Season on the Bukit- Part 2
Danny Carney is a Tasmanian escapee currently working in Bali. Through the winter season he'll be writing for Swellnet, and his brief is simple: To observe the Bukit Peninsula, its beauty, its dissapointments, and its surprises, then describe it without judgement.
The car park was empty at 9am. Birds sang a free song, one you don't hear as often at home in Ubud where birds tend to live in cages. I could smell the sea before I got to the stairs, and I could hear it soon after.
"It's quiet."
"It was busier yesterday," replied Ketut as he came out of the kitchen. "When I got here today at 7, everyone was already leaving. It's because the waves are big. It's always like this when the waves are big."
The waves weren't small, with the slowly growing crowd of perhaps 25 people in the water spread over the Inside and Outside Corner sections while one bloke was going it alone at the Bommie. It wasn't big enough to inspire an audience but big enough to make people question their intentions, to consider the limits of their Indo quiver that tops out at 6'2".
A smaller set in the morning. Ignoring the fact that there are 40 people just outside the frame of this photo, it does look pretty uncrowded (Danny Carney)
"The wind as much as the swell is scaring people off," chimed in old mate, I didn't get his name, from the Northern Beaches. "It's only 6-8 foot out there, so it's not proper Outside Corner by any means, but that wind under your nose isn't making things easier." He wasn't wrong. A strong gust under the nose of a big board does terrible things to the ankles. Though I do contest his understanding of big. Having just seen a surprise set that caught out the lone rider at the Bommie I had already mentally decided to surf at a reef further down the peninsula. It's okay to be too scared to paddle out in 8 foot surf, but I certainly didn't feel good about it. And so I snuck back up the stairs to the homestay and gathered my board.
Driving down from Ubud generally means running the gauntlet of traffic police and nothing makes a bule stand out more than a surfboard rack on the side of their bike, and so my bike is rack free. Which means I often get 19-year old Happy, one of the workers at my homestay, to rush me down to Impossibles if I'm not surfing at Uluwatu. Even Happy, who hasn't seen a wave break at Uluwatu for a couple of years despite living 300 metres up the road, knew the swell was up. "Everyone has the long boards, and the American guy keeps driving his truck up and down the road all day."
Big boards heading down towards the cave. Perhaps a bit unnecessary, but I’d definitely rather have too much board than not enough on a building Ulus swell. (Danny Carney)
Impossibles was only in the 4-6 foot range when I scanned it from the Padang Padang bridge at 7am, looking inviting and glassy with less than ten surfers on it. It was now about 11am and noticeably bigger, and well and truly living up to its name. Waves broke in uniform perfection, but too fast for most to keep up with them.
Squeezing through the cave onto Padang Padang beach I was overwhelmed by beach goers; impossibly beautifully Europeans not so much mingled with as much as existed near groups of shamefully tipsy Australian families. "That's the board you want!" yelled out a bloke with a Bintang, referring to the 7'4" Tim Clarke channel bottom under my arm. I nodded and hoped in equal parts that he was both right and wrong.
Once out past the right that learners ride at Padang Padang, a few hundred metres away from where a handful were sitting wishfully at Padang proper, I could get a better handle on the shape of the waves. Impossibles is an incredibly aesthetic wave. In the 6-8 foot range, it starts to become more makeable and there was a generous crew of people on boards in the 7 foot range waiting for these. On the inside a larger crew were picking off the smaller waves. My first wave was taken in here. Double-overhead and with an easy entry, I felt relieved to get my first wave under my belt as I bottom turned and began to race the wall down the line.
Two seconds later I was cartwheeling underwater towards the cliffs, unsure of where the reef lay, having barely made it 20 metres from the take-off before being outrun.
It's hard to evaluate your predicaments when they aren't shared. How close was I to the cliffs? How shallow was the water? Just how big are these sets? Without another to validate or quell your fears, it's easy enough to exaggerate them. As I reached the safe unbroken waters five minutes later another set arrived. This moment was easier to make sense of. All of us there on the shoulder, safe in the deeper waters, were transfixed as if staring at something other worldly. By far the biggest set I'd seen that day. In fact, the biggest I'd seen at such close quarters in all my years of surfing.
