GRAJAGAN "GHAB" - Surf in the jungle A powerful week, absurd consistency.

And again we had another Bali Surf Connection Expedition, this time to G-Land or "Ghab" as the crew been calling lately comparing to "rehab" as it has been the salvation of many from the trap of Kuta nights...

I was contacted by my long time friend Amaury Abondanza that was staying with a group of friends at the guest houses at Padangin and Aiogona at padang and wanted to go to G-Land and asked me to make their reservation and close the deal helping another surfer to survive on the island and the Bali Surf Connection to continue on the field helping pilgrim surfers on search of their dreams...It's thanks to people like that that the Bali Surf Connection keep going!!

That's how we got the trip organized to the jungle of Plengkung with departure scheduled for the 28/8...The trip was pure relaxation and fun and there were good friends from long time and new ones that we met during this magical week that G-Land provided for us.amongst the members of the Bali Surf Connection expedition to G-Land that went on the 28th or a few days earlier, there were: Rômulo Ribeiro and Jahia Bettero, Carlos Fabri and Gustavo Monteiro, the black belt Jiu-jitsu master João Fábio Cabral, Amaury Abondanza and Gabriele Borges, Mauro Bianco and Marina Toledo, Marcelo Tavares and Mariana Morelli, Juliana Campanella and Gad Pastor, besides the spanish doctor Lagi and his greek frind Nipple.

At G-Land we found many Brazilians and a heavy crowd in the water...with the swell forecast showing a new swell of strong intensity that would arrive together with the full moon, that means excellent tides for "Speedies" to break, all the camps were fully booked on all the packages.

What was seen on the following days was the most consistent week of "Graja" lately with 8 days of good swell never under the 5 solid feet range that was actually breaking with 6 feet solid on a couple of days and on the biggest days it had 8 feet with some bigger bombs at "Speedies"...and the crew did good...the most perfect wave surfed according to Jungle Camp surf guide the Kiwi Myles that was on the jungle already for a month was the wave of the Brazilian Mauro Bianco that was blessed with a beautiful left of 6 feet solid that reminded of Teahupoo where he took off on his back hand late and pulled inn going for an eternity inside the turquoise room before getting smashed on the exit almost on the channel at the end of "Speedies" and beginning of "Chickens"...all registered by professional photographer and G-Land resident John "Jep" Hepler always ready on his boat at the channel with his cannon pointed at "Speedies". Its's good to remember and make it clear that John has got a contract of exclusivity with Bobby's and Jungle Camp that makes him the only authorized photographer to take photos commercially at G-Land. He lives at Bobby's Surf Camp and has been shooting at G-Land for the past 3 years; If you have been to G-Land and couldn't buy your pictures at the time, soon John is about to put together a website where people will be able to find the pictures of past trips and purchase it online, all you have to do is get the date and the picture's number and get in touch with John. If you have the photo's date and number John can send it to you, to contact him write to johnhepler@yahoo.com but he makes clear that it is no help to tell him date and color of surfboard, rashguard, etc. Without the photo number can not do nothing!!

On the days that went by the routine was wake up early, have breakfast, wait for the offshore winds that usually came at the same time as the high tides and go straight to "Speedies" searching for hollow and crowded barrels or to Money Trees after longer and not so hollow or so crowded waves but also with excellent tubes to then go have a lunch, surf again or relax at the camp and at night go see the day's pics at John's office at Bobby's Camp...Many good waves were surfed at the boys did pretty good, my friend and roomate Guilherme, aka "the Priest", got a lot of extra kilometres at the pits of G-Land; Amaury, Mauro, Gad and Marcelo went for it and did good...the brazilian girls dominated 20-20's and Tiger tracks and got super stoked filling the camp with a colourfull happiness but the real stand outs were again the Australian surfguides of Jungle Camp, David Scard and Matt Dible besides Aussie Cris that surfed on the bigger days like they were surfing on a 3 feet day totally confortable always pushing the limits, taking off real late and pulling in some square caverns serving as a source of inspiration to the other surfers.

We had an accident when a young aussie took off late on a smaller wave and did not make it going straight to the reef showing that even on a full high tide Speedies will not make it easy, if you are on the wrong spot at the wrong time, you are history!!

It was only 3 stiches on the head and nothing else but a wake up call, but
the lesson stays, don't ever underestimate "Speedies"!! Another relevant factor was the extremely cold water that washed the coast at Plengkung's jungle during all the swell week only getting better on the next week when the swell dropped off.

And that's how the most consistent week of G-Land this year had come to an end.

We leave here registered the congratulations from all the people that were part of this Bali Surf Connection expedition to the management and employees of Jungle Surf Camp for the real high standard services and food offered this week with a real good variety and quantity and also for the new bungalows and renovations made in the camp.

At the Jungle Camp nowadays you will find: Fast internet connection, Shiatsu Masseurs, 2 Yoga classes daily to all levels (specially for beginners), Safe deposit box for use by the guests, Speed Boat for guests, Snorkeling and Spear fishing equipment for rent, Rooms and Bungalows with locking doors by key on all package types..

Meals: Breakfast buffet style (all you can eat) with eggs, fruit salad, porridge, pancakes, coffe or hot chocolate, etc.lunch and dinner served on a personal plate always with one kind of meat and big variety of veggies (all packages have the same meal)

The Bali Surf Connection thanks to all that help in any way to make it possible to continue receiving people in Indonesia and organizing all the packages of their surftrips and anything else they might need.

Aloha

Rodrigo "Digone" Mascarenhas