Thousands lined the cliffs at Uluwatu last weekend to see some of the world’s best surfers slide and glide across perfect four feet Racetracks in the glistening dry season sunshine for the Uluwatu Single Fin Classic event.
The competition boasted possibly the best line-up ever assembled for a specialty surfing event as it featured five former world champions across various fields, a selection of retro-board specialists and a bunch of world-class rippers.
Having finished second the year prior, and third the event before that, Bruno Santos finally took home the top prize, garnering four 10 point rides across the weekend on his way to first place.
The open men’s division featured 113 competitors but the final boiled down to the following six; Bruno Santos, William Aliotti, Westen Hirst, Agus Blacky Setiawan, Nathan White and Tai Buddha.
Comp organiser Tai Buddha said: “Bruno and Westen were absolutely ripping, they were the standouts for sure. The conditions were absolutely firing, racetracks was about as perfect as it gets. Four to six foot, sunny, offshore all day, no one out – it was just such good vibes.”
Commenting on the stacked field of surfers, he added: “I think the good thing about having a Single Fin event is it allows room for some of these underground guys to shine. Last year we had a young kid win against a top field of pro’s and then again this year we had someone like Nathan White in the final and it’s so cool to see people who aren’t necessarily household pro’s do so well, they always sort of surprise you. But overall, it was the most crazy lineup of surfers I’ve ever seen for a contest.”
Westen Hirst took out the junior division, Australian Holly Warn won the women’s and Mark Glindeman won the masters.
Tai believes the event is the best in Bali’s surfing calendar.
“The event really brings the community together. All the hotels, restaurants and warungs were all full Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The role surfers play in bringing people together, sharing good times and meeting up with people you haven’t seen in ages at a place like Uluwatu is so special.”
Tai estimated that there was probably close to 3,000 people spread across the cliff at Ulu’s trying to catch some of the action.
“At low tide when the finals were on, all the reef and sand around the racetrack corner was packed and then you look up the cliff and there was people as far as the eye could see. The vibes are always so good, everyone is drinking beers all day, talking on the microphones keeping it super light hearted and fun. Occy was on the mic calling the finals which was pretty special.”
Despite some sore heads on Monday morning following the after party at the famous Single Fin Sundays, the crew are already planning to make next year even bigger, while keeping ‘fun’ at the core of each event.
“We want to keep it fun and loose, we spoke about big prize money but we pulled the pin on that as we don’t want people to take it too serious, we just want to make sure the vibes are always high, we’ve had the craziest lineup of surfers but we will always make room for the underground guys because that’s what it’s all about.”
