Arpad Leclere was born in Belgium and raised in Bali. From the looks of it, he’s happy with the hand he was dealt. Yes, Belgium has its own little plot along the North Sea but it’s probably a safe assumption that had he grown up along those 40-something miles of coastline he wouldn’t have been surfing waves like these.
So instead, Arpad was gifted with a sixth sense for Bali’s heaving left-hand barrels, something he put on display when Indonesia was slammed with surf this past season.
“I’ve been living in the Mentawais for over a decade and that was by far the biggest swell I’ve seen,” filmmaker Justis St. John told The Inertia. “Pretty insane to see some new waves pop up and this one was mind-blowing. Arpad is pretty nuts. I’ve surfed with him since he was 12 and he’s one of the better groms I’ve seen in powerful lefts.”