Whatever its size, and it was indeed modest for anyone who regularly enjoys waves over 6 foot, I was in awe. I’ve always thought that there's a quality that waves take on when they get above a certain size. On an ordinary day there's no delineation between the base of the wave and the rising crest of it, the falling lip collides with the sea without time to take it in. This isn’t the same when it’s well over-head. I first noticed this on a rare bigger day on Tassie's East Coast. The lip was actually falling, not just with the momentum of the wave itself but with gravity. In those moments of free-fall there is a kind of silence, an anticipation. As I paddled up the wave, three deep strokes to the top, I felt time had suspended for those moments it took for the lip to collide with the sea again.
In hindsight it seems surreal. Being so intimately close with this intense oceanic energy that travelled from so far away, past my home in Tassie and a wild crew who probably surfed it as 8 foot onshore Marrawah, atop the galaxy of reef beneath us, the human myths and stories that shape our understanding of this place, the names of surfing pioneers and underground legends who've become synomynous with the Bukit, riding a board shaped by a good friend from home, a master shaper who learned the art of channels from Al Byrne, the same Al Byrne whose life was ritually celebrated a few hundred metres away in a paddle out after his untimely and tragic death on land.
There is richness in the surfing experience that is beyond words. A friend once spoke of these connections as a map, but "to map all this would create a map bigger than the world itself." This moment felt bigger than the world itself.
And then the sea went flat.
I caught a few waves down the far end of the reef, though nothing the size of that big set. Paddling back towards Padang Padang I sat for a time with the main pack just watching the waves, watching how those surfing on the backhand positioned themselves, the lines they took to gain the most speed. To get a better view, particularly how the waves folded over that first barrelling secton, I paddled further inside. I sat through a lull and then did my usual routine: "In 30 seconds time I'll head in if there are no lumps on the horizon". As luck would have it, at 25 seconds, a large set angled in towards this inside section of reef, bypassing the main pack and coming towards me. I let the first two waves go to surfers who had been there longer, and when I saw nobody up the line make a serious attempt I swung around and committed to it.
I had a tunnel vision of sorts, digging in deep with each paddle and focussing entirely on getting into it, and so I didn't look down the line of the wave until I was coming up off the bottom. Almost immediately I was drawn into the biggest barrel I've been in. Rather than tightly squeezing and shaping my form to sneak in and out of a little runner, this barrel was wide and open and easy to navigate. It was also unexpected and certainly a bit terrifying. The way the water was drawing off the reef, so fast and thick, the colour and texture of the waves so green and sharp. If anyone had of seen me in it they would have seen me with my mouth agape, standing somewhat awkwardly. It was an almost passive experience in that all I did was make the drop and stand there. As the barrel ran away from me and closed out - perhaps three seconds later - I had enough smarts to angle out and into the whitewash for a celebratory tumbling.
The unexpected nature of the wave, the intensity and speed of the barrel, the immediacy of its end, give the memory of it an otherworldly feel. I'm reminded just now of a wave at Watu Karung a few years ago, where I felt like I had skipped through time: the moment between jumping to my feet and flicking off the back of it all but missing from memory. In this case, the memory of it expands - it continues to now even - and leaves me thinking that it's entirely possible to lose your mind inside a wave. I remember reading once about Lewis Samuels getting barrelled for close to a minute at Deserts, and that nobody could bring themself to speak about it until they were on their way back to Lembar and the ferry home. For my part, a minute inside a barrel is simply impossible to imagine at all.
It's also a funny thing to think about, because a whole host of you reading this get barrelled every day of your life without the need to wax on about it. And I very much doubt that the angry Queenslader that dropped in on people all day long and racked up a good twenty tubes to his name that day had all that much to say about it. Though the fact that he continued to attack it all day, fried to a crisp and without a friend to his name across the whole stretch of reef, suggest he probably feels it though.
//DANNY CARNEY
Comments
I like the description of your barrel Danny. You get the feeling the angry Queenslander might be "feeling it" somewhat but also missing the best part.......
Cheers!
