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
advertising index for
Bali Echo web site
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in all his glorious
goofiness
When
The Surf Shop was opened in 1988 and Made Switra went to work there, Tanjung followed him
in shifting his headquarters down the road from the Bali Barrell. “Ganti used to give
me free clothes, and in return I worked there cleaning the shop and stuff. Ganti was the
first one to take me down to Uluwatu,” explains Tanjung of his relationship with his
former employer, Ganti Yasa.
Once he was no longer sharing a board, Tanjung was free to surf as he pleased, which he did. After two years under Ganti Yasa’s tutelage, he won the World Grommet Title in 1990, a victory which urged his decision to drop out of school once he had completed his first year of senior high. When big surf labels Billabong, Rip Curl and Quiksilver set up shop in Bali in 1992, there was a rush to sign Rizal Tanjung. “When the overseas brands started opening branches in Bali they were all looking for team riders,” remembers Tanjung. “Rip Curl had offered to sponsor me but then Quiksilver came along and gave me a better deal. Made Kasim said I should go with them, and Made Switra was with Quiksilver, so I went with Quiksilver too.” Starting out with an amateur deal which covered only the cost of tickets to overseas contests, by 1994 Tanjung had secured a professional salaried contract, and the hard work had begun.
It
could be that this goofy-footed Rizal Tanjung is something of a goof-ball. Take his tatts,
for instance, which are a far cry from the post-industrial iconography most 23-year olds
have branded on their bodies. His left ankle is labelled with the image of a scroll, upon
which is inscribed the letters R-I-Z-A-L. A young boy, a helpful ring-in to the interview
session, takes one look at the tattoo, screws up his nose and asks: “Don’t you
regret it !?” “Nup. I like the way it’s kinda old-school,” replies an
unfazed Tanjung. The one on his arm is just as old-school. It’s a squat pirate
enframed in the words SURF ALL DAY. “The pirate’s too hard to make out,”
complains the young boy. “Yeah, cos my skin’s too black cos I ... surf all
day.” This time he’s defeated.
If Tanjung’s ear incident was gnarly, then his Dompu incident was about as goofy as you can get. It goes something like this: last year Tanjung set off for Dompu with his girlfriend Chandra, hyped with the thrill of taking her along to a contest for the first time, only to arrive on Sumbawa and find he had bought them plane tickets to the wrong side of the island. So while all the other competitors were in comfortable hotel rooms resting up for the next day’s contest, Rizal and Chandra were winding round the island’s unsealed roads at a snail’s pace in a bemo. “When I went to book my ticket I didn’t know that in Sumbawa they have two airports, and I booked the wrong one five hours away from where the contest was taking place...five hours from the place! I rented this bemo, and this guy was just honking the whole time. I almost threw up twice and had a terrible headache. And there were pigs and cows all over the road. And then when we got to the place, all the hotels were booked. So I talked to my friend, one of the organisers. They said, ‘Oh they have room there but it’s a really, really bad room,’ so I said, ‘OK I just need a mosquito net,’ cos it’s really bad over there for malaria.”
In the end, Tanjung didn’t contract malaria and his goofy style worked much better for him on water than it had on land - he went on to win the event, a windfall of US$5000. It’s a win he attributes to the weeks between G-Land and Dompu last year, which he spent surfing in Bali with World Number One Kelly Slater and Quiksilver Pro winner Luke Egan. “After G-Land Luke and Kelly came over to Bali and I went out surfing with them every day. Luke is one of my favourite surfers. He’s smooth and stylish and colourful. He’s big. And he’s a goofy-foot too so I can learn alot from him. Surfing with those guys helped me build up the confidence I needed to win in Dompu.”
After his Dompu victory, Tanjung packed up his boards and a wardrobe for all seasons and started on a 6-month schedule that took him to contests in Durban, France, England, America and Spain before returning home for a rest in January-February. Then it all cranked up again in March this year when he traversed the globe from Santa Cruz to Sydney and then to Perth before returning to Bali in April and leaving again in May for Tahiti. This gruelling schedule, which allows him no more than two months of the year at home, has been going on for the last two years and looks likely to last another seven if, as Tanjung plans, he keeps surfing professionally until he is thirty.And then what? “Once I’m not spending all my time competing I’d like to concentrate on promoting Indonesian surfing. There’s so many good surf spots and the potential to host heaps more events here than is now the case. Bringing more international events here is what’s gonna help local surfers to get known and surfing overseas.” Just as his interviewer is adjusting to Tanjung doing Serious and Responsible, he performs a mental pirouette, wriggles free of the mode, and arrives at a life plan with which he appears much more at home: “Yeah... I dunno, whatever... I’m just gonna surf till I die.”
by Emma Baulch
Photos by Jason Child and Agus Spa
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