DESPITE HAVING MADE SCORES OF TRIPS TO INDONESIA, AND DOZENS TO BALI, I’VE NEVER SURFED PADANG PADANG. BEFORE YOU SNICKER, LET ME EXPLAIN.
My first trip to Bali happened in 1982, when I was 20. In those distant days, even the best surfers – world champs, the lot – struggled to ride the tube backhand. Most of them failed utterly. Pig dogging was a nascent skill, Michael Ho’s Pipe victory that same year being one of the first times most of us had seen it done.
I’ve since developed a reasonable pig dog method, but it has always been pretty erratic, and prone to fail under pressure, which is quite shithouse since that’s exactly what you’re under when you attempt to pull in backhand. It’s understandable, since I learned to surf in the pre-pig dog era, and my ancient paradigm held pretty fast when it came to old dogs, new tricks. Of course, nearly every grommet today does it easily, riding on the coat tails of those pioneers who struggled for decades to crack the code.
So in the early 80s, despite Padang still being uncrowded, as a natural footer it just didn’t seem worth the effort. You can surf it out on the face and all, and avoid the pit, but when the alternative was surf- ing 8-10ft Outside Corner Ulu (one of my favourite waves anywhere) I’d rather that than trying to shirk 4-6ft tubes at Padang. Consequently it was simply off my radar, and if I wasn’t surfing Ulu (please don’t call it “Ulu’s”. That hideous S is like nails down the blackboard to my delicate ear) I’d be hunting on the other side of the Bukit for right handers, like any self respecting natural footer of the day.
Fine, so why haven’t I surfed it yet? I missed that boat. By the time I felt like I could get pitted out there without face planting into the reef, the crowds had moved in. And in particular, the locals. For a long time, locals who surfed weren’t a crowd factor in Indonesia. They were too busy trying to survive, and the affluence that allows westerners the luxury of surf leisure was rarely attainable for them. Times have changed, and now good days at Padang are a full house, and then some. Also, the place needs a huge south swell to stir, and only turns on for a handful of days each year. When it does, the local lads rule it, and any crumbs go to hot expats, and the dregs to hot tourists. If you’re simply a really good surfer, you’ll get nothing. Destiny just didn’t want me to surf Padang, and who am I to argue with that?
