What an amazing way to start the ninth annual Deus 9ft & Single Surf, Art, Music & Art Festival. Pumping surf that was chucking men out and about like soggy papier mache dolls. We were wrenched into overdrive even before the first heat of today's Womp Comp dived into the mammoth waves that was pounding the sands of Perenenan Beach.
We ended up with sixteen starters willing to compete. Actually, competitors is way too pedestrian to describe those who entered, combatants is much more apt.
What were last week’s storms in West Australia had bubbled and boiled across a couple of thousand clicks to become today’s swell in Bali and it was taking a sodding great chomp out of the shoreline. A couple of our valiant warriors were also dealt a solid pounding as they risked life and limb getting into, onto and down these deep-sea creatures. We might have laughed a lot but to a person, the spectators, held nothing but admiration, perhaps liberally sprinkled with disbelief and suspicions of insanity for those who chose to go out in the swirling boiling waters. Can you imagine jousting with a brick wall? Well, today, it was a little like that out there, one or another of our torpedo people would go sailing through the air expecting to find some soft luscious water only to find it solid. You’ve got to go out into the thick of it thrice to get to the finals. Talk about dedicated to getting tuckered out. The last four who was; Jack MacRae had the red cap, Keoki Saguibo was sporting white. Zye Norris had been favouring yellow throughout and Cian was in blue. What order they ended up is now with the judges, they’re keeping things quiet until the awards on Sunday night. People went home to dab wounds with mercurochrome and rest aches and pains before they’ll all be coming back up to the Deus Temple later on to lay in bean bags and self-medicate on Bintang’s, Nusa Cana Rum and an assortment of other imbibements while we watch the latest video offerings from Deus, but more on the night stuff in another post. See you all tomorrow bright and early. Images by Didit Prasetyoadiwibowo, Keli Bow, Giang GAW, James Bruce, Damea Dorsey, Sasha Golyanova
