Surftime Magazine

By Rio Waida (The following is the entire narration transcript for PERTAMA, the new short film featuring the life of Rio Waida. After a number of popular premieres on the island, Surftime is honored to offer these heartfelt words from Rio in hopes that they will inspire the next generation). “I am Rio Waida. The first Indonesian surfer in history to make it to the world stage of professional competition surfing”. “I knew pro surfing. Would happen to me. My dreams were too powerful for it not to happen”. “I never dreamed that I would carry the Olympic flag for my country on the biggest athletic stage in the world”. “Entering the Olympic stadium. I felt like I was walking on a cloud. But I also felt the weight of Indonesia on my shoulders. And all I could think of was to stand up straight and try not to weep with pride”. “I know that I must carry the spirit of my past into the future. The spirit of my struggles, the spirit of my family, of my dreams, of my island, of my country....

Photography by Pete Frieden • Words by Michael Ciaramella What was the moment in your 2025 championship year where you felt the most doubt? Yago : I think it was at Pipe at the beginning of the year. I had all the preparation. I was feeling ready. And then going into that event, which is one I really like, I love surfing Pipe, the waves were terrible for my first few rounds and I ended up losing in the elimination round. It’s just tough to start like that after preparing so well and feeling so ready to start the season. It was bad, but I think it also set me up for the rest of the year in a weird way. What was the moment where you thought, “This is my year to become the best in the world”? Yago : I felt like that before the year even started. But during this season, I think it was after the Portugal win. I didn’t start the season that well in the past, but I’d have some really big results in the back half of the season. But to start the season with the win and a couple othe...

As told by Tai Buddha Graham • Photography by Harve There’s a particular kind of freedom that only comes from loading up a boat with a pile of boards, a few of your closest mates, and a loose plan built around tides, wind lines, and gut instinct. You step onboard, switch the world off (or try too), look at the horizon, and feel that little spark flick on inside your chest again. This trip was that spark, turned into a fire. THE IDEA WAS SIMPLE Take a hand-selected crew of friends who each know waves and equipment inside-out, take thirty-odd JS surfboards, jump aboard the infamous MV Bintang, and point the bow toward the Mentawai. Not to film a clip. Not to tick off a bucket list. But to ask a single question: What is the ultimate quiver for the Ments? SETTING SAIL The Bintang vessel is a beast. A big monohull sailing sloop with soul, history and enough character to fill a book. When she’s loaded with boards and pointing west, you can feel a sense of score certainty. Day one ...

Photography by Manu Miguelez and Pete Frieden Words by Matt George So far their lives have not been measured by clocks, but by the tides. Our free range youth of the Indonesian surf culture. But the thing is kids think they know better. And they don’t. Think they are in control. And they’re not. And they think they have all the time in the world. And they don’t. In reality, time has them. And the clock is ticking. And if they do not use the brief power of youth wisely, that ticking becomes the sound of a time bomb. It is one of the premiere issues of the free range children conundrum of the surfing scene in Bali. With perfect surf year round, rides to the beach from single mom’s since birth, new boards on tap, club contests every weekend, vague parental supervision and no real thought toward any formal education, paradise becomes a paradox. A situation that appears self-contradictory but may hold a deeper truth. The truth of what reality awaits these young surfers when they...

Photography by Pyzel Archives Jon Pyzel’s pedigree runs much deeper than just being the shaper for the best surfer on the planet. You gotta go back a bit. As a teen surfer kid in Santa Barbara, Jon Pyzel was close witness to the birth of the 80’s Tommy Curren era and Al Merrick’s subsequent global design dominance. A powerful influence that caused Jon to pivot his dreams from a pro surfing career to an underground shaping career. At first mentored by shaper Matt Moore of the famed Rincon Designs surf shop (that was within sight of California’s best point break), Jon upped stakes when he moved to the North Shore in 1992. It was there, now mentored by maestro shaper Jeff Bushman and possessing a keen interest in modernizing the Hawaiian designs that came before his time, that Jon Pyzel developed a reputation as a shaper for the future. As it happened, John John Florence and his family lived right next door. A lifelong friendship with the Florence family grew and soon Jon Pyzel was ...

