We also surfed a secret spot which wasn’t even too far away. It was a sucky little shallow left, but fun enough to get away from the crew. We also surfed a super busy spot called Burger world, which was, well… pretty fat. And a lot of duck diving as it was kind of shifty. But even when it’s small in the Playgrounds area, there’s still plenty of surf to be had.

Finally, we ended the trip with a massive party. It was Justice’s birthday, a guy who works at Kandui resort, he fully charges and is a real legend over there, and we had to celebrate the trip! After several tequila shots we were dancing on the tables and – having a full moon that night – we decided to all do a night paddle out to Fourbobs and hopefully catch some waves. I tried to paddle over with this canoe I found, but it was definitely harder than I thought, my balance wasn’t as good any more, and – trying to jump on from the side – I would keep falling over the other side. I did that for about 20 minutes and it was hilarious. In the end I managed to get a longboard and do it that way. I tripped out though because randomly there was this glowing seaweed, and every time you touched the water everything would start shining, I had never seen that before… Later the locals told me it was a special kind of plankton… That night was super fun and the maddest things happened, people surfing in the dark on all kinds of different boards, wearing weird wigs and cowboy hats that had appeared out of nowhere. We were just having a laugh, enjoying the ocean and living in that mad moment… just how it should be.

The next day the trip came to its end and it was really hard to say goodbye. It wasn’t just the perfect waves, turquoise water and paradisiac beaches that made it so difficult, but also the people we met who have become real friends and it was sad to part ways. Sylvi and I were daydreaming and watching the flying fish gliding over the glassy sea on the 4-hour speed boat ride to Padang, we were running a bit late as the boat had been delayed, but we could already see the coast and we would make it just in time. But then, traveling wouldn’t be traveling, if the engine of the boat hadn’t broken just 15 minutes before getting to land. And here we were, just about to miss another flight, drifting around in the sea with two Indo dudes, that didn’t speak any English but had the biggest smiles on their faces as they were playing around with the engine, as if it was just the funniest thing ever. We tried everything but it just wouldn’t work… It was getting so close… but you just can’t be serious for too long in Indonesia. So joking around we handed the dudes some beers and some 50.000 rupiah banknotes, come on boys! Don’t ask me what they did, but it was like a miracle that suddenly the engine was working again… It seems like you can solve everything with some money and some Bintangs, right? 😉

So right now I’m writing from Australia, from a supercool farm in the middle of the desert which I don’t really even know how I got to, enjoying the silence before leaving again to Germany tomorrow where I will be city hopping to several events and shows where my sponsors need me, and Sylvi will be soon on her way to some crazy adventure journey for a reality TV show in South Africa. However, we are already planning our next surf trip together.