Tuesday May 6 – Bangsal Beach, Sanur: As forecast, a solid 4-6 foot swell hit Sanur Reef today producing some of the most perfectly lined up sheet glass barrels the Rusty Rumble in Da Jungle event has ever seen. There was no wind at all and the golden morning sun broke through the low clouds to light up the beach and fire up the crew for Round 4’s man-on-man action.
Goofy footers Made “Garut” Widiarta and Raditya Rondi got things started at 6:50 am in the 3-4 foot waves. Apparently “the Reef “was just warming up and not ready to give these guys all the goods yet. But Rondi didn’t mind, because he got the jump on Garut and stayed there, hacking away at the lip just getting under one small one near the end of the heat to win. Garut has some nice up under the lip gashes, but just couldn’t pull off a big score.
Heat 2 saw Kadek Murtika jump on the first wave just to get some points on the board. Betet exercised some patience, passing up a few before locking into a wave that he gave a few hacks to before pulling off a nasty floater for a finish. He sealed it with long one all the way to the inside, and though Murtika came back with a nice little barrel of his own, Betet held on to win.
In Heat 3, Agus Purnawan just couldn’t seem to stay out of the barrel, nabbing wave after wave while Wayan “Gobleg” Suyadna couldn’t buy a barrel if he had all the money in the world. Agus had a smile as wide as the tubes he had ridden as he paddled back to the beach with his quarterfinal birth locked in.
Not to be outdone, Tipi Jabrik’s 9-point tube ride in Heat 4 was positively epic, as he joins Made Awan and Kane Faint in the run for the “Best Barrel” of the comp. Some of the set waves by now were about 6 foot and just plain awesome to see. Ketut “Mega” Semadhi managed a few nice hacks up under the lip on a couple of waves, but got shut down on his one barrel opportunity and spent the rest of the time listening to MC Ribut telling him that he was combo’d and needed 12 plus points to win.
In another natural vs goofyfooter matchup, Devis Ratif took down Rizal Tanjung in Heat 5. Devis took off first and pumped to the inside where he got into and almost out of the inside barrel section. Riz got the next set wave and got a couple nice turns in but the wave didn’t open up for him. Devis pulled ahead by cutting up a long one all the way to the inside to take the lead, and then got a nice inside barrel and big score. Riz had one more chance and did all he could, slashing his wave to the inside til it opened up for him. He stayed in as long and as deep as he could, but it just didn’t score high enough to overcome Devis’ lead.
Having spent a lot of her energy during Heats 3 through 5, Mother Nature took a bit of a break during Heat 6, so Mohamad “Joey Barrel” Joid and Nyoman “Koming” Wastika spent a lot of time paddling around and waiting. Joey blew his best scoring opportunity on his first wave, freefalling down the face. Koming on the other hand managed to squeeze into and out of a little inside keg to get a decent score on the board, and together with another couple of 2 foot waves took the lead and the heat win, as Joey never found another good scoring wave.
The wave action picked up again for Heat 7 but so did the onshore wind, which began to rough up the water on the outside but left the faces still mostly glassy. Pepen Hendrik had the eye of the tiger, lining up on the lip and then slotting himself deep into the inside section and coming out hot to best goofyfooter Moh Yunus, who slashed away at the lip with abandon but couldn’t come up with a barrel ride to score any big points.
There was no Heat 8 as Komang Putra Hermawan was having school exams back in home at Nusa Lembongan (so I heard) so couldn’t make it, and so Made Awan slipped into the quarterfinal without even getting wet.
Next up was the Masters, consisting of two heats, one a four man heat and one a three man heat.
Heat 1 of the Masters saw Made Artha and Made Gachan advance over Ketut Menda and Wayan Widiarta. In Heat 2 Wayan Pica raced his way to the lead and was followed by Wayan Gantiyasa, leaving Made “Sachang” Sudiarta out of the final as the horn blew.
According to Contest Director and GM Kane Faint, the next best opportunity to run the remainder of the event looks to be Wednesday the 14th of May. With ample time left in the waiting period, and swells arriving every few days, he prefers to wait to finish on a high note. Been great so far, so why not?
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