ACTIVITY
THE SECOND WAVE
Surfing My Way through a Pandemic BY AISHWARYA SHAH FROM GEMTRACK
M
y welcome to Surf Camp Lombok was an interspecies one. A coterie of merry humans showed me in, a striped cat regarded me suspiciously before nuzzling up to my ankles and a band of monkeys looked at me from top to toe, assessing me for snack-bearing potential. As I walked past the multilevel skate bowl, the first thing my eyes were able to feast on was a rack of neatly organised surfboards - every shape, size and colour imaginable. Right there, gleaming in the sticky afternoon heat was the reason why I decided to sink my roots in a fishing village on the south coast of Lombok. In the midst of a global pandemic, Gerupuk, with only a modest handful of distractions, offered me the unique opportunity to immerse myself in surfing like never before. With a pandemic having emptied the lineup, I figured, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. As it turned out, Surf Camp Lombok was just what I needed. THE BEGINNER’S DILEMMA I stocked up on Tiger Balm, dropped a couple of work assignments to make time for surfing and rallied fellow beginners that were (happily and voluntarily) stuck in Indonesia to join me at the camp. If I gave off any whiffs of confidence, it was all a coverup for the myriad worries that lurked in the amniotic undertow of my subconscious. As an average-sized human with no great feats of strength to my name, I was worried about being able to keep up with the camp, which offered two surfs a day. As a land mammal who harbours a clandestine fear of deep waters, I was afraid of long hold-downs and the pernicious chafing of one’s spirits caused by the inevitable washing machine cycle of big waves! As someone who is generally able to pick up new skills with relative ease, I was worried about the steep learning curve of surfing and I knew that the camp would be a make or break experience for me, determining my relationship to surfing once and for all.
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CAMP, IN A NUTSHELL Positioned at the far end of the village of Gerupuk, Surf Camp Lombok looks onto the glistening blue waters and is only a hop, skip and a jump away from the most famous surf spots in south Lombok: Don Don, Insides, Outside Right, Outside Left and Kid’s Point. I could roll out of bed and make it to the boat before I’d even wiped the sleep from my eyes. As long as conditions were amiable, we went out for two surfs a day. My favourite days were the ones when surf sessions were like bookends to our days - we’d be catching our first wave at the crack of dawn, with the sun rotund and bright like a satsuma, only to return to the water for a second surf an hour before sunset. Over time, my fears ebbed. The first few days, the instructors were supremely hands-on, helping us get comfortable with the waves, the boards, the wipeouts, the etiquette, the whole shebang. As the days went by, they went from being helicopter parents to watchful guardians who would swoop in just when we needed them. Rather than physically pushing us into every wave and spoon-feeding us feedback on every miniscule aspect, they encouraged us to paddle for our own waves and learn to recognise for ourselves where we could improve. The goal of the instructors was to wean us off their guidance as much as possible, so that once we left the camp, we would be able to surf independently.
