How to break into the surf camp in Bali and get on the board from scratch
Surfing has long ceased to be exotic: everyone who loves to travel, at least once heard about surf camps, surf tours and surf schools that exist in many countries of the world. Although from the outside, it seems to be a lot of sport monopolized by men, in fact, surfing is increasingly attracting girls. This is really a beautiful, challenging and interesting sport that is capable of changing life, or at least a world view. So it happened to me.
It all started three years ago, when I had two long-awaited weeks of vacation in the second half of November, and I had to go alone. The general fatigue of the “home-office-home” lifestyle gave rise to such a pessimistic attitude towards everything around me that this trip did not promise anything good either. Well, at least I'll go somewhere in the heat, I thought. There was not even any idea where to go: vegetable rest in hotels "all inclusive" did not attract me. In a desperate search, I stumbled upon a tourist group "VKontakte", where they discussed a surf camp in Bali. I must say that I never dreamed of doing surfing and was sure that it could be done only by some special people. I even had a vague idea of where exactly Bali was located, but adventurism took its toll: I am a sporty person and even moderately extreme.
After a couple of weeks at the airport of Bali, I was already met by a driver, who drove me to the surf camp. Most of the instructors and administrators are Russian guys, who at one time also went to Bali, fell in love with surfing and stayed on the island. The first days I went and looked at everything a wild beast. There were friendly, open-minded people around and everyone communicated with each other as if they had known each other for years. They talked about surfing, they themselves drove bikes around the island and talked to foreigners in English without any problems. It's like in general, how many are they already here, two weeks? And instructors do live here, right next to the ocean - how is this possible? Some kind of new reality - to feel at home among such people. While I was trying to understand what planet I was on, I was warmed by the idea that surfing lessons would begin tomorrow and that there would be no time for strange thoughts.
All life in the camp is built around surfing. This brings the team very together and allows newcomers to easily enter it. All connected by a common cause - the lessons. As well as early rises, breakfasts in the car on the way to the spot, joys, disappointments and delights. The surfing dive started from theory, it was told to us in the chill zone, where the board was set for a while, we had puffs instead of desks, and a pool behind our backs. In total, the theory was designed for three classes, which were gradually introduced to us: they taught the basics of safety in the ocean, skating techniques, told what swells and sets are, where the waves come from and what they are like, how wind, tides and winds affect surfing. low tides and when you can go surfing. Already during the theoretical lessons it became clear that surfing is a whole science and just like that, not knowing the spot and conditions, you can not go riding.
The ocean may not let you in, or it may not let you go, it can be carried ashore, and it can knead and pull to the bottom
The first practical lessons are foam lessons. This is not surfing, but only preparation for it. The lessons were held at a depth of approximately to the waist: you had to lie on the board and be ready to stand on it when the foam from the wave that fell in behind you would push you and you would go. This is necessary in order to learn how to stand on a moving board, keep balance and turn. Usually you need 2-4 lessons on foam, so that the instructor will say: "That's it, you're ready for the lineup." I was told this after the third lesson, and I moved on to the next stage.
The word "lineup" conditionally denotes a place in the ocean, where the wave is gaining the maximum critical mass and is ready to collapse. In this place and sit surfers, waiting for her. Here, on the real waves, the most important part of the training begins, the most complex and bright in emotions. Almost every day we went to different spots of the island, and on each, before entering the water, our instructors told the spot features: where to go, what waves there are - right or left, where the canal is, etc. After a detailed briefing, we went into the ocean and rowed to the lineup along with our mentors, with whom they then waited for the wave. They told us which one to take and which one to skip, commanded, when we started to rake and get up, they pushed us to give speed, and we drove off. There were no more than three students per instructor, so each was supervised and errors were then individually discussed with each one.
I probably will never forget my first lineup. It was on that day that I learned what surfing is. And this is above all a huge omnipotent ocean element, for which you are just a grain of sand. The ocean may not let you in, or it may not let you go, it can be carried ashore, and it can be carried backwards by the current, it can be kneaded and pulled to the bottom. At first I fought the ocean and tried to resist. She was afraid of him, angry and annoyed. But the instructors helped to understand that you need to watch the ocean, learn to understand it and calmly perceive all the failures and batches, because you cannot tame the element. Only when you begin to feel yourself in it, when you get into its rhythm, everything starts to turn out. That's why you need to choose the right school and instructors: the approach and attitude to the process is important, it is important that you learn to understand the ocean.
