Canggu, Bali — Keanu Asing (Hawaii/Oahu) today won the Billabong Pro Junior Canggu event in Bali Indonesia, defeating Australia’s Ice Periera (Gold Coast/Coolangatta) in an entertaining and high quality final.
Asing is just 15 years of age but the powerfully built youngster from Hawaii disposed of his older and more fancied rivals methodically to eventually take the final out comprehensively with final scores of 16.25 to Asing to Periera on 14.30 for their top two scoring rides.
In wind swept high performance 1m surf at the famous River Mouth break both finalists displayed their powerful attack and utilized a wide variety of moves which included high risk aerials.
Aerial surfing was a feature throughout the event with the wave offering aerial opportunities frequently and Asing commented on his win saying – “This is my biggest win ever. It’s been such a fun week of waves here and this place really suits my style – You need to really mix up your surfing out there and even in the strong winds there’s plenty of scope to score big, fortunately it worked for me today.”
Asing took down plenty of quality opposition today including number one seed Nic Vasicek in his quarter final and then defending event champion Heath Joske (Both Australian’s) in his semi final.
For Ice Periera, today’s second placing was also his best ever performance and throughout the event he was consistently scoring in the outstanding high 8 and 9 point range but probably had his toughest heat in the all important final where his top score was still a strong 7.5 ride, although well short of his previous heat performances.
In his quarter final today, Periera peaked when he outgunned event favourite Tamaroa McComb (Tahiti) in a high scoring shoot out where Periera came from behind to find two excellent rides in the final 10 minutes to take a memorable win.
Satisfied with his overall result performance Periera said “It’s great to make a final at this level and this result gives me a lot of confidence to build on – It’s been a great event and to perform well in high quality waves means a lot to me – I fell short in the final, really only needed a good second scoring ride but I couldn’t find it – that’s surfing”
Local Indonesian surfers were prominent throughout this event and local Balinese surfer Raditya Rondi made the semi finals to be the best placed Indonesian with an equal 3rd overall.
Raditya displayed a fluent and powerful backhand style and in his quarter final today defeated second highest placed Indonesian surfer Wayan Susiana (5th overall).
The Billabong Occy Grom comp finals were also surfed today. Mark Occhilupo, the 1999 ASP World Champion, was on the beach to watch all the days’ action and the youngsters went crazy with huge moves and scores a plenty.
Tahiti’s Tamaroa McComb is widely regarded as the most exciting young emerging surfer in the world and his performances throughout this event were incredible – He won the 16 Boys final easily with two 9 point plus rides.
The 14 Boy’s final was far closer with the lead changing several times before Australia’s Creed McTaggart (Margaret River) claimed the win with an excellent final 8.5 ride.
The overall Billabong Pro Junior Indonesian Series for 2008, with ratings cumulated across all three events, was won by Australia’s Nick Vasicek and for his win he picked up an awesome Nixon watch.
Highest placed Indonesian surfer of this series went to local surfer Ketut Yoga Semadhi and he will now take a wild card into the VZ Trials preceding the ASP Billabong World Junior Championships in Sydney next January.
The other highlight of today’s final day was the efforts of all at the event who participated in a beach clean up. Incorporating the R.O.L.E foundation into the event, multiple large bags of rubbish were collected to be disposed of correctly and Mark Occhilupo closed the event with an enjoyable question and answer prize session with the local youngsters, focusing on the importance of looking after the beaches.
