Our trip over to Lombok had been a short flight, but to get to Nusa Lembongan was a bit more of an adventure. It involved several legs, from the 2 hour taxi ride to a ferry over to Gili islands and then to Nusa Lembongan in some solid swell! Once there we had to get onto a truck taxi to take us and all our stuff to our accomodation on Nusa Lembongan. Despite all of that, the second the group had put their stuff down in the rooms and put their feet in the infinity pool overlooking the waves and the ocean there were big smiles all-around. So this is paradise.
Nusa Lembongan is a small island near Bali which happens to host some great waves. The names of the waves are great, when you mention to the group that they are going to surf "Lacerations" everyone goes quiet and then someone pipes up "are you sure we are ready for that?". After dropping a couple of the guys at the bigger waves at shipwrecks we decided to go to Playgrounds instead of Lacerations. Playgrounds sounds so much more friendly, but is actually named so because of the rather off floating playgrounds near the wave, while the wave itself still breaks on shallow reef. Either way the idea that they were going to surf playgrounds instead of lacerations was much more appealing!
As mentioned in one of the previous blogs from Lombok, the first session or two at a new spot are always challenging. With Graham and my knowledge of those waves and coaching we quickly started getting the group into some fun waves. Nusa Lembongan is once again very picturesque and our morning surf on the second day there was quite spectacular for the sunrise.
Nusa Lembongan is quite tiday, which meant that we could finally get a good break from surfing for a few hours and explore the island and just enjoye a bit of down time. After the quiet and wilderness of Lombok the group enjoyed having a good selection of local restaurants to choose their meals as well as a variety of other activities to pass the time.
After some great waves the first few days everyone was loving Nusa Lembongan, but also looking forward to the anticipated flat day on Saturday when we would go diving with the manta rays.
You'll have to check back in soon to see that spectacle which we experienced.
Chris
Blurb
Nusa Lembongan fills in all the requirements of a tropical paradise