RETROSPECTIVE 2008 - the year of change!!

And the worst surfing season of the last decades in Indonesia comes to an end...definitely the worst since I moved to Bali on 1995.

The year of 2008 can be considered the “year of change” as it was marked by many new things.

Surfing wise it was without a doubt the worst season in record n the last decades because of the swells inconsistency, side shore and really strong winds, heavy rains on the wrong time of the year right on the middle of July, August and September and a crowd so intense that on September when usually the island is more relaxed it was like we were in the middle of July...to have an idea Padang-padang didn’t break a single time in the whole season with 10 feet solid which used to happen at least once a month on the high season (for some days in each swell) and the Outside Corner barely got to 10 feet one single time in mid June...

The rest of the season was summarized to a few medium swells and plenty of small days until the end of the year. All of this made this the worst season in record probably in history.

Nearly every Indonesia veteran was bummed...Always when i bumped into my friends Marthy Hoffman, Alex Cohen, Cacho, Tim Watts, etc...the depression caused by a season with shortage of sizeable and quality waves was visible...talking to vets of other spots and islands such as my friends Paul (Mr. Desert), Chongee and Tim I heard that on other spots around Indonesia the situation was even worse and the perfect days were really rare as at Bali we always have other choices while waves like Deserts need a group of conditions to break on its perfection. Only at spots like G-Land and Mentawais is guarantee to always have a wave besides Bali...At least on Bali alternative spots that only break on the rain season such as Keramas were showing good conditions many times because of the climate changes...this year it was really obvious the changes that the global warming is causing on the winds, temperatures, rains, seasons, etc...

Now if someone that has not so much experience in Indonesia listen to this story will think that the vets are being a little too demanding...like for example when it happened at Uluwatu many times when i was checking the conditions with my friend Alex Cohen, another Indonesia veteran, and while we were talking bad about the mediocre conditions at the Racetracks we had to listen from another Brazilian at the same warung that the waves were going off and that it was the best Racetracks he had surfed in his life...and he wanted to argue with us about it...in Bali you really listen everything you can imagine...It’s like I always say, ignorance is a blessing and this rule applies to many other situations in Bali, to a good perceiver half word is enough...

I was particularly a bit out of combat this year and did not travel much because during the two months of wave hunting’s high season I was with my girlfriend and her family and i ended up taking care of them and did not travel searching for waves to other islands like I used to in other years...like I said before, a year of changes...Only on the beginning of the season I traveled with my friend Rosaldo Cavalcanti when we went to G-Land and then to the Mentawais and surfed perfect Macaronis basically alone for a week and that ended up being the trips that saved my season and where we made a lot of articles for the site Rico Surf.

We also had some new families appearing on the neighborhood...Some friends had the happiness of bringing new blood to Uluwatu...my friends, the Hawaiian David Cantrell and the Australian Critta were often spotted with their babies and their wives living a family life on Bali on this season of 2008.

Other facts that marked the changes on the island were the amount of new high buildings on Bali where before used to be only houses...On the Seminyak and Kuta areas there are a lot of new buildings getting build and soon we should have apartments for sale and for rent...The island is getting urbanize on a frightening rithym and its scary to think what could happen in a few years; the traffic, the pollution, etc...

From the middle to the end of the season it was also common to see a big boat that was always cruising from Kuta to Nusa Dua around 10 times a day to take sand from Nusa Dua to Kuta for a landfill that is getting done at Kuta; At each time the big boat cruised by Uluwatu the waves would get bumpy and with chops on it and it would take 10 to 15 minutes to get back to normal...

We also had a boat that went on fire and ended up at the reef at Padang-padang and what happened after was simply shameful...no authority did anything about it and “urban pirates” showed up, burned the boat made of fiberglass, robbed the pipes and whatever else of some value they could take in the trucks parked on the cliff and left the carcass of the boat to deteriorate on the edge of the cliff almost in front of the wave besides the trash left behind from their camping around the cliff...simply an ecological disaster.

This year we had a WCT event on Bali sponsored by Rip Curl on the same Padang-padang weeks before this incident leaving a question in the air...couldn’t this mega company that made millions in promotion with this event give back a little financial support to help solving this problem on the beach that gave so much profit to the company?

The positive side of all that was that it got proved to the world that the island has got waves, infrastructure and safety conditions enough to hold an event of such proportions.

This season I had the pleasure of meeting many friends again such as my friends from the WCT Pedra, Neco, Jihad...the heavy free surfers like James Santos, Stefano Dornelles and Vini and my long time friends, the Indonesia veterans like Fred D’Orey, Alex Cohen, Peter McCabe and my good friend the Hawaiian Rainos Hayes that brought me an 8’2 Arakawa gun from Hawaii custom made by my friend Eric Arakawa that simply exceeded expectations on the few times i had the chance to have a test drive.

And that was it, the season 2008, the year of the rat according to the chinese horoscope, come to an end; There was a lot fewer waves then in other years, the climate changes of a global warming were obvious, the urban growt of the island is scary, the life in Bali specially to those that run businesses or work on the island is everyday harder due to the competition but besides all that Bali is Bali and Indonesia is Indonesia and as bad as a season could be, there was almost always waves and even without many big swells we had countless days of small and medium perfect days at Uluwatu and on other islands.

It’s hard to imagine another place where a surfer wish to be between the months of May untill October...for sure in 2009 the barrels will break again and i will be there to register everything for the crew that follow on the site and organize the trips for the clients and friends of the BALI SURF CONNECTION.

May 2009 be a better year to all of us!!

I leave here registered my special thanks to all the clients, friends and people who crossed my way this year and added something positive.

On 2009, Bali the island of the gods and tall he rest of Indonesia will go off again; and you, have you decide where you want to be??

OM SANTI SANTI OM

ALOHA!!!