Balian

I reckon its a shithole...filthy brown water was packed with Euro kooks last time i was there.

Balian would be onshore from mid-morning on everyday at this time of year, I would think. Even with good winds the surf quality is low compared to what is available elsewhere. Fun, but nothing memorable.......oh and there have been a few shark bites. Nothing too serious, mainly hands and arms. I haven't been there for a few years now but it used to be quite a nice village atmosphere. Probably more tourists now.

It's really crowded with day trippers, particularly if the swell is small down the Bukit, and as Udo say, shit loads of Euros staying there.
Medewi is the same.
It was a beautiful place once, now, IMO, it's lost it's charm.

Been to Balian quite a bit over the last few years, but always around the shoulder periods, either April May or October.

It's a lovely place to go and as others say, quite the village atmosphere. I've enjoyed being able to go there, stay there, not bother about going anywhere else, just enjoying what's on offer and not getting in a car for a week. Everything is walking distance.

This time of year, as bb says, very likely that the onshore gets up by mid-late morning and stays all day. Euro kooks, yes, but I didn't mind them so much, but you do have to watch out for them and not paddle behind them as they ditch their boards at a moment's notice.

Sometimes you take your chances though when there is a g-stringed female bottom in front of you that just leaves you mesmerised.

A lot of the euros are female, and there is a yoga camp there that accounts for a part of the crowd, and most of them don't surf. I have had less trouble with the euros than others.

Can get super fun and catches all the size that's in the swell, amplifying fitzroy's comment about day-trippers coming up from bukit when it's small. The Japanese particularly seem to like doing that and they can be a nemesis in the water. Worse when it's small as surfers who have no idea go out and create mayhem. Over 6' it's too big and rolls through from miles out.

The Russians get there a lot though, and hold a comp there around October which can see you having to deal with inexperienced surfers breaking every rule in the book, they are a problem.

Ex-pats are a crusty lot at first glance, but after meeting them about 200 times they start to soften up and always have a story to tell.

Wave can be really good, but hasn't lined up as often in recent years. Right hander much steeper and faster than the left, the rivermouth better again.

But the water is nearly always murky, and at best you can still see your feet while sitting on the board but not much further underwater, but after any rain it just goes brown and full of debris, and yes, an annual shark bite has been recorded for about the last 5 years.

Depending on swell frequency, it doesn't take too much of a crowd to become annoying just to get a wave.

Have a bit of a love hate relationship with it. Have had some glorious sessions out there, and many really frustrating ones. The thing most likely to get me back there is the number of people I know there now, Aussies who get over there at the same time as me, local ex-pats and the Balos who live there. And always meet some new people there from Oz and elsewhere that makes the trip even better.

And the vibe in the water is rarely aggressive, which is a must for me. I refuse to travel somewhere so that I can hassle with aggro tourists, thats what my local is for.

But yeah, not so much this time of year.

Hey what's the swell / wind sitch there around late Oct - early nov?

why is the water so brown around kuta-canguu???

It has that particular aroma of "flood water" which i learnt so well during a particular time during north coast and I don't want to sound like a chump but I spent 5 days surfing the Seminyak stretch about 4 weeks ago and have to say I was quite surprised at the walls that kept rolling in and draining hard and fast on the shore banks. Had so much fun......

why is the water so brown around kuta-canguu???

It has that particular aroma of "flood water" which i learnt so well during a particular time during north coast

I spent 5 days surfing the Seminyak stretch about 4 weeks ago and have to say I was quite surprised at the walls that kept rolling in and draining hard on the shore banks. Had so much fun......