I can see a book in you soon Danny.
The stanza describing the interconnectedness of surfing got me. Tingles of chicken skin even while reading it with the detached eyes of a proofreader.
Nice work, Danny. A beautiful read.
"There is richness in the surfing experience that is beyond words. "
It's fashionable to dismiss it but i really believe there is.
"Big boards heading down towards the cave. Perhaps a bit unnecessary, but I’d definitely rather have too much board than not enough on a building Ulus swell." (Danny Carney)
"I remember reading once about Lewis Samuels getting barrelled for close to a minute at Deserts, and that nobody could bring themself to speak about it until they were on their way back to Lembar and the ferry home."
That sounds familiar .
Great story !
Danny, I'll read each any every story you post on Swellnet if you do just one thing this year - paddle out to the Outside Corner on your 7'4" and stroke into a bomb.
Cheers guys! I'm glad they're resonating with people. More than anything it'd be great if they were a springboard for more stories to pop up. Surfing is such a hard thing to write about because it's all so intense and unlike anything else. So I'd be stoked to hear your own tales of the Bukit.
Daisy - that's the plan! Hopefully it's breaking tomorrow and I can test the waters. Advice welcome from any OC regulars!
Cool and even moreso refreshing in its honesty.
Just as good as the first one D3, I was just imagining looking up at that feathering impossibles wall wondering whether to pull in to the too fast tube just to get a few seconds of that sublime vision or straighten out and call yourself a bloody pussy for the rest of the day ha ha
Keep it coming Danny.
Dandandan this story is bounced off your story : ". I remember reading once about Lewis Samuels getting barrelled for close to a minute at Deserts, and that nobody could bring themself to speak about it until they were on their way back to Lembar and the ferry home. For my part, a minute inside a barrel is simply impossible to imagine at all."
Written by Lewis Samuels about a 60sec desert point tube .
Niceness: Could you describe the long Desert Point barrel?
Lewis: "Yeah, sure. But I should point out that you're only asking that question cause we talked about it another time. It's not like I got some legendary barrel at Desert's that everyone talks about. That spot is crowded and fickle and dangerous but you can get some of the longest barrels there. It's a strange wave, cause it starts out kinda mellow, and then just gets hollower and faster and bigger as you go. They call the last section the Grower, cause it keeps growing. It's not a perfect wave, either. It throws big mean unpredictable sections that look totally unmakeable. But if you pull into them, sometimes you can make them.
I got this one really memorable wave there, last season. It was right on dark and I had gone back out to get a good one. So I was just waiting and waiting for the right one. My friends were all sitting on the beach drinking beers; these Aussie guys I was travelling with who were really good surfers. So finally this sick one comes and I'm in the right spot and I go. I pulled in almost immediately, and got a nice long pit, dragging my arm to slow down, just standing right in the eye of it through the easy section. Then it hit the first heavy section of reef, and I had to pull in without ever making it completely out of the first tube. So I didn't get that little burst of speed; I was too far back. It pitched this huge section and it looked like a closeout tube. I couldn't see the exit anymore; I was way behind the bend in the barrel, nothing to see but water and lip. I could see foam ahead of me, and that's a bad sign. But I kept with it and went high and it was big enough in there to pump a little bit and get speed. After a few seconds I could see an exit up ahead. I remember thinking, "I might make this one… how cool would that be?" But right as I got to the exit, before I could make it out, another huge section heaved. Same deal - no chance to pump into it, no exit in sight, foam up ahead. I was way behind the bend. But as the wave went down the reef it started getting bigger and hollower, and I suddenly had enough room to pump and get some speed. And I could see that exit up ahead again. I could see a little bit of the hills and sky. I remember realizing I needed to breathe, cause I had been holding my breath so long, and I took this long sucking breath. I began thinking, "Damn, if I make this it will easily be my longest pit of my trip." But right as I get to the exit, same fucking story. This evil, evil section shuts down on me and I'm hopelessly deep in the tube. Thinking, "Fucker! I could of made it, so close…" But I had written myself off twice already, and made the sections, so I just held on. It got tighter and tighter in there, and my fins started to drift down onto the foamball. When that happens, you're usually done. Your fins cavitate in the foam and you spin out and get clipped. So my fins started to spin out. I lost all drive, just stopped. And like in slow-motion, right as that happened, the wave just spit the full fire hose spit. It stung my face and I couldn't see anything in the mist. But I guess it spit so hard that it pushed me up off the foamball, right as the wave opened up wide again. My vision cleared and I was way up high, almost in the lip, but my fins bit in and I pumped low and then high again and got this huge burst of speed and suddenly I was in the sweet spot again, just flying, exit up ahead. Not thinking anything at this point, just reacting. The tube getting bigger and wider, I was standing straight up in it. Two more times, right as I was about to exit the tube and kick out and seal the deal, another section heaved. Not as sketchy as those other times, but sketchy. I just stayed with it and stayed with it and finally it let me out clean. I kicked out and just kind of sat there for a minute, tripping. So far down the reef that I couldn't see the top of the point or any other surfers. I went in and walked up the beach as darkness fell. I got back to my friends and they didn't say a word to me. I didn't say anything either. What was there to say? We drove off and about an hour later, my friend Gonz turned to me and muttered real quiet, almost sadly, "Fuck mate. That might've been the best barrel I've ever seen."
