Raditya “The Bull” Rondi charges to first ISC Tour victory at the Rip Curl West Sumbawa Pro
West Sumbawa, Indonesia – Raditya “The Bull” Rondi (Kuta, Bali) earned his first ever Indonesia Surfing Championship Tour victory Friday at the 2009 Rip Curl West Sumbawa Pro. Rondi outdueled last year’s champion, Rahtu Suargita (Kuta, Bali), in a thrilling display of high stakes tube riding at the contest venue, a heavy, extremely shallow lefthand reefbreak somewhere in West Sumbawa. Semifinalists Wayan “Gobleg” Suyadnya (Uluwatu, Bali) and Made Awan (Sanur, Bali) finished in equal third place.
For his maiden tour win, Rondi, 20, will take home a 20 million Rp (2,000 US$) first place prize and earns him 3,500 ISC tour point, likely ascending him into the top three on the tour ratings.
“I’m so happy to get my first win,” Rondi said after being mobbed by a crowd on the beach and doused with water and Coca-Cola. “I surfed in the contest here last year and lost in the quarterfinals.”
Rondi’s magical moment was nearly spoiled early on in the final when he snapped a fin off his board on his opening wave. After falling on the wave, Rondi had to sprint paddle to the channel to grab his spare board.
“I was lucky I still had a lot of time left,” he said.
After that, Rondi went to work. He showed no fear, pulling into several deep tube sections over patches of reef that were nearly dry on the extreme afternoon low tide. His first double barrel wave earned him a 8.5 and left Suargita comboed and looking for a pair of sevens to try and salvage his campaign for a repeat at the West Sumbawa Pro.
Suargita appeared a bit fatigued after surfing in an extremely tight semifinal heat right before the final. Suargita won his semi in the final 60 seconds by pulling out all the stops and riding his last wave into the shallow lagoon. It won him the heat, but also left him stuck on the razor sharp reef, peppered with sea urchins to boot. It took him until the start of the final to make it off the dry reef and his feet took a beating.
“Everybody knows I tried hard,” Suargita said after congratulating Raditya. “I knew it was now or never to get into the final, so I went for it. To paddle out there with my friend Raditya for the final, we’re on the same team, we have the same sponsor, so I’m real happy for him. We had fun out there and that’s all that matters.”
Goofyfooters reigned supreme in the morning’s quarterfinal heats. Right foot forward surfers Raditya “The Bull” Rondi (Kuta, Bali), Rahtu Suargita (Kuta, Bali), Wayan “Gobleg” Suyadnya (Uluwatu, Bali) and Made Awan (Sanur, Bali) all emerged victorious and punched their tickets to the semis.
The contest moved back to the main break, the morning swell promising what everybody hoped for. 3-4 foot left hand barrels just had to do for the final showdown. “We are going to get this thing done today, it´s on,” Contest director Pete Matthews said in the morning. The contest was to be postponed till next week´s big swell hit, but with conditions looking so good this morning, another call was made.
The first heat fired off at 8 a.m. with Pepen Hendrik versus Made Awan. With peeling waves over the reef it looked as if it was going to be a tube riding hack fest. Pepen Hendrik looked like he was going to pull off the competition with his mad back hand attack, putting power in the pockets and flying down the lines he scored some good points. Made Awan wasn´t an easy opponent, pulling off airs and combining them with smooth stylish turns he equalized his score and took the lead by 1.5 points. In the last minute Pepen took off on a perfect wave for his score, but only got a 5.5. “He missed his chance on the last wave,” said Contest judge Mark “Boonga” Clift. “He had the goods but read the wave wrong.”
Next up it was Raditya and Devis that took it on in a 25 minute battle of the best. Waves were still coming through and looking good and both surfers had the chance to take it to the semi finals. Again the heat was a regular foot up against a goofy. Both Raditya good on his front hand and Devis on his back it looked to be good show. Raditya decided to stay in the inside and use the chance to rack up some good points. With massive turns and big sprays he managed to outshine Devis, who was waiting for a good wave to use his priority on. He didn’t get lucky and never caught his anticipated wave. Raditya caught one wave after another and impressed with style and power and easily racked up enough points to move on to the semis where he would meet Made Awan.
In the third round it was the defending champion, Rahtu Suargita, up against Tai Graham. Rahtu decided to go with Raditya’s tactic and got busy in the inside, while Tai decided to wait for the day’s bomb to come through. Sitting on his priority just like Devis before, Graham went for the chance of catching the big boy to score some big points. Rahtu racked up the points and comboed his way through the waves like a street fighter. He didn´t take a chance and gained as much distance from Tai as possible. Tai finally turned on the engine after 20 minutes but couldn´t get enough points to catch up to Rahtu’s lead. It was fair and square with the defending champion heading on to the semifinals.
With the last quarterfinal heat deciding who goes up against Rahtu, everyone was keen to watch the showdown. Wayan “Gobleg” Suyadnya went up against current ISC point leader Dede Suryana and pulled a huge upset. Both approached the heat with a different tactic. Dede relied on his big moves, busting big airs and turns, and even tried to land some impossibly big floaters. Gobleg at the same time used his experience and power to destroy the waves with big turns and big sprays, taking no chance and playing it safe. Everyone got a good show.
Gobleg tuned into a wave machine and easily managed to pull off some big points with his style. At the same time, Dede just didn´t land his mental moves and make the magic happen. Wayan “Gobleg” Suyadnya won the final heat with a 6.5 point lead over Dede Suryana.