It’s a rare move within the surfing industry when a sponsor sets out to make a high quality, dramatic short film about one of their team riders. And not just a clip of his latest action in the water, but a very personal profile of what makes a certain surfer click. His very personal story, his motivations, his inner thoughts. But that is exactly what Nusa Cana, Indonesia’s leading rum company, set out to do with Pertama, the Rio Waida movie. Sparing no expense, Nusa Cana, who are also “bringing back the forgotten story of Indonesian rum”, wanted to highlight the rise of Rio Waida as a metaphor for their own company’s rise within its industry. And provide a re-invigorated passion for the beauty of Indonesia and its surfers. And indeed, something very special happened. Shooting between Australia, Bali and Abu Dhabi with four RED cameras and the best shooters behind the lenses, not only is the footage of this film remarkable, but a strong sense of purpose comes through. Never do...

Photography Courtesy of Snapt 5 In today’s online surf media glutted world, it is not often that an honest voice arises. With endless surf clips at our beckon and call it seems as if everybody is just having a hell of a good time out there without having to offer any perspective or context on the vanguard performances of our sport. The meaning of it. It’s almost inhuman in a way. Scrolled. Disposable. Designed to simply be consumed without any nutritional value in regards to the soul of surfing. But now and then a saving grace occurs. That feature surf film that comes along. One created with concept and forethought. The one that barnstorms around to live audiences and inspires mass gatherings on big screens that swerve our attention away from our phones and back to the visual wonder that surfing is. Where we as a tribe can look on together and hoot ourselves hoarse at just how great surfing makes us all feel. How much it means to us. And see just how outrageous what we do in...

Westen Hirst and Jasmine Studer Triumph at the Queen of the Bukit Photography by Nate Lawrence and Joey Griffiths • Words by Trent Cohune “It’s on when it’s on,” as the saying goes here in Bali. Surf competitions, as we know, can be a long and gruelling process, dragging on for days waiting for Mother Nature to produce adequate conditions. That agonizing wait is exactly what the locals endured through the month of July, which was meant to host the local trials for the Rip Curl Cup at Padang Padang. The Indian Ocean lay dormant as Indonesia’s best young surfers from across the archipelago waited on the cliffs of the Bukit for a chance to prove themselves on the global stage. The trial window was their shot, a moment to showcase a lifetime of love for one of the planet’s most iconic and technical tuberiding waves. But Mother Nature didn’t deliver. It was in fact, not on, and the fate of these young hopefuls hung in the balance as the opening ceremony kicked off on August 3rd. Th...

Cory Lopez, now 48 years old, has certainly earned his place in the pantheon of surfing greats. In bald statistics, even his long passage in the the venerable Encyclopedia of Surfing recognizes this. Calling him a “Nervy goofyfoot pro from Indian Rocks, Florida…world-ranked #3 in 2001…A visceral show-stealer, with diamond-hard balls…began surfing as a preschooler… made a reputation as the world’s best young high-performance free surfer, quick and flexible, with gyroscopic balance that guided him through the most ambitious tailslide and aerial maneuvers ever seen…During an early round heat at the 1999 Gotcha Tahiti Pro, the handsome dark-haired Lopez rode deep inside the tube on a pair of big, thick, deadly lefts at Teahupoo, getting annihilated both times but setting a world tour standard for reckless cool…he returned to Teahupo’o in 2001 to win the event…in 2003 he won the US Open of Surfing… Lopez was featured in more than 30 top ranked surf video’s and was one of the first to sur...

