Indonesia is every surfers dream. With waves like Uluwatu, Padang Padang, Desert Point, Scar Reef, G-Land, I spent my teen years fantasizing about pulling into big forehand barrels and slicing my rails into the clean faces. In the mid 90’s I would watch the G-Land WCT Pro videos and freak out on how good the place was! Finally in 2003 I saved up the money and made my first ever trip to Bali & G-Land, and every year since progressively spent more and more time in Indo.
Last year, 2008, I booked a 4 and a half month trip, my longest yet, and after 6 weeks of hanging at Padang Padang getting countless pipes, I chanced upon scoring a job at G-Land Bobby’s Surf Camp (the best surf camp in G-Land)! Suddenly I was the surf guide at my favorite wave in the world.
This year I have just wrapped up a 6 month trip where I based myself in the magical world of G-Land for most of that time. Over the next month I am going to provide a series of photos and stories about my 2009 G-Land season. These chronicles now are early season, mostly in May, which had some real nice waves.
Arriving in G-Land on May 1st, the April crew informed me the waves hadn’t been all that consistent, plenty of offshores, but not the size. That all changed in May, in my first week there were 2 great clean 5-6ft Money Trees as well as super fun in between days. The water was about 28 degrees, almost too hot to even wear a wetsuit vest. The next couple of weeks there were plenty of good swells, and a good crew.
During mid-May we had a big crew of Aussie firefighters having a conference in Bobby’s camp, and then a bunch of lifeguards. It was good vibes in the water with mostly Aussies (and myself the Kiwi), sharing some sick warm water barrels.
May 25th the legendary Speedies really lit up. Super clean, 6-8ft sets on Launching Pads coming into doubling up 4-6ft Speedies, crew were getting pitted off their heads. Tide was super high for a few hours, water still beautiful, and it was certainly the climax to May! Check out the photos, they’re mostly of me surfing Speedies on May 25th, but also a few smaller fun Money Trees days. Clean, warm, early season.
- Jarred Hancox
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