2022 08 20 - Lombok kiting trip - day 1

 After flying to Denpasar, we grabbed a quick meal for $3.50 (wow) and spent the night in Bali.  The domestic transfer was chaotic of course, but we eventually landed in Lombok and were greeted at the airport by Max.  He had bought a fisherman to help us strap boards onto the roof - which looked very dubious at first - but worked a treat.  After about 1.5 hours we arrived at Panorama Ekkas - a fantastic setup right on the beach.  Max was friendly and amazing, he'd organised a ride for us really quickly to the kiting beach so our dream of going kiting on the first day could become a reality.

The ride to the kiting beach was interesting - heaps of potholes, very slow going in the car.  Just over an hour to get there - but we were greeted by an incredible beach, fantastic wind and smiles all round.  It was about 27 knots - heaving - so we went small kites.  We - Stu Styles, Pete, Ant and I - mucked around in the beautiful shallow flat water for a while, before I took a long tack out to check out the surf.  And the surf was incredible.

We stayed around "Bagus" the break off to the right of the kiting beach.  It's where the reef enters deeper water, so it has a right hander that works in strange and wonderful ways.  Surf was big so it was a little ominous at first but once you got used to it, it was fine.  What a cracker of a first day !