Time for a change in scenery.
After a month in Lombok, it was time to try different surf breaks.
West Sumbawa is less crowded due to the lack of beginner breaks and long travel times. This was a welcome break from the overcrowded-ness of Lombok’s Gerupuk bay.
It was a pretty sweet northwards sunrise scooter ride to the Pelabuhan Kayangan, then boarding a ferry to Poto Tano harbour, followed by a relaxed southwards drive down to the surf breaks on the west cost of Sumbawa. All in all, it was about 4 hours on the scooter, and about 2 hours on the ferry.
As an intermediate, I was advised to surf Tropicals, Playgrounds in Maluk Beach (where the famed Supersucks is located) and Little Bingin, located in the same bay as the famous Scar Reef.
On the second day of arriving at Sumbawa, I paddled out to a lesser known break next to Playgrounds, named Donuts. And boy, was I super lucky.
The entire line-up consisted of me and an English surfer, Ben and the conditions were glassy all morning long. We could see the swell lines curve into the corner of the bay, with a well-shaped right-hander bowl forming just before the wave broke. It was sheer beauty.
This was the session I regained my lost confidence from two weeks of surfing overly advanced breaks. Donut’s waves were shoulder high, but not heavy, didn’t break too fast or too slow, and wasn’t too steep or too fat. Just a few paddle strokes were enough to get me into the easiest take-offs I’ve ever experienced. Learning by example, I watched Ben catch a few waves at the peak, and successfully caught my first wave right at the peak too. It was a new sensation to feel the white water break on my back while popping up and moving down the line.
Unfortunately, Donuts never worked the same way again. Checking Donuts the next time, the swell lines didn’t bend into a bowl the same way as before. I think it only works that way during the low tide. The majority of my time was spent at Playgrounds, an excellent beginner/Intermediate’s A-frame, with faster and sharper lefts than rights.
I spent the majority of my time on the lefts, working at improving my pop up consistency and back-hand stance. I initially didn’t look down the line while popping out, but upon fixing that, my stance was too high (no inverted knee) and I kept losing balance.
When the swell dropped enough, I also gave a shot at Tropicals for an early morning session. It was working beautifully, slightly overhead mechanically peeling left-handers that weren’t too heavy. Unfortunately, I was at the bottom of the foodchain in the line-up, waiting on the shoulder inside to pickup the scraps of the scraps. I managed to snag one smaller wave and watched the wave right peel right pass me barely after I popped up. It was probably the most beautiful wipe-out I’ve experienced.
That split second is now seared into my memory as a great motivator to learn how to generate speed on my backhand and picking the right line upon popping up.
