I’m back in AZ, and it is ungodly hot. It was 100 degrees in my bedroom last night, way too hot and sticky to sleep.
So I just sprawled out underneath the fan and watched this video over and over again. I don’t get insomnia very often, but when I do, surfing videos are my favourite thing.
It was around the twelfth time through when I finally passed out.
Waimea Bay Surfing Drone Video. from Makai Creative on Vimeo.
A few pictures from my favourite place with my favourite people. I spent almost a month in Montana this summer boating, surfing and drinking Twisted Tea.
Summer is not even officially over (and honestly I live in Arizona, so it is ever really NOT summer?) but I already can’t wait for next year.
After our exertions on Mount Rinjani on Lombok, we took the ferry back over to Bali. It was about 4 hours, but there was lots of snacks, so it worked out. D had some family coming to visit, but we had a few days to kill, so we found an amazing surf house to stay at via AirBnB, and settled in for a few days in South Kuta.
Please note that there is a huge difference between South Kuta, and Kuta proper. I spent about an hour in Kuta, and that was enough for the rest of my life. It’s ridiculously busy and it’s Hard Rock Cafe’s and Starbucks as far as they eye can see.
South Kuta is a lot quieter, with some amazing beaches, and some of the best surfing spots in Indonesia, and some cute restaurants too. Our few days there were pretty much perfect. We would sleep in every day, have mango for breakfast, lay by the pool for awhile and then set out on our rented moped to explore the beaches.
We stopped in at so many different ones that I can’t remember all of the names, but my favourites were Uluwatu and Dreamland Beach (not to be confused with Dream Beach).
Uluwatu was amazing, we sat in a bar nestled into the rocks, and watched the surfers for hours. It’s weird how watching someone who is really good at something makes you feel like it’s easy and you are probably good at it too?
By the time we left there it was taking every ounce of my self restraint to not grab a surf board and paddle out, because I knew in the depths of my soul that I would be a world class surfer, if I could just get over my fear of sharks, and large waves, and learn to stand up on the board (I have actually been surfing lots of times, but these were BIG waves).
A few days after we were at Uluwatu, there was a killer whale out playing in the waves with the surfers, wish we had been there to see it, but also I probably would have had a heart attack from the stress.
Dreamland beach was gorgeous, it was a bit off the beaten path, down the kind of dirt road that can only lead to somewhere amazing, or certain death, but absolutely one or the other.
There is a big hotel there, it was still being worked on when we visited, but it has a huge infinity pool, and you can go hang out there for the day, it’s $10.00 to use the pool, but you get a voucher to spend it on food and drinks, so it’s not too bad.
On our way back one day we rode past a house that had a door that my dreams are made of. It was purple, and beautiful, and we will be together one day, I’m sure of it.
One of my favourite places in Indonesia was Kuta in Lombok (not to be confused with Kuta Bali). We took a mini-bus there for the weekend while we were waiting to see if we’d ever get our passports back.
It was about a 3 hour bus ride, we didn’t know anything about the place, and we had no place to stay, but I’d seen enough pictures of the amazing beaches there to know we definitely had to check it out (I have tons of pictures from all of the beaches, but they definitely deserve their own post).
The bus driver let us out in the middle of town, and we shouldered our backpacks and walked about 10 feet to the nearest homestay, where we got a room with wi-fi and breakfast for $5/night.
We were in Kuta Lombok in late October, so just at the beginning of the rainy season, but we had absolutely gorgeous weather. I’m pretty sure I got heat stroke, but it was worth it.
Because it was the start of the rainy season though, there were hardly any visitors there, often we were the only people in the restaurants or shops.
Kuta is not much of a tourist town anyway, it’s very laid back with amazing surfing at many of the different beaches, and it’s off the beaten path enough that a lot of people don’t make it over there, but I saw a few signs for big resorts being developed, so that will likely change in the next few years.
