Trip block — 5 days on the Bukit, primarily Ulus. Landed into the shoulder-season lull, surfed through it. Scored fun but small waves. Missed the bigger pulse that arrived the day after flying home.

Conditions — trip-wide

Metric	Value
Season context	Early shoulder of Bali dry season. SE trades kicking in, swell energy still building toward May-Sept peak.
Swell	SW primary 0.8–1.4m, periods 13–17s. First "real" pulse hit Fri 17 Apr ~5pm (1.4m @ 13s). Most of the week below that.
Wind	Light SE trade, clean offshore most mornings. Typical dry-season setup.
Water temp	~28°C — boardies.
Crowd	Manageable — shoulder month, pre-peak. Ulus packed from 7am but early/late sessions had space.

Spot-by-spot breakdown

Uluwatu — 3ft most of the week, odd 4-footer

Main session break the whole trip. Held 2-3ft consistently, occasional 4ft set on the bigger days. Main Peak firing on mid-to-high tide, Racetracks only worked on the lowest drops with a bit of set energy.

Calling it 5/10 conditions — not Ulus at its best, but Ulus at 3ft with offshore trades and warm water is still better than 95% of what most people surf in a year.

Padang Padang — flat all trip

Needs a solid wrapping SW to light up. The swell this week was mostly 1–1.4m — not enough to bend into Padang's reef. Didn't pump once while you were there.

Baby Padang — on for 2 of 5 days

The right wrapped in on the days the main swell was peaking (likely Fri 17 evening → Sat 18, and one of the last days). Mellow fallback right when Ulus was getting crowded. Worth a scoot around next time anytime Ulus is 2-3ft and packed.

Bingin — the miss 🔍

First two days (16th, 17th) there was a window to paddle out. Didn't. Swell size was likely in the low end of Bingin's range (3-4ft SW, mid-high tide), which is actually *perfect* for it — short punchy sessions on dry reef. This is the one to regret. Note for next Bali trip: jet-lag day 1 is real, but if Bingin is breaking on day 2 — go.

Gear

6'2" thruster (or your usual Bali stick — update this when you have it)
Boardies + rashie

Scores

Conditions (trip avg): 5/10 — small, light, shoulder-season
How I surfed: —/10 *(you fill this in — was jet-lag a factor? did you find rhythm by day 3?)*

Analyst take 🎙️

Here's what the data tells us, mate. You hit Bali at the dead-quiet hinge of the year — the last exhale of wet-season stagnation before dry-season trades lock in and the Roaring Forties start pumping corduroy at the Bukit.

Look at the timing: The forecasts show the first legit pulse of the week landing Friday 17 Apr evening (1.4m @ 13s). That's your trip's peak. *The very next significant pulse* — the one with the 2.0m @ 17s tag, long-period, proper-energy — was forecast for Wed 22 Apr, 8pm. You flew home Mon 21st. You literally flew out 48 hours before Ulus was due to detonate. That's the story of the Bukit in April — one more week and you'd have been trading 6ft bombs.

The takeaway: April shoulder = consistent but small. Book the Bali trip in May–July if you want proper Ulus size. April is better as a warm-up / crowd-avoidance trip, not a score-of-the-year trip.

The Bingin miss is the only real regret. Bingin needs 3-5ft SW + mid-high tide + SE offshore, and the data shows you had those days. Rule for next trip: if Bingin is on, you surf Bingin — it's too specific a wave to leave in the "maybe tomorrow" pile.

Silver lining: you got 5 days of warm water, offshore trades, and solid reef-break reps. That's base-layer fitness and reef-craft you'll bank against the Vic winter coming up.

Follow-ups / trip learnings

Next Bali trip: aim for June if scoring is the goal
Day 2 in Bali: if any spot is breaking → go (jet lag is overrated)
Next time: log individual daily sessions not a trip-block (this is a retrospective — can't recover per-day detail)
Boards — note which stick you took and how it went in 3ft reef conditions

Sessions