Surfsyster

Tired of surf and sunset pics yet?!

So the days in Bali are passing by one after another. We had a big swell arriving the other day which had me sitting on the beach and watching the better and bolder surfers get their fair share of nice, and sometimes barreling waves. Yesterday and today the swell has been more of my kind, 3-5 ft according to the surf forecast and although it’s insanely crowded and hard to get a wave without being dropped in on I’ve gotten some nice rides. I’m trying to work on surfing backhand (going left on the wave) but it’s quite hard and I don’t seem to get my knees where I want them but practice makes perfect as they say. Unfortunately the wind has been pretty strong in the afternoons which makes the waves really choppy, almost felt like surfing in Sweden! Except from the fact that I could wear my bikini and not a 6/5/4 wetsuit with hood, boots and gloves…

Kind of missed the top on that turn! :D © surfsyster.se

Kind of missed the top on that turn!
© surfsyster.se

Bali sunsets, can’t get enough of them!
© surfsyster.se

Birthday in Seminyak and a trip to Tanah lot 2

A couple of days ago Linda turned yet another year older and wiser, and I decided to spoil her for one full day! We started of with a 90 minute, very well needed, massage at Spring Spa (found this place thanks to Sunshinestories blogpost about Seminyak). We did some shopping and had a really tasty lunch and ice-cream. In the evening we had dinner with some friends, then moved on to the sunday party at Deus and the evening ended with a party at Echo beach in the moonlight. A busy but fun and memorable day!

Today we took a taxi to the famous temple of Tanah lot. We had been warned that it’s quite a tourist trap but decided to go there anyways. The temple and surrounding is really beautiful and well worth a visit, as long as you don’t expect to be the only ones there. There was shops everywhere and people elbowing each other to get some photos of the temple. After a long and sweaty day we spent the evening watching the sunset at the beach in Berawa and I got to surf for an hour, did only get one wave though since it was really crowded and I had a hard time reading the waves.

Linda at Spring spa
© surfsyster.se

Admiring the beautiful stores in Seminyak
© surfsyster.se

Ceviche-lunch at Seas Circus
© surfsyster.se

Perfect latte
© surfsyster.se

Linda is enjoying her birthday ice-cream!
© surfsyster.se

Tanah lot
© surfsyster.se

A school class from Java that wanted to take a pic with Linda. © surfsyster.se

A school class from Java wanted to take a pic with Linda.
© surfsyster.se

And two of the girls happened to look epic in our Up&Down glasses! © surfsyster.se
© surfsyster.se

Enjoying the view
© surfsyster.se

Hello weather gods, do you have a minute?!

It’s raining in Bali, a lot! It’s also raining in our bathroom, (which by the way has the size of a small apartment) and I still don’t seem to have any luck with the waves. Yesterday was really small, the tide was too high in the morning, then the wind messed up the waves but at last I got one hour in the water just before sunset. I was hoping for some bigger waves today but as I mentioned it’s been raining all day long and it’s not really recommended to surf after a heavy rainfall. Heaps of garbage and trash is getting washed into the ocean and the water gets very nasty. Don’t feel like getting sick the last couple of days…

Yesterday I felt like a true hacker! First the wifi on my mobile phone refused to co-operate, I tried everything; cursing, begging, restarting it, trowing it on the bed, you name it, but nothing worked! Ultimately I had to reset the entire phone, send all my pics and contacts via bluetooth to my computer and move apps back and forth, puh! After that the memory-card in my digital camera went nuts and erased all the pictures we had been taking during the day. Believe me when I say that I was pretty close to a mental breakdown by then. Some google’ing later, installed a sketchy program and managed to recreate all the photos, and a million old ones as well… Happy (and tired) surfsyster!

Apart from all the weather and technical issues we’ve moved from Puri Rama Homestay since they were fully booked but we found a really nice little place just across the street, don’t want to get too wild and crazy on the holiday do we?! The place is called Arik Homestay (homestayarik@gmail.com for reservations) and so far we can really recommend it! The rooms are nice and clean, there’s a small outdoor kitchen, it’s really cheap (200,000 IDR/room/night) and super friendly staff.

