First surf in Lombok at Grupuk which was a wave we'd heard about from the Japanese couple in Kuta. Pretty cool adventure to get to the wave, 8km motorbike ride through farms and jungle to get to Grupuk village, pay 1000 Rp (about 12 cents) to the kids manning the gate to the village, then neogitate a boat to take you out to the reef for a couple of hours (35,000 Rp each or about $4.50). Discovered about halfway to the village that we'd had our petrol stolen from the motorbikes overnight so we were lucky to make it! I should also point out that when I say motorbike I actually mean scooter but motorbike sounds way cooler.
All this might sound hardcore but it's not really, Inside Grupuk was full of German and French kooks on mini-mals, kind of like a Euro Bondi on a fairly soft reef. The wave was actually ok with some decent overhead sets winding down the reef (and a righthander to boot!) but somewhat ruined by all the punters littered through the lineup and impact zone. Surfed about 3 hours and got a few good ones (including one awesome overhead screamer that wound off down the reef) but a bit frustrating to come to the end of the earth to battle for waves with half of learn-to-surf Europe. I should also say however, that it's a stunning place to surf. Completely foreign in between all the yellow hills with the huge volcano in the distance, definitely nothing like Australia!
Surf: Inside Grupuk, Lombok, 2-4 foot, 3.0hr (41.5 total)
