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Jul 02, 2018

Rip Curl Cup Surfers Gather in Bali as Potential Contest Swell Looms

An A-list of tuberiding specialists gathered at Padang Padang beach on Sunday for the opening ceremony of the Rip Curl Cup 2018. And a potential “green light” swell could be arriving not far on their heels.

The invited surfers came from as far and wide as Ireland, Australia and Brazil to bless the event with good waves, a safe competition, and officially christen the start of the holding period to the one-of-a-kind tuberiding invitational. The surfers also learned who they will compete against in Rounds 1 and 2. The Rip Curl Cup competition format in 2018 will see no surfers eliminated after Round 1. Instead, surfers’ two highest wave scores from Rounds 1 and 2 will be combined. The eight surfers with the highest two-wave total from Rounds 1 and 2 will move on to the semifinals.

“To me, it’s all luck,” said two-time Rip Curl Cup Champion Lee Wilson (IND). “Everyone in the event surfs amazing, and if it runs, the wave is going to be amazing, so we’ll just see whose day it is when the waves come. The wave chooses the champion.”

A record crowd gathered at Padang Padang to watch the presentation and meet and greet with the 16 invited surfers – 8 of Indonesia’s best and 8 of the world’s top tube riders. The opening ceremony marks the first day of the one-month event waiting period (July 1st – 31st), and means that all 16 invited surfers are now on-call to be at Padang within 24 hours notice if and when event directors decide to give the green light to run.

The opening ceremony was capped off with the traditional Balinese kecak dance performance, to ask the Balinese gods for permission to hold the contest at this sacred spot and for a massive Padang swell to arrive during the waiting period. Safe to say, the surfers were also praying for a few 10-point barrels and a Rip Curl Cup trophy.

“Surfing and soccer are the two biggest sports in my country,” said Brazilian invitee Bruno Santos. “Everyone is watching Brazil in the World Cup right now, hoping they can win back the title. It would be my dream to bring home that beautiful Rip Curl Cup trophy to Brazil at the same time.”

Several Rip Curl Cup swells are on the horizon according to official event surf forecaster Surfline, with the first pulse scheduled to hit Padang July 5th-8th. According to Surfline, “these overlapping swells will be quite ‘south’ at around 200 degrees, and partially to heavily shadowed for Padang.” The second and more significant contest swell is currently forecast to hit Bali on July 13th-14th, “with potential for a strong, long period SW swell” from an ideal westerly direction for Padang (225-210 degrees). Contest directors are monitoring these swells closely should they develop into the proper conditions to run the Rip Curl Cup 2018. Stay tuned to ripcurl.asia for the latest event status.

Following is the official heat draw for the first two rounds of competition at Padang Padang:

ROUND 1

Heat 1

Garut Widiarta (IND)

Mason Ho (HAW)

Agus “Blacky” Setiawan (IND)

Jay Davies (AUS)

Heat 2

Lee Wilson (IND)

Jack Freestone (AUS)

Mustofa Jeksen (IND)

Bruno Santos (BRA)

Heat 3

Mega Semadhi (IND)

Jack Robinson (AUS)

Alik Rudiarta (IND)

Gearoid McDaid (IRL)

Heat 4

Bol Adi Putra (IND)

Damien Hobgood (USA)

Mega Artana (IND)

Jacob Willcox (AUS)

ROUND 2