Elite surfers compete in world championship in Bali

Posted by Umi Haroh on 21st June, 2013

You might be quite confident of your skill to ride some waves on your surfboard after you managed to pull off a trick move, yet have you wondered what it takes to beat the professional surfers such as Kelly Slater from America?

Fortunately, the heat of world surfing championship is up for the following weeks in Bali, where 35 elite surfers are competing in the Association of Surfing Professional’s (ASP) World Championship Tour (WCT) event hosted by the Oakley Pro Bali.

The competition runs from June 18 to June 29, with its main venue located at Keramas beach, Bali, just a short drive northwest from Denpasar.

This will be one of the rare occasions that a world-class surfing championship is held on the island; the last time Bali saw an event of such caliber was during the Rip Curl Pro Search back in 2008.

To anticipate such an event The Jakarta Post Travel has provided some travelers tips to guide you.

Keep close tabs on the weather:

The competition has already started, but do not worry about missing much of the action because the event really depends on the weather, which means bringing some good waves. During the 12-day period the competition is only held on around four to six days.

The venues and where to stay:

Technically, the Gianyar area is the nearest town to Keramas beach, northwest from Denpasar. However, since the event very much depends on the weather, the organizers have chosen Canggu beach, to the east of Denpasar, as its back-up venue.

You would not want to be stuck in Gianyar when they decide to use Canggu as the venue for one of the days, as it will be quite a long way to drive. So, the best place to stay would be the Sanur area in Denpasar.

Sanur is a quite well-developed tourist spot with nice lodgings available. Furthermore, Keramas Beach is a relatively short distance from Sanur. Some of the notable places available in Sanur are the Pondok Ayu, the Sudamala Suites& Villas, as well as the Bali Hyatt from the famous hotel-chain and the Puri Santrian.

How to get there:

Keramas beach is located on Jl. Prof. Ida Bagus Mantra, a big road north of Sanur that you can find at the north-end of Jl. Ngurah Rai Bypass. If you take the route from Sanur, Denpasar the traffic there will be relatively less congested. While on the road pay attention to the green road signs and banners put up by the organizers.

Please be advised that Keramas beach is not displayed on the green road signs; you should follow the directions to Masceti beach as it is the closest destination to Keramas beach.

You will have to make a U-turn when driving from the south, and the banners will be a big help to tell you where to do it. The competition is based at the Komune Beach Club in Keramas beach.

Do check the Oakley Pro Bali website often; as we indicated earlier, regarding weather dependency, the competition will not take place every day. They will be announcing updates almost every hour on whether the competition gets the green light to go on, or whether they have decided to redirect the venue to Canggu beach – or even to have no contest at all.

The webcast:

If you happen to be one of the many unfortunate surf-enthusiasts unable to witness the event live, Oakley have set up a live webcast streaming service on their website that will display every event as it happens. This way, you can at least see the awesome waves that we have here in Bali and how the elites are enjoying it.

For those unlucky enough not to attend the first round of the competition, here are some details that we have gathered for a recap.

Round 1 of the pro-level competition happened on its very first day –there are no eliminations yet at this stage because the winner in each of the 12 heats will advance directly to round 3, while the others will compete again in round 2.

Day 1 of Oakley Pro Bali started up with amazing action from the contestants. There were a few surprises, such as Kelly Slater, the winner of WCT’s fourth event in Fiji, having to go through round 2 after being bested by fellow United States pro surfer Damien Hobgood.

The locals were excited at that time because there was an Indonesian representing the country at the WCT.

He is Oney Anwar, who put in a promising performance that almost beat ASP’s third-ranked pro-surfer, Jordy Smith, in heat 4.

“I am really stoked to be here. To enter the WCT is a very hard thing, and I am really proud,” Oney said during the event’s opening press conference a day before the competition started.

Oney, an 18 year old Sumbawa-born surfer, has been seriously practicing surfing for 13 years, and in 2007 he moved to Australia to train under the banner of Rip Curl team. This will be his second WCT after he got a Wild Card for Rip Curl Pro 2013 event in Bells beach, Australia.

The event is not only for the pros; other competitions are also being held for Oakley Pro Bali, such as Oakley Surf School Championship (OSSC) the national-level surfing competition, which features seven surf teams from surf shops based all across the United States.

With this much excitement, there is definitely going to be a lot of action happening in Bali. Hopefully, we will see many crazy surfing tricks being pulled-off by the elites, like 360-snap, barrel rolls, bottom turns and others.

Last changed: 21st June, 2013 at 1:55 PM