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To be honest I don’t know where to start. So I would like to follow the
Right so here comes ‘Schneewittchen - mirror reflections PART II’ and soon there will be a bit more background info to the visuals.
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keep on reflecting.
I’m sitting in a tiny rental
I’m once again on my way to challenge Mother Nature. It’s early, but
The spot is just 120 km away but the distance just doesn’t shrink. The red elastics just keep on haunting me. Maybe I should have invested the money into the highway fee ...
I finally reach 'Irago' the peninsular at the south coast. The road becomes smaller and the red elastics turn into zebras from here onwards. It’s still early. So only some grand mothers are out for the morning walk. I’m driving straight to ‘Irago Akabane Loco’ the spot with my favorit wave … I arrive around 5.45 it’s packed????!!! I can’t belive it where are ALL these people coming from? I barely find a parking spot.
The waves where rolling in as I’ve never seen it before around here … so clean, crystal & chest high. Whhooo how beautiful!
But what are all these people doing here? And only ‘long boarder’ in the water. Even though it would be the perfect ‘short board’ day … and all these tents & flags.
It was the one and only Long Board competition that takes place once a year at Locos. I couldn’t believe it today of all days when the condition where just PERFECT and I was early enough, prepared and ready to get smashed by the incoming swell, they had there ‘Long Board Classics’!?!
Anyways I talked to some locals, improving my Japanese, to find out that this event will take all day long and the ocean would be blocked the entire day.
°°°°
Ok plan B.
I knew that just of that spot there is a slightly less protected brake with a similar wave direction.
And there it was …
Solid sets where rolling in. Not too many closed out waves and lots of people waiting & observing from the cliff. For what I didn’t figure out … I surfed my first session around 6.20 am.
SORRY NO PIX only surf. But I took some in the afternoon for you when the swell dropped and I tried to escape from the blazing sun …
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Seventeen days out of this world. Or maybe even back to the real world?! I just came back from a detox programme in
I always wanted to go on an INDOsurfTRIP exploring the amazing water landscape created through the underwater landscape of coral reefs and the massive ground swells that ate rolling in during the summer months.
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Now I’m back and it feels like I lived a dream. The people are wonderful, the food delicious, landscape in breathtaking, the underwater world indescribable and the waves are massive. The Indonesian culture has a fascinating mix of Buddhism and Islam culture living next to each other. I met different locals from different parts and cultural backgrounds.
I wanted to escape from all the concrete and urban mess I’m living in at the moment. So I decided not to spend a minute in a city. After I arrived in Denpasar I headed straight up north to Sanur to catch a boat to Nusa Lembongan an island just east of
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When we finally arrived in Lembongan I realised the actual swell size braking double-over-head over the shipwreck coral reef. It’s a fast hollow reef surf-brake named after the ship that has wrecked on that reef.
I found a hostel or actually the hostel found me just in front of the brake. A guy offered me a ride with a scooter to check out on of the only hostels that where still available. After a long discussion about the price and conditions I checked into my new home.
But it shouldn’t be for long, because the next day I met Elias. He was hanging out in front of the diving centre, we talked about random stuff until we realised that we are both German. He invited me for a swim in the pool the he told me that he is the diving instructor of the dive centre and tomorrow they would go to Manta point to dive with manta rays. I decided to go with them.
This random encounter was the beginning of an amazing time on the island. It changed my plans of heading further east to Lombock …
I stayed for just one night in my hostel, then I moved to the dive centre. Elias invited me to sleep in the unfinished bungalow with just a bamboo structure and a kind of thatched roof. Wayan and Rudi the owners of the business agreed to the idea. The floor was not jet placed so I chucked a 4 mm plywood on top of the timber beam structure, placed my board bag as a mattress on it, set up my mosquito net to have the most luxury place to sleep on the whole island.
***I dived & surfed explored the islands with a bunch of nice people from all over the world.
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the wharf workshop ...
Marc, Elias & Sally caught a cold after diving for two and a half weeks non stop, so no diving for one day. We took that opportunity to go on a scooter ride exploring the other island and some secret beaches.
big surf ...
playground for the dolphins …
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I fell in love with the Blue Corner; a dive side just off the protective island reef next to the Shipwrecks surf spot. One of the bluest, deepest and most dangerous dive sides in the region. It has a very strong cross and down current with fast sections in which you feel like flying. We went down to about 45 meters. It’s amazing you let go and drift like you are in space along the reef. The deep blue opens up to your right. The dives I did down there where just amazing but hard work. I saw the most beautiful creatures in the deep blue. Manta Rays, Turtles, Mola Molas (Moonfish), Seahorses, Sharks, Stingrays, Eagle Rays, the amazing looking Frogfish and an enormous number of different fish and coral gardens. I left the island with thirteen dives in my logbook and an indescribable bunch of memories.
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the above the beauty …
within the element.
the frog fish.
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