Indo off season

Bali east coast, lots to choose from ... Green ball to Serangan and more spots with bigger swells , do the earlys [dawn] home for breckie by 9am just as the euro's arrive...chill till late arvo then head back for a late session....A 25 day stay you will score well

December January February March ..I call them months the " Indo on season"...have always had good waves and never been skunked, wild bit of water the Lombok strait - google and have a read of an article by WP Visser

With regards to South Sumatra, as a disclaimer, I've only surfed there in the 'on' season which I realise is not what you've asked.
Having said that, with wet season prevailing nor-westerleys there're only three or four waves that cope with this wind direction (quick research will find them) and these waves are not epic (although I'd love to see Pisang with a lot of west in the swell and Biha can be surprisingly good but sand dependent) and are very spread out.
If you go, don't stay at Mandiri itself, won't cope with the wind and is isolated and boring anyway.
Beautiful bit of coast though and so nice just cruising on your bike regardless of waves.
You could leave most of your gear at your base at Ujon Bacor or Krui and nick off up the coast for a few days, very scenic and who knows what you might find - most tourists don't bother to go past Pantai Kuripan.
Probably not the best part of Indo purely for waves at that time of year but would be a great little trip even just to get away from Bali for a week.

You could go to Aceh and fight it out with 30 Frenchmen and 20 Aussies for the three waves in town. That's been a popular option the last few years.

But yeah, East Coast Bali has heaps of waves that nobody is interested in surfing.

I scored Nusa Lembongan (Chennigans), Nusa Dua and Keramas last time i went over to bali in December - January. East coast of bail pumps.

dandandan wrote:

You could go to Aceh and fight it out with 30 Frenchmen and 20 Aussies for the three waves in town. That's been a popular option the last few years.

But yeah, East Coast Bali has heaps of waves that nobody is interested in surfing.

I go to bali every January (the mrs loves it) and it is still packed in the 'off season'. Even onshore Ulu's is busy. Keramas gets worse and worse. Nusa Dua always has a crew and Serangan is by far the busiest spot on the east coast. That said there is still usually plenty of waves. You'll just be sharing them with 50 of your closest balinese, japanese and aussie mates.

I'm going to do east Bali this dec, anyone want to suggest where to stay thats strategic to a few spots? I get around by bike

last year I did Lombok but was too windy

Last year was an aberration. Winds were way too South for way too long.

Everywhere was out of sorts , not just Lombok.

Don’t give up !

thanks blowin, yeah it was nuts and has had a lasting effect on me, sitting in Kuta Lombok with nothing to do.......the year before last (2017) it was magic, in fact, early December is usually my favourite time to go, low crowds, cheaper, still mornings etc

Going to be interesting to see what happens this year then it's been blowing Southerly in Sumatra since late July.

Yep , last December was the worst Indo trip I’ve ever had. Relentless Southerlies.

Indo - water is cold in Sumatra ....wetsuit required for extended sessions. Crazy stuff. Fuck all rain.

Water temps in the Ments are reportedly 2-3 degrees cooler than normal (supported by this SST anomaly chart), and apparently it's even colder off parts of West Java. 

Many crew in the Ments wearing long sleeved vests right now, even heard that a water photog was wearing a short arm 3/2 steamer!

Thats a result of the southerlys yeah?

warm water getting pushed NW and deeper colder water replacing it.

Colder than just 3 degrees difference.

Should be sweating during midday sessions, not shivering when the wind blows.

I was at desserts 3 weeks ago and lots in spring suits, never seen that before.

I was lucky enough to buy a spring suit off a fella who was leaving, I’d be screwed otherwise.

I wore a long sleeve wet suit vest for the first time ever in Bali in September, coming from Vicco never needed more than a rashy. Had to bail on first surf at Balangan after 1 hour, too cold. WTF.
There were guys wearing steamers at Ulus & Balangan.

Hence why the 4.5 mt Great White was comfy cruising Nusa Lembongan waters.

I hope this is not becoming a long term, structural trend associated with climate change but this SST anomaly pattern is becoming awfully persistent.

As well as the cold water in the eastern Indian there's a persistent Tasman sea heatwave which has been established since 2017, at least.

Ironically this warm water seems to be starving eastern Australia, particularly NSW from Pacific moisture flows by weakening the sub-tropical Tasman highs and severing the teleconnection with western Pacific warm pool.

I can't seen any signs of this pattern breaking down. It broke down last spring temporarily but re-established over summer, part of the reason for the toxic summer which featured constant onshore winds, but no moisture flows.

Woke up again to thick bushfire smoke, a constant reminder that something like 50 fires are still burning in NSW, mostly in the north.

Of course, the Indian Ocean cold pool means a total lack of moisture inflow from that region too, which produces most of the winter/spring rain for SE Australia.
Hopefully, the very late Indian monsoon, which migrates south and forms the northern Australian monsoon will see winds shift NW and finally fcuk off that cold pool around Indonesia.

Otherwise, start praying.

Interesting article in the SMH pointing the finger at the positive Indian Ocean Dipole as the origin of the drought.
Check out the graph showing the record IOD high currently occurring. Presumably this is associated with the unseasonal winds and cool water temps off Indo?
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/the-culprit-behind-eas...

Good one D, They mention pacific water temps have been neutral East to West. Certainly in the East, Southern quadrant water temps have been warmer than usual for about the last year, may be just localised conditions though.

Temporary distractions

good article from ABC about the late withdrawal of the Indian monsoon and impacts here. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-23/late-monsoon-withdrawal-will-like...