What is Surfing As a Beginner in Indonesia Like?The Island of The Gods is a Surfers Paradise for everybody

Max Hepworth-Povey


8 years ago in Indonesia

Indonesia, aka the Island of the Gods, truly is a heavenly place for surfers with its countless reef breaks offering some serious barrels and immaculate walls to smash, which draws thousands of surfers to the cluster of islands every year.

IMG_7099

As appealing as this sounds for total rippers, it may sound a tad intimidating if you’re just starting out, or maybe don’t get much time in the water. But Indo is also known as the land of milk and honey, which is appropriate as there are plenty of spots on our trips that are totally sweet and comforting for beginner and intermediate surfers alike.

Swell that travels for thousands of miles over the Indian Ocean, is interrupted by the shallow reefs of Indonesia, which in turn makes the wave essentially fold over itself with incredible speed, creating those tubes that we all dream of.

But these same swells also wrap around into sheltered bays, nooks and crannies creating waves of less ferocity and touches the surface of rarely ridden deep water reefs, that may not produce barrels, but serves up nice, long, carvable walls on smaller more friendly waves.

We aren’t going to name the spots that we take riders to, as A: This would be committing a serious surfers sin, but BB More selfishly we like our waves quiet and if you want in, you’ll have to sign up.

Charlotte for example, an intermittent surfer from Bournemouth was justifiably nervous about surfing the reef breaks for the first time in her life, but now totally confident cruising plenty of mellow green faces somewhere in Lombok and only two weeks into the trip says:

“I have had more waves and learnt more in this two weeks than I have in five years of surfing back home!”

 

The smile on her face also says she’s doing just fine.

Iris also was a tad apprehensive, fairly so after coming from cruisy Sri Lanka but the waves she’s been getting and the smug look on her face would suggest she’s pretty satisfied.

 

Camille worked hard on her confidence in the water and towards the end of trip bought her first ever surfboard, which she then took to it like a duck to water. Or more appropriately, a shredding girl surfer to the waves of Canggu.

 

Francesco in his own words said “absolutely shitting it” when he got out in the water for the first time. But after an hour or so of personal coaching and assistance is now taking off and riding waves with ease.

 

Of course, there are epic waves on offer at every stop and if a rider pushes themselves to the next level, we will safely encourage this and you will get the wave of your life. Like Mike here at Lacerations (yes it is named for the reason you think.)

 

And Sarah at Shipwrecks. That’s a wave!

Basically, Indo has it all if you know where to go and we have it dialled. If any of the above appeals to you, whatever your surfing level, take your surfing really up a notch and join us on our next adventure. It’s also great fun.


Surfing Indonesia