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| Morehu and the Trophy |
Padang Padang, Bali – An elite group of tube riding specialists gathered at Padang PadangBeach on Sunday for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Rip Curl Cup. They came from as far away as Hawaii, California, England and Brazil to draw their heats and find out who they will surf against in the opening round of competition.
Amongst the impressive field of surfers was our own Morehu Roberts who will be
representing New Zealand
for the second time.
Roberts won the right to compete in the 2010 event after winning the Rip Curl
Pro at Raglan. However after a month of
waiting for ‘that’ swell, it never arrived and he left Indonesian shores
without giving the comp a crack.
This year Roberts got the call up for a second year in a row and was to compete
alongside Billy Stairmand – winner of the New Zealand event in 2011. However Stairmand is coming of the back of
several months of intense travel, competing on the ASP World Tour, and opted
for two weeks of his own bed back in Raglan before heading off again to compete
in the Nike US Open of Surfing.
There is no doubt that Roberts will do us Kiwi’s proud. He has no fear of big waves or anything that
packs a quality pounding. He also honed
his backhand tube riding skills on the ledge at Manu Bay,
one of the more tricky barrels to navigate in this country.
Given the chance, Roberts will obligingly take the biggest set of the day grab
the rail and stick his butt in the wave to stall for that end section perfection
at Padang. It is likely there will be a throng of
support both online and at the beach when he competes too.
Bring on the next Indo swell.
Official 2011 opening-round heat draw:
Heat 1: Mikala Jones (Haw), Luke Stedman (Aus), Putra Hermawan (Lembongan),
Made “Bol” Adi Putra (Bali).
Heat 2: Pepen Hendrik (Bali), Jamie O’Brien (Haw), Lee Wilson (Bali), Laurie Towner (Aus).
Heat 3: Raditya Rondi (Bali), Mega Semadhi (Bali), Dean Morrison (Aus), *FINAL
SPOT TBA*
Heat 4: Kane Faint (Aus), Garut Widiarta (Bali), Morehu Roberts (NZ), Wayan "Gobleg" Suyadnya (Bali).
Heat 5: Flynn Novak (Haw), Mustofa Jekson (Bali), Anthony Walsh (Aus), Marlon
Gerber (Bali).
Heat 6: Wayan “Betet” Merta (Bali), Tom Lowe (UK),
Bruno Santos (Braz), Tipi Jabrik (Bali).
Heat 7: Kalani Chapman (Haw), Made Lana (Bali), Oney Anwar (Sumbawa), Ryan
Turner (Calif).
Heat 8: Rizal Tanjung (Bali), Chris Ward (Calif), Alex Smith (Haw), Dede Suryana
(Java).
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| The line up of surfers at the Opening Ceremony |
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