Bali surf and other topic

Hi all
I just returned from a Bali holiday (the first return since the mid 90s and while I didnt surf this time as it was just a family holiday ,it was a fabulous holiday. But in some ways I was disappointed in that Bali has some major issues which I will come to later. Surprisingly I saw no SUPers out at Ulus when the outside break seemed perfect for it. The surf was very good for the duration i was there with easter friday as big as I have seen it at Kuta with waves breaking half a km out then reforming at the shore break. The planes landing at the groyne seemed to be landing in the sea at times with the swell hiding the rocks. Mind you it had been up to 10m down in Margaret River prior to that so its understandable. Needless to say the beaches were closed to swimmers and not many were attempting to surf.

The offshore sewerage outlet must be located in the outside breaker line and raw sewerage was washing up on Kuta and Legian beach in a toxic brown scum.
Besides that, plastics litter the beach and it is not difficult to work out where it is originating. A drive to Ulus will show you that every village is dumping its waste in the gully and creeks next to the houses. This is the only spare land available and when a torrential downpour occurs into the ocean it goes.. As tourists we have contributed to that in that the affluence created by tourism extends to the villages but the education doesnt.

Global warming is having its effect with rising sea's leaving the the beachfront roads covered in huge quantities of sand, something I had never seen before.

Now to the good news.
You can get SUP board bags made there for $25 for the stretch cloth type, $60 for single protection layer quality covers and $80 for double layer protection. The shop is Next Generation Board Bags in Jalan Benesari. I was impressed but found it too late, they want about 3 days to knock up a bag.
email; nextgenerationboardbag@yahoo.com - guys name is Edy.
Also we used a very reliable driver while we were there and his name is Putu (1st Born)
phone +6281337345686 if u have global roaming. $30 for round trip to the safari park roughly 5hrs driving and waiting. Most probably could have got it cheaper but the car was near new and everything worked and hes is very easy to deal with.
If you plan on shopping there for the usual clothes, saris, trinkets and much more dont buy on the street. Go to Krishna which is a bit like a big W but owned by a balinese, there are two of them one near the airport and one the main road to denpassar.. Stuff is so cheap and its just one stop and you have it all. Not many westerners know about it yet. The missus will love it and can spend hours there while u surf and u wont go broke..
Otherwise it was a great holiday with all the right ingredients for success.
Cheers Mike

Cheers for that.

Mate and son just returned the other day who have been going and surfing all over the Bali for years,both very ill at the moment,he blamed the surf thay had at the river mouth at Canggu As a prone surfer nothing worse than paddling around and the junk that your hands touch is disgusting.If any of you log into Baliwaves a couple of days ago on a good swell the junk that was in the wall of the wave

So, Bali aint what it used to be, but we all know that. I've been going there since the late 70s and I won't be going back in hurry after my last visit in 2011, although I love the Balinese people and Indonesian food is the best! The water is filthy and they don't have the sewerage system in place to cater for the thousands of tourists. I wouldn't swim in it.
However, the most dangerous thing to do in Bali is ride a motor bike.
Here are a few statistics for you
The head of the emergency department at Sanglah Hospital, Dr Kresna Wibawa, said his unit treats up to 300 people every day and around half are traffic accident victims – mostly motor cycle riders or passengers.
Around 80% of the 54,000 traffic casualties treated by the hospital last year involved head injuries. Of those who suffered head trauma:
• 15.7% were not wearing a helmet
• Around 1-in-4 died from their injuries
“One of the main causes of head injuries is the number of motorcyclists either failing to wear a helmet, or using a helmet that fails to meet standards," Dr Wibawa said.
Most of last year's traffic accident victims were aged between 16 and 25.
Beside the many head injuries, drivers and riders were left with broken bones and long-term disabilities.
My advice? Take a cab. They're cheap and you might get there in one piece. On another note, if you ride with out a helmet, drunk or without a licence (as most people over there do) you will not get any insurance to cover the coffin home.
Hey that was pretty heavy wasn't it?

The last time I was in Bali after doing a Lombok boat trip I asked my driverto take me to Canggu that afternoon just to have a look as I knew the waves would of been crap because of the winds but just to suss the place out , it was empty because of the waves except for old mate with his septic truck emptying his load into the sea, I will never go back to Bali as its now a crowded dung heap, on the trip to Deserts in Lombok apart from the locals burning rubbish and letting the grass burn away unhindered they dynamited the reef one night as we were awoke by the naval authorities checking if it was us, so with dead reefs, I could only shake my head when we were leaving to see the amount of rubbish and **** in the water travelling in the currents of the Lombok straight and we know where that all eventually ends up.
Dont think the Western world can be blamed anymore for producing the plastic and other materials which the locals use, the majority of third worlders are just too lazy to try and learn how to treat the planet and get off there arses to clean up instead of just sitting around staring into space smoking cigarettes, shudder to think what it will be like in another 50 years

Hello friends,
first let me thank everyone for the nice words.
Yes water in Bali is not as clean as it use to be but is to be expected with 4 millions people and so many tourist. BUT you should know that most of the hotels and houses are already connected to a proper sewage system.
Of course the worst areas are close to river mouth where water come down all the way from small villages.

Water in the Bukit is still pretty clean as most of the outside reef.
The beach break are quite bad... And specially after big rain or huge swell.
Sanur is quite clean on the reef, inside the lagoon really depend on the quantity of rain and the tide!
I did not get too many complains (actually none that I can remember) for hear infections and there are quite a number of us Surfing & SUPing here.
The truck in Canggu at Tugu is been there for long time but it doesn't empty the safety tank... It collect sea water for the numerous fish restaurant!!!!
I checked myself long time ago as I kite and surf there...
The river coming out in Canggu are still very polluted!

Not sure about the ULU problems! Haven't heard of anything...
I had clients/friends that SUP there in the past and they were OK but I know for sure that they were very respectful and stay mostly up the reef far from the shortboarders.
Bye Jankie