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Bali proved to be a fickle beast for Carl Ferreira on his recent mission there, but he still had a wild ride, caught some epic waves, and put on a good show for the local monkeys.
Bali has always had a spot on the map for surfers chasing perfect waves and smoothie bowls – but I went there with a slightly different plan: to kite. And not just to kite the usual spots. I wanted to see if some of the more remote, surf-heavy corners of the island could work for a kite mission. Well, some of them did. Some of them nearly didn’t. Most of them were borderline ridiculous…
Take Nyang Nyang – it’s a beautiful spot, postcard-worthy, but getting there with kite gear? Absolute nightmare… It’s basically a cliff with the beach a long way down at the bottom. Add in 15kg of kite equipment, 30°C heat, and a few confused monkeys watching you sweat your way down, and you’ve got yourself a full-body workout before you’ve even pumped your kite. And let’s not even mention the walk back up…
When we finally made it to the beach, the wind was… well, let’s call it optimistic – just enough to keep the kite in the air, but definitely not enough to make anything easy. Meanwhile, eight-foot sets were unloading on a shallow reef. Perfect. Still, I managed to sneak a few rides, dodging boils and hoping my fins didn’t find dry reef. There’s something kind of fun about it, when everything’s borderline unrideable and you’re out there anyway. It’s sketchy, it’s stupid, but when you do manage to link a section and throw a turn, it feels epic
We hit a couple of other less-known spots too – names not included for obvious reasons. The wind was light across the board, but when you’ve got waves and a few good friends to laugh with when it all goes wrong, that’s all you need. Some days we just surfed instead, and honestly, that became a big part of the trip.
Bali’s a strange one for kiting. It’s not easy. It’s not consistent. But when it does line up, it’s wild. You’re riding waves in front of cliffs, temples and jungle. There’s something surreal about kiting while locals watch from the cliffs, holding incense, as a monkey tries to steal your GoPro. This trip wasn’t about scoring the best conditions – it was about trying, failing, and occasionally winning. About making it work, even when it didn’t. And about remembering that sometimes the best sessions aren’t the cleanest ones – they’re the ones you didn’t think were possible at all…
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