The thing is…that’s actually his real name. Rajo Barrel. And with a name like that the whole story smacks of destiny. December 2020, Pete Matthews of White Monkey Surf Shop fame and Matt Biolos take their kids and go hunting for barrels on Sumbawa. They arrive in the dusty little Muslim fishing village of Hu’u, home of the famed Lakey Peak. Pete takes it from here.
“And so…so…every day we would throw our kids in the boat to go surf the peak” says Pete Matthews “and like this little ten-year-old local kid would jump in the boat to avoid the paddle out to the reef that he had been doing every day of his life. So I own a surf shop and Matt is Matt Biolos so our kids have these shiny new Mayhem’s and here’s this little local kid with this chewed nose Frankenstein board that had been worn down to about 4’4” with three different nubbed out fins, it might have been a swallowtail at some point, who knows…so we all get in the water and this little kid just starts surfing like a man and schooling everybody. I mean real, hardcore, expressive surfing. Late drops, double hand stalls, fading into the pit, deep Barrels, 360 aerials, rail grabs, tail slides…Jesus…and Biolos is just like what planet does this kid come from? And so Biolos started thinking about designing high performance boards for this kid that would have to be shorter than any board he has ever shaped. You know, 4’4”, Paper thin, and forget the volume…there is none. So anyway, we’re watching this 10 year old surf like some Pipeline Master on a this shitty board and Matt and I are just blown away saying, this is the best kid surfer on earth! I mean think about it. No infrastructure, no coach, no photographers, no screaming parents filming every session and this kid lives in a tiny house and is picking his lunch off trees, maybe he has a crappy VCR with some bootleg Andy on it somewhere and some old mildewed surf mags…That’s it. That’s his training routine…hardcore ripping in a ragged pair of shorts looking like some kind of mini-castaway…I swear. So Matt makes a few of the boards that Kolohe and Griff are riding but in a 4’5’ version and gives them to this kid a year later and Rajo practically has a seizure he’s so excited. And Rajo paddles out and just blows up. Like going from propeller planes to Jets. Now that was a year ago. And this little kid is just feeding on theories of performance and design and he’s hosting Mason Ho and Kolohe Andino and Griff and Ian and Luke and the whole Lost crew in his little village and he is holding his own and just getting more and more radical everyday. It’s an impossible story in today’s super tech modern age”.
To be fair, Rajo had early mentorship from his Father, Joey Barrel, (again, his real name), who is a renown Indonesian Barrel rider that once came over to Bali and damn near won the Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup, taking a close second to Lee Wilson in the final. And father and son first hit the line up at Lakey Peak when Rajo was an astonishing 4 years old. So the kid has already been surfing 8 years. And let’s face it, living in a little seaside village with three world class waves in your front yard has its advantages. But still, the talent has to be there. “Rajo is like a fish you buy at the fair in one of those little plastic bags” says friend Asia Matthews, “As soon as you put them in the aquarium, they are home. That is what the ocean is like for Rajo. A big aquarium but with gnarly barrels”.
When asked about his own future, Rajo, who is still learning English, says “My village is a very small place and the world is a very big place. But the ocean is my place. So if it is close, then I will always be happy”.
And so it goes this month in Indonesia. The best place to be on earth during the Pandemic. It’s not every man for himself over here…but it is every man needs to be responsible for himself. The surf remains relatively empty, the traffic is sparse, the airport looks abandoned and the three surf states of Bali, Bukit, Kuta and Canggu, are chugging along in their self-governed evolutions. Rumors of a March Airport opening and relaxed quarantine protocols has the tourist industry mavens licking their chops in anticipation. But for now, Bali is spinning in greased grooves despite the global panic. And isn’t that what this place has always been about since the beginning? Rest assured, there is no end in sight here. Only a new type of Genesis. Never forget, your next visit to the island of the Gods is not just another surf trip. In this post pandemic world, it’s a reset. So bring your best angels, uh?
