E's Surf Report: no waves here so far.. Indo excerpt

hey everybody... so far no Atlantic ocean juice for me.. mark and i almost went a few days back but partying got the best of us the night before.. looks like a new east coast utility wind swell is developing for christmas day and the day after christmas.. i might try to hit it on the 26th.. A few of you emailed with with pics and video.. thanks so much for doing that.. i'm on a modem here, however, and won't have the bandwith to check most of it until i get back to SF.

Tom, congrats on the 220 days!! Great work my bruddah!! I think that i ended up around 220 this year so far.. though it's not over yet.. last year i finished with 226 days and 296 sessions..

in the absence of any new surf-related experiences on my part these last few days i'll leave you with a journal entry from my indo trip last year..

merry christmas and all that..

Wed aug 29 2001
Hey everybody!! long time no internet/electricity/phone etc... Things have been going stellar here on Sumba (3 islands east of Bali)... I'm not sure where to begin or what events/images/happenings to highlight so i'll just sputter out a smattering of thoughts and reflections as they occur to me..
just spent 4 days deep in the heart of remote, tribal west sumba.. in a village named N******.. On a hilltop about 2km from an epic lefthand point/reef break called "G**'s Left" the 4 of us (2 South Africans, an Aussie and myself) stayed at chief Metabulu's house. The little village of Ngiwatu consists of about 20 or 30 stilted, thatched-rooved homes and buildings.. all risen above the ground to keep animals (pigs, roosters, cats, ducks, water buffalo etc.) out of the living area.. The homes are mostly constructed of bamboo and palm fronds, both of which grow abundently in the lush, jungly surroundings.. The West Sumbanese are renown for the creative architectual stylings of their rooves. The style is to build a secondary pyramidal shape of thatching above the primary pyramidal shape.. it looks as if the roof is wearing a birthday-party cap.. pretty schweet.. this picture depicts the Sumbanese village..

traditional homes

To get to the wave you had to walk 2km down a winding mountainside trail, through palm groves and dense jungle.. 3 snakes where seen on the path at various times by my companions, one snake 5 foot and supposedly deadly... though i never saw one.. thankfully.. I was so anxious of encountering a snake, however, that i carried a stick and whistled loudly most of the way up and down the trail to warn any potential malicious snake of my approach.. the trail to the surf then wound down and through green/fertile rice paddies... pretty cool.. smiling farmers would wave and the sun would beat down.. there were occasional swarms of locusts that would rip through the fields.. at one point i got smacked violently in the ear by one.. once down to the beach the sand fleas attacked in mass numbers, leaving annoying little red bites that continue to itch 5 days later.. Bitches!!! BUT... tranquility was achieved as soon as i entered the water each day.. a short paddle around a channel in the reef... at most 4 other guys out (usually 2 or 3 person sessions!).. The swell during most of my sessions was small but long period, so the waves would cruise in as low but fat mounds of water.. when they hit the reef they would suddenly jack up, steepen, and peel along the reef.. sometimes closing out, sometimes barrelling... always steep.. every take-off had to be well-timed and committed.. i got another 2 tubes but didn't make it out of either.. so my trip total for tubes is 5.. but i have 0 successful exits.. This was my best few days of the trip, surf-wise.. i racked up almost 20 hours of surf in just 3 days. i caught about 30 or 40 rides a day on a solid, tuby left-hander.. I'm stoked to come back and charge Ft. Point! I learned the utter necessity of speed and commitment on the take-off.. when you've selected a wave as yours upon seeing it on the horizon.. basically lock down on the perfect take-off spot and commit yourself fully to going! paddle super hard and invision the line of your first turn or projection down the line. This pattern of thought helped me immensely on the bigger waves.. waves which, on the beginning of the trip i would have questioned my ability to make the drop and potentially would have wimped out.. or partially wimped out.. and then gone headlong over the falls into the reef!
sick
sidenote: the room that i'm currently checking the internet is sooooo hot and stinky with body odor that i'm about to vomit.. i'm breathing in through my mouth to try to avoid the smell... aachh!! i'm in the capital city of Sumba.. Wangapu.. i'm taking a ferry to the next island over, Sumbawa.. tomorrow.. off to a famous surf spot called Lakey Peak! there is a swell due in two days so it should be sick!
i just completed two weeks without the availablity of electricity (except for a little solar-fueled battery at one place), no cold beverages, no running water, no mirrors, no dairy products, no meat except fish, and little to no english.. it was sick!!!!! really refreshing but also tiring.. i didn't shower for about 5 days as there was no shower or mandy (tub of water with bucket - use bucket to scoop water, then dump over self) in Ngiwatu.. I've actually been shitting in the ocean ... as the toilet scene at Ngiwatu consisted of a dirty outhouse.. complete with hole-in-ground and hornet's nest in the corner! not even a squatty potty.. just a hole!! it was cool..
currently there is some independence day festival going on here in Wangapu.. we saw some traditional Sumbanese dancing and heard the piercing, quasi-harmonious shreek/chants of the traditional sumbanese singing.. wish i had a minidisk to record it..
want to give shouts out to mom and dad! i'll call tomorrow! hope that BI was relaxing and beautiful!
also another shout out to Robbie Scott and one to B. Biggs! the lefts in indo, bros! the lefts in Indo! that's all i have to say..
also a shout out to the X-factor, always an inspiration! keep it up my brotha!

Looks like there was some possible surf this morning. I missed it cuz I wuz too tired and sore from a Tahoe mission yesterday. The snow up there is REAL GOOD. However, prepare for long hours on the roads. It took me 6 to get up there. Haven't surfed in weeks and I'm jones'n hard.

Posted by: lerm at December 30, 2002 11:42 AM

If you have that feeling like you haven't surfed in a month, ole faithful, Linda Mar is serving up some shoulder to head high peelers in the north end this morning. Might want to check it out if you need some water time.

Winds are offshore, cold, cloudy conditions but worth the effort.

Go snag some.

Posted by: Kaiser at January 2, 2003 09:28 AM

If you throw a New Year's Party, the worst thing that you can do would
be to throw the kind of party where your guests wake up today, and call
you to say they had a nice time. Now you'll be be expected to throw
another party next year.

What you should do is throw the kind of party where your guest wake up
several days from now and call their lawyers to find out if they've
been indicted for anything. You want your guests to be so anxious to
avoid a recurrence of your party that they immediately start planning
parties of their own, a year in advance, just to prevent you from
having another one ...

If your party is successful, the police will knock on your door, unless
your party is very successful in which case they will lob tear gas
through your living room window. As host, your job is to make sure
that they don't arrest anybody. Or if they're dead set on arresting
someone, your job is to make sure it isn't you ...
cash advance http://www.cash-advance.be

Posted by: cash advance at January 15, 2005 05:01 PM

poker tournaments - poker tournaments, poker books | poker tournaments - texas holdem, paradise poker | poker chips - empirepoker, empire poker | online poker sites - online poker, poker books | pacific poker - pacific poker, poker stars | texas hold'em poker - poker rules, poker chips | poker tournaments - free poker online, poker chips | online poker - poker online, poker books | poker tables - poker tournaments, poker tournaments | poker online - free online poker, poker chips | poker tables - WPT, paradise poker

Posted by: poker chips at January 18, 2005 04:18 PM

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)