This guy Camel, who is a really fucking good tube rider, got one that night that went all the way through, even farther than mine. He swore adamantly that he was in there for over 60 seconds before coming out. That sounds totally absurd, but I timed a wave on video that my friend rode the next day, not getting shacked, just connecting the point, and it was 64 seconds or something. It's pretty much unthinkable, you know? Honestly, 3 seconds is a really long tube, even for good surfers. 7 second tubes are crazy. 10 seconds, insane. 20 seconds, very few spots in the world can you even conceive of that. I don't know how long mine was. But I believe Camel about his 60 second tube, and that's absolutely inconceivable. You might need years of therapy after that."
http://www.niceness.org/surf/interviews/lewis.html
Best story. I've been told about Lewis's story but thought it was just talk.
I've only surfed DP once but it's the wave that I see before I go to sleep at night.
God damn, all of this tube talk is making me want to jump on the next plane to Indo.
Searched for that story for ages Clam! Glad you unearthed it.
One of those tall tale stories me thinks .
Yeah thermalben if there was ever a good time to drop tools it would be now right ?
Lewis Samuels story from 1992 ? Caml ?
I seem to remember Peter Crawford claiming a one minute barrel at Desert in the mid eighties.
.....and great writing Dan. I love the honesty and the perspective of the ordinary surfer that we so rarely get to hear. I wouldn't be worried about being over gunned at Outside Corner, length doesn't limit performance out there if you have the right board.
Nice one Danny, well written. You have chosen a great path, experience over money and you will cherish these memories forever. I still remember that day on the east coast you on a 7'0" and me on a 6'1" at 6 foot plus 4M. That went ok, but tried it again in 6-8 foot a few years later and it was disastrous I was so under-gunned and injured myself. I agree with you to always be over-gunned than under. I have a nice 6'6" gun ready for the Ments for next Friday, well I am a short-arse at 5'7". Talk soon when you are back in Tassie.
Unreal read mate can't wait for the next instalment
Great read dan cubed
"I’ve always thought that there's a quality that waves take on when they get above a certain size."
There's a sprinkle of the poetic in that fine prose dan, really loved the writing. Not many develop the art of writing clearly from deep within themselves, it's a practice that takes time.
As fellow rare tube rider and out of my depth above double overhead, I loved the perspective. The joys of surfing for the less initiated in big waves can be more intense than a sunburnt and angry queenslander. He's probably forgotten why he's even out there, just doing it by rote now, not taking it in.
My surfing isn't necessarily any better than 10 years ago, but I take in so much more now, that's been the biggest progression in my surfing in my 50's. I enjoy it more.
On the contrary - maybe the Queenslander has given over so much more of his life to his pure love of surfing that he NEEDS his fix where others merely want it.
Maybe he goes home and replays those barrels over and over in his head - barrels he's earned through dedicating his life to surfing whilst others haven't .
