Its that time again! Its school holiday!!! At least its a holiday for kids while it means 24/7 work for stay at home moms. Haha. I remember seeing those cartoons about how a mom looked pretty primed and proper before school holiday (since they have a bit of time for themselves while the kids are at school ;-D) and turn MOMSTER during school holiday. Haha. It isn’t a pleasant scene I tell ya. :-D. Anyhow, you know who is all excited for no school? That one little boy I have name Emir or Saripdol we call him. Is it a typical boy symptom where all boys care in this world is play, play and play? and girls are more focus and result oriented? Well, he is the most happiest because he doesn’t need to wake up in the morning to go to school.
Anyhow back on the school holiday topic, initially we were not planning to go anywhere because most of our trips are normally plan last minute or ad hoc basis due to their bapak’s tight schedule. Since he have like a 3 days off window so we decided to go to Bali. I LOVE Bali. I’ve been to Bali for our honeymoon way back in 2016. I fell in love with it. There is something magical and beautiful about the place that calls you to go back there again. Since our trip is really short, we plan to just chill and relax at the villa and do minimal activities. There are actually plenty of activities you can do in Bali with kids such as cycling trip at the paddy fields, visit the Bali Zoo, go to the Safari, horse riding, water rafting and many more however we decided to try out surfing! Since surfing is also one of the things I have in my bucket list, might as well I take this opportunity! Luckily I can do this with my kids. The kids have always love water. I took them swimming since they were 3 months old. My friends call them water babies! Except for Athiyyah or #ciksalmah we call her. This one is a little different. Haha.
So upon arriving in Bali I did some research in the internet on available surfing lesson. There are plenty of surfing school offered. The most popular and commercialize is the RipCurl surfing school however there are also plenty of surfing school conducted by the locals. You can do your research and choose the cheapest or one that you like. As for me, I opt for MySurf which I found in Airbnb. Just type Bali in the search box (1) as shown in the picture below and click on “experience” (2) and it will take you to the activities you can do at the place.
Since I have kids, the lesson will be private which means the kids will have their own private instructor. I paid Rp. 300k for 2.5 hours lesson. The normal lesson for adult with sharing instructors are typically around Rp. 150k per person. So MySurf isn’t one of the cheapest out there however why I choose MySurf is because the pictures taken are so nice and the instructor will spent 2.5 hours with you instead of 1.5 hours offered by other surfing school. You can check them out on Instagram as well as picture shown below.
There are 2 session conducted everyday either in the morning or evening. We took the one in the morning so we can spent the rest of the day on other stuff later. However if we have the chance to go surfing again I want to try the evening lesson so we could catch the beautiful sunset. What’s included in the package are;
- Local pickup and return for area in Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Canggu.
- Surfing board
- Free surfboard use after class
- Private area sunbed & bean for relaxing
- Shower & Toilet
- Photo
Our lesson starts at 8am and pick up was at 7am. The driver was very punctual and quite proactive confirming with us the day before. However sad news to the kiddos though. They need to wake up really early. But they were all so excited and it was no trouble at all to wake them up. The journey to Legian beach took about 30 minutes more or less from Canggu depending on the traffic. Once arrived we were so excited to see the beach and the waves are huge. Huge for us though cos we Malaysians don’t have high waves. Immediately the kids were assign to their designated instructor.
Before start surfing, they will conduct surf safety and theory and beach practice for 30mins before going into the water. They will teach you the position before catching the waves and how to rise when catching the waves. The key is all about balance!
So here is the fun part. Its time to go in the wateeeeerrr!!!!! For parents who are concern, no need to worry because the water is quite shallow and the instructor will be with your kids the whole time and they wont take your kids too far. And surprisingly to me the kids manage to pick up surfing really quick. They did better than I did! haha. Just look at those smiling faces! The instructors were really patient with them and look like they had fun too. The kids went from one wave to the other and then some more waves non stop. Sometimes I wonder where they got all these energy from because the its not them who are tired, the instructors are! Haha.
As for me..hurrrmmmm I honestly don’t know what the heck I’m doing. Ok fine! I did manage to catch one and two waves but looking at the pics, lets see…. pics #1 seems like I’m dancing. Pic #2 look like a pregnant lady surfing and pic #3 well that’s what I was doing all the time. Falling! hahahaha.. But it doesn’t matter. Because what’s important is the experience and I had fun!
As for Athiyyah, well this one is a bit special. She hated the beach and scared of the waves. Shes not like her brother and sister who loves the beach so much that its hard to get them out from it! haha. So she just sits back and watch from afar, doing her own thang. Tadaaaaa!! Look at me. Sand all over her face, hair and body. As long as you’re happy gurrlll..
So we were done surfing around 12pm and sooo hungry. We had lunch at Puri Raja hotel restaurant just across the beach and the pizza was just the best. Really yummy. We sat at the table overlooking the beach and the view was spectacular. Good food, good ambience and nice breeze. Overall we really had an awesome experience. I would highly recommend this activity for family with kids. It is just not fun but the kids pickup new skill and instill confidence within. Therefore I end this story with a quote;
” Fill your life with experienced. Not things. Have stories to tell. Not stuff to show”