It’s been two years now since Harry Mann left his home in Torquay, Australia to join the Indonesian Marketing team for Rip Curl in Bali. Surftime recently got a read on where Harry’s head is at when it comes to settling into our very unique surfing community. The following are some of his thoughts and reflections in what became a surprisingly personal conversation. - I am from Torquay, Victoria, Australia and the surfing culture there turned me into a very competitive surfer. Before coming to Bali I held six Victorian state titles, I had spent three years on the QS and I had won the Rip Curl Bells Beach trials. But I felt that that the trials win was a real closure on my competitive career and I was ready to create a new life experience. I guess the universe was listening because the opportunity to come to Bali and work for Rip Curl came out of nowhere and I jumped at it. -Sure, I had come to Bali a number of times before as Australians do, and you get an idea of the surf scene a...

Photography by WHSUP!! Bobby’s G-Land camp set the stage for a very unique happening recently. Chelsea Hedges, a top coach with Surfing Australia, led a team of rising amateur female surfers to our premiere wave in order to help hone their skills. It’s all part of Surfing Australia’s serious and enviable national coaching program to develop young hopeful surfers as they move into a professional career. And if not that, then at least to help them reach their full potential in surfing. Surftime met with Chelsea about this extraordinary opportunity and here is what she had to say: Chelsea Hedges : This was one of Surfing Australia’s latest strike missions for coaching. The concept is to identify waves that are either world tour locations or locations that are similar to CT contest locations. This is so we can take our athletes there for exposure and experience in those types of wave profiles. Like if it’s not a world tour location like cloudbreak, we try to go to a place like G-Land ...

As discussed with Matt Biolos By Matt George In this conversation, maestro shaper Matt Biolos opens up about his singular relationship with team member and young Mentawai Phenom Dylan Wilcoxen. And why he feels that surfers like Dylan provide essential meaning to our sport. Matt Biolos : I first saw Dylan surf in the Mentawai in the Fall of 2020. He was probably eleven years old. And what immediately struck me was, regardless of his provenance, you know, that he grew up at the Kandui Resort in front of flawless waves, was that Dylan seemed to be touched by that rare, innate, raw natural talent that is hard to find in any sport. That un-planned, un-coached, natural ability, free from thought or pre-meditation. Which I don’t see often in my world today, not with all the parents involved and the intense coaching and training that is going on. But I have seen Dylan’s kind of talent before. Like I once saw it in Chris Ward and Curren and guys like Bruce Irons and Dane Reynolds. I me...

Photography by Dylan Lucas Gordon • Words by Jared Mell Cuban cigars, checkers and chess. Her laughter, a melody against the back drop of Havana’s crumbling facades, echoed in my mind. The sea’s salt mingled with diesel fumes from vintage cars. Sweat trickled down my neck as I sipped a cold beer waiting for the others to arrive. Cuba, “Patria o Muerte, Venceremos”. Homeland or death, we will win. The locals watched with curious eyes, their faces etched with stories of revolution and resilience. Old men played dominoes under the shade of ceiba trees, their cigars casting spirals of smoke into the humid air. Children laughed, splashing in the shallows, their joy untainted by the island’s scars. We loaded up the old Chevy bus. No expectations, most of us had never met each other before. The driver looked like had been left behind from the Soviet Union. With the potential of surf with over 3,000 miles of coastline we headed off. The surf was fickle, waves rising and falling with...

"The most fundamental kind of love, which underlies all types of love, is brotherly love. The sense of responsibility, care and respect, for the life of that other human being who is part you, and the wish, no matter the strife, to further his life." —Erich Fromm, German social psychologist and psychoanalyst, 1900-1980 There are many reckoned forces in this world. Many things we do not understand. There are many things we take for granted. One such thing is brotherly love, a love that helps to keep our lives intact. There isn’t anything stronger than love in this world. But brotherly love stands as a whole different type of love. Through the ages, mystics, sages, singers and poets have all expressed the ballad and call to love. As humans, we have searched endlessly for the experience of love through the outer senses. Great nations have come and gone under the guise of love for their people. Religions have flourished and perished while claiming the true path to lo...