December/January, 1998
No. 032/VI/97
cover story
Christians in
Paradise
How Christianity came
to Bali
Once Upon a
New Years Eve
MC-ing a New Year's
Eve party during a
blackout
bali focus:
nusa dua and
jimbaran
The Origin of
Nusa Dua
A fable
People of a
Fertile Sea
The fishers of
Jimbaran beach
Center Stage
Steve Charles revamps
the Candraloka
Amphitheatre
Nusa Dua Nights
How to survive them
The Sacred
Wilderness
Colonial encounters with
Bali's southern peninsula
arts and
culture
Latter Day
Laksamana
A.A.M. Djelantik's
recently launched
autobiography
Kulkul
new Fiction by Gde
Aryantha Soethama
The Rat Pack
Who are Bali's literati?
beyond
bali
An Eddy in The
Counter of Time
Kayaking off the west
coast of Lombok
Slick and Cool in
Sengigi
Round midnight at the
famed Lombok resort
regular
Fashion
Adventure
Into the blue
Food
Jewel of the southren rim
Jungle Drums
Bali Update
On the Road
Made Adi Putra
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Even
surfers have guardian angels. One of them flies above the main street of Kuta. If you
happen to raise your eyes to the heavens just before you get to Matahari, you will see him
there, carving his surfboard into the wind. This guardian angel is stationed permanently
above Balinese surfing legend Ganti Yasa's The Surf Shop, where Made Adi Putra, Bali's
most exciting new surfing talent, spends a great deal of his time.
"Dek Bol," replies the 17 year old senior high school student when I ask him what name he goes by in surfing circles. Dek Bol's gangly adolescence and coy grin belie the zesty confidence with which he rides waves. As we chat in the loft of The Surf Shop, a tv monitor flickers with the image of him on the break at Padang Padang. Freshly coiffed and bathed, he is as shiny and polished as the wealth of trophies displayed in the cabinet behind him. Engraved into many of them is the name Made Adi Putra.
Like
his mentor Ganti Yasa, Dek Bol is from the village of Pande Mas, smack bang in the guts of
Kuta. In fact, all he has to do is walk out the back door of The Surf Shop and he's two
steps away from his parent's alleyside rice stall. By the time he was eight, and in his
third year of primary school at eight, Dek Bol was in the surf daily. Six years later, in
1994, he was on his way to Japan to compete in the Minami Cup. At 14, he returned home
from his first overseas trip a winner. He had gained first place in the Minami Cup.
Three years later, in July 1997, Dek Bol passed the selection to compete in the Bali Gromet International Surfing Championship, 1997. Although it's his home break, this international event attracts gromets selected from the world over, and competition is tough. When the event broke up with a music gig under the stars, an overjoyed Dek Bol was there, right at the lip of the stage, moshing his heart out on the sand. He had just won second place in the sixteen years and under division, making him the second best surfer in the world for that category.
"That was when I really started to feel that my surfing career was getting off the ground. Dahui approached me about sponsorship, adding to my original sole sponsor The Surf Shop," explained the modest youngster who subsequently went on to gain fourth place in the Billabong Local Challenge at Uluwatu in August this year.
So, where to from here? "I've still got one more year of school to go and then of course my obsession is to get to Hawaii. I wanna surf like Rizal Tanjung. I wanna surf like Kalani Rob."
by Emma Baulch
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