Best Place to Surf in Bali Part I

nusa dua beach

Bali is the heaven for the surfer around the world with only two seasons and beautiful beach around the cost, make people always interest to come in all years. There is a lot of international surfing championship is held by ripcurl, around 3 times in a year. No wonder there is also a lot of local surfer becomes professional surfer. Swells come from the Indian Ocean, so the surf is on the southern side of the island and, strangely, on the northwest coast of Nusa Lembongan, where the swell funnels into the strait between there and the Bali coast. In the dry season around April to September, the west coast has the best breaks, with the trade winds coming in from the southeast; this is also when Nusa Lembongan works best. In the wet season, surf the eastern side of the island, from Nusa Dua around to Padangbai. If there’s a north wind – or no wind at all – there are also a couple of breaks on the south coast of Bukit Peninsula.

                                                                                         Balangan

balangan beach

Go through growing Pecatu Indah resort and follow the road around to the right past Dreamland to reach the Balangan warung food stall. Balangan is a fast left over a shallow reef, unsurfable at low tide, good at mid tide with anything over a 4ft swell; with an 8ft swell, this can be one of the classic waves.

Balian

balian beach

There are a few peaks near the mouth of Sungai Balian, here is often murky because the river can carry a lot of pollution. Look for the Taman Rekreasi Indah Soka, along the main road, just west of Lalang-Linggah. The best break here is an enjoyable and consistent left-hander that works well at mid- to high tide if there’s no wind. North of Padang and accessible by road, this spot can now get crowded. It’s best at mid tide with a 6ft swell, when it manufactures short but perfect left-hand barrels.

                                                                                          Canggu

canggu beach

North of Kuta-Legian-Seminyak, on the northern extremity of the bay, Canggu has a nice white beach and a few surfers. The peak breaks over a ‘soft’ rock ledge  well, it’s softer than coral. An optimum size for Canggu is 5ft to 6ft. There’s a good right-hander that you can really hook into, which works at full tide, and what the surf writer Peter Neely calls ‘a sucky left ledge that tubes like Ulu watu but without the coral cuts’, which works from mid tide.

Dreamland (one of my favorite beach)

dreamland

You have to go through Pecatu Indah resort and past the water-sucking golf course to reach this spot, which can also get crowded. At low 5ft swell, this solid peak offers a short, sharp right and a longer more tubular left. There’s quite a good scene here and cheap places to stay. Impossible Just north of Padang Padang/opposite, this outside reef break has three shifting peaks with fast left-hand tube sections that can join up if the conditions are perfect at low tide, 5ft swell, but don’t stay on for too long, or you’ll run out of water.

                                                                                          Ketewel & Lebih

ketewel beach

These two beaches are northeast of Sanur, and access is easy from the new coast road. They’re both right-hand beach breaks, which are dodgy at low tide and close out over 6ft. Most likely there are other breaks along this coast all the way to Padangbai, but they need a big swell to make them work.

Kuta Area

kuta beach

For your first plunge into the warm Indian Ocean, try the beach breaks at Kuta Beach; on full tide go out near the life-saving club at the southern end of the beach road. At low tide, try the tubes around Halfway Kuta, probably the best place in Bali for beginners to practise. Start at the beach breaks if you are a bit rusty. The sand here is fine and packed hard, so it can hurt when you hit it. Treat even these breaks with respect. They provide zippering left and right barrels over shallow banks and can be quite a lot of fun. Further north, the breaks at Legian Beach can be pretty powerful, with lefts and rights on the sand bars off Jl Melasti and Jl Padma. At Kuta and Legian you will encounter most of the local Balinese surfers. And again further north, there are more beach breaks off Seminyak, such as the Oberoi, near the hotel of the same name. The sea here is fickle and can have dangerous rip tides – take a friend. For more serious stuff, go to the reefs south of the beach breaks, about a kilometre out to sea. Kuta Reef, a vast stretch of coral, provides a variety of waves. You can paddle out in around 20 minutes, but the easiest way is by boat, for a fee. The main break is a classic left-hander, best at mid- to high tide with a 5ft to 6ft swell, when it peels across the reef and has a beautiful inside tube section; the first part is a good workable wave. Over 7ft it tends to double up and section. The reef is well suited for backhand surfing. Unfortunately it’s not surfable at dead-low tide, but you can get out there not long after the tide turns. The locals can advise you if necessary. It gets very crowded here, but if conditions are good there’s another, shorter left, 50m further south along the reef, which usually has fewer surfers.

                                                                                         Medewi

medewi beach

Further along the south coast of western Bali is a softer left called Medewi – it’s a point break that can give a long ride right into the river mouth. This wave has a big drop, which fills up then runs into a workable inside section. It’s worth surfing if you feel like something different, but to catch it you need to get up early, because it gets blown out as the wind picks up. It works best at mid- to high tide with a 6ft swell. There’s accommodation.

Nusa Dua

nusa dua

During the wet season you should surf on the east side of the island, where there are some very fine reef breaks. The reef off the Nusa Dua has very consistent swells. The main break is 1km off the beach to the south of Nusa Dua – go past the golf course and look for the whole row of warung and some boats to take you out. There are lefts and rights that work well on a small swell at low to mid tide. On bigger days, take a longer board and go further out, where powerful peaks offer long-rides, fat tubes and lots of variety. Further north, in front of the Club Med, is a fast, barreling right reef break called Sri Lanka, which works best at mid tide and can handle swells from 6ft to 10ft.

continued to Part II