stepping back a few years/continents

Finally a writer gets it right:

"I highly recommend extended contemplation of the Mediterranean to provide enlightenment, especially when meditating on future criminal activity"
A Monk Swimming


The Amalfi Coast, Italy from when I studied in Greece in 2005

I had the best session of my trip last night. The waves didn't look that great from the beach, but on a whim I paddled out and in a relatively short session got three big set waves, two great rights and one reeling left that I dropped in deep enough to spend most of the wave just outside the barrel and pulled out of by gleefully flying high above the lip sans surfboard. Needless to say, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the night, and one of the girls who works at my hotel told me that I hadn't really stopped smiling since I arrived a week ago, which seems to be an inevitable product of spending any time in Bali. I've been feeling stronger and healthier than at any other point on my trip, and the great surf and strong Bali coffee, which bridges the gap between Turkish coffee and French Press, combine to create overwhelmingly high levels of energy and general euphoria. The vitamin D doesn't hurt, either. Other than surfing, I've been spending most of my time reading and zooming around on my Honda. I've been averaging a book every day and a half or so, and I'm quite sold on the fact that motorbikes are the best form of transport in the world, albeit the most dangerous as well.

A few nights ago I was sitting on my surfboard way offshore and watching waves come in, and though I knew it on some levels, I suddenly realized that I had been dreaming about coming to Bali (I didn't even know where it was, I thought it was close to Madagascar for some reason) to surf all of these famous waves since early in high school, and that I was here actually doing it, and that recognition was surreal. So many dreams are abstract, but sitting out in the lineup and looking down at Uluwatu and Padang-Padang, two surf breaks that regularly grace the pages of every surf magazine on earth, was completely tangible and the fact that I was sitting there in the middle of it all and that this had been my dream for so long just startled me and was a great feeling.


sunset session at Dreamland last night... when a set comes in at this time of day, the lip of the wave is clear and because of the lighting the surfers are sillhouetted as they ride the waves, while the waves are a beautiful orange-green color