Big Waves Due for Bali

The forecast for the next 2 weeks is for some large waves hitting the Bali shoreline.

This will provide challenges for experienced, intermediate and learner surfers alike.

For the relatively small band of big wave surfers there will be some great opportunities to get out to some big waves at Uluwatu, Padang Padang, Impossibles and a few other breaks that are able to hold the bigger waves.

The beach breaks along Kuta and Legian are usually not well suited to holding the big surf with most waves closing out. This will not be great to our beginner surfers however we have another option a short drive away that will provide a safe and fun option.

These large swells commence their life many thousands of Kilometers away in the Southern Ocean. At this time of year, being winter in the Southern Hemispehere, large storms with strong winds create large swells that eventaully make their way to the Indonesian shore lines. If conditions are good and the winds off shore (which they are on the Bali West Coast at this time of year), the large swells will organise themselves into swell lines and as they approach the shallow water near the coastlines, rise up to break and create some of the best surf in the world.

before the days of internet and surf forecast websites, surfers would need to watch the weather maps and isobars to try to figure out where to go and when. These days with ocean buoys providing real time data and people developing the art & science of surf forecasting that are then provided on various websites, with quite good accuracy we can predict when swells will arrive and approximately how big the waves will be. Like a lot of technology, this has its positive and negative side. On the positive we can plan ahead and know what to expect but on the negative side, everyone now has access to this information, so when the surf is on, its often crowded. Sometimes the best surfs to be had are those unexpected ones when the surf pumps at places and times that were not expected.

As with all surf eventsm, the surf will come and go and be up and down, so that soon we will be back to more settled conditions at our local learning breaks.

In the meantime you can expect to see some surf like this over the next 10 days or so.