Padang Padang is one of Bali’s best waves tucked just around the corner from Uluwatu. The vicious hollow left is also dubbed ‘The Bali Pipeline’. It needs a pretty decent amount of swell to break and at 6-8 foot every rising surf star in Bali will be putting on a show for the cameras in the channel.
Yesterday was Day 1 of the Rip Curl Padang Padang Classic, and the already small take off area just got smaller – with an unexpected visitor overnight, Ho Tsai Fa No.18, a controversial illegal fishing boat has launched itself up onto the world class surf break – bang-on the start of the wave. Oh my…of all places. All day the ship was unloading its cargo of huge Tuna in an attempt to lighten the load – we think there is no chance of getting it off for a while – if ever – as there aren’t many high tides soon – and the Bali rescue consisted of 3 long boats with short ropes and 40hp Yamahas. Not going to happen.
In all seriousness let’s hope they haven’t damaged the reef as this disgusting boat sits high and dry. We just can’t work out how the skipper, Tsai Wen-chen, got it so wrong – see the winds blow offshore all day up there – so he must have drove it onto the reef. But I see they’ve been having problems on the boat – Taiwanese officials have been looking for the boat since June 26 this year and have prompted fears that the boat might have been taken over by its mutinous Indonesian crew…
After doing 5 minutes research into the Taiwanese vessel this is not the first time it’s been in trouble – famous for illegally catching sharks and was once caught with 60,000 kilograms of shark fins in Costa Rica in Nov 2003. Lets hope Ho Tsai Fa No.18 doesn’t sail again.
::uge in Bali.
diese insel war ein erlebnis für uns: im schmalen einlegerboot bei der hinfahrt fische gefangen, die unsdann auf der insel gebraten wurden – himmlisch