Bali Belly - 2 words that on occasion, unfortunately, go together. It's unpleasant, there's a lot of sickness and diarrhoea, and it's a right of passage when travelling in Indonesia. While recovering from my travails it seems like the ideal opportunity to write my first piece on SUP Surfing in Bali.

Bali is a sub tropical paradise ( minus the belly issues!) Island in Indonesia. It is extremely culturally rich place with Hindu as the prevailing religion, so temples abound on every corner. Each house will have its own temple, along with with larger ones, it's no word of a lie to say that whichever direction you look in you will see a piece of spectacular religious architecture. Outside almost every building you will also see small offerings to the Hindu Gods which you will see put out every day.

The food is incredible and the people some of the friendliest you will ever have the chance to meet. It's easy to get to and every budget imaginable can be catered for, from Uber Luxury to traditional backpacking. Being a tight Yorkshireman, I will leave you to guess where on that scale I am choosing to stay. 

But what of the surfing?. The first destination was Canggu, about 30 minutes drive along the tiny moped infested roads from the chaos and madness that is Kuta. It's a pretty chilled place, yet with plenty of bars, cafes and surf shops. Plenty of beach bars to have a beer and watch the spectacular sunset too. The main breaks are Old Mans (Batu Balong), Echo Beach, Canggu and Perenenan. We surfed there when the waves were in the 6 to 10 ft range. 

By far the most SUP friendly wave is Old Mans, and the most popular break here by far. It is beginner heaven with an outer reef that then reforms several times before hitting the beach. For the more experienced surfer this means a ride of a few minutes with the odd paddle stroke here and there to link sections. For the beginner it means that you can find your level of wave required on the reforms , then move out to the next one to push yourself on further. I liken it to a Dry Ski Slope where you can get off the lift at various heights depending on your skill level.

Canggu is a pretty similar set up to Old Mans while Echo Beach is back into the high performance category with barrelling, wedgey waves. Even if it's no where near your level, sitting with a beer at beach bar and marvelling at the skills of the surfers here is always worth it.

The final break is Perenenan, the nearest to our accommodation and separated from the others via a small tidal river. Situated next to a magnificent giant Golden Hindu statue, it's a slabby reef of power. It jacks up quickly and explodes giving an intense ride. Some of the biggest waves of my life were here, along with plenty of the biggest beatdowns as well. The ratio of waves to teardown definitely in beatdowns favour!