The pinnacle of surf travel is without a doubt the fully catered boat trip. There are few things better in life than cruising tropical waters surfing perfect waves by day and reliving those ‘insane barrels’ with your aquatic comrades over a few sun-downers by night.
However, it’s good to know what you’re getting yourself in for, so here’s a guide to ‘Life on the Banyaks Boat’ according to Chris Bond, who’s just come back from running our virgin voyage in the Banyak Islands.
The Boat
When booking a boat trip you need to decide what is important to you as this will affect how much of your hard earned cash you drop on your dream trip. You can spend an annual wage on a trip with completely unnecessary luxuries, but you also don’t want to slum it so hard that you can’t sleep and get ill from the food. Fortunately we’ve found that perfect balance.
The Yak Explorer is a converted fishing boat rebuilt by a surfer with surfers in mind. There’s a space to store your boards and all your gear, a big space to eat and watch videos and photos of your surfing, heaps of chilling space up the front and back of the boat with possibly one of the best views imaginable to sip your sunset bintangs and a cool clean bed to rest up before Groundhog Day in paradise repeats itself. It’s not the luxury package, but an authentic local-style adventure with everything you need.
The Room
There is one ‘room’ with 8 well-sized bunk style beds, mosquito nets, a fan for each bed and aircon if you desire. You will be sharing with your surfing amigos and Trip Leader / Surf Coach. There’s plenty of room to store all your essentials and power to charge your camera.
The Haves
You will have a clean, comfortable bed, a clean toilet and shower, a steady supply of strong balinese coffee, drinking water, decent snacks and three solid square meals a day. There is a first aid kit, full safety equipment and a speedboat to get you out to the lineup. One Ticket to Ride Trip Leader, a competent captain and two staff members. Oh and unlimited good vibes.
The Have-nots
We will have no bad vibes on board, no red meat, no spare towels, no wifi and as mentioned no phone / internet signal. We also don’t encourage too many sundown beers as we want to be fresh for the dawn patrol surf, but we do have plenty ice-cold in the fridge which we order according to your preference before you arrive.
The Crowds
Unfortunately cheap and easier long haul travel, alluring photos on Instagram and awesome tour operators like ourselves are encouraging the growth of surf tourism, which is inevitably crowding up lineups across the globe. However, the Banyak Islands are pretty off-the-beaten-track when it comes to Boat Trips and with 99 islands, 7 of which are inhabited, combined with the flexibility of the boat itself means that if one break happens to have a handful of people on it we can simply motor on to the next.
The Waves
Oh the waves. They are the sort of waves that every surfer should surf at least once in their life. Read more on that here.
Check out more info on this epic Boat Trip here.