At 5:30 a.m., the place looked like any other resort on the coast of Bali, Indonesia. Empty pools, a vacant dining hall, and the curtains on every room closed so tight that light would think twice before entering.
By 5:45, the camp woke up. Before the sun had risen, people poured café lattes and demolished bunches of bananas before wriggling into wetsuits and hauling pastel surfboards into vans.
As I watched this structured chaos from a sofa in the café, it hit me that this was no usual holiday — and certainly no usual work trip. At this surf camp, people flew in from as near as Singapore and as far as Moscow to learn to ride the waves and find community with total strangers.
This fall, I spent five days at the surf hotel, called Wavehouse, to better understand why people are flocking to adventure travel, particularly solo.
Wavehouse — and similar camps that dot Southeast Asia’s vast coastlines — attracts a motley crew of white-collar workers, digital nomads, and even families looking for a sporty escape.
The days aren’t all salt water.
After we wrapped up in the ocean at 3 p.m., we reviewed surf footage and laughed at each other, talking about life and careers back home over tropical brunch. Daily activities, like a movie or barbecue night, provided more bonding options. Group excursions to Bali’s famous temples — and infamous beach clubs — were part of the fun.
After a week, I walked away with sunburn and coral scrapes. I also found an appreciation for how dipping your toes into something new can revive passion for a career you always wanted, invigorate a job search, a startup idea, and even a back-home identity.
This is a selection of my fellow surfers’ stories:
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