First up we’ve had the odd sight of a few thousand fish washed up dead along the shorelines from Kuta to Canggu, apparently killed off by some sort of poison in the waters of Bali. On further investigation it turns out that the culprit of the Ikan massacre has been the extremely warm temperature of the ocean for this time of year, which has caused the algae to produce toxins they don’t in cooler sea climes. I don’t want to use the old analogy of ‘stepping into bathwater’ but that’s exactly what it’s been like surfing here over the last few weeks, a plunge into a very temperate hot tub.
Dunno what happened to our wet season either, well actually I do know – it all ended up sheeting down on the poor unfortunate souls in Jakarta causing the mayhem you saw broadcast on all the news channels. We barely had a drop fall in Bali all month and this is supposed to be the height of the rainy months, not that we’re complaining here, I’ll take the balmy blue skies over the rushing rapids of downtown Legian any day of the week and good news too for the early season sunseekers visiting the island but bad news for the farmers awaiting the rains.

The winds have been equally fickle with signs of an early season change, one week we’re surfing up around the Keramas area with the off shores pushing up the East coast barrels, the next minute it’s all swung round to produce perfect conditions down in the Canggu area, the only thing missing was the swell factor and last weekend it hit big time.

Perfect beach break barrels were reeling off at Canggu with the Quicksilver boys pulling into some sick pits, the left in front of The Beach House was stacking up the tubes for the twenty guys out mid Saturday morning and I snuck off to investigate a low tide spot a couple of hours later to find the beast that is spot X spitting out monster six foot walls fanning around the mid beach bowl.

Then it all went onshore to the West and East and the only location that was to be found breaking with any reliability was good old Serangan, or Turtle Island to its long term advocates.

Once upon a long time ago the spot was only accessible to a lucky few in the know, and only by boat. Then came the landfill project helmed by Tommy Suharto back in the mid nineties with plans to turn the area into an exclusive harbour with casinos and other such fat cat activities. The plans never materialised, in much the same fashion as the Pecatu debacle and the local Serangan population found themselves displaced temporarily until they reclaimed the land once Suharto Jnr found himself incarcerated. What they found themselves left with was a peninsula instead of an island, an industry of sustainable fishing and seaweed farming but also a new focus on the arrival of travelling surfers keen to capitalise on the uncrowded waves of Bali off-season.

Serangan plays home to two A-frame setups which can both fire given optimum swell direction but it’s rarely flat given the fact that the breaks are so exposed to the open ocean. The rights tend to be more consistent, not heavy barrel machines but fat walls to practice big carving manoeuvres on given the right tide conditions whilst the lefts come into their own when the swell hits from a more easterly direction.

It’s another prime destination for intermediate surfers but when it gets big it starts getting heavy with the two rip channels pulling you across neighbouring peaks and sometimes resulting in the careless surfer getting a good thrashing onto the lurking reef below.

Getting there is the easiest part, getting a wave to yourself is another matter entirely. Serangan seems to have become the off season favourite haunt of the marauding Japanese visitors and it’s not uncommon to see four foot days with as many as one-hundred plus heads bobbing around on the shoulders.

Catch it when it’s over six foot and the barrels start to go down and the crowds thin out considerably once a couple of clean-up sets roll through scattering spooked Japanese and under-gunned tourists into the lagoon in front of the warungs.

A couple of February sessions out here is enough if you’re anything like me and hate the prospect of fighting for your waves with the rest of the Bali surfing population you’ll soon be back on your bike and searching out quieter wave spots.

As I finish this month’s report the winds have done another about turn and are producing off shores around the Tuban reefs giving the dormant Kuta Reef and the Airport Left breaks an early reprieve from their wet season slumber.

So it’s back down to Canggu for the dusk sessions and maybe even a few trips to Ulu’s for some Racetrack action if the wind keeps playing along.

The best bit is, we’re getting the best of the island’s lefts pretty much all to ourselves this February and long may they last, enjoy the waves folks, before the masses descend…

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