It was easy to ignore my sister-in-law's prodding, and her attempt to throw a surprise party for my brother's 40th birthday. Easy to ignore, because they live in Singapore, and that trip is way out of my reach, especially for a birthday. Then she told me the birthday party was actually in Bali where we would spend a week to ten days.

Well, what kind of brother would I be if I didn't show up for probably the most important birthday of a person's life? I mean come on! The BIG FOUR ZERO! Ten years after thirty, and ten years before fifty. What could be more important than family and showing my support for my brother who lives on the other side of the world? This trip was totally in my reach. So my wife and I booked the mother-in-law for two weeks of babysitting and we were off to Indonesia.

After a couple days lay over at my brother's place in Singapore, we jumped on a flight for Australia's Hawaii, Bali. Upon arriving, the first thing I learned is that you don't want to drive here, ever! Fortunately the place we nestled into, like many others, provided a car and driver. So we wasted no time in letting the driver know we needed a pick up every morning at 6:00AM.

We pulled up to a surf spot called Canggu. The surf was really big, beautiful, and fun as could be. This place was awesome! All I'd ever seen from Bali was the classic fast hollow lefts of Uluwatu. But as we pulled up to the beach you could see literally every kind of break from a fast hollow left to a slow rolling long board right. Because we had a driver who hung out on the beach, you could come in and make a board switch any time and hit any one of a dozen different peaks.

Day two was half the size of day one but still overhead and fun as heck. We sampled a couple more peaks at Canggu before hurrying home for our family white water rafting expedition.

Day three was half the size of day two. So guess which day we filmed? That's right; I took out the water housing and perched on the shoulder for two hours. Still fun waves, especially when you're with family. It seemed like we had found the perfect spot. The locals told us on this day that the surf was always at least this good or better every day. So apparently no swell is required here. We had Canggu wired by now and knew plenty of locals, consisting of some Aussies, but mostly a bunch of Europeans. The best quote of the trip came from this Austrian guy who said, "I moved to Bali 11 years ago. For the first eight years I stood on the beach every day looking out at the surfers and thought, what a bunch of idiots. One day I tried surfing and I've been out here every day for the past three years wondering why, for eight years, I was such an idiot."

Day four brought a new swell and was comparable to day one. This was also my brother Mike's fortieth birthday, and he let everyone in the water know it. We surfed yet again at our closest and most convenient spot, Canggu. We surfed a break referred to as "Old Mans." Mike would say, "Hey it's my birthday today. I'm forty years old, so I'm surfin Old Mans." You wouldn't believe how many courtesy waves he got. This was great for me because Mike didn't mind sharing the wave. So I'd stay on the inside a bit and jump on the shoulder of Mike's birthday presents occasionally.

Day five we moved to a villa overlooking the surf at legendary Uluwatu and scoped out the long line of breaks for which this place is famous. Eventually, we charged some head high fast lefts at Padang Padang. The tide was low and I realized that every guy I had spoken to who had ever been here was absolutely correct when they said, "don't forget a good pair of booties." Holly smokes! Not only is the reef sharp, but there are all kinds of sea urchins and other crustations growing on top of it just waiting for you to scrape on by.

Sunday, we rested and wondered how we were going to survive this place. Wouldn't you know the first big swell of the year, as forecasted, rolled right in. Endless huge wave after wave rolled through, or I guess I should say, barreled through. We walked down to the main break and there were more broken boards and guys nursing injuries then I'd ever seen. Well, that is until the following day

Day seven, the swell dropped a bit and Mark and I charged the main break at Uluwatu. It was still gnarly, but I wasn't going back home to San Diego without paddling out through the infamous cave and catching an Uluwatu barrel, or at least making the attempt. As I walked down to the beach the half dozen surfboard repair shops were all operating at optimum speed laminating boards back together. And as soon as my feet hit the sand an Aussie with a bloody knee, holding half a board came walking out. He looked at me with a smile and said, "Last day for me, I'm heading home in the morning. So not a bad day to break the board."

It was good to paddle out with my youngest brother Mark, who just wrapped up his third season on the north shore, and was more aggressive and gutsy on these classic Uluwatu lefts. He caught about ten waves and I caught five, which was plenty for me. These waves carried the very real possibility of ending my vacation on a sour note. I contemplated my odds, trying to figure out how many waves I could take without getting drilled too bad.

