Beachbreaks Heal All Wounds

There’s dye everywhere.

Blue, green, red, pink. It’s on fingers and in hair. Seeping into grass and soaking into stone. Seven of the world’s best teenage surfers are wearing jackets that were once white, but are now tie-dyed — or splash-dyed. It’s just another afternoon in Sumatra.

You’ll see it all in the clip dropping next week. All I can say is that it involved Matt Hoy, a bullhorn and a copious amount of water balloons. For now, I’ll leave it at this:

We spent the past two days at a beachbreak. After a few days of broken boards, permanent scars and perfect points, you begin to crave something less treacherous. Like ramps that don’t end with dry reef and tubes that aren’t created by a plateau of fire coral. Especially when you don’t have to remove perfection from the equation.

So, really, we spent the past two days at a perfect beachbreak. Lefts. Rights. Tubes. Turns. And so many airs. The standouts? Kade Matson, who is the youngest on the trip, did a few turns too powerful for his 15-year-old pegs with poise. Kyuss King threaded tubes with perfect form. But Sammy Pupo and Kael Walsh — both of whom are surfing in the YG Final for the third year straight — have been the cream of the crop (of rice paddies).

Tomorrow, most likely, we’re giving a kid $10K. Maybe they’ll buy some candy. Maybe they’ll buy lots of cars. But they’ll definitely have to earn it — a big swell filled in tonight and we’ll be heading back to the waves that leave memories and scars. Stay tuned, you’ll know how it goes shortly.