When you arrive on Bali you think you arrived in paradise; the sun is shining, the people are nice and for surfers there are unlimited possibilities to surf great waves in tropical warm water…
After a while you might find the island a bit crowded, traffic, smog and bargaining for every taxi ride might become a bit tiring. So in search for a true paradise, we were heading for Nusa Lembogan.
Nusa Lembogan is a tiny island just off the southeast coast of Bali. We took a boat from Sanur. The boats go quite regularly and it’s a quite an experience to ride one of these simple wooden boats and to see the locals carrying their live chickens in baskets and so on, on the boat…
The boat ride took us a couple of hours, which pass quickly If you spent the time chilling on the upper deck and watching the occasional school of dolphins. When you come into the little bay you already pass the three offshore reefs that make Nusa Lembongan a prime surf destination.
The boat dropped us off on a wharf that leads you straight to the beach. So the next thing was to find some accommodation. You can find everything from fancy upmarket resort style accommodation to simple little bungalows for a couple of euros…
Beachview being a standard, we went for the budget option, which was pretty nice after all. After a little snack it was time to head for a surf. Almost the whole bay of Nusa Lembogan lies dry at low-tide. This permits for the cultivation of seaweed, which is used for the production of ice cream and other products and creates the main stream of income for the little island. On the other hand this also means that the only place to surf are the reef passes a couple of kilometres offshore. There are three breaks in the bay. A shipwreck on the east end of the bay indicates the reef for a challenging wave called “shipwrecks”. The toughest wave here is a right-hander called “lacerations”. As the spots name indicates this is an extremely dangerous very hollow and fast wave. Me having only surfed for a few months on this trip and my friends decided to take on the most mellow wave of the island. The A-frame Playgrounds got its name because it is located right next to the anchoring spot of a couple of boats that offer day cruises from Bali and take their customers to some sort of a water playground with jumps and waterslides. We tried to paddle over for a slide after our session but they are pretty good about keeping dodgy surfers off their rides so don’t try.
Being a bit too lazy for a good 30 minute paddle or walk around the bay we took the easy option and just hopped on a boat for a ride across the bay straight to the break…
Although the wave is the most mellow of the island it is quite fast and requires some experience, considering that it breaks on sharp coral…
If lacerations is 8-10 foot playgrounds is fun-sized 6 foot, also the break is usually less crowded and competitive than the other two. However respect the other surfers!
We had a great 3 hour session with a couple of scary moments as the tide was going out and the inside was becoming kneed deep and you touched ground on nearly every wave that took you all the way…
After a good session we paddled in to the shore and took a little walk back to our hut. They walk took us along small paths and finally onto the main and only road on the island. We had a great dinner and went for another little walk on the shore of the island to soak the islands mystery in. The next morning we left the island fairly early to get back to class on Monday…
Text: Gunnar Lubahn
