It was an ambitious plan – take nine young surfers to the Playgrounds zone of the Mentawai Islands and run a mobile tube riding event. The contest was the vision of Rui Costa, a charismatic impresario who organises the annual, one-day Capitulo Perfeito event in Portugal where he attracts big name tube specialists like Rob Machado, Nic von Rupp, Anthony Walsh and Balaram Stack. (He’s promising more big names next year)
For the New Generation edition of Capitulo Perfeito, Rui aligned with Billabong, and good friend Alex Ribas, who operates the Hidden Bay Resort Mentawai Islands. The resort served as base camp for the contest, which saw nine young surfers (Jackson Dorian, Salvador Vala, Sid Englert, Inigo Madina, Jaime Veselko, Martim Fortes, Salvador Catarino, Simão Prazeres and Joaquin At-Thariq) roaming the breaks in the Playgrounds region.
The loosely structured, mobile contest ventured to Hideaways, Kandui, Pit Stops, and a rarely surfed, offshore right-hander straight out the front of The Hidden Bay Resort. Other waves in the region were on the agenda, but the decisions around where to surf were made daily, based on conditions. Although the surfers wore jerseys, so they could be identified by filmers, they didn’t have exclusive access to the surf breaks, instead they blended into the crowd as though part of a regular session.
The criteria was simple – best barrel of the day wins. This was ultimately determined by watching the clips each night. The surfers voted, the judges voted and the public voted on social media. From the triangulated system a winner was determined.
In the end Potugal’s Martim Fortes and Mentawai local, Joaquin At-Thariq, shared first place, but perhaps the real victory was pulling off the contest itself.
Back in 2017 The WSL hinted at their intention to take the Final Five mobile in the Mentawai Islands. The quote below is from Matt Wilkinson in 2017. He was ranked number four in the world at the time. When he spoke to Tracks he’d recently been in a surfers’ meeting and seemed fairly convinced the WSL had its sights set on the Mentawai Islands. “It’s pretty much happening, I think… It won’t come into effect next year but the year after… Obviously to have a finals series that’s mobile in the Mentawais that can be held in one day when it’s cooking at HT’s or Macaronis or Greenbush is pretty exciting.”
The WSL never found a way to go mobile in The Ments for final days, but Rui Costa and the Capitulo Perfeito team did. Rui admits he learned a lot from the recent event in the Ments and would do things differently next time, however the irrepressible, Portuguese event organiser told Tracks he has his heart set on coming back. “I certainly want to do more events outside of Portugal and I definitely want to attract the best surfers, and I can confirm that Indonesia is one of the places I am focusing on.”
While the WSL takes a punt on Fiji for the finals, Rui is looking at a bigger playing field in Indo, with mobile options. There’s no questioning his vision and ambition when it comes to hosting barrel riding events. His life is devoted to making ‘hollow’ dreams come true for surfers and fans. Rui might just pull it off and expand the Capitulo Perfeito into an enthralling series that champions what surfers care about most – getting barrelled.
