48H
We left LA on a red-eye flight so we could sleep for the first half of the long trip to Indonesia. You ever slept on a plane? It’s really difficult when you are tall and have a seat in coach. Even harder when you have the last seat on the plane and your chair won’t recline because you are pressed against the toilets. And then there is the hope that the person next to you doesn’t make their flight. It is cruel to wish this but better an empty seat than an overweight monster with a small bladder waking you up every 15 minutes.
You need to be mentally strong for the 21 hours of flying. You need a power- ful motivator to want to endure such torture. Yes, there are blockbus- ter movies, endless snacks and adult beverages but that’s not why we are on this flight. It’s the destination, not the journey, that keeps us motivated. The dream of getting perfect waves keeps our minds focused and that hope makes the discomfort bearable.
After a stop in Singapore, we finish our second flight and arrive in Bali, Day 1 is complete. We made it, tired, but we made it with unbroken boards and working cameras. After a proper sleep in a proper bed, we wake up at sunrise to catch another flight to the next island over. After we land, we caravan four hours over to the other side of that island to wait for our ferry.
Our crew is making the best of the journey. Nobody is complaining, eve- ryone is staying positive. Eric Gei- selman brought his guitar and we have a jam session as we wait for the boat. Hours go by and the boat ar- rives, more traveling and more time passes. We make it across the wide empty ocean to the island that will be our home for the next 8 days.Our guide greets us with a smile. “Swell is gonna be good tomorrow,” he says with a wink. Success!
After 48 hours of travel, we have arrived in the middle of nowhere and our dreams were about to become rea- lity. The next morning, we wake up before the sun to the smell of fresh cut exotic fruit and some strong black coffee. Breakfast is eaten quick and we are off to the beach to see if that rumored swell was upon us. We make it to the beach at first light and it’s high tide with weird winds and 30 surfers already in the water.
Do we drive around the island to check another wave? We’ve all done the search for the golden egg before and 99% of the time we end up where we started but more eggy than golden. What do we do? This isn’t the paradise we dreamed of. This wasn’t worth 48 hours of hard tra- vel...or was it?
We are seasoned wave chasers and know how to make the best of it. If we let the current surf, wind and tide dictate our mood, we will more likely be disappointed and bitter. We don’t let the meager conditions bring us down. We do what only a surfer knows how to do...we surf! It’s not good by any means, but it washes off the 48 hours of travel and renews our souls.
Patience is another thing surfers know how to do. There are so many variables to getting good waves and timing is everything. Patience is king, patience prevails. A few hours later, the tide has dropped and the waves start pee- ling on the reef. The crowd thins and the offshores start picking up speed. We made the right call. The crew ce- lebrates with tube after tube on this
perfect left. As the tide drops more, the crowd drops more. The wave is starting to show its teeth and you don’t want to fall and become a tasty meal to this live reef. There are no hospitals or ambu- lances here. It’s every man for himself in this raw paradise. We are happy to end the session with a broken board but no broken skin or bones.
The first day had the most perfect waves we saw the entire trip. To think that if we missed our ferry, or if the caravan ran out of gas or the plane was grounded due to weather, we would have missed it. You have heard the phrase “It is the journey, not the destination that makes traveling worthwhile,” but that night more laughter and excitement was heard as we talk- ed about what this destination had given us: perfect waves!
We are a group of women who share a passion for the outdoors, adventure and art. With Waves and Ice we do not only want to show our stories but also inspire other women to follow their passions, even if it seems that the area their passions lie in are mostly male dominated.