Surfing is rowing. Approximately 70% of the time in the ocean you row: from the coast to the lineup, from the place to which you reached, to the lineup, when you rake up to the wave and then return to the beach. And rowing, of course, in an unusual position for our body - lying on the board. At the same time, while rowing, you need to dodge the foam and the waves that are about to close on you. After my first linap, I thought that I would go ashore and would fall exhausted - it was so hard. It turned out that surfing is an excellent cardio training, after which, by the way, I lost weight well. Then he began to get used to this load, the forces appeared and the surfing stopped being so exhausting. In any case, all these "inconveniences", if you can call them that, are worth even a few seconds of travel on a wave. I thought I sounded my impression of the first passage to everyone: "I felt like a god!" Emotions going through the roof. After that, I no longer noticed any fatigue and fears, all this was fading away from the wave.
The most elusive thing about surfing is awareness. Many people compare surfing with meditation, because they believe that only by clearing your mind of all thoughts, you can catch a wave. Someone believes that this requires the ability to concentrate, for someone it's just the speed of reaction. But one thing is important: to get on the board and go, you need to choose the right moment for this. If you get up a split second earlier or later, it will not work. At the same time, it is necessary to keep track of your neighbors in order not to encounter anyone. In other words, in a split second, you need to have time to assess the situation - calculate the distance to the wave and to the neighbors, see who is preparing to take the wave and whether there are people on your way - and make a decision. This, in fact, is the key to success. And this, too, must learn. It is especially difficult at the beginning, because we have too many thoughts in our head and we do not know how to abstract from them. Therefore, if you have ever heard a phrase like “surfing is when you are alone with the ocean and nobody else exists except you,” know that this is not a pathetic surfer saying, but the same awareness that I tried to describe above.
In general, everyone was tired, feared and sometimes failed, but no one gave up at the camp. And all because surfing there is not an addition to the rest, but a way of life. When I got there, I immediately realized that I could learn no matter what, and I was surrounded by the same interested people, who also got up at 4:45, so that at five in the morning I could go for a ride. There was no one who was lazy or undermined morale. We went surfing with one big family, then we discussed the gurney vigorously, then we went to ride around the island until the night, and in the morning we woke each other again so as not to wake the lineup. In two weeks so many events and adventures have happened to us, how many have not happened to me, probably, in a year of life in Moscow. And most importantly, we have mastered surfing from scratch to the level when you yourself begin to understand how the waves work, you rake yourself, get up, ride along the wave and turn a little.
Many people compare surfing with meditation because they think that only by clearing your mind of all thoughts can you catch a wave
Together with surf-video views and long discussions with our mentors at the camp, we discovered a new world for ourselves and immediately found ourselves in its very center. The brain did not have time to process tons of new information because of the impressions and emotions that swelled in the head. And even when we drove out of the camp and just went straight ahead, admiring the rice fields and unusual Balinese architecture, we still continued to be in the center of this world, because surfing, the ocean and the island itself were one whole, which was no longer perceived separately . That's how we surfed together, watched our reincarnations, forgot about the usual way of life and found out that, it turns out, you can live differently.
They say that surfing is not just a sport, but a philosophy and a way of life. And here, thanks to the lessons and my surroundings, I realized that this is indeed the case. The very awareness of your own helplessness in front of the ocean shakes you so much that you start to look at things differently as a whole. Suddenly in everyday life you start to notice the wind, the trees, the sky, which you usually do not pay attention to. Suddenly you start to feel when you live in the moment, here and now, and when you are absent in it. And then you realize that it is at such moments that you truly live. Ocean expands the boundaries. Your own ones that are in your head. Here you stand with a board, frightened and unsure of yourself, and you think that it will not work, that surfing is difficult and not for you. But perseverance and work - and you are already riding a wave, as if floating above the ocean.
There comes an understanding that nothing is impossible in principle. There are only frames that we create for ourselves. That everyone can learn how to surf, as everyone can move to the ocean - all they need is to look at the world more widely, on the scale of the universe, and not within the concept of "home-office-home" and a pile of their problems. It’s like sitting in the ocean, waiting for the wave and watching the sun set directly in front of you, and realize that at that moment you are a part of it all. Having experienced this once, you can no longer think as before - as if your outlook broadened and you learned something more important than what you used to live. This is probably the philosophy of surfing.
As I watched people who visited the surf camp, everyone experienced these emotions, everyone came home by others. And many returned after a while. For many of us, this is now a community of friends and a real home, which immediately becomes home. Here there is a real immersion in surfing and in the elusive that he carries with him. And now I also watch the forecast the next day every evening in order to understand how much and where it is better to go surfing. And, of course, I stopped by the guys at the camp, where it became even warmer. Now they ask me with surprise how I was able to move to Bali, how I decided to take this step. And I don’t understand why this is so surprising for everyone, because nothing much happened, it’s just that my world has become bigger.
Photo: cover photo Wave House / Facebook