Credit: WSL Matt Dunbar
Hanneman, Geiselman, and David Top the leaderboard
The Red Bull Airborne Bali, a World Surf League (WSL) specialty event, completed its first three Qualifying heats today in two-to-four foot (0.6 - 1.2 metre) waves at Keramas. Three more Qualifying heats remain and will provide the surfers another opportunity to showcase their creative talents in Bali. Only the Top 6 surfers, as determined by the Qualifying Round, will advance to the air show’s Final.
The Red Bull Airborne Series is a three-event series with Keramas as the second stop after completing the first event on the Gold Coast. The series was created to give surfers another platform to show off their aerial surfing innovation. Each air is scored and judged on a 0-10 scale. The airs are scored on completion, commitment, degree of difficulty, innovative and progressive maneuvers, style, speed, power, height, and technicality.
Maui’s Eli Hanneman (HAW) is fast building his reputation as one of the most consistent young aerialists on the planet and, with this in mind, got the call up for his first Red Bull Airborne event here in Bali. The 16-year-old made the most of his opportunity, overcoming some of his favorite surfers with a massive, corked out full-rotation air-reverse, which ended up being the highest scoring maneuver of the day.
“I spend a bit of time here in Bali and Keramas is definitely my favorite wave here,” Hanneman said. “It’s such an amazing wave for airs so I was so stoked to get the and compete here and surf a heat here. I’ve surfed a couple of other air events with these guys, so it was cool to catch up again. I felt pretty lucky to have got that wave in the end. Everyone let it go and it ended up having a perfect section for an air. When I came down, I didn’t think I was going to ride out then all of a sudden I was standing up, so I was stoked.”
Eric Geiselman (USA) dominated the second heat, landing impressive maneuvers: a full-rotation air-reverse, and an inverted ‘Kerr-upt Flip’, a maneuver that was invented by Airborne Director, Josh Kerr. Geiselman, who travels the world chasing perfect waves rather than contest points, has only competed in one other event in the last few years, that being the Red Bull Airborne France last September.
“It is weird to be in a jersey, I’m not used to it,” said Geiselman. “The last time I wore a jersey was at this event in France. It was sick and it is so cool that this platform is even around right now. It is great to see from Red Bull and WSL, two thumbs up. I am stoked to be here. I had to manufacture waves and it seemed like the chops were actually bigger than the waves. It was hard to get going, but I got a couple and I am stoked.”
Indonesian talent I Made Darma Yasa (IDN) used his intimate knowledge of Keramas to post the best scores of the local contingent. The Padma local looked comfortable in the air but struggled to find the ramps he was looking for. Indo super-grom Bronson Meydi (IDN) and Lee Wilson (IDN) will hope to find more opportunity when they hit the water in the remaining Qualifying heats of the Red Bull Airborne Bali.
Professional surfer/skater phenom Kalani David (HAW) was another standout in the opening round of Airborne as he combined multiple aerials on a singular wave to take the third position on the Qualifying Leaderboard. The Oahu native floated through some of the biggest alley-oops of the day and will try to improve his placing when he surfs again.