Café Hommage: Canggu's Best Ding Doctor

This is Aki. He's a Ding Doctor in Canggu, Bali. With his team, they're fixing an average of 35 boards per day. Why? Because he's the best. And he's in Canggu.

I got to meet him after my girlfriend got ridden over while doing a Turtle Roll on her brand new 7' Mid-Length one morning on the famous break called Old Man's here on the coast of the busy Town of Canggu. Some guy smacked his fins into her board in the white water which left not only a small thing but quite an open crack in her board. Good thing it was only her Board, could as well be a body part.

It's something that happens on a daily basis many times a day when you have hundreds of enthusiasts, from beginner to intermediate to advanced surfers on the same perfect waves. No wonder the photographer at the beach didn’t act like it was a big thing when she showed the damage to him.

Back at the store where Daniela bought her Board a couple of days ago, the local Surfer who works there, whitout hesitation, recommended that we bring it to Aki for repair.

Located on the road that leads to the infamous Short Cut, Aki welcomed us with his bright white smile. With the garage looking quite busy, which they always are, we were sure it'll take at least a few days to get the job done. To our surprise, once he checked the Board, making sure it didn't soak up water and defining the damage, he said it'll be ready in a day.

Aki talks very openly and generous about the work they're doing. After learning the craft from an elderly Australian, he and his Brother opened a Surfboard Repair Shop in Kuta. After working on countless Surfboards there and building a reputation, Aki decided to part business with his Brother and moved to Canggu where he opened his Shop „Ding Repair By Aki“ four years ago.

Sticking out in all the competition is not easy. But Aki picked the best of the best to work with for his Shop. „Every single Surfboard that comes in goes through my hand. I personally check it, assign it to the right repair guy and it’s not leaving my Shop before I make sure it is 100% the best work that can be done.“ tells me Aki. There are three guys in rotation doing the simple Ding repairs, simple dents, cuts from fins or damages from being crashed on a stone shore in the shore break. He especially hired one skilled Man who is responsible for repairing the Boards that have been broken in two pieces. A job that can’t properly be done by everybody, as there shouldn’t be any indifferences in weight from the original, unbroken Board.

Same goes with the painting and finishing. Boards, like my Girlfriends, that have a beautiful, distinguished color leave the store almost without any visible spot of where it was repainted.

„You can learn a lot of things online nowadays.“ says Aki. „And there are a lot of people repairing Surfboards at the lowest cost possible. But it’s not as easy as it might seem on a youtube Video. To repair Surfboards without compromising a weight difference or any optical indifferences take a lot of work and a lot of finesse and requires a lot of experience. We want to make sure, you’ll love your Surfboard as much when it leaves our Shop as you loved it when you first hold it in your Hand before it was damaged.“

With that being said we left Aki’s repair Shop. My Girlfriend holding her beloved Orange glowing Channel Island Surfboard in her hands, not believing how good of a job Aki and his Team were able to do.

Canggu, 29.03.2024

This Story was published in the WaveUp Magazine Issue #38

Café Hommage: Ma Chambre Noire (Lukas Bühlmann)

The craft of creating a Photograph, from choosing the right Film, getting your setting right, finding the light, waiting for a moment to unfold itself, developing the negativ, ends with the precise work in the darkroom. The work in the darkroom itself is a mastery. One of those masters is Lukas Bühlmann.

Balancing his job as a Teacher for children with special needs and being a Dad of (soon to be) two Kids, it’s not always easy to pursue a time consuming hobby as Photography.

Lukas is a humbling guy with a lot of patience. You can tell he’s passionate about what he’s doing.

His body of work “On & Above”, which captures a sense of loneliness in rather depressed moments of last years lockdown, can be seen at the La Buvette until the end of January. Of course every one of his pictures is printed in his own darkoom. For the final artistic approach he used 50 year old printing paper to give it that moody look on print.

Go see his “On & Above” work HERE until the end of January 2023.

And make sure you check out more of his work in his Instagram page here.

Appreciated Friendships: Clément Schwab

Clément and I first met a few years ago when I was working at a small, local Snowboard Shop. There was an instant connection and quickly we'd spend countless hours in the Mountains or having one - or maybe some more - Beers at our local Bar.

Today, a couple of years older, there are less Beers going down the drain but no less days spent on the Snowboard. An everlasting friendship as one will rarely find.

While most of us got into the struggle of self expression and starting our own thing, Clément worked his way up as our Go To Buddy when it comes to everything Smartphone or Tablet etc. related. Which paid him the expenses to go to unusual places with his Snowboard like Japan, Kosovo, the Himalayas or nevertheless on a Surfboat trip to the Maldives.

Always being fascinated by capturing those moments, it was an obvious step to pick up a camera and invested more time in this passion.

To create one of his first professional Videography projects, we traveled to Grindelwald in the Jungfrau Region to get some cool Shots to create a short commercial for Hermano’s Brew.

Thanks Clément for your never ending source of Motivation.

-This article was published in the Hermano’s Magazine Issue #1. You can read the whole Magazine for free here.

Clément and I first met a few years ago when I was working at a small, local Snowboard Shop. There was an instant connection and quickly we'd spend countless hours in the Mountains or having one - or maybe some more - Beers at our local Bar.

​Today, a couple of years older, there are less Beers going down the drain but no less days spent on the Snowboard. An everlasting friendship as one will rarely find.

Always being fascinated by capturing those moments, it was an obvious step to pick up a camera and invested more time in this passion.

To create one of his first professional Videography projects, we traveled to Grindelwald in the Jungfrau Region to get some cool Shots to create a short commercial for Hermano’s Brew.

Thanks Clément for your never ending source of Motivation.

Today, a couple of years older, there are less Beers going down the drain but no less days spent on the Snowboard. An everlasting friendship as one will rarely find.