Josh Ku made his extraordinary journey across the Bali Strait, and it was seriously underreported. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Josh Ku isn’t a guy who shies from a challenge. He’s the kind of guy who gets an idea in his head and instead of convincing himself of why it isn’t possible, he’ll convince himself that it is. And on June 27, 2025, he made history by completing a 58-mile, open-ocean crossing from Uluwatu on Bali to G-Land on Java on a stand-up paddle foil.
As you’d imagine, it wasn’t an easy endeavor. It was even harder than you’d imagine, though. Now, his journey has been made into a short film by Ku and Dane Wilson. Ku, an Australian who sunk his teeth into foiling a few years back, has made a real mark on the foiling community. His speciality, if one had to pick one, would be downwind foiling — using the wind swell to get him to his destination — and for this particular journey, he wanted to be in G-Land. So on the morning of the 27th, he set out from Uluwatu with a few notable surf explorers on his mind.
“Both historic surf spots founded in the ’70s by adventurous surfers such as Gerry Lopez and Peter McCabe,” he explained. “They inspired me to try something new; something that might not end in a glorious reward but instead end in failure — to trust your gut instinct and have a crack.”
The strait isn’t a calm one, and Ku knew that getting into it. But it was even more difficult to navigate than he expected, and it very nearly became the last adventure he ever had. “Downwind SUP foiling is one of the most demanding disciplines in watersports,” the filmmakers wrote, “requiring total self-reliance, deep ocean knowledge, and the ability to read constantly changing conditions.”
He’s no stranger to missions like this one, but Ku says Uluwatu to G-Land was the hardest thing he’s ever done.
“I was dealt a super difficult card being the hardest run I’ve ever done, making the Molokai to Oahu crossing in Hawaii seem like a walk in the park,” he wrote afterwards. “Battling tough conditions, huge seas, and dangerous currents, it was clear this was extremely dangerous and I had bitten off more than I could chew.”
He was accompanied by a safety vessel, but even that didn’t save him from a handful of serious issues, the most serious of which was getting separated from said safety vessel in the middle of the Bali Strait. But he’s got a great outlook on risk. “I think it’s important in this day and age that we do kind of roll the dice,” he said. “Because that’s living.”
