I'm in Bali. Flew in a couple days ago.
This pasted in from an email I just wrote:

Went out and surfed for an hour and a half or so. rented from some random guy on the beach (there are about 100 such guys on the beach), 5 dollars or so for 2 hours, he gave me a couple tips and sent me on my way (would have been happy to teach me for a price), after 30 minutes or so I felt like I was going to throw up I was so exhausted and had swallowed so much water. took a 15 minute break, went out for another 45, taking it easier, and nearly killing myself.

Surfing is like skiing would be, if you had to walk uphill while people pelted you with snowballs. at least that's how you have to start. to practice getting in the wave and standing up, you have to be in the shallows, where the waves have already broken, and just get them as they go by, trying standing, fall off, go out again, try again, maybe stand up for a few seconds, fall off, try again. the problem with this, is that you are either standing in chest deep water, or on the board, going out as wave after wave comes by (already broken, torrent of whitewater), this is relatively fine when you're on your own, but horrible when you have a 9 foot surf board that you have to get through these waves, over and over again. After 30 minutes of this, I was basically just completely dead. so I laid on the beach, got a drink, took 15 minutes or so, but I'd paid for 2 hours of this, so damned if I was going to stop now.

The thing is, all the good surfers go out once, sit on their boards past where all but the biggest waves break, and wait for their ride. then if they don't get it perfectly, they pull up and paddle 5 feet back to where they were. So only when they get a good ride to they have to face what I just faced. I decided I was going to do that, except without the waves. so I just paddled out once, laid and sat on my board for 20 or 30 minutes, out past the waves. it was nice, pleasant, took some time getting the feel and balance of the board, still fell off 10 times just sitting on it in the calm, so it was still a learning experience. the I decided I'd try taking wave, got a big one, just as I'm getting into it, my board is suddenly gone from under me, I'm alone and just crash down the wave and get, using the words of the guy who rented me the board, "laundered". basically I felt like i was going to be bent in half backwards, and probably wasn't that far from it. After that I sat out on the board a bit longer, then went in and took a few smaller waves, got a few pretty decent waves, felt pretty good about myself, brought my board up and laid on the sand for an hour or so.

Good times.

If I didn't hurt so many places, I might have gone out again this afternoon, as horribly as I did, and as awful as I felt after a while, it is addicting. I'm leaving this town tomorrow though, and from the looks of it, there's not really any other spots on bali where an idiot like me can surf without killing himself. If I had the right group of people around and some more time, I could see staying here for a couple of weeks and surfing, but I'm alone, and when I'm alone I just have to move on, wander the earth, searching for somewhere a little more beautiful. It's a heck of a beach here, it really is. huge beach, good sand, good surf (I found a good spot and went body surfing for an hour tonight), but it ain't beautiful. Going to another island tomorrow. Nusa Lembongan.