Indo # 3

Last light speed blur photos from Lakey Pipe. There was not enough light to capture sharp wave photos, so I was panning and moving the camera to get some more interesting colors and textures out the waves. Out of about one hundred shots I ended up with these three that I liked, yeay digital.




This one especially caught my eye, more of a painting than a photo.


Out the front door of the Aman Gati.

Another view of the peak from the Aman Gati pool.

Photo of the right taken from the tower, nobody out because in about 2 seconds after this moment the right ends on dry reef.


I went to indo and the waves were perfect blah blah blah.

Some lucky stiff getting shacked and some unlucky stiff eating reef.



Don't worry, children don't get to drive alone until they are 4.

View from a hike up the hills behind the Lakey base camp. Periscopes right is inside the little reef cove in the distance.

...Back to Bali...

These few are taken from down on the beach under the cliff at Uluwatu at dusk, not much surf this night but unbelievable light and clouds just like every other night. Played around with some long exposures on the shore.









Kuta Beach, Sunday afternoon, hot and crowded paradise.


Bird's secret spot, only 45 min away from Kuta beach, but much more room to breath.

Indo # Dua

In no particular order here are some more photos from Indo, all of these are from the island of Sumbawa at an area known as Lakey Peak. Every kind of wave ranging from fun rippable walls to death reef slabs (depending on the tide) can be found withing a 10k stretch of coastline here. Nothing else out here except a few places to stay and eat and nothing to do but surf, eat and explore the low tide reef, ... and kick Bird's a$$ in cards while sipping Bintangs.

Lakey Pipe, low tide, not very surfable at this tide but interesting waves bending into the reef.


Last light at the peak, looking a bit more like trestles than a heavy reef break.


Urchins, crabs, surfboard fins, live coral, you can find it all.


Local catching some dinner while tourist goes over the falls.


It is safer than it looks. Big tide swings here, this is taken at low tide, high tide sees waves breaking underneath the tower with water coming almost up to the first deck.


Different angle of Lakey Pipe, low tide, nobody out.


Across the channel from Lakey Pipe, this right is fast and shallow, but looks nice in the afternoon light.


Bintang time at the beach pub/shack.


Transport?


Heavy local Hortis the cock-eyed goat.


At first glance this is a cute beach pup, but after hearing about a recent rabies outbreak on the neighboring island Bali I was hesitant to get too close. Is he foaming at the mouth?



More local wildlife.


View from the front porch of the Aman Gati hotel.


Aman Gati grounds.


Lakey Peak, low tide. Perfect wave but very shallow. I took this photo from the tower after getting bounced off of the reef hard, somewhere under that wave there is a good chunk of my skin stuck to the reef.

Indo Post #1

Quite a lot of photos to go through from this trip, so here are a few to get started.


View from the airplane coming in to Denpasar, Bali, looking at the volcanoes towards the east.


Downtown Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and beyond looking deceptively peaceful from above. After a short time in Kuta crazytown it was time to get out to Sumbawa for some surf.


Reefs along the east side of Bali in front of Sanur.


On the Sumbawa freeway towards Lakey Peak, dodging traffic.


Groms.



A very welcome site after all of the travelling.


This fisherman was so stoked on this right that he was throwing soul arches while standing in the channel.

Typhoon Melor (#18)

Typhoon Melor (#18 in Japan) made landfall a few nights ago here in Shizuoka/Aichi and was raging outside for a couple days. The days leading up to the typhoon were rainy and gray, but the waves were pretty good. I have experienced some bad weather in California before, but I have a new respect for the power of these tropical typhoons (or hurricanes or cyclones depending on your location). There have been times when I have been been scared in the ocean, but this was the first time that just walking outside has seemed life threatening to me. The worst of the storm hit in the middle of the night with 70-90 mph winds, making for a very sleepless night.




Before the typhoon made landfall, I took trip down the coast to explore some different surf spots.


I found many miles of surf like this, gray and offshore with nobody around and much bigger than it looked.



This is a photo from left that is closer to home near the local rivermouth. Mostly closeouts, but every once and awhile a gem would come through. Again, much bigger than it looks, no humans around to give it some perspective.



This is one of the more well known spots on the coast, Tahara Long Beach. There are a few professional surf contest held here each year, since it seems to be a consistent wave. This day was big, but still pretty manageable. This wave is very similar to Morro Bay, minus the warm water river from the power plant.



Unsurfed slab #1. Fun wave to look at, but probably painful to surf. I was waiting up on the cliff for a Japanese charger to take it on, but nobody showed. I thought about paddling out for 1/10th of second then thought better of it. Not to sound like a broken record, but it is bigger than it looks...



More unsurfed beachy, where is everybody?



Me, about to go storm riding the morning after the typhoon passed. If I look a bit tired it is because I was up all night listing to the wind scream and waiting for our apartment to blow away.



A few gems made it through the chaos, but this was more of a day for watching.



Nature, meet man...



Looking north up the river following the worst of the storm.



This used to be a bike trail, quite a few pine needles were shaken loose from the matsu trees.



Toyohama looked semi-surfable, nobody around, just one car in the lot.



This is my favorite check spot. Just a random construction along the side of the bike trail to give you a view over the pine.


Storm clouds pushing out the last of the typhoon.





After two days of searching, I found my rivermouth sandbar perfection, perfect and peeling 6 inch drainers. I mind-surfed myself silly for hours, it was fantastic.



One of the most incredible things about the storm systems here is the speed in which they come and go, one day will be gray, rainy, windy and huge out-of-control surf, and the next day will look like this, calm and glassy and inviting.

I will be off visiting the Island of the Gods for a little while, taking many photographs, but probably without the means to upload and share the photos. As soon as I get back online I will share the goods.

Bridges, Waves, Trails, Signs

As I mentioned in my last post, my camera has decided to stop working, but the good news is I have a replacement camera in my hands now and I had a chance to go through some photos from the past month. I picked out a few that caught my attention, here they are in no particular order...

Traffic trails on highway 150, the main coastal road that runs through town. If you squint your eyes you can see the McDonalds golden arches.



Not these golden arches... here are a few views of Higashi-Bashi (east bridge) at sunset. This is one of the main bridges into the town, follow the road straight to the beach and you end up at Higashi-Bashi the surfspot.




View from Higashi-Bashi toward the west.




When the west winds pick up, everybody heads for Toyohama since the jetties here protect the surf from the strong wind. Notice the stadium seating jetty, perfect for jumping off into the lineup if your to lazy to paddle out.




Two photos from a bike ride towards the west, along the pacific coastal bike trail. This trail stretches for miles and miles along the coast, I've explored about 2 hours in each direction but there is plenty more to do. Many stretches of the trail look like this with empty beach and nobody around.




You don't have to speak Japanese to get the point of this warning sign.

RIP Canon 20D

Well, after 3 and a half years use and abuse, my trusty Canon 20d camera has officially died. Right here is where you would normally see a few photos...




...but as you can see I take terrible photos with a broken camera. The good news is that I am in Japan, ground zero for everything camera and electronic related, so it will be very easy to find a replacement. This is the last photo-less blog that I will ever post, hopefully.

Surfline Photos

I recently had a few photos published on Surfline, you can check out the article here.

I am hoping we get another typhoon or two off the coast to throw some more swell our way, next time I might actually paddle out.