Not writing off those that haven't spent their lives surfing , but I am calling out writing off those that have.
You may have misinterpreted my attempts at expression. Not writing him off IF it was because he had devoted his life to surfing, or even if it wasn't.
But a need fulfilled is different from a joy experienced.
That was what I was getting at.
That's quite a stretch to interpret my words as you have, the worst possible motive and intentions, set against the best of all possible motives and mindset for the alleged angry surfer.
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.
Some love too little, some too long,
Some sell, and others buy;
Some do the deed with many tears,
And some without a sigh:
For each man kills the thing he loves,
Yet each man does not die.
- Oscar Wilde
Here's a poem
With not really knowing Love
They will bash babies heads
Without a sword
Without thought
With a swing, that's all it takes
Some Sell and others buy
Some do the deed without tears or thought
For each Man, Kills, Kills, I tell you
Kills.
Shane Fisher.
"My dear,
Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain from you your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you, and let it devour your remains.
For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it's much better to be killed by a lover.
Falsely yours, Henry Charles Bukowski"
or was that Kinky Friedman?
"He's probably forgotten why he's even out there, just doing it by rote now, not taking it in "
According to this theory , Kelly Slater has less of a passion for surfing and gets less out of it than someone that only dusts off their board for their annual Chrissy trip to Crescent head caravan park.
Really reckon KS is dialling it in, doing his surfing by rote?
More than most, and certainly more than any pro, he's been a master of reinvention.
Just countering the idea that it's the gronk on the shoulder that gets the most out of surfing.
I remember Kelly saying that he sometimes improves his surfing more during periods when he's not surfing . Through visualisation .
Reckon that's true ?
I do .
Absolutely. I've no doubt in my mind as I've had the same experience myself, the most recent example being just a few months ago. Stumped by the perecived limitations of a board, I read all I could on the design, spoke to the shaper at length, then imagined myself doing it.
Lovely image I might add....
And lo and behold when the time it came it worked. Not sure if it was improving my surfing as much as extending it, but whatever, it wasn't just doing the same old shit.
First time I tried riding switch was at a fast left without much success even though I KNEW how to do it in my mind.
I went away for a while and assimilated what I knew I needed to do with the new sensations of actually physically doing it that I'd gotten a small insight into with my first attempt.
When I tried it again a while later it was like riding a bike - I couldn't do it before ....then I could do it .
And once I'd done it , I couldn't imagine not being able to do it .
I'd gotten way better at it without doing it .
Bizarre.
"I'd gotten way better at it without doing it ."
Ya wouldn't read about it.
On here.
(snigger)
What does that even mean ?
Fulla-shit alert.
Again.
You're that intimidated by the simple act of ambidextrosity , huh ?
No.
Or even your other unadulterated bovine excreta sprayed all round this joint.
Has the new healthy living contributed to your surfing, Stu?
The no sugar business? I reckon the only reason I'm in the water is because of that. This time last year I was out of action entirely, didn't know what the cause was or how I'd fix it. As I've written before I saw lots of people, got lots of answers that led nowhere, and was almost about to undergo spinal surgery before a mate intervened. And his solution was just cut all sugar out - and it worked.
To your question: I don't reckon it's improved my surfing, it's simply allowed me to surf.
There are some good side effects though, I can paddle like buggery on days with sweep, have three hour sessions, and I don't get anywhere near as sore. That can be put down to lack of inflamation from low sugar intake.
Good work. Once you stop it tastes pretty bad anyway.
Stu how strict are you about it? Have you just cut out the obvious ones like sugar in your coffee, chocolate, ice cream etc. Or are you making sure everything you eat contains no sugar at all?
Reason I ask is because I've tried this and went well with the obvious ones but ended up giving up after a while because I found it hard to make sure everything I was eating was sugar free.
Get rid of if you haven't already, sugar in coffee, chocolate, ice cream, soft drink etc, avoid sugary sauces too. I don't reckon you need to look up 100% of ingredients, as long as you predominately eat whole foods with lots of veggies. I wouldn't stop going out for dinner on occasion because you're scared of what's in the food though.
Stu might have gone stricter because he was in a more serious predicament.
