Creating Komune
Good design is not just about structure—it’s about the emotional weight of space, rhythm, and silence.
Category:
Lifestyle/Travel
Author:
Greg Stolz
Read:
11 mins
Location:
Bali
Date:
Mar 27, 2018
With its world-class break and impressive facilities, including its ability to stage unique night surfing under lights, Komune is proving to be a destination of choice.
The holy white snake came slithering through the rice paddy next to the Balinese temple at just the right moment for Tony Cannon. It was 2008 and Cannon was scouring Bali’s East Coast for a block of dirt on which to build the Hotel Komune. A keen surfer, Cannon – the joint founder of Komune’s original Gold Coast namesake, at Coolangatta – had read a surfing magazine article about an awesome reef break that had recently been ‘discovered’ on the ‘island of the gods’, a long-time mecca for surfing pilgrims from around the world. It sounded like a prime spot for a surf resort that Cannon had long dreamt of developing in Bali. But as he gazed over the rice paddy, seeing no wave to write home about breaking on the volcanic sand beach beyond, he realised he was in the wrong spot.
Creating interaction that feels intuitive, considered, and emotionally aligned:
“I’d been coming to Bali for basically 30 years,” Cannon recalls, speaking to Ocean Road over frosty Bintangs in the Beach Bar of his now-realised dream hotel. “I started surfing up at Ulus (Uluwatu) and remember seeing the land jump in price from ten grand to 50 grand,” he says. “Then, going back ten years later, it was like $1 million-plus. I remember reading this surf magazine story where (surf film-maker) Taylor Steele and (the late three-time world champion Andy Irons) were flying around Bali and found this magical wave on the east coast. I said to (wife) Alana ‘I’m going to get on the next plane over and see if I can find it’. Cannon flew to Bali the next day and hired a driver to take him up the coast.
“He was driving me around everywhere and took me up to this big temple, where they (the locals) were trying to sell me the land right next door, which is completely illegal – you can’t build on it,” he said. “Suddenly, I saw this white snake coming over the rice paddy next to the temple. As soon as I told the locals I’d seen the snake, their whole mindset changed. They got all goosebumps and stuff and said to me, ‘that’s the temple snake’. “Then other people came and started talking to me and asked what I was doing there. I told them I was looking for this spot called Keramas.” The locals pointed him about half a kilometre down the beach, where he entered a beachfront warung (traditional Indonesia stall). Inside, he met a local who told him his family owned the land and offered to take Cannon to the village to talk business. “I spent the whole day in the family home – they were like the head family in Keramas – and crunched a deal with them to buy the land,” he recalls. Cannon bought an initial plot and has since more parcels to expand the beachfront site where Komune now sits to 4.5ha. He had worked extensively with the late Gold Coast developer Brian Ray developing luxury ski accommodation in the Victorian snowfields, and wanted to do something similar but in a surf setting.
“Surfing has always been close to my heart and I wanted to develop something that was aligned to that passion – somewhere I could come with my family to holiday and do my job at the same time,” he says . “Coming to Bali for so long, I’d always seen a need for a place where the guys could surf but their families are really, really happy – not just a second thought. “The whole idea with this place was to make it somewhere where you can surf but your family’s really well looked after, with facilities such as the Day Spa, Kids Club and children’s playground. Komune is built around the concept of communing with your loved ones and friends.” Initially, Cannon says, he was planning a ‘small, low-key surfers resort’. But friend and business associate ex Fitness First CEO Tony De Leede, who owns the renowned Gold Coast health retreat Gwingana, was keen to come on board as a partner and the Komune concept grew. Tony has been instrumental in developing the fitness and wellness elements of the business . Former top professional surfer Luke Egan was also brought in to help deal with the sensitivities of developing a resort at a little-known break prized by Balinese locals.
