Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
There's something epic about having a goal on the horizon. Especially one that requires you to work your butt off to get there in terms of money, and also fitness levels. In June we are taking the family to Indonesia thanks to House of Travel Dunedin working some magic to provide us access to our pre-Covid airline tickets (which had very nearly evaporated).
It's a great thing to have looming, and we've been going nuts surfing our brains out in preparation ... well the kids have. I tried to up my cardio with a little bit of social football and now I can barely walk thanks to a painful calf strain. But my physio tells me I should be back on track before we head off.
Indonesia is a wonderland for surfers and we're planning to spend time along the Bukit Peninsula in Bali and then spend a week on the very next island to the east; Nusa Lembongan, then some time on Lombok, before returning to Bali to fly home.
Back in the "old days" every part of that trip would be about discovery from the moment the jet landed on the runway. I love that about travel, but I am seeing a different experience for my kids. We have Uluwatu, Keramas and Padang Padang surfbreaks on loop at home – every section and nuance of these waves shown on repeat from every swell that ever hit the archipelago in the past 10 years.
Before my kids even get there they know nearly everything about the waves they will surf: where to paddle out, how to beat sections, where to pull in and where to kick out before the end sections of doom. It seems a little sad to me ... like it steals a bit of that mystery of travel, but perhaps for them their journey has already started.
No film can ever really replace the feeling of grovelling down the stairs in the pre-dawn darkness to paddle out via the cave at Uluwatu. No film can reveal the taste of that first nasi goreng after a big session, or that chilled berry bowl at Drifters. And the feeling of snagging a set wave out at Peaks is pretty hard to beat ...
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS We still have a few of our books available. If you purchase them from us we can even sign them for you. Here's the best link to our book collection on Box of Light.
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: