Oct/Nov, 1998
No. 037/VI/98
On Live The Banjar
Balinese communalism in the
age of reform
All In Good
Fun
Lombok's stick fighters
Grommet Grrls
Gallery
Murni's Pure Instinct
Health and Beauty
Ubud's Bali Hati Foundation
Adventure
Cruising on the
High Seas
Food
Hard Rocks's new spirit
Books
The Kris of Death reviewed
Fiction
Oka Rusmini's 'Clouds over Kuri Gede'
advertising index for
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| Halfway. It's not
a loonie bin, a nut house, or the resting place of crazies. But a slip of fate has made it
in at least one regard like a half-way house - for it also happens to be the womb that
nurtures a certain marginality and outcast status. As the gentlest of Bali's breaks, and
one of the few that is reef-free, it is favoured by wipe-out timid gromets still in the
process of finding their feet. Since the concreting over of Kartika Plaza beach, thus
creating a backwash and destroying the break that taught Bali's first generation of
'legends' to surf, Halfway has become the new point of conception of the Balinese gromet.
Traditionally, its offspring have all been boys. Its newest babies, however, are not, and
these days of you are on the beach at the right time, you may well have the honour of
meeting Bali's first gromet girls, Kartini and Junia, who are on the break daily. JUNIA AND KARTINI It was mid-1997 when tomboyish, 17-year-old Junia DS was invited surfing by Quiksilver's boss in Bali, Made Switra, who also happens to be her uncle. Bored of moping around her parent's t-shirt shop in Kuta's art market, Junia padded off to get changed and came back carrying her boogie board under her arm. "You won't be needing that," Switra said, looking down his nose at the board. "I'm gonna teach you how to surf properly."
Despite her beginner status, Kartini, like Junia, has also gained sponsorship. Her sponsor, the Kuta-based shop Surfer Girl, is quick to admit that "she's not very good yet" while conceding that "you'd have to be pretty game to be out there doing what she's doing." Point taken. After a two-hour interview with Kartini and Junia in Kartini's parents' cafe, Brasil-Bali, in Kuta's Jalan Benesari, I learned that what it means to be a Balinese gromet girl is to harbour a courage and a will that is ten-fold that of their male contemporaries. For Kartini and Junia's choice of sport not only sets them up for scary wipe-outs. It also sets them against entrenched and widely-held ideas about a girl's 'proper place', female beauty and sexual desirability. And on hearing their stories it became evident that both girls feel this conflict deeply and immediately - not only on the break but at home and at school as well. THE WHITER THE BETTER "modern Indonesian notions of beauty differ from court-inspired concepts. Represented by the royal princesses..., the ideal beauty was once described as hitam manis (black and sweet),kuning langsat (yellow like the skin of a langsat fruit), or sawo matang (sawo fruit is dark brown when ripe - matang). Cosmetic brand names have now taken over from fruit as the metaphors for the modern notion of beauty. As promoted by glossy women's magazines, film and advertising, the modern beautiful face is either Indonesia's top fashion mannequin or that of a famous film star: young, rich, glamourous and nearly always of mixed race." (read Eurasian, ed.) Ceres Pequinto Above :
|
"After three months of surfing at Kuta, Bli (Uncle) Made took
me to Biaung, near Sanur. The waves there are kind of churned up because there's lots of
sand bars and ditches. And the surf is big. It was there that I learnt what it really
means to wipe out," recalled Junia when interviewed. By the time she met surf buddy
Wayan Kartini in early 1998, Junia had secured sponsorship from Billabong - a deal that
covered her school fees and provided her with clothing. At that time, Kartini was still
riding the white water, so Junia took her to meet her mentor. "I've wanted to teach a
Balinese girl to surf for ages," says Switra of his support of the girls. "When
I saw Junia compete in a roller-blading competition on Kuta Beach, I asked her dad's
permission to take her surfing. So when she when she turned up with Kartini I thought
'Great, she's got a buddy. That'll keep her on the break,' and I gave all the support I
could to Kartini, too." Switra promptly gave Kartini an old board to use - as he had
Junia several months previously - and she used it to perfect as much as she could in the
two months before the Gromet contest. Says Kartini of her performace in the contest
"I couldn't even duck dive the wave yet. In the whole twenty minutes, I didn't even
get beyond the break. It was so frustrating! When I got back to the beach, I burst into
tears," she relates, chuckling at herself in retrospect.[top]
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