GRAJAGAN 2006 , almost jackpot

  After the trip on the Mentawais we arrived at Bali where me and Batatinha would stay for a very short time before taking off to G-Land. arriving on the island on the next few days was our friend from Brasil Mari with a girlfriend, another Mari, that were coming directly from Australia. After sending someone to pick them up on the airport and a few days on the island we were all leaving to the famous Grajagan.

  The swell size and direction, the tides and moon phase were perfect to get G-Land pumping, the SPEED BOWL was our hope.

  Unfortunately the same rare cross shore wind that has been punishing all of Indonesia from Sumbawa to the Mentawais didn't back off on the bigger days of the swell and what we saw was a very cold water, heavy fog till mid day and strong side shore winds during the peak days of the swell. when the swell started to drop the conditions got a lot better but that perfect Speedies so expected was delayed for some next trip. Even Speedies was breaking but with sectioned waves and without that perfection common on the good days. When the water got warmer during the swell drop there was a day full of jellyfish when many surfers came in covered with strong burns. 

  Another bad thing we all noticed was the fact that there were some illegal fishing done with explosives not far away.many fishes could be seen dead on the shore and swimming on the surface almost dead around us on
the line up.

  During all this the fun in the camp never stopped; A top crew from many nationalities made sure the vibe was always positive.amongst others were the famous Brazilian big João Maurício Jabour and Silvio Mancusi; The always happy Indonesian veteran Ziza, Fábio "Feijão", Mobral, Micaela, Davi and Letícia, Batatinha, Pig, the Maris, the Americans residents at Baja Ed and his son, Bobby's Camp resident professional photographer John Hepler, the young Grajagan veteran Dave and his father, Michael from San Diego, the always present Tim, the American Lance, his girlfriend and friends that live at Nicarágua, the Peruvian Álvaro Malpartida with his girlfriend and friends besides the always positive Puma, manager of Bobby's Surf Camp, all the staff and many others that enjoyed this week in the jungle waiting for the offshore wind that  never showed up when the swell had some size.

  We had 2 b'days and traditionally the party was good and funny what made me remember with some nostalgia the previous years when I always spent my b'days at Graja.

  In the water the show was lead by Álvaro Malpartida, the Brazilian bigriders João and Sílvio besides the spot regulars, the Americans Dave, Tim and Michael and the young Brazilian Gustavo Deutrisch. At one of the big days the Peruvian Álvaro ended up hitting the reef and dislocated his shoulder but his luck was that he had his beautiful Brazilian girlfriend to nurse him.

  At a special night our good friend Ziza organized a pool tournament between all the Bobby's staff and everyone helped with some cash to be given for the winners; The first and second place ended up taking a good prize back home, almost the amount of one month salary. The adrenalin was all over the place in the games room amongst the competitors while Ziza was announcing the winners an the following games.the vibe was all around super cool!!!

  On the following days the winds got good but the swell had dropped a lot, even then there were still some small barrels to keep going.

  A very special thing was when the camp's owner mr.Bobby Radiasa
organized a ceremony on the beach that had Hindu and Muslims priests praying together showing to everybody how easy it is to have harmony amongst people of different religious beliefs. Absolutely PERFECT!!! CONGRATULATIONS to pak Bobby for his attitude helping to keep the harmony amongst the people and sending this great message.

  I leave here my regards to everyone that were at G-Land on this week, and my special Thanks to Pak Bobby, Puma and the camp staff.

  Hope in 2007 we have a better luck.....

  After this week I went back to Bali to start getting things organized to go back to Brasil. Little I knew that in a few days I would be back on the road, this time on the way to Desert Point.

Rodrigo "Digone"