Here are some of the photos I managed to rescue from the horrible memory-card-incident;

You can’t really see HOW much it rains in this pic but it rains a lot!
© surfsyster.se

Need to work on some better moves to end the waves…
© surfsyster.se

Bali beach days…

One week of our three weeks here in Bali has already passed. We’re still staying in Berawa where we spend our days relaxing on the beach, doing yoga, eating cheap and tasty food at the local restaurants and cafés, Linda is working on her tan while I’m starring at the ocean daydreaming about perfect waves to surf. The last couple of days has been flat here but a new swell is suppose to arrive soon. A couple of days ago we went to a nearby surf spot called Batu Bolong where I rented a longboard and got to surf some small but fun waves. It was pretty crowded and I’m still trying to get used to surf a much longer surfboard than what I’m used to, but I really had a fun time experimenting with a beautiful turquoise 8’2 longboard.

Yesterday we went to an art exhibition called “Psychedelic moments of the Seven Seas” in Seminyak, check out some of the cool pictures here, had a couple of beers and met some nice people.

The street where we live atm © surfsyster.se

Linda showers of some sand from the beach
© surfsyster.se

Obviously paddeling like an airplane…
© surfsyster.se

Trying out my new Seakiss bikini, had to rent a matching surfboard! ;) © surfsyster.se

Having a hard time getting to that nose… © surfsyster.se

The rain is pouring down in Berawa… 2

And I just made myself a cup of coffee in our outdoor kitchen (with a pool-view), gotta love this place! We, me and my dear friend Linda that is, landed here in Bali five days ago and have spent the first few days in Kuta doing some bikini and flipflop shopping, had some massages and got horrified by how fast this small city is turning into a real tourist trap. The small restaurants and hotels are one by one getting replaced by big and fancy luxury hotels and exclusive stores. Yesterday we packed our bags and headed over to Berawa, 30 minutes north west from Kuta where we checked in at Puri Rama Homestay where we plan to spend a week or so. This place is really quiet, our room is nice and clean, the beach is 5-10 minutes away by foot and we can actually hear the birds singing and smell the flowers! Quite the opposit from the hustle and bustle of Kuta…

And what about the surf? The waves in Kuta were small and weak, nice for warming up but I didn’t get that many memorable waves. Here in Berawa the waves have been the opposite, at least by the look of them from my beach towel. To be honest there hasn’t been much surfing going on for yours truly, just very many bad excuses for not getting in the water and duckdive my way out to the terrifying waves. But tomorrow the waves are supposed to get smaller and I’ve promised my surfboard that I’m going to take it for a swim… We’ll see how that goes!

Linda is waiting for some noodles! © surfsyster.se

Surfsyster in Surfsession mag!

Really stoked to be featured in the latest issue of the french magazine surfsessionmag! Go ahead and buy it, and see if you can find some of the minor factual errors…but what the heck! ;D And for those of you that doesn’t read french -google translate might come in handy!

Photo credit: Surfsessionmag

stop-breath-relax! 1

It sounds so easy, “be present in the moment”. But how do you actually do that!? I envy people that are able to just sit down, with their own thoughts and enjoy the stillness, doing nothing. I’ve always been a restless soul and I enjoy action and when things are happening around me, loved working as a waitress in a full restaurant for example (my close friends probably laugh while reading this since I’m also the most tired person in northern Europe, 3 hour power naps is kind of my thing). I get kicks from challenging myself and I want to be the best that I can be in the things I really enjoy doing, like surfing and yoga. Add some competitive spirit and you have a perfect recipe for a stressed out body and a mind filled with shattered confidence…

Today I really had to challenge myself in this new, and for me unfamiliar way. I was forced to be still and quiet while my body just wanted to “get high”. To ride one really nice wave. To practice more on that backhand top turn that I’m struggeling with. But there was only tiny tiny waves and I had to choose from either go back home, already dressed in my wetsuit or surrender and try to appreciate the beauty of the sunny and clear afternoon. I would love to say that I really enjoyed it but that would have been a big fat lie. I was focusing on my breath, smelling the ocean and for a couple of minutes I actually think I did it! I was present in the moment. Didn’t plan for tomorrow, wasn’t thinking about the coming trip to Bali, wasn’t disappointed about the non existing surf. It sucked, but I tried.

Surfsyster

- surfing in Sweden

- surfing in Sweden

- surfing in Sweden

Tired of surf and sunset pics yet?!

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Birthday in Seminyak and a trip to Tanah lot 2

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Hello weather gods, do you have a minute?!

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Bali beach days…

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The rain is pouring down in Berawa… 2

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Surfsyster in Surfsession mag!

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stop-breath-relax! 1

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