Since there were not many surfers here in the early days and we all hung out at the same places in Kuta, it was easy to get on with Kim. He’s a very good surfer, very confident in any kind of surf and had the feel of someone who had been around surfing all his life. Kim was the man at big outside Nusa Dua, finding and tucking into little tubes at the top of these giant Nusa Dua waves as though he was riding a wave on a wave. Out of the water he always wanted to have a laugh and some fun. He was a good spirit.

In the early days we both went after the same Balinese girl and we use to hang out and talk and dream surf when we were not actually surfing. Then later we use to meet at Suji Bunaglows in Kuta late afternoons to drink Bintangs and talk about the waves. One day we decided we wanted to build a place that really had a surfer feel about it. So we made Tubes Bar .. Not for business, not to get rich, just to make a cool place for us to hang out in a surfer vibe...
To make the wave at Tubes, Kim and I went to Toko Mega Jaya in Denpasar and got the chemicals to blow a big block of polyeurothane foam which we did in a large cardboard box. We decided on the wave at Sanur as it needed to be a right hander and we both shared the most magic morning of our lives at Sanur in the late 70s. It was 6-8ft and perfect almond eye barrels non-stop for hours with just Kim and I and a couple other mates out. Kim shaped the foam into a perfect Sanur pitching lip with its down the line run, and I scaled it up with gridding paper to make the steel reo and concrete cover a full size one. It looked insane when it was a steel skeleton.

Kim suffered from serious skin cancer in his later years and couldn’t surf anymore. However, if it was pumping anywhere on the island you would see him there drinking a cold Bintang or two, kretek in his hand, watching everyone surf the great conditions. He could really tell who was surfing well and his calls on who was doing what were much more advanced than most.
He practically started and definitely was the strongest force in making the Bali Surfing Community a great thing, and made sure the Bali Surfing Club and the competitions were happening and ongoing. He had dreams of Indonesians on the ASP circuit and that one day an Indonesian World ASP Champion would be crowned.
I remember Kim as a person who truly loved surfing, Bali and the Balinese. Kim also loved to have a good time and had many great memories that he would share with us over a few cold Bintangs while puffing on his kretek cigarettes for hours on end. I will always remember him saying “You can’t help bad luck”, and accepting the things that we have no power to change.
- Steve Palmer –