Competing in the Rip Curl Cup and one month in Indonesia

After spending a month at home, getting quite refreshed and seeing one of my best friends get married, I had to leave my lovely home behind for an adventurous month in Indonesia. Outside of the US and maybe Australia, I’ve spent more time in Indonesia than any other country. Indonesia (“Indo”) has some of the best waves in the world so it draws a lot of surfers!

I love Indo; it’s beautiful and the waves are really fun! Since I was fifteen, Rip Curl has been taking me on Search surf trips throughout Indo. I’ve always liked coming here for fun waves, warm water, good weather, and usually an escape from internet/cell service–which I like!

Rip Curl, my surf clothing sponsor since I was ten years old, gave me a wild card into the 2012 Rip Curl Cup at Padang Padang–a beautiful wave with a great barrel. It was an honor! The Rip Curl Cup is a specialty event that you have to be invited to – it is all about getting barreled. I was the only female in the event, which consisted of 16 international surfers and 16 local surfers! The contest has over a month to wait for a good swell to hold the event in. So it makes for a great contest! Being the only girl in the event and the first girl ever to compete in it, I was very nervous yet at the same time kinda relaxed, just hoping to get some good barrels! Plus I got to hang in Bali and surf while waiting for the Rip Curl Cup to run. I had many good days in the “office!”

After two weeks of waiting for a decent swell to hold the competition, a good swell showed up. My goal going into the contest was to get a good barrel and maybe make a heat! I surfed in round one, heat four with Mustofa Jeksen, I Wayan Suyadnya, & Ryan Hipwood. I got a good barrel–best wave of the heat–and I ended up winning the heat! It felt amazing to reach my goal (which honestly I wasn’t too confident that I would, surfing against pro guys)!

Well, in the next heat I had Jamie O’Brien (one of the best barrel riders in the world and an incredible surfer), Ry Craike (he’s crazy good), and Bobby Hansen. Intimidation to the max. I did not advance that heat. But it was fun none-the-less! Stoked overall with my performance! Thank you Rip Curl Asia for putting on a great event and for having me a part of it!

After the Rip Curl Cup, I met up with Lakey Peterson to hang and surf for a couple of weeks. She is a great surfer out of Southern California and she’s RAD! Lakey, 17 years old, recently won the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach. It was her first WCT win and the biggest win of her career! I’m really stoked for her! We had a handful of fun days surfing and a lot of time to relax. Surf, cruise, massage, food, navy seal work out sessions (designed by us), girl talk, and lots of laughs; that pretty much sums up our time together! Before we met up, Lakey was working with Hands for Others (H4O) an organization that she supports. H4O’s mission is to inspire, empower & equip a movement of young people to change the world one person, one family, one village at a time by providing sustainable access to safe, drinkable water for those in need. They focus on bringing life-lasting water well & purification systems to villages around the world, like those on Rote, Indonesia. Check out Hands4Others.org! It’s really cool to see a young guys & girls, like Lakey, making a difference in the world and having a positive impact on others lives! To follow Lakey, her career and adventures check out LakeyPeterson.com.