Text and photos by Tim Hain

And even with this extended waiting period, the Cup has been held at Padang-Padang only twice in its history. 2005 was a banner year for the Cup, with a 6 to 8+ waves that were, in surfing terminology, "heavy". Last year Padang-Padang didn't cooperate, so the Cup was held at Bingin Beach, which is considered Padang-Padang's little brother, and the inaugural event in 2004 was held at Uluwatu.

On July 24th a trial event was held to decide which 16 surfers would join the 16 top seeded ISC (Indonesian Surfing Championship) surfers for the total of 32 contestants that are allowed to participate. Padang-Padang cooperated with 4-6 foot surf to the delight of the surfers and Rip Curl management.

On the morning of the trial, in addition to the local surfers lining up to get their place on the list, a number of Hawaiian Pipeline crew including Liam McNamara, David Cantrell, Jason Frederico, Kahea Hart and others known as members of the "Pipeline Posse" threw their names in the ring. Australian "Bra Boy" Koby Abberton and 14-year-old grom phenom John John Florence from Hawaii completed the list.

After the trial was completed, the forecast again looked very positive for a sizeable swell on the 26th, so Rip Curl made the call to begin the main event ahead of the scheduled one month waiting period which was due to start on August 1st.

On the 26th, a high morning tide along with the late arrival of the expected swell delayed the start until midday 12. But 4-6 foot sets began to make their appearance a few times during each heat, allowing the contest to run until 4:30 when the action was called off for the day. Only three non-Indonesians made it through to the quarterfinals, Kahea Hart and Kamalaei Alexander of Hawaii, and Bali resident Kane Faint of Australia.

All eyes were then back on the swell forecasts, wondering when the next blast of waves were due to impact the razor sharp reef of Padang-Padang. It soon appeared that the 1st of August was looking to be huge, so everyone was on standby waiting for the word. On the evening of the 31st of July the word went out, so at dawn on August 1st everyone was at the beach ready to go.

True to form, Mother Nature was up to her old tricks again and the huge frothing barrels were nowhere to be seen in the early morning light, but as the light grew brighter so did the outlook as 5-6 foot sets finally began to appear. The first wave of the day was ridden at just before 8 am, and through the next few hours the sets kept coming and one-by-one the competitive field was narrowed down to the final four contestants. They paddled out to for their last surf at just before 4:30 pm, to the cheers of the spectators who were thronging the beach and lining up on the reef in front of the cliff as well along the cliff top above.

Wave selection and experience were critical in the very tricky and dangerous low tide conditions, but Kane Faint had enough of both to get him the win. "I was just stoked to be in the final, it was such great fun. I was actually really surprised that I made it that far. So I'm really stoked at getting a 10 AND winning!"

Taking second place was Made Lapur from Uluwatu, third place was Ketut "Mega" Yoga Semadhi, and rounding out fourth was Wayan "Betet" Mertha.

Though the waves didn't reach the level of majesty set by the 2005 event, the competition was every bit as intense, and with the addition of the international competitors and the increase in spectators it gave the 2007 Rip Curl Cup its own place in history.

Next month we'll bring you the Dompu Indonesia Open 2007 presented by Quiksilver that was held at Lakey Peak in mid August, a contest that had been on hiatus for 10 years but is now back.