Flying the Flag
BOBBY HANSEN FLIES OUR FLAG WITH PRIDE AT THE RIP CURL PADANG CUP TUBE RIDING INVITATIONAL.
After winning the Rip Curl Raglan Pro-Am Bobby also won his way into the Padang competition by way of a wild-card.
So off he went for two months of winter to the tropical island of Bali, to work on his surfing and sit and wait on the moment when Padang would be called ON! You see this contest is different than most others. With a two month waiting period, the contest is only run when and if a swell co-operates to provide conditions that are regarded as epic. Simply great waves are not good enough, and many years the contest has not run. Because of this stance the event has become legendary amongst the best tube riders of the world and now the who’s who of world surfing are lining up to give their left nuts to get into the event. On the 9th of August a huge swell wrapped into the perfect reef of Padang Padang and the green light flashed, the event was on. Going head to head against legendary locals in a 32 strong field of the worlds best tube riders, Bobby excelled winning his first heat with the second highest heat score of the round, and went on as far as the quarter finals. Only failing to progress due to inconsistency in the swell, with one good score and no back up. More importantly he gained the respect of his fellow competitors with his performance, and was one of the major talking points amongst the crowd. Let’s hope this opens doors for future events for our lad. Bobby returned home super stoked and came into the NZ Surf office to high fives and hugs, and filled us in on the event from his perspective. “It was really cool to get some good barrels in a heat, because I don’t know through all of my career that I’ve ever got proper barrels in a heat. To just sit and wait for good waves was a unique concept, cause you’re not gonna be surfing junk and will only surf when it’s good, so it was different than what I have been used to, getting thrown out in one foot slop. The downside for waiting for good waves was we were on standby, so while others were taking off and getting barrelled elsewhere, we couldn’t really take the gamble as the event could run. The atmosphere of the crowd was pretty cool. A typical surf contest crowd doesn’t seem to care or understand what is going on, but all the crowd present were pretty clued up on surfing and were screaming and frothing when someone got spat out of a barrel, which was completely different to any event I’ve ever been at, and to be in the water hearing that, was awesome. I was stoked to get an amazing barrel first up, and to have the crowd appreciate that was all time. To come up against local legends and other legendary surfers was a complete privilege, and when a wave is that perfect all you have to do is get yourself a set and you’ll get a hell barrel. While I was super stoked to win my first heat and beat some legendary guys, the best feeling for me was actually getting a couple of hell barrels, and proving that I wasn’t just some blow in Kiwi that got a wild-card, that I actually deserved to be there”.