Legian, Bali - Part 2

Sheila left back to the US on Tuesday and I was on my own again, it was a bit sad after making such great friends, to see them all go.

Wednesday I had another lesson with Mr. Marcy Sir and all of a sudden, what do I feel? A sore throat! Oh no! I sort of expected to get a cold after leaving NY, but I figured it would be in the first few weeks, but OH NOOOO! My body said NOW you really have time to rest, WHAM! So in addition to being slightly crippled with a minor shoulder injury (several months ago I was a bit overly ambitious with a forearm stand in yoga class) now I'm sick too! As one can imagine, excessive paddling tends to aggravate the shoulder. To make a long story short, I made my way to the Circle K for some cold medicine and Melinda hooked me up with some nasal drops. After suitably drugging myself I hibernated in my room the rest of the day.

Today Marcy, Melinda, Alain (another one of Marcy's students) and I made plans to drive up the coast and surf a different break. I willed my body to recover and it did, not as fully as I would have liked but good enough. Marcy and Melinda picked me up at 5:45am (yes, I said 5:45AM), we picked up Alain and off we went. We drove through all these small villages and past lots of rice paddies. After about an hour, we made it to the beach. A desolate place of black volcanic sand with a small warung (a Balinese sort of little restaurant, kind of like a shack) and nobody but a few chickens, a rooster, some dogs and us.

Marcy unpacked the surfboards, we suited up, put on our sunblock (SPF45 for me Mami) and walked around the cliff to the other side of the beach where a small lefthander was breaking. Man, it was amazing! It was a misty overcast morning and we have cliffs and palm trees behind us, the ocean in front of us, a big rock jutting out of the water to our right and a religious ceremony to our left. We paddled out and it was totally surreal to be in the water hearing the traditional Balinese music accompanying the ceremony and seeing the local fishing boats on the horizon.

The swell was nice but smallish, rolling and fairly glassy but it was not my best day in terms of performance. I was on a smaller board, a bit sick and seriously lacking in my paddle power but man, it was a highlight of my trip and I would not have missed this morning for the world.