On Saturday, (which feels like three weeks ago, though it was only yesterday at the time I’m writing this portion of the post) Ben and I made the hour long taxi ride from Uluwatu back to the Denpasar airport. From there we caught our small plane to fly two islands over east to Sumbawa. Ben and I tried to get to Sumbawa last July, but never made it, so this trip was eight months in the making for us!
The first afternoon at Lakey’s, we got really fun waves right out in front of where we were staying, even though it was a bit windy. About two hours into the session, I made a quick miscalculation on a sizeable wave and the next thing I knew, I was being bounced across the reef. I gave up some blood and skin from my hand, leg, and chest (how’s that for heart opening! Ha!) but fortunately none of it was too serious. My hand looks like its been run over by a cheese grater, but it’s a sacrificial part of getting to know this new island and well worth it!
This morning we got an early started and scootered ten minutes south along the coast to a wave that Ben knew from being here two years ago called Nangadoros. It was perfect! 5-7 foot lefts and rights, no wind, crystal clear water and even the occasional barrel to slide into! And there was nobody else there for the next three hours! We rarely sat for more than 30 seconds between waves, they just kept coming. The only problem with this (a very high-quality problem as we say) is that three hours of constant wave riding results in lots and lots of paddling and my arms had turned into noodles by the end. We came back to our place, superfed ourselves, and then headed back out for a few more hours. The wind had picked up, but we were still the only ones in the water and had a great time.
There are so many kids in this area and they are all so stoked! When we ride by on scooters, no matter how fast we’re going, they’ll run out into the road to high five us as we ride by. After surfing this afternoon, we went in search of a hot spring we had heard of. We didn’t find it, but crossing a river coming back we saw two ultra happy kids who had covered themselves from head to toe in mud- I couldn’t help cracking up laughing!
On the morning of my last full day on Sumbawa, Ben and I headed out for an early surf, only to discover that the scooter had a flat tire half way there. Too excited to stop, we rode the rest of the way there on the flat and scored great waves all to ourselves yet again. On the way back we stopped in the first village and the local mechanic pulled the back tire apart, used an improvised torch to melt the puncture back together, pumped it back up and we were on the road again!
Later in the afternoon, as Ben and I were sitting outside our rooms polishing off a juicy watermelon, a pack of five young locals came up to us asking for “donations.” We played around with them a bit and offered them food, but politely declined their monetary requests. But these kids were persistent! They just kept on trying to negotiate! I could never imagine being such a negotiator at six or seven years old! Then I had an idea, which really wasn’t a serious one, but I decided to throw it out there and see what happened. Right next to our rooms was a 40 foot tall coconut tree with perfect young green coconuts sitting at the top, which was significantly higher than Ben or I dared climb. Ben and I had been craving coconuts for days and hadn’t been able to get any on the island. I said to the kids, half jokingly as I didn’t think they’d be able to get the coconuts either, “I’ll give you 60,000 rupiah (8500 rupiah=1 US Dollar) if you can get us six coconuts from that tree!” I expected them to either not understand me or to laugh at the ridiculous offer, but what followed was quite the opposite- one of the kids faces lit up as he said “Me! Me! I do!” Within seconds, he was climbing right up the palm with a style that was a blend of a Cirque du Soleil performer and a Sumbawan monkey. Within ten seconds he was at the top of the tree, standing among the top fronds, knocking coconuts down to us. I was feeling a mix of elation at getting coconuts but also concerned, thinking, “You better not fall out of there!” But all was good and he scampered right back down the tree. All the kids were totally stoked on their payday and really thankful. It was nice to be able to give them an opportunity to earn the money.
We found a machete and cracked open our first coconuts since Ubud, feeling the hydration pouring into every cell in our bodies. Mid way through our second coconut each, Ben brought up something very profound and important for me that only he could have ever brought up. Best friends are great at supporting you, but can also be great at calling you out on where you are falling short of your ultimate potential. Ben, with his profound knowledge of what I can best describe only as “the ways of the universe” and great spiritual attunement, brought up something that he had noticed that morning in the water and often over his time knowing me- that I was often not as present as he knew I was capable of being. This I knew to be true, though I had not ever really addressed it. So often my mind wanders out of my present reality, either to the future, past or present in another location. Often I find myself thinking of what needs to be done to develop my future career and what I want that to be, my relationships with others, the lives of people back at home and various other topics. All of this mental wandering and concern with what I’m going to be doing in the future has hindered my ability to have the ultimate present moment experience. Even on Sumbawa, the idyllic dream surf island that I had grown up reading about and ogling pictures of in surf magazines, I was still mentally elsewhere a great part of the time. I had an incredible experience on the island, but it was not the peak fulfillment of the experience it could have been had I fully been there the whole time. Ben offered me great wisdom in this area. I can think all day long about what I want to be doing or where I want to be, but only by living in the moment will I actually end up where I need to be doing what I need to be doing for the greatest good of myself and all others. This is a big one for me that I know I need to put major focus on. We’ll see how my approach to it evolves over coming days, weeks, and months, but for the moment, every time my mind wanders out of the moment, I remind myself that “It doesn’t matter.” I’ll get to the future at just the right time. Magic doesn’t happen in the future, past, or somewhere other than where I am right now- it happens in the present moment.
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