Can Karma Decide Who Wins A Surf Contest?

The moment your plane’s wheels touch tar at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, you enter a reality that is unlike anything the West has prepared you for. 

The smell of incense and tropical foliage as you leave the plane, the random smiles, the Hindu deities, the easy-going demeanour and pragmatic, cruise-at-all-costs mentality — a total assault on the senses, in the best way possible. 

While modern Bali might be besieged by apartheid-running clubs, rampant development, bourgeois trappings, sex pests, biohackers, gangsters, kidnappings, and contract killings, beneath it all runs a deep vein of ancient spiritual beliefs that holds sway over this island. Whether you believe in it or not does not matter. These beliefs decide how things are done here, even who wins this surf contest. 

“I was thinking about that,” says Westen Hirst, the Lakey Peak surfer, who, aged 16, became the youngest winner in the history of the Rip Curl Cup Padang last year. He’s talking specifically about the decision of Mega Semadhi, a two-time Padang Cup champion and local Balinese-Bukit-Peninsula surfing icon, to walk away from this event for the first time in over 20 years last year. 

The Hindu priest-in-waiting and Bingin-based youth leader is one of the best to ever do it out here, a two-time event winner, and could have threatened Padang titles for the next decade at least. The announcement shocked everyone, but Mega was adamant that he step aside to let the next generation of Indonesian surfing shine through. This gesture of good karma was immediately answered.  

“It’s like he knew it was gonna happen. He felt the energy and that happened,” says Westen, of winning the event, alongside Jasmine Studer, another 16-year-old Indonesian who took out the women’s division, to cement one of the most momentous days in Indonesian surfing history. 

Their wins on the back of Mega’s selfless act provided more proof — not that locals need it — of the divine karmic principles that underpin life on this island. “It’s everywhere. It’s not just the ocean, it’s the land, the ocean, everything. We try to respect everything and it’ll give us back what we need and what we want, sometimes,” explains Westen. 

That a guy whose name translates in English to ‘Mega Enlightened Consciousness’ (aka Semadhi) set this karmic flow in motion might be mind-blowing to some western brains, but it’s pretty typical by Balinese standards. It’s called karma, stupid. And it’s only half the story.  

Mega’s decision to promote the future of Indonesian surfing helped give Westen’s father, Troy, the chance to see his son achieve Indonesian surfing immortality from the channel prior to his passing shortly after. 

“He was there. He watched everything. Winning in front of my dad was one of the best feelings,” says Westen, adding, “He’ll watch me for sure (this year). He’s gonna be there,” Westen says. 

Asked of his strategy, as the defending champ, he says it will be much the same as last year: pray and surf. 

“I’m just going to go out there and surf and pray to my God,” he says. 

To win again, Westen will have to overcome a field packed with a dozen or more of the world’s best vortex shamans spanning multiple generations — from Western Australia’s 48-year-old hellcat Taj Burrow all the way to Fiji’s 17-year-old cone-wrangling phenom James Kusitino. But Westen is not overawed. 

“I just wanna be out there with all these legends too and just enjoy it, but I’m definitely going for the second one,” he says. 

Waves & Who’s Who in 2026

The forecast is looking promising with a prolonged run of long period Indonesian lines wrapping around the Bukit Peninsula from August 2 to 6 with a run day likely somewhere in that window. Weston and Jasmine are the only previous winners in the draw (pending the outcome of the trials) and despite their age, they have as many reps and as good a read out here as anyone. They’re gonna take some stopping with the full weight of the island, its religious ceremonies, and karmic properties behind them.

Mid-2000s World Tourspotters will be buoyed by the addition of Taj Burrow, co-star of Ethan Ewing’s Stab in the Dark. They’ll know his backhand has shown little signs of ageing, particularly when applied to groomed Indonesian roll-in pits. Fresh off a trip to Tombies, the effervescent Burrow will feel right at home assuming the position and being blown out toward Impossibles — until his rail must be pried from his arthritic hands, his back straightened out in the channel, and his colostomy bag untangled from his leg rope. 

The event also gives us our first real-time look at the Cloudbreak prodigy James Kusitino at the wave. From staring down the barrel of anonymity in the islands of Fiji, he’s been elevated to one of surfing’s most exciting talents (+ Stab Junior Surfer of the Year) and arrives at Padang fresh off a radical opening foray to Teahupoo. As good as Padang is, it’s still Cloudbreak on Xanax, so expect some Harlem Globetrotter-esque trickery from this freakish Fijian grom.

Equally tantalising is the appearance of his sponsor and mentor, Craig Anderson. A longtime stranger to competing, his deep commitment to kindness, patience and core values could cost him at the pointy end. Though he also brings an impeccable karmic history into the event, which, coupled with a skill set built on subterranean South Coast NSW slabs, could see him chosen by Padang as the winner.

If anyone can hold a candle to Craig Anderson in the style stakes, it’s Tosh Tudor. The Californian heir to a cosmic-core surf dynasty has streamlined his father Joel’s approach, literally and figuratively, to produce some of 2026’s most watchable surfing in waves of heft. He is humility and kindness personified — two qualities that go a long way to deciding victory in this event — and finished runner-up last year. Can he go one better? You know he can. 

Hawaiians have always featured heavily in this event (including four previous winners: JOB (x2), Clay Marzo, Benji Brand*) as they do in this island chain generally. With Mason Ho in the draw, you’d expect this year to be no different. This timeless tube wizard is due for a big competitive moment and winning this event could be it.   

Don’t count out the locals. Kuta’s Ketut Agus (say that three times fast with a mouth full of nasi goreng) is a comp savvy, QS-hardened shredder of the highest order with more than enough skills to go all the way here. Though a win for the Bingin battler and nuggety goofy foot powerhouse, Tommy Sobry, would bring down the bedeg walls. 

In the women’s division, the defending champ has to be the favourite on the back of last year’s performance and her consistent wrangling of serious Indo cylinders since. Jasmine Studer’s pedigree is undeniable. As the daughter of iconic, long-time Indo-based, expat shaper, Luke Studer, and a Balinese mother, Jasmine grew up with the likes of Dylan Longbottom and the late great, Mikala Jones, feeding her technical tips on tube riding.

But there’s some gnarly Aussies in the draw. Coming straight out of the blast furnace of elite level competition with plenty of pedigree of her own is the NSW South Coast’s Lucy Darragh. The next unit off the endless assembly line of world-class Australian talent, Lucy already has a Qualifying Series event win in Indonesia — at Nias (on her backhand) — and is currently contesting the Challenger Series. A quick look at her Instagram confirms she has plenty of form in technical Indo and Australian slabs and will be a genuine threat to take this thing out surfing frontside at Padang. 

Whoever wins, they’ll need to have a few things on their side.

*ZAF/HAW