Lance’s Right to host Asian pro contest

Putra Hermawan © Tim Hain

Mentawai Pro
Presented by Rip Curl

Asian Surfing Championship Premium event
Lance's Right Siporo, Mentawai, Indonesia
21 - 29 April 2013

Top 16 ranked ASC surfers to compete with wildcards

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 19 April, 2013 : - - The Asian Surfing Championships announces their first-ever Premium event, the Mentawai Pro presented by Rip Curl, which will see the top 16 ranked ASC surfers competing with 7 international wild cards and 1 local trials winner at Lance’s Right on the island of Siporo in the world renown surfing mecca of the Mentawai Islands from April 21-29.

Originally named for Lance Knight, an Aussie surfer who is credited with discovering it, Lance’s Right is quite possibly one of the best waves in the world, with countless images and videos of the top professional surfers surfing the guts out of it all over the internet and in magazines. It also goes by the name HT’s, the acronym for “Hollow Trees”.

Not for the faint of heart, Lance’s Right is tailor-made for the experienced surfer, with perfectly round and seemingly endless barrels reeling down the reef and ending on what is known as “the Surgeon’s Table”, the extremely shallow end section with only a few inches of water covering up the razor sharp coral reef. But it does have variety as well, depending upon swell size and direction, offering up anything from big open face carves to puntable air sections on the inside in addition to those throaty barrel rides.

New for the 2013 ASC season is the introduction of the Premium format event, which is reserved for only the best and most challenging wave locations and the top 16 ranked competitors on the ASC tour. With an $8,000 USD prize purse, $2,500 going to the winner along with 3,500 ASC championship points, not only do the top 16 get to surf one of the world’s best waves with only one or two other surfers in the lineup, they also have a chance to rack up cash and valuable championship points.

The introduction of an event format that opens up the competition to international surfers is intended by the ASC to aid in the progression of the Asian surfers, giving them more opportunities to test their performance against the next higher level of surfer while still in the Asian region and together with their peers. The Premium event is the prize to chase on the ASC tour.

The Mentawai Pro presented by Rip Curl is the second professional surfing event to be held at Lance’s Right (the inaugural Mentawai Open was held in 2011) as well as the second event to be presented by Rip Curl (last year’s Rip Curl Pro Mentawai was held at Macaronis), with the Tourism Department of the Mentawai Islands sponsoring all three of the competitions.

2010 Indonesian Surfing Champion and Rip Curl Team surfer Putra “Pulu” Hermawan was the runner up at the Mentawai Open 2011, and is stoked to be going back to Lances Right to have another crack at bringing home the first place trophy. “I’m super happy to be going back to Lance’s Right, as I really want to get into the final and win it this time…I’m sure going to try my best. That wave is my favorite in all of the Mentawais, as it’s kind of like my home break of Shipwrecks on Nusa Lembongan only better, longer and more perfect! Fellow Nusa Lembonganite Agus Frimanto was the Mentawai Open 2011 winner.

Rip Curl SE Asia Marketing Manager James Hendy is delighted with the opportunity to be presenting the event, saying, “Rip Curl has a long history of Searching for the best waves in the remotest regions of the planet, so were are stoked to be back in our stomping ground of Northern Sumatra where our adventures began with the founders of the company over 30 years ago. This event epitomizes our brand ethos of the Search, working with local communities and regional governments to showcase the best surfing talent the country has to offer, in some of its best waves.”

According to Mrs. Desti Seminora, the Head of the Department of Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sport for the Mentawai government, the return to Lance’s Right for this year’s competition will provide a great experience for the competitors, the media and the organizers. “There are lots more and much better accommodations in Katiet now than two years ago. And the fact that is it closer to Tua Pijat makes it easier to organize as well. It has a beautiful white sand beach with a great view of the wave, so everybody has a front row seat to watch these surfers complete,” she explained.

She then added, “We plan to continue to sponsor these events each year, as we believe it’s the best way for us to continue developing and promoting the tourism potential of our area. There are so many good waves here in the Mentawai Islands, along with our indigenous culture and so much beautiful places to see, so we want to share this with the rest of the world through our number one natural resource here…which is surfing.”

www.asiansurfingtour.com