Wave House

At Wave House in Canguu, Bali, I've found my home! I'm living in paradise with like minded ocean lovers in what is essentially a hostel but is more like a 5 star hotel luxury resort. I'm talking a big spacious room I share with only 3 others, with my own cupboard and wardrobe and en suite - there's some building works at the minute so I get a 4 person dorm for the price of an 8, winner winner! Then there's two pools, one with a bridge over it, surrounded by loungers and grassy space, a tiki hut style restaurant, yoga/fitness space, free entry to a nearby gym and water park, not forgetting the indo board. And that's before mentioning the surfboard racks. And the fact that we head out to the best breaks every day to surf to our heart's content.

I have actually found my heaven! It's not quite so hot here, a comfortable high 20s, low 30s with a breeze that makes all the difference. I have a whole month here so I'm settled down for a while. It's a welcome change from moving around every few days. I always wanted to get properly good at surfing, and now here I am doing it. We go out every day except Saturday in small groups depending on ability with a couple of coaches and a photographer. After the session we have a photo analysis and look at how we did and what we need to work on. Being able to see exactly where you're making errors means it's a lot easier to make changes, and I'm improving fast.

It's physically exhausting and actually mentally too. There's so much to think about in such a short amount of time, but you can't over think it. And you can't freak out when it gets big. Even though you're facing powerful walls of water that tower over your head you have to stay calm or you'll mess up and be thrown around by that wall, and the one coming after it. I had a really bad couple of days this week where I got beat up pretty good; sucked up and over with a huge rogue wave, slammed down with my legs ripped apart and spun around so much I had no idea which way was up and then caught inside where the waves were endlessly breaking on me as I tried futilely to get out of there. When I finally managed to get out back behind the breaking waves I was knackered, coughing up a lot of salty water and pretty scared. Took a long time for me to work up the courage to catch a wave back to shore. The next day I was really apprehensive and making silly mistakes, getting frustrated and making it harder for myself. Eventually I realised I just needed to relax and quite literally go with the flow. And it all started looking up again.

Seriously, a lot of looking up. Cause some of these waves I'm riding are humongous! The biggest have been 7ft. It doesn't dawn on you until you're up and riding and the wave has grown to it's full size and you look up and see it's taller than you by a long shot. Such a cool feeling cause by then you've done the hard part and it's like you're flying along.

My favourite day by far was at Old Man's with a mellow 6ft left handed wave that just peeled along the line for ages. I felt like I rode a mile. And then a really long, though easy paddle back out ready for the next one.