Jumped on the plane early yesterday & ended up with a seat in front of a friend from my home break which was pretty cool. He was on his way over to do some work on his 12 villas on Nusa Lembongan.

Swell was bigger than expected when we landed & was surprised to see some decent size waves breaking at airport rights. I guess 1130 was pretty much top of the tide which it likes but damn was there a crowd. Over 50 I reckon.

Was cool to breeze through not having to worry about visa on arrival. Havn't been over since July last year when the missus got straight through on her non Aussie passport & had to wait for me. So that was nice, got luggage pretty quick too. But then I was like where the fark is my boards when they didn't show up on the oversize trolley. Was a little anxious & thinking of where I might buy a board if they didn't show up...but after 30 mins they did woohoo, was stoked

Staying at Febris for a few days before we head down to the Bukit. Was stoked again boards unpacked in the same condition I packed them.

New hotel on old Santika site has opened, its across the road from Febris. Supermarket under Lippo mall has sold to a new chain & shrunk. No cheap Jack Black boubon & colas I like to start a session with. Probably for the best...Small Bintangs in all the mini marts round here have skyrocketed in price. Was $1.50 in cocconuts before, now no price shown. Didn't ask coz they were warm, everywhere else $2.50 or more. So had to do the mission to Lippo which has gone up from $1.65 to $2. Luckily they still taste great...

Febris is about 5 salamat pagis to security peeps further than where we usually stay, but this was a budget trip. Didn't wanna pay for Ramada or put up with the icy waters of its sister budget hotel out front. So a few minutes walk further to the reef taxis isn't a drama. Was probably good to wake up a bit this morning anyway, coz it was pretty big.

Jumped on a boat for mids, real low tide at 5:50 & surfed there for about 20 mins as a boat of 4 guys arrived. I'd just caught my second wave & thought I had the take off spot wired. So did the other 4 guys who paddled in towards me. They'd almost made it to me when I guess they saw the panic on my face & my frantic paddling towards them coz a triple overhead wide bomb was heading towards us.

So began a relentless duck diving session of at least 20 waves before I gave up after about the 15th coz I was now in thigh high water, so I opted to brace myself & wait it over. One bloke ended up further back & must have decided he was closer to Airport lefts than mids now & paddled over there. Another bloke on the other side dissapeared in the direcion of Kuta reef.

Sat a bit further out & wide after that lol...but another set like that didn't come...until I'd caught a few more waves. About 10 all up I guess & was just planning on paddling out to my boat I could see making its way over after my last wave & another bomb set came. Only about 4 this time but the first one stole my surf hat damn it. Same thing happened last year only it was my first wave. Damn'it & no one sells surf hats this end of Jalan Kartika. Prob have to go to surf stores around Kuta Square or something. If someone knows a place, please let me know

Overall a fun surf, but took the wrong board out coz I felt tired. Real bright idea that was, might be easier paddling a 38L board over a 30L one but not so easy to duckdive when its low tide & breaking wide haha We live & learn...

I'll take the germ tomorrow, just hope I can remember how to surf it