Substitute a piece of fruit or some nuts every time you would have had a chocolate bar or something. If you're a chocoholic, have a little 90% cocoa from time to time, it's not addictive like high sugar chocolate but will cover your cravings to an extent.
I'm kinda lucky because I've never had a sweet tooth, I can't recall the last time I scarfed ice-cream or any kind of dessert. But for a while there I was the annoying prick in the supermarket reading every single food label. I always thought I had good knowledge of nutrition but that got me right up to speed with hidden sugars and complex carbs (breads, pastas).
Now I just shop by habit and I don't particularly care if a bit of sugar goes in. I know I'm well down on what I was consuming and that's all that matters. Sugar's always been in the human diet so I figure as long as my diet is comparable to what's served humans well in the past then I'm fine.
Edit: Like LD said, ditch the sauce, jams, or any other condiments. Radical when you read the labels of those.
Beer??
Any alcohol??
Yep. Not much. On weekends.
Not 'low-carb'...please tell me NOT 'low carb'!
Nothing low-carb, nothing 'blonde', and not even anything from the Coopers line now I know about the families politcal inclination.
Well, it's stout weather round these parts.
Southwark, Clare Valley, Nail.
Actually, try a Kilkenny & Guinness 'black n tan' if you're that way inclined.
Binnies can wait till next month.
Cheers LD & Stu
I can easily go without the obvious ones, soft drink especially. I'm not a fan of dessert, and make sure I always eat well during the week for breaky, lunch and dinner.
Having a fairly physical job I would just feel like shit if I didn't eat lots of veggies and good food.
Weekends I don't mind having a beer if I'm watching the footy or talking shit with mates or whatever. I won't be stopping that anytime soon.
Yeah it was just the hidden sugars that bothered me, but like you say there is no need to be super anal about it. There is a definite noticeable change about your overall mood and outlook once you've committed to it for a few weeks
I'm back on the no sugar.
11 hours into day one.
No condiments!!!!!!!!!!! What!
What about kecap manis???
You can't have a good indo journal and not have the black devil....
If you going to surf Outside Corner you need to fire up on some high quality palm sugar.
That shits better than red bull.
ps Good work Danny..was going to do something similar for SN in 2015 but afternoon Bintangs and naps got the better of me.
Also any visual today at Ulus 10 foot Bombie??? Tides no good for Outside Corner or Speedies.
"The waves disappear, your best rides fade in memory, even your skills degrade with time if you surf into old age. The only thing that actually can build and really flourish is that sense of belonging, that feeling that you belong in the ocean and you belong to a community, that you have these life-long friends that you've gone through everything with.
I wish people realized that a bit more. You can give away a wave to someone in one session, and yeah, you'll never get that particular 3 foot mushburger back. You gave it away forever. But you probably never would've remembered it 10 minutes later, anyway. And if you give a few waves away every session, and treat others with respect, it comes back to you. It sounds lame, but I guess I'd like to see a little more empathy all around. " from Lewis Samuels within the link to his story.
I recon burnt out queenslander living in the "I' state should deep breathe on this LS para next time he's about to have a surf. It's always amazed me how different a lineup is when an alpha male surfer turns to a lesser mortal and says "you go mate". And I mean when the waves are good. Suddenly, people start paddling into places where they want to take off, and then its as if the ocean adjusts and all waves go ridden with aplomb instead of anger about being in a compromised starting position, not making the 1st section, racing slightly out of sync....and when they fail, screaming "fuck" at the top of their lungs when their 200 kms from civilisation..what you thinking? To me surfing's an opportunity for a small community to live a different life out to sea than that which the forces of humanity push on onto us on the land.
Great writing Danny > its made my morning on many levels. Keep it up.
@radationrules totally agree mate, not an Alpha male myself but i do try do a "You go mate" each surf and its a great feeling when the said person paddles back and say thanks mate that was great. Ive been on the end of a "you go mate" in Indo when i was struggling to get a wave and its one wave thats will forever be entrenched in my brain..and became friends with the guy for the rest of the holiday. Surfing meant to fun, not who gets the most wins.
Owl knows.