Photo: Nathan Lawrence // Rip Curl
The Rip Curl Padang Padang Pro is over, and the victors have been crowned in some insane surf. Westen Hirst and Jasmine Studer, both 16-year-old Indonesian locals, came out of the event with top honors, after a day of nail-biting rides in jaw-dropping barrels.
The competition is Indonesia’s longest running international surfing competition, having run since 2004. This year’s competition included 16 men and eight women to compete in a one-day, one-swell format. After an oncoming swell kicked the event into high alert on Monday, the famed lefthander delivered spectacularly, with barrel after barrel rifling over the razor-sharp reef.
View this post on Instagram
The women’s event consisted of a single heat of five, as some of the invitees found themselves unable to make it when the comp got the green light. Facing off against Ziggy Mackenzie, Willow Hardy, Kya Heuer and Imari Hearn, Studer posted a remarkable 10-point score on her way to the win – on a wave that she herself didn’t think she’d make it out of. “This is the highlight of my life,” exclaimed Jasmine in a post-heat interview. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get a better result than this. This is so sick.”
View this post on Instagram
On the men’s side, Westen Hirst won a final heat against Tosh Tudor, Ketut Agus and Ivan Florence to become the first Indonesian man to win the event since Mega Semadhi in 2016. To accomplish that, he dropped a 9.9 score on his very first wave in the final, which he proceeded to lock in the win with a 7.33. After the clock ran out and Westen had secured the title, he appeared speechless in the post-heat interview. “I cannot believe it. This is fucking crazy,” he marveled. “Craziest day of my life.”
