In near perfect 3-4 foot waves, the Men’s Round 1 and Women’s Round 1 were completed this morning at Turedawola’s left hand reef break, with Australian Gene Hardy wowing the crowd gathered on the shoreline with his near perfect scoring wave that the judges rewarded with 9.17 points (out of a possible 10) in Heat 3.
With time almost expired, Hardy took off on one of the bigger sets of the heat that lined up nearly perfectly, and pulled through a deep tube to earn the highest hear total of the day.
“That was such a fun heat,” Hardy exclaimed. “I was out there with Jessie, the guy we are staying with, and we were just laughing , so that set the tone for the heat right there. It was near the end of the heat when they called the time, but it was in Indonesian so I didn’t understand so I asked Jessie , and he said there was less than two minutes left. I saw that wave coming, and I thought one of the other guys was going to get it, but they all missed it. I took off and made a soft turn as I saw it was going to barrel. The foamball was trying to get me and thought I was too deep, and thought I was going to fall, then all of a sudden I was out! I couldn’t believe it. I love Afulu, this is my favorite place ever. When I arrived yesterday, it was like coming home, I was so stoked.”
Hardy is here with his two daughters, Willow who was last year’s event winner, and her younger sister Olive. Both sisters’ had their chance to get in the water after the men’s heats, and both won their respective heats as well. It’s the family that surfs together!
Both event champions are back again to defend their titles, and Willow Hardy (AUS) can’t wait to get back into the water.
“I’m super excited to come back to Afulu as the defending champion. The wave is so epic and the place is so beautiful, I hope we score a great swell and I know we’ll have a great time.”
For the event schedule and heat draw on Live Heats by clicking this link: https://liveheats.com/events/240716
The competitors have been told to arrive at the beach by no later than 7 am, and prepare for a 7:30 am start to competition.
The North Nias International Surfing Competition is sponsored by the North Nias Regency and organized by the Persatuan Selancar Ombak Indonesia (PSOI) with media production by the Asian Surf Cooperative (ASC)
