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Rainy day A-frame at Lembeng |
Sōleïa Surf House's surf instructor academy got unlucky with the weather in its final week before the ISA course begins. Tropical Cyclone Seedling 96S bore down on Bali with gale force winds, heavy rain, and strong currents as it developed into the category 4 Cyclone Zelia that ravaged Western Australia. But we made the best of our situation with lots of land practice, theory lessons, and social events. Here's another written snapshot of a week at Sōleïa Surf Academy (SSA) during rainy season:
Monday
Monday was a rest day to recuperate from our trip Lembongan, so there were no guided surf trips for SSA students. In-water lessons were canceled for surf camp students due to the developing cyclone. Instructors and interns instead held a pop-up training class for the surf camp.
Tuesday
After a delayed start due to poor weather, we headed to Lembeng for cleaner conditions (in terms of waves and trash). We hung out at the warung to wait out the storm (and the crowd) for an hour then hopped in for some quick shoulder to head-high right-handers at the peak in front of Beach Break Warung, occasionally picking off some lefties at the middle peak before high tide flattened it out.
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A groomed Lembeng after a storm |
Wednesday
We returned to Lembeng hoping to find similar conditions as yesterday but the current was much stronger this time around. It was a constant paddle battle to stay in place against the eastward current. Mother Nature really made us work hard for our rides, which were few and far between but good quality when you did catch a wave. Later in the afternoon we had paddle and duck dive practice in the pool. Video analysis was canceled due to a paucity of videos.
Thursday
SSA students went to Sri Lanka - not the country, but the surf spot on the east side of Bali. According to them, the waves were knee high and best for longboarders. I interned with the L1 (level one) surf camp guests. The mildness of the current at Seminyak made for an easy walk out to the break. I worked on timing my push or pull and giving feedback to students.
In the afternoon, SSA students did run-swim-run training at Berawa beach. At night, we gathered for a music quiz followed by karaoke.
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Belting out some tunes in karaoke |
Friday
SSA was originally scheduled to surf Kedungu but things didn't look great during the surf check. Kedungu's central peak was already crowded and large, hectic waves coupled with strong current hobbled surfers paddling out through the channel. We drove on to Lembeng as the east seemed like a better bet. But we were wrong. Nobody was out surfing there because 95% of the waves were huge closeouts. The swell had turned southeasterly, exposing east side beach breaks to the full brunt of its power.
Two instructors and one student dared to paddle out anyway. The latter spent his entire time paddling and getting swept away by the current. The former managed one or two rides each before calling it quits. It was a short 30-minute session. A local went out for some exercise but shortly exited as well after an aquatic beating. The rest of us ate breakfast at the warung and/or watched the brave warriors. The waves just didn't seem worth the paddle nor the risk of breaking our boards or bodies.
In the afternoon, we attended a theory class taught by Thomas on How to Catch Waves. We learned about the stages of a wave (pull, lift, push) and the effect of positioning and equipment on catching waves and generating speed. Because paddling will never be enough to match the speed of the wave, we learned we need to harness the power of gravity and the wave itself.
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Theory class on How to Catch a Wave |
Afterwards, a few SSA students teamed up to source guanciale and make rigatoni amatriciana and tiramisu for everyone in the program. Others pitched in with drinks, music, and cleanup. It was a delicious dinner with good company. Buzzing from all the wine (I'm a lightweight), I sealed the deal with a drinking game called Rage Cage before passing out on my bed.
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Italians showing us how to make a real italian dinner |
Saturday
The SSE and S swells were still pounding more exposed breaks like Lembeng, so SSA went to the more protected Baby Reef in Sanur. We drove over to the east side then took a short boat ride from Pantai Mertesari. We were skeptical at first because it was very crowded with other surf schools when we arrived. But the crowd gradually thinned out, leaving us with long, relatively unencumbered rides for the second half of our session. As a bonus, the water smelled great, like perfume and shampoo.
I was pleasantly surprised by Baby Reef. A beautiful, sunny day at a deep reef with overhead set waves to titillate even the shortboarders among us was a satisfying end to all my guided surf sessions with SSA before I spend the rest of my time in Bali interning. I was initially jonesing for Serangan but a guy on our boat who went there came back to Baby Reef after a brief session battling the current at Serangan, confirming what our surf guides had feared.
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The boats at Pantai Mertasari |
In the afternoon, we surf skated at Amplitude with Thomas as our instructor. We learned how to pump, compress, extend, and bottom turn. We learned the sequence for the frontside bottom turn: Look, Compress, Reach, Hold, Hold, Hold. For backside, twist and lean instead of reach. It's a sequence that students will be asked about during the ISA course and for the rest of our surfing lives, so I might as well write it down here so I can stop forgetting.
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Frontside bottom turn drills at Amplitude skate park |
We ended our long day with the BBQ dinner that takes place every Saturday at Sōleïa Surf but, this time, Sōleïa treated us to an enchanting Balinese dance show. Two dancers with very flexible fingers and ornate costumes picked out various audience members to join them in the mesmerizing Legong dance unique for its complex finger gestures and eye expressions. We followed up with karaoke and more drinking in an early birthday celebration for one of our students.
Sunday
As usual, Sunday is rest day. Not much went on here but resting and eating. A couple of us ran an early morning surf check but deemed the waves horrendous. I tried babi guling, Indonesia's version of lechon, at Warung Pak Malen then got a pedicure. Super chill.
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Mmm, crispy pork bits |
Conclusion
It brings a tear to my eye that we've already reached the last week of our regularly scheduled program at SSA. Time flies. It felt like I just arrived yesterday, listening to "Hundi" by Alexander Marcus while watching NYE fireworks on the rooftop of The Castle. This coming week, SSA turns the mic over to an ISA presenter, Dean, who will teach surf lifesaving and pedagogical techniques for aspiring surf instructors.
I will not attend the ISA course (I already took it in November last year) and will be interning instead. I wish students the best of luck on this next step in their journey towards becoming surf instructors. SSA prepared them as well as it could, considering the rainy season conditions.
The ISA course will add even more knowledge on top of it all: CPR, action on vomit, 5-man lift for suspected spinal injury, board rescue for conscious and unconscious casualties, theory for various surfing maneuvers, spilling vs. plunging waves, different types of rip currents, secondary drowning, what causes local sea breezes, etc.
