The 2-week island-hopping Indonesia Adventure is an incredible few weeks of perfect waves and true Indonesian culture. Amy Cavender scored big on the last trip, here’s what she has to say about her fortnight in Paradise:
I’ve been lucky enough to go on a couple of trips with Ticket to Ride – including the epic 13-week South African adventure in 2016 – and the main reason I love the Ticket to Ride setup is the clear progression you can see in your surfing in just a couple of weeks.
It’s amazing what a difference a few weeks of riding perfect waves, guided by the expertise of trip leaders who really know their stuff can do for your surfing.
Lombok was our first stop and definitely the best waves I’ve ever seen. Gerupuk was our base; a rural rugged paradise on the south coast. Here, we were up at dawn most days to catch the beautiful sunrise surf session, before having our mid-morning banana pancakes, lazing around, and then heading back out for an afternoon surf.
A few local guys were on hand to drive the boats to the breaks and give us pointers in the water; it was a massive help to have them there to explain how the waves form and break over the reef – a whole different way of thinking in comparison to the English beach breaks most of us were used to.
The most memorable surf for me was at ‘Outside Lefts’ – a fast-breaking lefthander which crashes onto shallow reef. A few of us headed out with our trip leaders Nikita and Chris to take on the challenge of these monster waves and we were lucky enough to have the break pretty much to ourselves; I was happy just to be out there watching them both surf, watching the huge spray they made as they snapped off the top of the waves was pretty inspiring.
The biggest set of the day came through and after messing up my duck-dive on the first wave I was sucked into the inside, I wasn’t held down for long but I knew how shallow it was and as I was tumbled underwater I was just waiting to hit the reef. Luckily I landed on my feet, but as I stood up I realized the water was only waist deep. As the next wave crashed in I jumped on top of the water and let it suck me round to the channel so I could paddle back out. I was pretty shaken but now determined to catch a wave. When else was I ever going to get the opportunity to surf a perfect overhead wave in a practically empty line up?
Sitting back out there I managed to get my breath back and I could see the next set coming in on the horizon, Chris looked at me and very calmly said ‘do you want this one?’ – as we were both in the spot – I nodded and jumped on my board. I felt the wave behind me and paddled as hard as I could; Nikita was already on the wave but hadn’t made the section so was shouting me onto it. I looked down and it felt like there was a 10ft drop but I was on the wave so shakily popped up and grabbed my rail for stability. My stomach dropped as I went down the steep face but then once I’d popped up and realised I was going to make it, I just stood there and enjoyed every second. That feeling when you come off a wave like that is pretty special, it was the first proper overhead wave I’d ever caught on my backhand! I was filled with newfound confidence for the rest of the session and despite getting wiped out by about 10 waves I managed to catch another few waves towards the end which made aching arms and burning lungs worth it.
I sat on the boat back feeling so deeply happy – I remember thinking ‘this is why I love surfing’.
TERRIFYING
By the time we got to Nusa Lembongan I felt much more comfortable with the idea of the reef and wasn’t as intimidated (despite the breaks being called ‘Razors’ and ‘Shipwrecks’). The line up at ‘Shipwrecks’ was pretty busy, but both times I surfed it I was the only girl out there (other than Nikita); I found it so inspiring to see how Nikita asserted herself in the line up, she really helped to give me confidence that I could paddle into waves just as well as the boys! It was a nice change to be surfing on my forehand so I could really practice cutting back and turning. Now when I was paddling into waves I was excited to pop-up and get down the line rather than being terrified of not making the drop which is where I was at the start of the trip.
Getting one at Shipwrecks
The Island-hopping trip is all about the surfing, the trip leaders really push you to improve and there’s no way I would have had the confidence to tackle some of those breaks without their help. With constant photo analysis and targeted coaching it’s the perfect trip for an intermediate surfer wanting to get to the next level. When we weren’t surfing we were exploring the local culture; whether it was trekking through the national park at the foot of Mount Rinjani to find hidden waterfalls, or free diving with manta Rays in Nusa Lembongan, there was always something amazing to do.
Another successful Ticket to Ride Trip!
I’ve recently set up a film travel blog and made a short edit of the trip which you watch below it documents the Ticket to Ride Trip through Lombok and Nusa Lembongan, and then a flavour of some the independent traveling around Bali I did subsequent to the trip. What a truly dreamy month.