Seasons Greetings my friends. Trust all is well down under and everyone is enjoying the festive season.
Sorry haven't been in touch 4 ages. Have spent the last 7 months wandering here and there. Another Oz winter in Bali & Lombok & Mentawaiis getting shacked off my head, 2 weeks in Brazil courtesy of the new ASP champ Mick Fanning a week in Vegas and at the time of writing I am lounging at the Billabong house in Hawaii courtesy of another bet made in Brazil with Andy Irons.
Well here's a summary of what has transpired since mid April when I took off from my humble shack at the bush behind southend creek. After a massive night on the cans at the Sands with the boys I woke to another glorious sunrise only to find that for the 90th straight day the surf was under 2ft. I was over it and it was time for a road trip. Off everything it was time to go to Bali for the winter.
From the moment I stepped off the plane it was non-stop. Epic sessions on both sides of the island. Padang Padang and Ulus going off for a month straight, fading those kooks Rizal and Betet onto the reef during an epic 8ft session at Padang, drinking a record of 22 longnecks in a 4 hour arvo session at Lodgi supermarket with some of my Indo hommies, a redhot run with the ladies - all picked up from Benchong Alley in the wee hours of the night. Every morning after hours and hours of passionate lovemaking I would parade my conquests down the foyer of the hotel only to have the staff point, laugh and yell Benchong Benchong. I'm not quite fluent in Balinese as I am in Swahili or Italian so I asked one of the girls what it meant and she told me that Benchong meant beautiful girl. Those jealous little balos!!!!
Anyways after 6 weeks in Bali it was time for something different. Scanned the maps and decided to head to Desert Point in Lombok. After a week of 4ft waves the waves hit 6ft and all the pros who had been hanging in Bali for the swell, arrived on mass. Brazo's, Aussies, Seppos, and Israelis. Just unbelievable.
After a few days the swell peaked at 8ft and me and my old mate Albino Fanning were ruling the line-up. We were trading deep backhand barrel for deep backhand barrel. No one came close to getting as deep as we were. Every bomb set was ours and we surfed pretty much all day. That night after a few Bintangs we made a bet over who could get the deepest longest pit tomorrow. If I won he would fly me to Brazil to party with those wankers on the WCT but if he got the deeper tube I would be able to smash a longneck of Bintang over his head and give him some tips on how to pick up chicks. The next morning 6-8ft low tide deserts and the water was cleared. 45 min heat - longest tube wins. I won't bore you with the details but Mick got a sick 17-second barrel whilst I just waited for the right one. After a 20 min wait and letting perfect wave after wave go I was on the spot for the most perfect wave. I took off and slotted into the 8ft beast getting spat out 350m down the line. Tude time 24-second. The ticket to Brazil was mine. For the record that night I smashed the bottle over his head and cause I'm a top bloke I let him in on some secrets on how to get the women. Don't ever let anyone tell you that I'm not a fair bloke.
The rest of my time in Indo was spent up at the Mentawaiis on Bevo's boat scoring some great waves before flying out to Brazil for 2 weeks of madness. Holy shit just looked out the window and the swell at Pipe has jumped and the winds have backed off. It's 6-8 and I'm out there. I'll drop u a line and fill you in on what I got up to in Brazil and how the hell I ended up here in Hawaii in the next little while.
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