Jason Lunn.com/ Portfolio of a life…..

Today is a good day, my friend Skye (mentioned in a previous Bali blog) has been to the Uk to spend time with her family and enjoy the birth and first few months of her niece being born. Having decided that as a writer she finds Bali a productive place to collect her thoughts and put pen to laptop she has returned.

I had to say good bye to Johnny Rad yesterday as he has to return to England to renovate a flat. The swell is pumping this week and there will be good waves to be had all across Bali and the surrounding islands, however I have decided to come to Ubud and check out where Skye is staying, also update my blog with some stories and photos from my time in Balian with John Morgan Aka Johnny Rad.

Also it just so happens I scraped the reef with my chest and feet on a couple of occasions at Balian and I need to stay out of the sea for a few days as they are not healing so well and in Indonesia it is my experience now that small scrapes and cuts do not heal with daily surfing and start to turn into tropical sea ulcers as you can see below the one on me knee is..

Formation of a sea ulcer…

Sea Ulcer forming after 1 week of a small graze on Kuta Reef

Sea Ulcer after 10days of surfing every day

Me after 7 months in Asia surfing almost every day, 38 Years old

Basically Balian is a reef break with a sea bed of big round pebbles however some of them have sharp little barnacles all over them and unfortunately I scraped my chest on one getting out from a long surf one day. I took these photos yesterday in Ubud. The swell is pumping in Bali and I really want to surf but if I do not stay out of the sea and let them heal over they will just get deeper and deeper until they turn into puss filled scar tissue. Surfing, although it does carry small and sometimes large risks most days, has turned my torso into the physical condition and appearance that I am really quite pleased about as I approach the age of 40 and even if it does not stay this way for long I am glad to have captured it whilst it looked like this at least once in my life. My physical condition is important to me as I put my body through hell much of the time, body shape is not so important to me but I know that I always feel a lot better about myself and my self esteem feels higher when I am lean and trim. I will never forget the days of standing in Sainsburys and Tesco checkout queues in the UK watching assorted girlfriends eyes fixate on the black and white front covers of Mens Health magazine. I used to wonder what they were thinking and whether their thoughts were as wayward as mine are, when I see any kind of female with a great body. I remember vividly feeling and wishing my body could have looked like that… However I absolute hate going to any kind of gym and lifting weights so I decided to accept it wasn’t even going to get close. Since I have been surfing this year the daily exercise has been good to me on so many levels and has helped me increase my inner confidence every time I come back to the surface after being smashed around in the white water. l also feel a large increase in my sexual energy and other areas of acheivment and confidence each day. This feels good and I thank God for this as I do not want to be getting prescriptions for viagra in the near future.  Bottom line here is I was a podgy plump youngster and was called fat by my skinny friends and now whilst following the pursuit of fun and happiness all has reversed..they are now fat.

Reef Scrape about to turn into sea ulcers