Not everyone is a fan of competitive surfing. However, the opportunity to watch your favourite surfers in pumping waves is something few will turn their nose at. If the WSL isn’t your thing, there’s always various specialty events you can tune into. This Indo dry season has played host to a number of invitational contests with heavyweight lineups featuring some of the world’s best surfers from all corners of the industry competing in pumping conditions at different locations.

While the concept of a specialty contest has existed for some time, it seems to have become increasingly popular over the last few years, with various figures in the surfing world constantly creating unique ideas for surf contests.

Amongst those held this year was the Single Fin Classic at Uluwatu, which featured possibly the best field of surfers ever assembled for a contest. The Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup runs every year at Bali’s crown jewel when it comes to life and always includes a mix of ex CT surfers, some of the world’s best free surfers and heavy hitters from the Rip Curl team. The Four Seasons Maldives trophy was won by Taj Burrow who proved he’s still got it, not only on a thruster but a twin fin and single fin too. The Hidden Bay Resort in the Mentawai’s hosted some of Europe’s best up and coming groms for the Capitulo Perfeito last month as they spent a week battling it out in a tube contest. The winner was decided by a combination of the public, a panel of judges and the competitors.

There has been no shortage of specialty contests recently and each one is completely unique. I can only imagine that brands, surfing entrepreneurs and other governing bodies will look at these events and sense opportunity to put their own spin on things. I’m a big fan of these types of event and if done right, I think they are better than your standard surf contest.

Here are three reasons why:

1.They feature your favourite surfers

When I tune into a WSL broadcast I often pick and choose which heats I want to watch, especially in the earlier rounds, based on who are my favourite surfers are and whose styles I find the most exciting to watch. I’m much more likely to watch a heat with John John Florence, Griffin Colapinto or Gabriel Medina in it, than I am if it features surfers who are bottom of the rankings, or could be considered journeymen by the fact they consistently yo-yo between the CT and the CS.

The advantage of an invitational contest is that the lineups of surfers are often curated specifically for talent and entertainment value. Organisers have the luxury of choosing who competes, rather than whoever can grind out enough quarter-final finishes in mediocre waves on the Challenger.

These lineups often feature tube specialists, free surfers and others who wouldn’t necessarily compete regularly, but cannot turn down the opportunity to surf a particular spot with only a couple of people out. Also, they usually feature a mixture of personalities and competitors speak freely when given the mic post heat. This is a lot more entertaining than the media trained interviews you see in a WSL contest.

The recent Single Fin Classic at Uluwatu is a great example of this. The lineup featured Mark Occhilupo, Joel Parkinson, Mikey February, Made Lana, Joel Tudor, Tosh Tudor, Jay Davies, Bruno Santos, Noah Collins, Jared Mell, Luke Cederman, Alex Knost, Harrison Roach, Ryuki Waida, Alejandro Moreda, Rizal Tandjung, Oscar Langburne, Ozzie Wright, Koby Abberton, Mega Artana, Adi Bol Putra, Mason Ho, Tai Buddha, Westen Hirst, Varun Tandjung, Koa Rothman, Eli Olson, Balaram Stack, William Aliotti, Othmane Choufani and more.

That is possibly the most stacked field of surfers for a contest ever put together. Where else would you see a former world champ, a selection of retro-board specialists and big wave chargers all competing against each other?

2. The waves are usually pumping

“That might be one of the funnest finals I’ve ever surfed. I don’t know if I’ll ever wear a jersey again … unless I get invited back! I got so tubed, with friends, staying at the Four Seasons, there’s no way you can better that. The pinch-me moments have been non-stop all week,” said Taj Burrow last week after winning the Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy.

The event sees the small pool of surfers compete in a single fin, twin fin and thruster division. Each one held in pumping conditions at Sultans. Competitors couldn’t believe their luck scoring six foot tubes in paradise with only a couple of their mates in the water to share it with.

The advantage that these invitational contests have over the WSL is that they can usually afford to have longer waiting periods and therefore have a greater chance of scoring waves. I’ve lost count of how many times the CT has been skunked in recent years. It’s difficult when you have seven plus rounds of heats to run for both men and women and you’ve only got a ten day window to do so. Even if there’s a swell during the window, it’s unlikely it lasts the full ten days and so you’re almost guaranteed that some rounds will run in lesser conditions.

On the contrary, invitational events like the Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup have a month long waiting period during the middle of dry season in Indo in order to make sure they score the best conditions at the best time of the year. Unlike the WSL where comps have to be completed, they also have the option to not run the event if the conditions aren’t up to scratch.

3. Each event is unique

Unlike your average surf contest, invitational events are not restricted to one particular format and organisers are consistently coming up with unique ways to make them as exciting as possible. For example, the recent Capitulo Perfeito next gen comp held at the Hidden Bay Resort in the Mentawai’s featured a number of the world’s best up and coming groms who spent a week in the Playground region getting as barreled as possible. All their clips were recorded and at the end of each day a winner was chosen by the public on social media, by the surfers involved in the event and by a judging panel. It’s a great way to produce social content and to get those watching from behind a screen involved.

The FS Maldives comp sees each surfer compete in three division; a single fin, twin fin and thruster category. Getting to watch people like Taj Burrow and Jeremy Flores, household former CT names who have spent most of their life on high performance short boards, ride single fins and twin fins in pumping surf makes for unique and exciting viewing.

Each event also gets creative with how the deliver themselves to the public. For example, the Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup had the Swellians, Vaughan Blakey and Jed Smith, run the commentary booth. The pair are unique characters and added an extra flavour to the broadcast which is important when a lot of the time viewers are forced to watch surfers sitting and waiting for waves.

Even if competitive surfing is not your thing, I think there is a specialty contest for everyone. If the success of recent events are anything to go by, I can imagine we will be seeing more unique concepts in different locations in the near future.