Text: Pete Matthews
Photos: Donkey

As the weather maps began showing red blobs again, we knew it was time to get back on the road. Choosing to head out to a spot none of us had been to before there were all the normal worries…would it be good? Were the tides right? Swell direction? Crowd factor? Taking a chance by passing all the spots we knew would be good and going towards the unknown was a chance we were willing to take.
We wanted to have all the tools for this mission ready so we fueled up the Jet Ski and cars and packed up everything we might need. Having Bol and Dede (two of Indo’s best surfers} signed up and ready to go, we were stoked with our small crew.

As the hours counted down to our late night departure we called Bol to find out when he would be coming over. Instead he had this weird tone in his voice... maybe a little bit lazy or maybe a little sick. “Oooohhhhh, I don’t know...ooohhh, you think it’s gonna be good?...eeehhhhh, maybe I just surf Padang.” said Bol.
What??!! So now we were heading out with just Dede...but no worries; Dede delivers.
Dede Suryana is the ISC Indonesia champion for a very good reason. He has drive, he’s committed, and has tons of natural talent. He’s the first of what will be many, an outer island surfer who grew up with perfect waves and no “surfing industry” around. It wasn’t easy for him to break into the Bali scene. He had to prove that he deserved what he got to the other surfers, judges and all the guys around town. Dede’s been smart with what he’s got... instead of getting a tricked out low rider Avanza with rims and tinted windows to look cool driving back and forth from Canggu, Dede has invested in the old trusty Kijang, raised a bit with new big off-road tires and roof racks to hold plenty of boards. It’s the Indo surf car he’s driven from West Java to East Sumbawa. He’s even got a DVD player built in to watch movies on long ferry rides. He also doesn’t go anywhere without one of his trusted friends from West Java who films all his sessions. In fact most of his sections in “Shades of Indonesia” are filmed by Oky or Bejo, Dede’s hometown friends. Dede is always down for a good adventure to score good waves.

It would take us about 20 hrs of driving and ferry rides. A few detours, a few wrong turns and quite a few times stopping to ask for directions later, we arrived at night, not being able to see the waves but it sounded promising.
When we woke the next morning, we found ourselves in this magical bay. A huge cloudbreaking right on the west end of the bay had whitewash crashing against cliffs that seemed thousands of feet tall. Out front was a beautiful white sand beach with a small peak breaking and than to the left was the reason we came there, a huge double up left that broke against a rock cliff. With the tide still needing to fill in a bit, we ate breakfast and mind surfed the empty line up, arguing if it was surfable yet. Only one way to find out... we unloaded the Jet Ski over the soft sand and creeped slowly over the inside reef. Motoring out, we slowly took our time watching waves grind down the reef. The ocean being so clear, we saw schools of fish swimming down the reef. The deep dark blues in the middle of the bay faded to crystal clear shallow parts, and made it difficult to tell how shallow it really was.

The waves were grinding and not letting up. Spitting square barrels stared at us. As the tide filled in a bit more Dede jumped off the Ski ready to pull into a few. He took his time, slowly moving up the reef to the deepest point. Once he committed to a wave here, there was no way to get out. You would be locked in til the end of the ride. Dede being a regular foot and on his backhand made it even more critical.
Throughout the day Dede would air drop into huge unforgiving backside barrels, getting up to three tubes a wave, with clouds of spit after every section. At the end of the day we were all very happy with what we got. And watched the sunset with great satisfaction.

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