off a photo of me and some details, he is off overseas today for a couple of weeks of fun in Bangkok and Vietnam. Half his luck i say. Emily was there buying a painting. This great print of Andrew's nephew with a facemask and snorkle and a paragraph of text lifted from a 70's surf book. Very nice piece. Emily has a blog and that can be seen in my NEW IMROVED links section. She is here from New York and will fly home in a week when her 4 months runs out.

Then it was home to redo a floorplan for a shop. A couple of phone calls. An email or twenty, some work on the shop 3D, that I had to hold off on as I am downloading images from my camera I took of the existing shop yesterday at present so I can use them in the 3D. Gives me a chance to write some dribble here. Soon to pick up the kids.

Just emptied the iPhone as well. So here is a little cross section of images I have taken of late. Again using the great slideshow feature.


Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be back to the beach at dawn. Starters are Maxi and I at present, may be a couple of other candidates have been known to arrive late. Andre, one of Max's friends is a bit of a fixture.

So until then I have to go. Lots to do and never enough time.

Someone more famous said to me yesterday that to get one thing done a day in Bali is and achievement.

Given the above I have done well.

Peace

When it rains, I get wet

This past week has been one of mixed blessings. Computer trouble, big surf, small surf and movie nights. Maybe that depends on whether I can get the disk to burn. It's 5.30 and we kick off in an hour. The burn meter is still only half way across the bar, argh! My afternoon has been spent burning DVD's fast but wrong format on main computer with spiffy new motherboard, switch to laptop and Ano gets the right format but incredibly slow. Why is that?

On Saturday afternoon I took Maxi and his friend Andre on a white knuckle ride to Medewi. I should post some photos, I will but for now go to my Facebook page and look there as they are on the laptop and that is not going to do anything else at present other than finish burning that DVD. I have added the photos in a slideshow ~ Thanks David for showing me that one!


We had a great time there. The ride up took an hour and forty. Which is about standard. You zig zag in and out of this line of trucks and buses on roads that twist and turn through hills and dales. It really doesn't compare to driving in the real world. It's more like those Daytona machines in the amusement arcades that you race your friends on. Speaking of which, Maxi and I had a big session on some Japanese Hi-tech ones on our recent roadtrip through Java. It was in Jogjakarta and we were waiting for the movie to start. But that is a whole other post and a long one at that.

We arrived at 5 ish booked into the room, unpacked grabbed the boards from the roof and made it out into the water. The waves were around 4' but the wind had gotten to it. I sat out the back and the boys sat further inside. We spend the next hour and forty out there. Nice balance to the drive up.

Showers, simple meal at the warung on the beach and half an hour of throwing rocks, the boys not me, at other rocks because they sparked. Funny that! I tired of that and made my way to bed at 8.30 ish. I was asleep before they came in some 30 minutes later, according to them.

Why is is kids do not understand how to either whisper properly, they speak at the same volume as normal just change the tone, nor can they move around quietly without bumping into things which just happen to make the most noise out of all the furniture in the room. It's a skill. Just not sure what for. I was good at that I am sure! So at 5.15 ish they started their cacophony and wandered out into the morning. They returned some 15 minutes later and I inquired what the surf was like. They told me it's too dark to see the waves and proceeded to get ready to go surfing. Ha

So we were in the water at dawn and the funny thing was someone had beaten us out. We surfed until just before 9. Or as I like to put it just before my shoulder seized up. I had a knot the size of a footy under the right shoulder blade made from the drive and exacerbated by the paddling. I was ripe. We went in.

We breakfast not at the warung where we ate dinner but the little kiosk there in the front. It was a little different for Maxi, a lover of all things sweet. He ate mie (noodles) Well done that son of mine. Check out the funky old dude in the slideshow photos. The old girl is even funnier pinching the lads, slapping them lightly and jovially and generally running about creating mayhem. In my humble opinion it would have to be one of the best beaches, for the vibe, in all of Bali. Perhaps Indonesia. Big call I know. Love it though!

It is somewhere in here that the boys went back out for second surf but not before arming me at the little cafe with the camera and a second coffee. They are the shots you see of them. I am conspicuously absent from the shots because boys would never think of sitting out for a session so as to take photos of dad. Heaven forbid!

Andre's mum, Sabine, had tuned us to this guy who sells seafood along the foreshore. Morino or something his name is. Well we found him and orgaqnised for 2 kilos of crabs to be cook at that warung, the bigger one. Not the little one with funky old dude and grand ma!

But before we could partake we had to clear out of the room as it was a twelve check out. I made the two of them shower. Even though I knew full well that they would get a late session after the crab. Sometimes you just have to use soap! And no boys, salt water is not the same as fresh!

This big plate with 7 big blue swimmers was brought out. As kids we would measure a crab with a coke can across the top of its shell to know whether it was size or not. These were all well over size. Plates of nasi putih ( white rice) were placed in front of each of us and a dark red sauce in a bowl was added to the table. I gave the boys there first lesson in how to take a crab shell apart. Gave myself a couple of nasty cuts in the process. Furtive glances from other tables indicated that we were not only the centre of attention but also a certain amount of envy. 30 minutes later we headed out for the third and final session in the surf leaving only a pile of crunched shell in our wake. One great idea they had was to use a big flat river stone, which makes up the entire Medewi Beach, and lay a claw on it bringing another smaller river stone down to crack the thick shell of the crabs. Clever simple and easy to maintain. I will be getting a set of stones for home.

The afternoon session was once again corrupted by the wind and compounded by our aching bodies. There is only so much surfing one can do. But there are ways to save some labour. For instance we would paddle out into the lineup from the keyhole on the point going deep outside. Wait for one of the biggies to come rolling through, catching that for 100-150 metres or so. There you could just paddle to the side and catch another wave a further 100 metres and finally a little wave right to in front of the the boats that sit above the high tide line along the beach. There you stumble out and walk back around to the point to do it all again. Beats the hell out of paddling let me tell you.

We called it a day. we showered, packed the boards high on the roof of the car. I drank the first Coke (without alcohol) I have drunk in ten years as I figured I needed the rush to get me home in one piece. Belted up and entered the chaotic stream of vehicles heading back to Denpasar.

The trip was great the drive crap. Next time we go for two nights to make it worth it me thinks.

Peace.