April/May, 1998
No. 034/VI/98
cover story
Ground Breakers
Bali's top corporate
women
Out of the Frying
Pan
The legacy of widow
burning in modern Bali
beyond
bali
Pedal Power
Cycling around Lombok
regular
features
Sidelines
The cultural
value of
Indonesia textiles
Adventure
Off-road trips by Land
Cruiser
Bali's surf hero of
nineties, Rizal Tanjung
Health and Beauty
Mandara's many
Bali
spas
Books
The Butterflies of Bali
Food
Four delis that have
survived the crisis
Photo Gallery
F.X. Marit captures nyepi
on film
Jungle
Drums
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in all his glorious
goofiness
Rizal. Ree-zul.
Do not be mistaken. This duo-syllabic crescendo-descendo is not the textual translation of
the sound of a racing vehicle whizzing by at top speed. It is just somebody introducing
himself. That somebody is Rizal Tanjung.
“Where
will we do the interview? Let’s go over by the pool.” Having answered his own
question, Rizal Tanjung turns on his heel and heads off down a cement path. His
interviewer follows, surprisingly unruffled. Although he speaks staccato-fashion in little
high-velocity bursts, there is no trace of curtness or arrogance in his tone. Nor is there
anxiety. It is merely that he is impatient, but it is an agreeable impatience with which
he enthuses his interlocutors to keep pace. He reaches the poolside and turns on his heel
again to face his interviewer.
“What’s it about again? Just me?” Just him? Just the most successful Indonesian surfer currently competing in the World Qualifying Series (WQS). Just the Indonesian Surfing Associa-tion’s wildcard entry to the esteemed ‘G-Land’ Quiksilver Pro for the past two years running. Just the winner of last year’s Indonesian government-sponsored 2-star Dompu Open in Sumbawa. The question leaves his interviewer speechless, wondering what is feeding this impatience. At 23, he finished last year’s WQS rated at No. 96, a 50-point ascent from his rating of the previous year. His local predecessors might be readying to rest on their laurels by now, strategizing their settling down in Bali. But not Rizal Tanjung. He intends to keep his eyes on the road and his hands upon the wheel until he is safely through the pearly gates that lead to surfing's innermost circle - the World Champion -ship Tour’s (WCT) 11-contest series, confined to a tiny elite of the world’s Top 44.
On casting a line of enquiry about what has spawned Rizal Tanjung’s ambition, it would be journalistically convenient to hook some humble beginnings as a snot-nosed, drink-selling grommet. It would also be poetic were Tanjung to confess an ultra-conservative parentage, disdainful of his love of the dangerous surf, anxious about his ever-blackening skin for its paysant nuances, and hopeful that he would hurry up and get a proper indoor job. But when he talks about his childhood such folk myths fail to surface, for they snag on Tanjung’s defiant reality. It is not the school of hard knocks has nurtured his keen focus on getting to the top, but firm support from his family. It was his older brother who taught him how to stand up on a board. It was his mother who secured him his first board by boasting to Australian board-shaper Paul Nicholls, who happened to be dining at her Kuta restaurant at the time, that her board-less 11-year old son had just been awarded Best Performance at the Kuta’s JISA (Japan-Indonesia Surfing Association) Open. And it was also his mother who, when he clinched the World Grommet Title and dropped out of school at 15, sent him off to Sydney on his first overseas surf trip - to compete in Narrabeen’s Pro Junior.
In 1976 in Ujung Pandang, Sulawesi, a couple packed up all their belongings and their five boys and crossed the sea to Bali to start anew. The youngest of their boys at the time had just turned one, and his name was Rizal.
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