While paddling out after my fifth wave, the set of the day came thundering in. The only good thing about this was that I was far enough inside for the wave to defuse a bit before it took me through the spin cycle. I noticed two guys dropping in simultaneously and making contact with each other before they both bit it hard. And when I say bit it hard, I mean that in the literal sense as one guy's face slammed the nose of his board. After being chucked around by the same wave, I caught sight of the guy bobbing up and flopping his head back. Seconds later, the next wave of the set hit him. I was pretty sure he was out because he didn't bother to submerge.

That waved knocked him closer in to me. I was a bit relieved to see him feeling his face as I clambered to the surface. I waved and yelled at him to go in, but he still seemed a bit comatose as if he didn't know where he was. The next wave brought us together and I could clearly see his smashed face. Blood was pouring out of his fractured nose that was now bent to one side. His entire face was lop-sided and I could see a marble size lump on his upper cheek grow into the size of a golf ball before we both went under the next wave. I know he spoke English as I heard him talking earlier, but what he was saying to me was totally inaudible. I grabbed his board and noticed the front two feet of it was gone. I yelled for him to hang on and shoved him off on the next wave, which lifted him up and threw him on his back.

Miraculously we both eventually made it in through the currents and narrow opening of the cave. His face resembled more of the elephant man than what he looked like minutes earlier. That bump on his upper cheek was past apricot size and on its way to tennis ball. My wife, who is a registered nurse, walked over to us. She took one look at this guy and said, "Oooh, you need to get to a hospital right now!" Mentally, he was a little more together, but still hard to understand as his lips had ballooned. We stayed with him until we knew he had a ride to the hospital.

That has got to be every surfer's nightmare. Getting an injury like that is bad enough, but in a third world country? Oh man, I wonder what happened to that guy. What kind of care did he receive?

Day eight was freaken insane and the biggest day of the trip. My brother Mark and I were the only guys in the family left in Bali. Everyone else was gone. The main Uluwatu breaks are all amazing, fast, and challenging during a good swell. Padang Padang, and Impossibles didn't seem to get as big as Racetracks and the other breaks by the Uluwatu cave. We headed down the various breaks a bit. You could literally paddle from break to break if you wanted to. There has got to be more than a dozen great breaks in all. We settled and surfed most the day at the last break in the line of Uluwatu surf spots, Dreamland. Needless to say, we found out how it got its name.

The tide really affected this area. When it dropped there emerged a killer A-frame where nothing had existed before. Wouldn't you know all the locals arrived right around the time that peak started firing. A boat pulled up and dropped off five Aussie surfers. I started a conversation with one of the guys as we sat on our boards, and asked him where they had been previously. He said they had been over at the Uluwatu main break. I don't know if it was his accent, or the feeling I had that he and his crew had just been beaten up by the surf, but I'll never forget what he said next, "It was massive!"

As we boarded the plane and taxied around the runway you could see numerous breaks around the airport that we never had time to explore. There are several spots that cater more to long boarders we were hoping to get to as well, but never got around to it. Surfing wise, this is a fantastic destination that exceeded my expectations. Uluwatu got a bit crowded, but that would be my only complaint. Well, that and the sharp reef, and the traffic, and dinosaur sized geckos in our rooms. And did I ever mention the most aggressive street vendors in the world!

We had family and wives on the trip and everyone was happy. Following our daily early morning surf sessions, we were able to tour the island, get more than enough shopping in for the ladies, hike a volcano, go white water rafting, visit the temples and monkey forests, golf, and horseback ride on real horses. I was expecting the usual Central American skinny horse, but was amazed with how nice the horses and stables were. We took advantage of the $8 hour-long massages a couple times and ate massive amounts of good food for cheap. Also, as one who has had his share of great scuba diving, this place is definitely one of the best. We saw things I've only seen on Discovery Channel. So I'm hoping my brother wants to celebrate his 41st birthday there, because that's really a major birthday if you think about it.

Anyway possible you can plug that website Sunset Palace in there anywhere? In a land where everyone wanted to rip you off, one place gave us the correct bill and I really want to thank him. Who knows, he may give us a deal next time. I'm assuming, no, but can't hurt to ask I guess.
Rick