Surfing in South Bali

Padang Padang Beach, Indonesia
8.8111°S, 115.1038°E   

Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport doesn’t look like your average airport. After going through customs and exiting baggage claim, we looked up at the airport’s architecture and knew we were in a special and unique place.

We were met outside the international terminal by a driver from Rapture Surfcamp. Sarah and I both love to surf and since we are still beginners we decided that our trip to Bali would be a great opportunity to step up our surfing game. Sarah reviewed dozens of Bali surf camps online before we booked a full week at Rapture.

As we left the airport heading south towards the Bukit Peninsula, where Rapture is located, we were amazed at the craziness of the roads. There are scooters and motorcycles everywhere in Bali, outnumbering cars on the road by probably thirty to one. These motorbikes were heading in every direction, whizzing by within inches of cars, pedestrians, chickens, lots of dogs and the occasional cow.

We both stared out our respective windows for most of the 30-minute ride to Rapture, occasionally looking at each other to silently ask “How the f*** are people not crashing into each other?”

Summer Camp for Adults

We arrived at Rapture and were checked in by Johan, a Swede working in Bali since late last year. He introduced us to the other camp staff and some of the campers hanging out at the pool. We were really happy with our choice of Rapture and were excited to make it our home for the next week. Our room was cozy, clean and (maybe more importantly) air-conditioned.

There were about a dozen people staying at the camp and over the week we met folks from Australia, Mexico, France, Texas, Ireland, Tahiti, New York, Switzerland, England, and quite a few Germans. As you might expect from a surf camp in Bali, the atmosphere was very relaxed and everyone we met was laid back as well.

Surf. Eat. Repeat.

Included with our room were breakfast, dinner and daily guided surf tours. The surf expeditions typically started at 6:00 a.m., sometimes a bit later depending on the conditions. We would wake up around 5:30 a.m., pick out our boards from the locker, and then jump in one of the camp’s two vans. The vans were driven by our guides who always made sure to stop for takeaway coffees at the convenience store down the street.

After the coffee stops our guides would drive us to one of a few surf spots to check out the conditions. If the waves looked good we’d park, unload our boards, load up on sunscreen and head for the water.

We would surf for about two hours, head back to camp for breakfast and then back out for another two hour session. Most of the time our surf guides would be blaring music in the van and singing the entire time. In addition to being awesome surfers, our guides made every trip really fun and seemed to genuinely love surfing and teaching people to surf. Our guides were all locals and from seeing them on their boards it was pretty clear they knew these beaches and surf breaks well (photo credit: PB Drone).

For the week Sarah and I were there, we surfed mostly at Padang Padang Beach. To get to the beach, we had to take our boards down steep stairs and through a little cave-like structure before arriving at the beach.

Our first trip to Padang Padang Beach was also the first time Sarah and I encountered one of the many long-tailed monkeys that live in Bali (more on our visit to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary to come!).

These little guys are everywhere around Padang Padang, and are known to be sticky-fingered kleptomaniacs. They will take anything left unattended. I made the mistake of turning my back on my sunscreen left in the parking lot and within seconds it was gone. Fortunately our fellow camper Ben saw the theft and was able to get him to drop the sunscreen before he headed up the closest tree. Evidently you can bargain with these monkeys by offering up fruit for your stolen goods (not joking). We had no fruit to offer so were glad there was no negotiation needed!

We also surfed a couple days at Balangan Beach, which had a bunch of cafes lining the beach. These cafes were great spots to grab lunch or a Bintang beer in between surf sessions.

Our friend and fellow surfcamper Mike made this awesome GoPro video that captures what a typical day at Rapture Surfcamp was like, including one of our days surfing off of Balangan Beach.

Uluwatu Temple

Bali is known for its beautiful temples, including a number that are located by the sea on the southwest coast of the island. One of these temples, Uluwatu, hosts daily dance performances (called “Kecak” dances) at sunset. We had heard that the Uluwatu Kecak performances are impressive and so a group from our camp took taxis one evening to the temple to see one of these productions.

Uluwatu Temple is located on a cliff more than 200 feet above the Indian Ocean, which made watching the theatrical performance even more dramatic.

The performance took place in a stone amphitheater overlooking the water. There were a few hundred tourists there to see the performance, and because we were in a temple both the men and women were asked to wear sarongs.

Sarah’s Birthday

Sarah’s birthday coincided with our last night at Rapture. Her best friend from home, Katelyn, decided last minute to buy a ticket and come visit Bali for a week and arrived the day before Sarah’s birthday. It was great being able to celebrate Sarah’s big day with a good friend from home!

The nice team at Rapture actually got Sarah a cake for her birthday but I forgot to tell them we were eating dinner out that night and we missed it! A very cool gesture on their part though…thanks Olivia, Pablo and Johan!

In addition to the surfing, one of the things we enjoyed the most about our first week in Bali was walking down to Bingin Beach to eat grilled fish on the beach.

There were a few spots on the beach where you’d walk up to a table full of Tupperware containers of fresh fish, tell the guy behind the table what piece of fish you want, and watch as they grill it up right in front of you. They would serve us the fish with salad and rice, as we got to enjoy amazing views.

Our week at Rapture ended with us exhausted from five days of surfing, but excited to get to our next stop on the Bali leg of our trip. We said goodbye to the Rapture crew, called our taxi and headed inland for the town of Ubud.

More pictures from our first week in Bali….