Damar, one of the best surf guides on the Indonesian island of Lombok, feels right at home taking tourists out to sea.
With his fluent English and effortless banter, you would never guess what was his childhood fear: foreigners.
When I was 10 or maybe seven, I used to cry - I used to just pee in my pants when I saw white people, Damar, now 39, tells the BBC.
That diffidence waned as the laidback island he calls home slowly found its popularity among Western travellers.
Just east of Bali, Lombok boasts the same azure beaches and stunning views as its famous neighbour, but without the exasperating crowds. Lombok's beaches are still a hidden gem among surfers, as is Mount Rinjani for hikers. Travel sites still liberally use the word untouched to describe the island as they offer reasons to venture beyond Bali.
So it should come as little surprise that the Indonesian government has sensed the opportunity to create another lucrative tourist haven on the sprawling archipelago.
The mission is to create more Balis - and Lombok will be one of them.
For islanders, this promise of Balification is a welcome opportunity but they are also wary of what it brings.
And the change has already begun to hit home in more ways than one.
The makings of a tourist magnet
The drive to transform Lombok is part of a wider effort to lure travellers away from Bali, which has for decades played an outsized role in Indonesia's tourism industry.
The island makes up less than 1% of the country's land area and less than 2% of its 280 million-plus population. Yet last year it accounted for nearly half of all visitors to Indonesia.
But increasingly Bali's unrelenting traffic and pollution - a direct result of its success as a top tourist pick- are leaving those very tourists disappointed with what has long been touted as the last paradise.
As it turns out, that elusive paradise lies just an hour's boat ride away.
More and more travellers are catching on to Lombok's appeal. Last year, 81,500 foreign tourists touched down at its airport, a 40% jump from the year before - still, a far cry from the 6.3 million foreigners who flocked to Bali.
Eager for Lombok to follow in Bali's footsteps, Indonesian authorities have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, along with a $250m loan from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The cost of paradise
A stone's throw away on the beach of Tanjung Aan, cafe owner Kartini Lumban Raja told the BBC that locals there don't want to be 'organised' like Kuta.
When beaches start to look like Kuta, they lose their charm. We lose opportunities. We lose natural beauty, she said.
In Kuta, a popular town in Mandalika, scrappy surfers' hostels have been replaced by a mosaic of chlorinated pools and plushy sunbeds. While authorities are hailing it as Lombok's success story, some see a cautionary tale.
Authorities said the project will create jobs and boost the local economy. But that's little consolation for stall owners like Ella and her husband Adi, who have sold coconuts and coffee on the beach for the past three years.
Thousands of people here depend on [coastal land] for their livelihood, Adi said. Where else are we supposed to go to earn a living?
The government should ensure tourism development brings welfare to a lot of people, instead of just bringing tourists to Lombok, says Sekar Utami Setiastuti, of Bali.
No matter where that search leads, a new era has dawned on Lombok.
As excited as she is about her prospects, she is also a little wistful as she recalled life before the hustle. I miss the past, but we like the money.
