Desak, Berharap Pada Anak

Physically Desak is beautiful, energetic and attractive. This mother of 4 is busy looking after her three youngest children. “Yuki, my oldest child is already grown up so he’s not too much of a problem, but the other three are still in primary school and kindergarten so they need a lot of attention” she explained. Desak looks after them herself because she doesn’t really trust babysitters and she wants to be fully involved in their development. Not surprisingly all 4 of her children are very close to her. She also does the other household things such as cooking every day. This is different from when she was small as her parents left her a lot to work.

Her childhood caused her to grow up with many hopes and dreams. Because of financial reasons she had to work while she was going to school and as a child growing up near the beach she tried her luck selling on the beach at Kuta. “When I came home from school I would go straight to the beach to sell” she remembered.

This was where she became aware of surfing because she often saw tourists surfing and she hung out with surfers so it wasn’t long before she wanted to try surfing herself. Even though there weren’t any girl surfers back then, minimal facilities and her parents did not agree Desak still wanted to surf. She didn’t have her own board so everyday she had to find a way to borrow one from her friends or the beach boys who rented boards to tourists.

Eventually her boyfriend gave her a board of her own when she was 16. One of her unfulfilled dreams was to enter a contest and win. Back then there weren’t enough girl surfers to have their own contests. When a contest for girl surfers finally happened she was pregnant with her first child. “There was a contest when I was pregnant so I couldn’t enter..bad luck. But now I am so proud to see Yuki, it’s like my dreams are coming true through him. When he comes home from a contest with a prize I feel so happy” she said.

She considered giving up surfing because she was worried about her skin being dark. “Yeah, that’s teenagers, you want to look beautiful and my skin was so dark before. But no matter what don’t stop surfing, if the waves were good I would skip school” she remembered. Now the only reason not to surf is a practical one and even though she is a busy mother she never loses the urge to surf. The beach and the waves are like a magnet for her and any chance she gets Desak will get her board and go surfing. “Surfing makes me happy” she said.

Name : Dewa Ayu Nyoman Rai
DOB  : Kuta, 10 Feb 1971
Style  : Goofy
Board Size : 7’6