Lombok was so good that I could hardly bring myself to be excited about heading over to any other Indonesian island to surf on this trip.
Jumping back on the boat for Nusa Lembongan, I remember quietly laughing to myself about just how many amazing waves everyone (both our riders and trip leaders) had caught during our week of surfing in South Lombok.
Sophie caught some of the longest waves I have ever seen for someone that is just starting out on their surfing journey. Freddy (fresh from our recent 13 week South Africa and Mozambique adventure plus few months in Costa Rica) even made it through his first back side barrel. Monumental!
Our week in Lombok has to go down as one of my most memorable week’s surfing with Ticket to Ride, ever. Chatting with Aidan on the boat to Nusa Lembongan, he confirmed that the waves in Lombok are that good every time he visits!
I love surfing in Indonesia!
So as we bounced over the waves, I also remembered that Aidan had been referring to Nusa Lembongan as his favorite stop on our 4 week itinerary.
Nusa Lembongan is 1 ½ hour speed boat ride from Lombok and is a much smaller island than both Lombok and Bali.
Arriving at our beach side accommodation, (that was so nice that it would also work well as a honeymoon destination), we looked out to ‘sea’ shipwrecks (a well known right hand reef break) doing its thing, 200 metres off shore. Exciting stuff!
“Arriving at surf spot to see the waves breaking perfectly is one of the best feeling ever for a surfer.”
The Surf in Nusa Lembongan
“Everywhere we go in Indonesia, the waves seemed to be firing!”
Before we had even found our rooms, both Freddy and Max had put fins in their boards and were paddling out to the waves as fast as they could. It was really great to see the level of surfing in the group rising fast to meet the demands of what are definitely some challenging waves out in Indonesia.
As well as Shipwrecks, there are 4 other main surf breaks, which are conveniently staggered in order of surfing ability, making it once again, the ultimate set up for a Ticket to Ride group.
Even though I only had 3 days and 2 nights at Nusa Lembongan, I felt torn between joining Freddy and Max for an evening wave or getting a sunset round of Bintangs in.
Needless to say that we all enjoyed watching our new waves break with Fred and Max surfing them as the sun set in the distance, whilst we sat with ice cold beers loving our time out on the islands in Indonesia.
Next morning, the customary 06.00 alarm went off. When you surf here, you have the choice of taking the 1 min boat ride out to the waves or getting busy with a 10 minute paddle over the lagoon (very pleasant). With the cost of boat rides out to all the waves included in the trip price, we all jumped into the boats and headed out to the waves.
Those that were more confident came with me to the bowling rights at Shipwrecks (I had surfed this wave 8 years earlier and always wanted to get back here). For those that were looking for something a little bit more mellow, there was the option to head over to the waves at Playgrounds with Aidan. Chris stayed on board to take photos and shoot videos for us all to look at and watch back after the session. Seeing photos and videos of just about all the waves you catch is great. It really helps that Chris just so happens to be an excellent surf photographer.
Meeting back at the resort after the first surf, the feeling was unanimous, this was another unbelievable location to be living and surfing in for the next 7 days.
“banana pancakes please”
During breakfast, we decided to move the snorkeling trip forward to morning 1, main reason being that the swell was set to build throughout the week and the calmer the conditions the better it is for snorkelling.
Swimming with Mantas – Nusa Lembongan
I knew that we had decided to include snorkeling as an extra during the 2 island hopping weeks in Indonesia. I did not know that Nusa Lembongan is a massively consistent location to swim with Manta Rays.
Jumping back on the boats, we rounded the island as we headed over to a secluded cove, well known to be a popular hang out for Manta’s.
As we arrived, another boat passed us saying that there we 10 manta’s in the bay. As we dropped anchor, our captain excitedly confirmed that there were indeed lots of massive manta’s swimming all around us. With crystal clear water, the mantas were easy to spot and we all jumped in!
In case you needed confirmation, manta’s are massive – the ones we saw spanned well over 6ft, jumping into the water certainly went beyond natural instinct. Even so, in we all jumped and there they were.
Manta’s are truely amazing up close, they are beautiful and graceful in the way they swoop around the reef, seemingly completed very unfazed by the arrival of 10 ticket to riders, kicking and splashing around them.
Diving down and swimming alongside a Manta is right up there as one of the most memorable ocean moments I have been lucky enough to experience since starting Ticket to Ride Worldwide Surfing Adventures.
Having said this, the Mantas only have to swoop around and head for you and your whole feeling towards them changes very quickly from marvel to fear! Regardless of what anyone tells you about Mantas being harmless, when they are swimming towards you, they are definitely intimidating. I think this adds to whole experience.
We all bobbed about and diving down and swimming around with the Mantas as well as an array of other tropical fish for at least the next hour.
Swimming with manta’s was an unforgettable way to spend the morning in Nusa Lembongan and certainly for me, one of the prime time highlight of my time in Indonesia.
Surf Eat Sleep – Surf Eat Sleep – Next Day Repeat
The next 48 hours were spent back in our classic Indonesian routine, surfing amazing waves – eating delicious food – sleeping better than ever – waking up and doing it all over again!
Thanks for having us Nusa Lembongan!