Rio Waida Is The CT-Bound Indonesian Straight Air Hero And TikTok Star The World Needs Right Now

Bali.

What a place for a surfer to grow up.

What a place for a surfer to get stuck during a pandemic.

And what a place for a surfer to grow up, get stuck during a pandemic, improve drastically, then become one of surfing’s first Olympians and get a wildcard into the Corona Open Mexico and beat event-favorite Filipe Toledo.

In other words, what a place for Rio Waida.

The 21-year-old has been on quite a run lately, what with all of the above and his 500k TikTok followers. Don’t expect that roll to end soon.

Hit play above on the above to watch a new edit from Rio and Quiksilver feat plenty of nasi goreng flavor. His backhand is about as good as you’d expect from a kid who grew up on the Bukit. And his forehand?

Well, let’s just say that the straight air isn’t going anywhere. Nor is that carve.

Enjoy it now, then claim it to your friends when he makes the CT in the next three years.