Thursday, September 18, 2008

Surfing in Borneo


Kudat "Tip Of Borneo"

Surf season:

Most or all surfing only can be found on the west coast of Sabah. Obviously it comes all from the bigger south china sea. From Late July till November we get the southwest monsoon. Occasional big storms pass by and we get waves between 3 - 6 foot in Tanjung aru which is only 15 min drive from KK city. But the waves gets bigger if you travel further up north like towards Nexus up to Kudat.From December up March the wind changes to the Northwest Monsoon, and the swells starts coming in more frequently, but size varies alot from 2 feet to 8 foot. During this time most of the swells will be hitting Nexus and further up north to kudat. KK Area will be protected by the Islands so they wont be much.

Tanjung Aru- 10 mins away from Kota Kinabalu City

Where to Surf:

During the southwest monsoon and the occasional typhoon that hits KK, most of the local surfers will head down to Tg Aru Beach after work. Its only 15 mins drive from downtown. Tg Aru is one of the easiest spots to surf especially if you are a beginner. The swells if its really good, it can go up to 6ft but that's rare. Most of the time it's 3- 4 ft when its surf-able. Many times though the waves can be disappointing, so if you in KK and you want to try Tg aru don't expect too much.
As most of the local surfers know the best and nearest place to surf will be in Karambunai in front of Nexus Resort beach area. You can get some good long left breaks caused by the live corals at the bottom. It can create waves for beginners to advance. You can also get good breaks at the beach area whereby the bottom is sand. Currents here can be strong.
The problem about Nexus is you can only surf there if you are an in house guest and there's only 1 resort there and rooms you can expect to pay between RM350 and above. But if you got a group of 4 and if you want to save $ just share 1 room because most of the rooms are big. So if you decide to stay in Nexus resort you can just take a taxi from airport direct to Nexus and yes taxis in KK are expensive, all taxis know where it is, cost is maybe rm70.00 for 30 mins traveling time. For bookings always informs us as we got friends working (also a surfer) there so sometimes if there's any promotions we could inform you.
Another way is we get a group of surfers to share a boat and head up the coast to nexus. Boat charter will cost between rm300- rm400 per day. It takes about 25 min by boat from the KK jetty. So it depends on your budget whether you rather stay in Nexus or KK.
In KK there's alot of backpackers lodge and good 3 star hotels. B&B cost rm25 a night and 3 Star about rm180.00 Kudat is the next best spot. It has good left beach breaks. The wave there is fast. The only problem is distance. It takes 3 hour dive from K.K to Kudat. The beach is open to everyone. You can stay at the local longhouse for rm25 per night which is situated right in front of the beach. But the accommodation is very basic. Its a half hour drive to kudat town. I started bodyboarding in about 1990 and switch to surfing about 1998 after I went to Bali and got my own board. Most of my bodyboard buddies left the scene and back then I didn't see or hear any surfers around so I stopped. I only started to really surf again when I met Charles and Kanesh which was in 2005. Now the group has grown to about 10 really passionate surfers and about 2 bodyboarders. We have a pro too, English dude who use to work in a surf school, I knew him 5 years ago but I only found out he's a surfer last year. Occasionally there’s 5 or more beginners who comes and joins us once in awhile when the surf is easy for them to handle. But overall the surf scene in KK is very small, but at least now people are noticing due to the benefits of facebook and etc. Surf boards and acc we order or get friends to buy coming from overseas like Bali or Australia and sometimes KL. Nothing in KK except for Quicksilver shop which don't sell anything but very expensive clothes. But we do have a ding repair man who runs a fiber glass shop.


These are the other surf spots we have been to but we think there are many more we haven't discovered yet.
1. Shabandar Tuaran. Swell can go up to 8ft, often strong currents. Easily accessible. Watch out for flies and cow dung on the beach! Lol!




2. Kota Belud. Swell height up 10ft, strong currents. Easy access. Beach is very isolated so make sure there's few of you when heading up there. Not much trees around, so it can be hot. Be friendly to the local villagers and strictly no dating on this beach otherwise you'll piss-off the villagers...


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey man! We are going to Borneo next week so I've been reading your blog to get some good tips where to go. Do you know if it's possible to rent surfboards from anywhere next to any surf spots in Borneo? And do you have any idea if there's gonna be any waves in next 4 weeks?
If you can let me know to my mail,
(maatta.tuomas@gmail.com)
I'd be more than happy!
thanks!

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