Chapter: 6
The Fortune Seekers
At Play in the Fields of Allah
![Young Balinese surfers, mid-'80s](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/eed6e79709a08b6a5b47fb515a661f2b28e78761-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Young Balinese surfers, mid-'80s
![Tony Blinkworth, Grajagan, 1977](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/ef6cb783a678242e504abdd56dab3ae90116c0d3-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Tony Blinkworth, Grajagan, 1977
![Mike Boyum (right) and Lopez, boating to G-land](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/55f9a3f97e4837ccb01996edfa3773e315cef00b-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Mike Boyum (right) and Lopez, boating to G-land
![Balinase surfer Made Kasim. Photo: Jason Childes](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/16974f0f670decde44a8d71d1d63925dcf2d6e56-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Balinase surfer Made Kasim. Photo: Jason Childes
![Jim Banks, 1983](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/954f101992c276df302b07ddd224a484e6e75ab1-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Jim Banks, 1983
To surfers in the early '70s, Indonesia meant Java, which in turn meant Third World urban poverty in Jakarta, coup attempts, student riots, Communist purges, and a stone-faced dictator in sunglasses and a military dress uniform.
Decades after Uluwatu was first surfed, when surfers were jacked to their computers and a lot faster with their credit cards, the sport developed a swarming reaction to the latest perfect-wave discovery. One week after a 2006 contest webcast from an incredible never-before-seen Mexican pointbreak, no less than a 100 surfers flew in to catch the next good swell. Reaction times were slower in the 19...
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