Bali may be part of the 2013 ASP World Tour

A few months ago rumors about the possibility of a stop in Bali on the Surfing World Tour was making the rounds. There were speculations that Oakley would bring the ASP circus to Indonesia in 2014, for what would be a new stop on “The Dream Tour”.

Last week the rumors appeared to solidify, and apparently the stop in Bali is a go for 2013. So Indonesia might, once again, be host to the best surfers in the world.

It is still being treated as a rumor as there has not been any official confirmation or communication from the ASP or Oakley. But the stop is supposedly scheduled for Bali in the middle of June, with the big boys arriving in one of the best months in terms of waves consistency in the archipelago.

Oakley has been investing in Bali for a while now, and the company has serious know-how of running events on the island, its waves, the best options, and, most importantly to those who can’t travel here, the ability to organize a quality live webcast.

Without confirmation from any of the involved parties, all we can be sure of at this point is that it would be an awesome surfing event, with consistent and perfect waves that only Indonesia can offer, and guaranteeing a huge audience to both Oakley and the ASP.

Other contests in Indonesia

Indonesia hosted the WCT (the World Tour at the time) 3 years in a row, from 1995 to 1997, when Quiksilver would hold the Quiksilver Pro in  G-land (Grajagan), East Java. On 1998 the contest was canceled only days before it was scheduled, after the US government issued a travel warning.

In 2001 the contest was close to making a comeback when, this time, the ASP cancelled the stop citing lack of security, so once again pro-surfers and surfing fans lost the stop at the best and most consistent wave in the world.

Rip Curl brought the tour back to Indonesia in 2008 with the “Search”, an event that would bring the tour to un-conventional locations. At this time the surfers had lot of fun at 2 of Bali’s best waves, Padang-padang and Uluwatu. The surfers on tour and a few wild cards were rewarded with epic Padang on the biggest day of the swell and a few days at one of the best left handers in the world, Uluwatu.

Oakley has been hosting the World Pro Junior at Pererenan (Canggu Rights) and Keramas for the past few years. It’s still unclear if the WT will be hosted at these locations, which at the rumored scheduled time of the stop suffer under the influence of trade winds, while the Bukit enjoys offshore trade-winds all day.

We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.

Text and photos by: Iuri Borba