Back in the water

I spent most of this week keeping one eye on the surf report and the other on Craigslist. Even though Craigslist did provide a few decent job leads, it was the surf that put me back in a good mood. I'm also trying not to spend as much time on the Drudge Report & CNN which helps. It seems no news is good news these days.


Played around at the Cove yesterday with Trav, Clem, Tipp, and ran into Glen there too. Waves were nothing special, just small, clean, fast, and breaking on the sand. Jetty looked good, but to large and mushy for the boards we had. Actually the peak looked kinda fun, we just didn't feel like sharing with the 12 guys that were already on it.


Session was fun until I put my knee through the bottom of my board. At first I thought it was from Trav when he dropped in on me and bailed. I felt something hit me then, but the hole looks more like blunt object instead of a rail. I do remember going down on my knee, but couldn't imagine it doing that much damage and not leaving a bump. Oh well, I'm going to try and repair it today. My quad needs some serious work too from when I kicked the fin box through the board at the Dump.

Jackie leaves tomorrow for Hong Kong.

Back home but not quite here

I've been home for a week and I still have the post vacation blues. Of course I'm stoked to be back for a few obvious reasons, but I can't seem to shake the feeling that I pissed away my time in Bali. I could have surfed more, taken more pictures, traveled further...too many things I missed out on, but at the time I thought I was moving fast enough. Now that I'm home, and looking for a job, I feel like every day here has been a waste of time. I know my way around, I drive on the right side of the road, food tastes the same, my wounds are healing, all the faces are familiar. I'm too comfortable. I think I need to surf some cold water to toughen me up.

Poor Ki had an amazing vacation and has to face reality again.

Most of the Bali Pics are up HERE

Halloween in Bali

Feeling back to normal and surfed the main reef yesterday for a few hours. Received a cut worthy of stitches, and urchin spins in my foot. Butterfly bandage and some crazy Asian antiseptic worked just as well. A new guest at the house, who just happens to be a ER doctor back in Seattle, said it looks ok and I shouldn't have any issues going back in the water this afternoon. The spines aren't deep and will work themselves out.

Went out for Halloween last night. It's a pretty big deal here too. We started off a small club Eric's friend owns. It's the only bar in Bali the does punk and hardcore shows I guess. The guy who owns it, Jarinks ('Drinks'), is obsessed with Social D. The topic of bands came up and I asked him if he knew of Himsa. Turns out he's a big fan and has all their music, but missed them when they were on their last Asia tour. When I told him I knew some of the guys in the band he wanted to hear some crazy stories about hanging out with them. He read in trade mags that they party pretty hard. I think he was bummed when I told him D couldn't hold his liquor and I have to occasionally hold his hair back for him when he gets sick.

At about the 5th or 6th club, and 12th vokda and soda, I got separated from our crew. I had no clue where I was and had a taxi take me back to downtown Kuta so I could find my scooter. I started to make my way back and ran into a few Aussie guys we were hanging out with earlier. They had no idea how to get back to Canggu, but told me a story of how they got in a taxi and when they found out it was a rouge taxi they had to jump out while it was still moving. When one was making his escape some chick on a scooter plowed right into the door. They ran the other way and never looked back.

I made it back to Canggu around 4am and only took one wrong turn. I still haven't heard from Eric.

There's a traffic cop on the corner taking bribes from tourists driving with international license so I'm going to have find another way home if I want to surf before sundown. I've been lucky so far and have avoided being stopped, but I was in the car when Britt was driving and had to cough up 100,000 rp. ($10.00 US). She's had been stopped a bunch of times so she was negotiating the bribe before the cop had a chance to harass her. Wish me luck.