We had a great time creeping the town and exploring the surrounding area on a moped, playing with the baby goats that wander around everywhere, and eating at some amazing restaurants, we only had 2 days there but I would have liked to stay longer.
The only thing I would mention as a negative thing about Kuta is that there are a lot of children there working to sell bracelets and blankets to tourists, and it can be a bit overwhelming, especially if there aren’t many visitors there at the time.
It’s hard because you want to help them, but we’d traveled enough by then to know that it actually isn’t helping them to buy things from them on the street, because that’s just incentive for them to spend more time selling on the street to support their families, rather than doing kid things, like going to school.
The kids would come up to you in restaurants, or while you were walking down the street and show you their goods, but if you expressed any interest you would be mobbed by any kids that were in the area, trying to get you to buy from them. I saw older kids beating up younger kids to get them out of the way, it was really sad.
There are a couple of restaurants we visited in Kuta that donated a portion of every meal sold to helping the kids so they no longer have to work on the streets. As I learned in Cambodia, if you want to help, there are ways of doing it that won’t end up doing more harm in the long run.
If you have a chance to visit Kuta Lombok, definitely do it, especially if you are a surfer. I promise, you won’t regret it.
Clarke’s is the main beach in Byron Bay. It stretches all the way down through the whole cove, and it’s a popular hangout for locals and tourists alike.
The beach is very long, and very wide, but pretty flat and even, so it’s basically the perfect running beach. We stayed at the Aquarius Backpackers in Byron for a couple of weeks, and I went for a run on the beach nearly every morning.
It’s also a popular beach for surfers and swimmers. Unfortunately, while we were there a man was bit by a great white shark and died from his injuries. It is pretty unusual in Byron, but I was terrified to go into the water after that, even after it had been confirmed that the shark was no longer in the area.
At the very end of the beach is a rocky outcropping, and a little lookout platform where you can watch the surfers or checkout what is happening in the next bay over at Watego’s Beach.
It was a little bit cloudy the day I brought my camera along to take these pictures, but most of the time we were there it was sunny and gorgeous. We had picnics for at least one of our meals, sprawled out on Clarke’s Beach, nearly every single day we were there.
A beautifully shot video of the ocean, with a beautiful message. If you love what you do, even if you never get rich and famous, you’ll live a life you will enjoy remembering.
This video of the Bonzai Pipeline on Oahu makes my heart hurt. Hopefully I get to go home soon.
from Eric Sterman on Vimeo.Here are a few things that are making me happy right now:
Surfing videos are one of my favourite things ever. I love watching the waves, and seeing someone gliding gracefully along one just relaxes me, instantly. Some of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had are where I’m in a really air conditioned, dark room, with tons of covers, watching muted surf videos as I fall asleep. Try it, I promise you’ll sleep like a baby.
These nail polish strips from Essie. I saw them and wanted them immediately and then I left them sitting in my bathroom cabinet for two months because they seemed very tricksy to apply. A few weeks ago I had some extra free time (thanks BART strike) and tried them out.
They were actually not hard to apply at all, and they lasted a week before they starting chipping, I added a top coat as well. It’s like having tiny little love letters on your nails.
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| And some calla lillies I picked up at the farmer’s market. Treat yo self. |
I’m re-reading the Virgin Suicides. Love this:
“The rest of her face-the pulpy lips, the blonde sideburn fuzz, the nose with its candy-pink translucent nostrils- registered dimly as the two blue eyes lifted him on a sea wave and held him suspended. ‘She was the still point of the turning world’ he told us, quoting Eliot, whose Collected Poems he had found on the shelf of the detoxification center.
For the eternity that Lux Lisbon looked at him, Trip Fontaine looked back, and the love he felt at that moment, truer than all the subsequent loves because it never had to survive real life, still plagued him even now in the desert, with his looks and health wasted.”
I read somewhere that the best love affairs are the ones we never have, because the other person will always be perfect to us, never diminished or found to be flawed. This excerpt from the Virgin Suicides really reiterates that to me.
