Bennetts’ Blog: The Shieldman Arrives

Words and photos: Adam Bennetts

The view from the boat is pretty good...

It was good to have a few days rest, after a big week of competition and travelling through east Indo, but there's only so many nights you can party before you get that itch to get some good waves again.

A random swell just sorta popped up on the charts mid week and it was a pretty decent looking one. Tai “Buddha” called me up and suggested we jump on a boat and go look up Bali's east coast. We assembled a team, which included four rigs and four of the boys, jumped on the boat in the morning at Sanur and went searching. I'm not even gonna say what we found, but it was good. I’ll leave it at that.

... The view on the boat is better! Check out the last time Bennetts went for a float on a boat.

That night, after a big day in the sun, I was out and about in Kuta and I bumped into Timmy Wright (eldest of the Wright clan) and he informed me that their youngest brother Mikey and he were in town for 10 days prior to heading over to France for the King of the Groms. The following day, ASL lens man Andrew “puts-ice-cream-on-everything” Shield flew in, so we all made a plan to get some work done.

Shieldsy was pretty lucky, as the morning after he got into town we all headed over to the east coast, and for two days in a row we scored 4-5 foot Keramas. We also ran into Brenno Dorrington and Sebastian Zietz, as they were also in town for about a week on their way to Azores in Europe for the next leg of the WQS.

Sea-Bass was also working on his Innersection part and, fuck me, he was ripping! We all saw that superman air reverse he pretty much stomped in his qualifying Innersection part, but this time he seemed to be working on something new. It was like a frontside alley-oop, but really tweaked, so he was basically going upside down. It was pretty nuts to watch.

This is what Bennetts and the boat crew found, but he can't tell you where this is ... stay tuned for the action shots.

After those two days of rippable Keramas, it was now Saturday night and Sydney DJ duo, the Bag Raiders, were in town and were playing a gig at this crazy new place up in Seminyak called 'Woo Bar'. It was a sunset session and it was so epic to watch the sun go down while listening to their tunes. Now I had never been to this place, as there wasn't really any parties there all year and also it's next door neighbour, Potato Head, seemed to be taking all the limelight, but this place is unbelievable!

He's a pretty funny character old Sea-Bass and I lost it when I saw him walk into the Woo Bar that night. It's probably the classiest place in Bali and there was Sea-Bass in thongs, a pair of boardies and a singlet that had the Pizza Hut logo on it, but the word Pizza was replaced by 'Pussy'. You can imagine the laughs going down.

Bag Raiders x sunset. An epic Bali beach colab. Photo: lifewithoutandy.com.

The Sunday was a bit of a lay day as we had to rest up for another night of madness up at Single Fin at Ulu's. Sunday sessions are probably one of my favourite things in the world and there is no better place then cliff side at Ulu's. I've said it before and I'll say it again but this place really is a gold mine. It's wall to wall with babes from all over the world and the good times just never stop.

On Monday, the swell dropped out and we all had our wobbly boots on that morning at Canggu after a fairly large night. The following day we did a bit of a mission up to some waves past Canggu and Mikey and I ended up getting some really fun ones with hardly anyone out. It really is amazing what you can find if you make that effort.

There is a couple of days of swell on its way and right now, the best kids in the world, under 21, are starting to filter into Bali for the first event of the ASP World Junior Championships. It kicks off next week at Keramas so stay tuned!

Bennetts

Sea-Bass sequence, as seen by Mr Andrew Shield.

To see Shieldsy's gallery of photos, click here.

Bennetts sent this photo through, and all it had for the file name was "Yum". So there's not much more we can tell you. Tasty Bag Raiders gig. Photo: lifewithoutandy.com

Like a vampire awakening for the night ... or something. Hot Indo babe about to bare her fangs. Photo: lifewithoutandy.com

Two Wrights don't make a wrong. Timmy, Mikey and Adam-y at Bag Raiders. Photo: Photo: lifewithoutandy.com.

Bali babes Tia and Julia. Photo: lifewithoutandy.com.

And then when there's not super sunset DJ parties by the beach Bennetts has to make do with good ol' Single Fin. It's a tough life, ain't it?

Too see more party shots from Bali and around the world, check out lifewithoutandy.com here.

And if you want to see ASL's Andrew Shield's gallery of photos from Bali, click here.