Surf’s up as Oakley World Pro Junior kicks off at Canggu beach

The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Junior Championship Tour kicked off on Monday with the Oakley World Pro Junior competition at Canggu beach.

The event was the first of two World Junior Championship title events last year.

This year, a third event has been added, which is expected to add further credibility to the undisputed World Junior Championship winners in the men’s and women’s divisions.

Round one, consisting of six heats, was completed on the first day as wave conditions were good. In each heat, three surfers performed at the same time.

Dyah Rahayu Dewi from Indonesia was a surprise entrant on the first day of the competition, replacing Lakey Peterson in the fourth heat of Round 1, after Lakey pulled out with an arm injury.

The lucky Balinese girl was at school earlier Monday morning at around 9 a.m. when she received a phone call from her surf team manager, who told her that there was a place for her in the contest.

“I was sitting at my desk and saw I had an incoming call from Yudha [her surf team manager] and so I picked up. I was surprised and excited by the news, so the first thing I did was to tell my teacher I had a fever and had to go home,” the 17-year-old said with a grin.

“But I really did go home,” Dyah continued.

“I went home as fast as I could, grabbed my board and gear and drove straight to Canggu. There is no way I was going to pass up a chance to come here and surf with the best girls in the world!”

As she prepared for her heat she was visibly nervous as she watched the girls already in the water, but smiled and listened to some advice from Coca-Cola ISC CEO Tipi Jabrik, who gave her some tips on positioning and words of support.

Just before running down to the beach she said, “These girls are all so good that it’s hard to be very confident, but I’m excited just to be here and will go out and do my best.”

The conditions seemed to be the biggest challenge for all three girls during the heat, with soft wide sets closing out the breaks with regularity, and only infrequent medium-sized waves providing any real scoring opportunities.

Dyah only caught one wave during her 30-minute heat and ended up in third place, but the good news was that this Tuesday she will have another chance in Round 2, and she intends to put on a much better performance.

“It was really hard out there,” she said.

“I feel like I spent most of the heat paddling around. I hope tomorrow the waves are a lot better, because I know I can do better than I did today!”said.