BLESSED SEPTEMBER September sessions - Consistency with a capital "C"...

If it was too good to be true the consistency we were witnessing with the swell that lasted almost 10 days at G-Land when Speedies was on almost every day, what was good just got better...

On the beginning of the month we were on the last days of a dropping swell what didn't stop all the spots of the Balinese Bukit specially Uluwatu from breaking perfect for 5 days on the 5 to 6 feet range providing waves of excellent formation on the ideal time of each tide on almost every section of the reef...soon after we had a really small day and again a pulse of 6 feet that lasted for 2 days when the Outside Corner woke up again...a few more days on the 4 to 5 feet range and there it was...becoming each day more real what nobody could believe.

A swell on the 8 to 12 solid feet range for the next few days that should hang around for 5 to 6 days and it was visible on all the swell forecast sites since some days before.it was too good to be true.all the surfers on the island monitored this swell for several days until they were sure that their eyes weren't lying.the swell didn't back off and now it was only a matter of hours before Indonesia's coast got this gift delivered, a swell that was big, consistent, lasting and clean like we hadn't seen in a long time.

On the 17/9 the Outside Corner of Uluwatu had already sets of solid 6 feet with some bigger ones and the Bommie was delivering heavy sets from time to time...the condition would change a bit during the day going from oil glass with no wind or with a light breeze offshore to the lightly bumpy with that south side shore and even some onshore punches sometimes...better for those with more patience that stayed all day on the spot with no hurries waiting for the right time of each day.

On the majority of times the ocean showed an excellent condition soon after the sunrise until 9 am and just before sunset...however there was always good waves all day long and practically all the surfers on the island got stoked.

While at Uluwatu we had 5 days of serious Outside Corner, Outside Peak and Bommie that broke with 10 to 12 feet solid, clean and hollow on the bigger days, at the same time at Padang-padang the pipe's show didn't stop for those who didn't search for size but for mileage in the pits...

As always a lot of professional surfers came just for the swell like Brad Gerlach, Cristian Fletcher, Makua Rothman and many others that had the luck to bet their coins on this swell...from what I heard G-Land was really good before the swell reached it's peak when it was over and washed and the same thing happened to Desert Point...according to a secure source Scar Reef was really big and perfect and probably it's neighbor Super Sucks also...but the real star of this blessed swell was Uluwatu...during the 5 days of swell Ulu's broke with power, size, heaviness and perfection that no one could complain about it!! And the best part, always with very few people!!

We had a bit of everything.a rescue by a dingy that came from Padang for those that wore the set of the day on the head loosing their boards and could not swim back to the cave and a team of clowns trying to tow in at the Bommie on a morning that the waves wouldn't break bigger than 6 feet leaving a lot of questions on the air.could it be that the locals now accepted tow in surfing at the previously forbidden Uluwatu and by the logic isn't tow in supposed to be used as an alternative only for the days when it's too big to paddle???

I could spend a whole page describing the amount of heavy weight sets that I saw breaking with 12 feet plus opening perfect barrels with absurd sprays at the Bommie and Outside Peak without a living soul nearby or the insane wave rides I've seen at the Outside Corner by those that ventured out but the photos give a better dimension of what really happened.

Amongst those who went for it and got stoked at the Uluwatu bombs were: Brazilians Bruno from Maceió and Amauri Abondanza, Aussie Brian, Kiwi Connor, Brian and his friends from Kauai, the always present American big Jim and a few other that I can't remember now but as always we had the "usual suspects" commanding the show... Made Lana, Cacho, Ketut Pitur, Jake, and the newest Outside Corner ripper Michael "Soul man" that with his 5'9 fish twin fin gave a show again...Like always the home boys did great. Cacho took of on some bombs on the limit with his new Hawaiian 8'3 gun and did pretty good almost exiting a long and heavy barrel, Jake also went for it and did some hard turns, Made Lana as always showed a line of backside surfing of a vertical attack as if he was surfing on an average 6 feet day, Ketut Pitur dropped many of the bigger sets on the limit proving that he is back with extra class, radicalism, and knowledge of the spot.welcome back to the arena legend!!

But the real stand out was Michael "Soul man" surfing with his 5'9 fish twin fin dropping on the limit behind the peak on 10 feet solid waves and puling into barrels real heavy very calm like he's been doing everywhere he surfs when the swell gets bigger than 8 feet.simply inspirational!!

At Padang Hawaiians Mikala Jones, David Cantrell and Makua Rothman left their mark in the turquoise pits, locals such as Betet also made their appearance and dedicated surfers like Brazilian João Fábio Cabral got to surf with very few guys in the water getting an absurd amount of waves per session like it was done in the past before there was internet and paved roads...you just have to be on it.

And again the swell started to drop off.today we have sets of "only" 4 to 5 feet solid at Uluwatu and the forecast show us a swell that should go down slowly and gradually on the next few days...the "Blessed September" is coming to an end, the most consistent month of recent times on Bali and Indonesia; But believe it or not, we still have another swell of strong intensity showing up again on the forecast websites for Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th.

Life is good...on Bali on September even better!!

GO BIG!!
Rodrigo "Digone"