Tai "Buddha' Graham won the 6-Star Prime Quiksilver Open 2009 at Keramas Beach in Bali on Wednesday to be crowned the 2009 Indonesian surfing champion, while Lee Wilson boasted his first Coca-Cola Indonesian Surfing Championship Tour win and topped the podium for the Rp 20 million prize.
Graham, an Australian based in Bali, was in shock when he returned to the beach.
"This is unreal," he said. "It's gonna take a bit for it to all to sink in I think. I never expected to win an event like this, ever.
"I was just happy to get to nab some big Keramas barrels with just a couple other guys out, but never dreamed I'd be atop the podium at the end of it all!"
Graham surfed from Round 2 and was a standout in the big and hollow waves that dominated much of the event.
And he did it all with a broken toe, sustained at Cloud 9 in the Philippines three weeks ago.
First to congratulate Graham was Wilson, who was still beaming after his earlier quarterfinal victory over Jake Paterson, which won him the Coca-Cola championship.
"Tai is such a good mate of mine, and so fun to surf with, I couldn't be happier to have him win one over on me," he said.
"I got off to a good start with a seven-point wave, but couldn't follow it up with anything big.
"It was hard to find good waves out there with the wind up, but somehow Tai did it and racked up the points. I'm really stoked for him," he said, grinning and hugging Graham.
It was tense day and memorable conclusion to the final Coca-Cola ISC Tour event of the year, with the championship decided in the first heat of the day.
Just before 8 a.m., Wilson and Paterson paddled out for the first quarterfinal, with all eyes and ears following them.
A win for Paterson would have handed the championship to top-ranked Garut Widiarta. Both surfers traded waves in an evenly matched battle, but at the horn Paterson's last wave score came up a 7.65, just short of the 7.90 that he needed to beat Wilson.
The final heat score? Wilson 15.55 to Paterson 15.40.
The five days of surfing action at Keramas Beach for the Quiksilver Open 2009 also included the Roxy Open ISC Women's Division, won by Japan's Mina Nagasima, and the ISC Master's Division, won by Paterson.
