Lombok Surf & Culture Report: Glimpse Into Another World

The past week in southern Lombok has been steady. The waves have strangely stayed in the head high to head plus range. The right still hasn’t worked as well as I’ve seen it, but there have still been some great days of fast, short barrels on the right.

Child trafficing... to haul sand of the beach for building material in southwestern Lombok. Kids don't get a lot cuter than this. — Child trafficing… to haul sand of the beach for building material in southwestern Lombok. Kids don’t get a lot cuter than this.

Circumcision festival near Mawi, Lombok was very interesting. Even a band.

The left is what has surprised me this week. I usually scoff at it and turn my head. This week, it was too big for the right on a couple of days, so I slinked over to the left. I was surprised at what I found. It was a mandatory, very late drop. An air drop many times (which translated to some incredible wipeouts).

But, if you made the drop, the wave would slow up for a second and give you the chance to make a big bottom turn back to the lip. If you were on it, there was room for one whack or turn, then a solid wall for 25 yards. If you were lucky, it would slow up for one more turn, then another 10 yard wall. Heck of a ride and super fun on the backside.

Spontaneous, musicless dance session in the middle of nowhere while scouting for surf in southwestern Lombok. — Spontaneous, music-less dance session in the middle of nowhere while scouting for surf in southwestern Lombok.

I also went exploring in southwestern Lombok looking for waves. Found some good stuff and even an old abandoned surf camp. I got lost and rode my bike through some very cool villages. It’s great to see how people actually live out here with no tourist influence nor manipulation. Real Indo. It’s pretty real. These people sure don’t have much, but the sure are happy. Happier than we are, I’d say.

I’m off to Western Java to surf Cimaja tomorrow for about 12 days. Cimaja is an amazing, cobblestone bottom, right that gets mechanically tubular when working. I’ll update from there next week.