Three days before the Capitulo Perfeito invitational was set to run at Desert Point, Hawaiian prince Makana Pang was announced as the final international wildcard. Bruno Santos and Ícaro Ronchi were also added to the lineup to round off a heavyweight card of goofy-foot cone connoisseurs. Organisers had fielded the perfect starting team, all they needed was the waves to play ball. Given the lack of competitive history at Indo’s mechanical left tube machine, there was a lingering curiosity about how things would come together.
The original 7am call came and went as organisers waited on the tide to drop and the swell to fill in. The broadcast was blank, leaving eager viewers to go back and forth on the live chat, wondering what was going on. For a moment, there were questions over whether they had got the call wrong. But alas, the contest eventually got going around 11.15am. The day opened with Desert’s Local Heat, where eight surfers competed, with Diki Wahyudi outshining the field.
Soon after, the main rounds began, with each surfer getting two heats to secure their position on the leaderboard. The swell had begun to fill in, perfect three foot hollow cylinders ran down the reef, with the odd bigger set, which was met with elevated roars by the crowd.
Cam Richards, the defending Capitulo Perfeito champion, took the top spot in the first heat with a combined total of 15.04. His top ride was a classic Desert Point drainer where he stuffed himself deep behind the curtain before stepping on the gas in order to navigate the foam ball and ensure a safe exit. As he kicked out the back with a leap into the air, his body language was telling – I don’t think he could quite believe that he was scoring one of Indo’s premier lefts with only three others in the water. On any regular day at Desert’s with these types of conditions, there could be anywhere between 50 to 100 surfers in the water.
In round one, heat two, Ícaro Ronchi dominated, with the global wildcard putting on a show, followed by Bruno Santos. Round two, which began right after without delay, completely flipped the leaderboard, with Makana Pang leading the charge on 16.67 while local Usman Trioko held his position. Round two, heat two followed the same pattern, with Ícaro and Bruno keeping up their form.
It was obvious the Brazilian duo knew their way around the lineup, they both consistently found themselves on the bigger set waves which would provide more opportunity for longer tube time. The judging criteria was not scaled on whether a surf would get tubed, it was more a case of how deep and how many on one wave.
The final brought together Makana Pang, Bruno Santos, Ícaro Ronchi and Usman Trioko, with mother nature saving the best conditions till last. With close to 15 minutes remaining in the final, Pang posted the only perfect 10 of the event, a ride that stood out even on a day when scores had been high across the board. Even so, the final was far from settled at that point — all four surfers still had a chance to the win, with Santos needing an 8.51 to move into the lead, Ronchi needing a score in the 6-point range, and Trioko needing a 10, a mark well within his reach.
The picture shifted around the 7-minute mark, when Santos found a 9.43, enough to push Pang into second place and leave him needing a 6.67 to retake the lead. With four minutes left on the clock, Pang, who held first priority, selected his wave and scored a 7.57, enough to move back ahead and hold the position through to the horn.
Pang finished with a 17.57 total, ahead of Santos on 16.76, Ronchi on 15.43 and Trioko on 10.60.
“Being part of the first ever surf event at Desert Point was an honour. And getting a perfect 10 in the final was a dream come true. Being out there with only three other guys in the water is probably one of the craziest things I’ve ever experienced in surfing – maybe one of the craziest things anyone has ever experienced. This wave is unbeatable. I’m stoked and very grateful,” said Makana Pang in his winning speech, where he also thanked his friends at Desert Point, whom he stays with on his trips to Desert. It caps an eventful month for the Hawaiian, who reached the final at the Padang Cup and now added this win to his Indo season.
The event delivered on every front. The local community showed up in force to support the first-ever event at their wave, and the surf matched the occasion – Makana Pang’s perfect 10 headlined a day full of standout rides, with surfer after surfer finding scores in the excellent range as the swell held up from start to finish. True to the Capitulo Perfeito format, every score came down to time spent in the barrel and the quality of the tube itself – no points for manoeuvres, just pure tube-riding, and Desert Point undoubtedly proved to be the perfect stage for it.
Capitulo Perfeito will now head back to Carcavelos, Portugal, with a waiting period running from November 1 to December 15 with its original roster. The surfers list features Anne dos Santos, Balaram Stack, Bruno Santos, Joel Parkinson, Noah Beschen, Rob Machado, Soli Bailey, Torrey Meister, Tosh Tudor, João Maria Mendonça, Miguel Blanco, Nic von Rupp, Cam Richards, Pedro Boonman and Tomás Valente, alongside a Performance Wildcard still to be announced.
