Kai Hall grew up in South Africa surfing predominantly right waves. He has enjoyed a solid competitive career in the South African junior series, even at his young age and now finds himself living in paradise in Bali.
Bali improves your left surfing
Living in Bali, Kai has had to learn to ride left pits and he has adapted very quickly to riding pig dog. Wearing wetsuits and a helmet for protection from the live coral reef, he is making a name for himself in the islands and all over the world. Kai Hall is possibly the most tubed 13 year old on the planet!
Watch as Alana Blanchard and Dimity Stoyle rip apart warm, fun rights in Bali and Java. Alana still rips, does airs and of course has the nicest bum in surfing. Should brighten your Monday.
As we head towards the next WSL stop at the high performance waves of Trestles, most of the tour will be watching this latest web drop from Julian Wilson and praying they don’t get him in their heats. This guy is smooth like butter!
I have just had an epic week up at Afriski in Lesotho and expect some videos of that very soon! In the meantime enjoy this week’s Friday Mix, starting with my pal, Wok, jaunting through some fun Bali Tubes with his mate and RVCA surfer, Adam Bennets.
Next up we go down south to the land of Oz and some serious BMX action from the FOX Bmx Pro! These dudes are caning it!
Lastly we go down memory lane with Skate wunderman, Kilian Martin and some seriously tripped out action from one of his older clips from 2011. This guys blows my mind!
This week I was invaded by the Bodyboarders in the form of Jarret Johnston, Simon Heale & Ian Kruger from Sixty40 Magazine, as we discussed the Tand Invitational, the IBA World Tour, the status of SA Bodyboarding and a surprising amount about surfing and what is happening on the ASP World Tour and in the upcoming winter run here in South Africa. All played to a backdrop of the lastest music…
Congrats to our Twitter Competition winner with Tand Invitational, Zion and Sixty40 – @LukeEdward1 (Please Tweet/DM @KapteinKai your details so we can get you that awesome package!)
Check out the video teaser for the Tand Invitational…
Most people when talking about this event have mentioned 2 words, airs and tubes. But take one look at the photo of Jordy Smith above and just let it sink is a little – the Oakley Pro Bali at Keramas could well be won by big monster turns! So lets look at who the favorites are…
Kelly Slater sits atop his number 1 throne once again after Cloudbreak and lets be honest, he is always going to be a threat in perfect right handers. Not much more needs to be said on this one.
Taj, Mick and Joel are all threats. They have surfed these waves in bali for years and they all have lethal forehand attacks made for perfect tube to wall right handers.
Jordy Smith has slowly been building momentum, doing the biggest turns on tour and with plenty time in the water in Bali over the years he is my number 1 pick. He has it all from the tube, to the air to the gouge! Make no mistake, no one on tour wants Jordy in their heat at this one. He has the eye of the tiger at the moment, is super relaxed and you can see how much he wants to win.
John John, Gabriel Medina, Kerr and Julian Wilson are all good picks, as is Adreano if you can stomach that style of his on a perfect canvas. I watched some warm up surfs online and it is not pretty. The underdogs to keep an eye on will definitely be Kohole Andino, who has plenty contest experience at Keramas and has been slowly getting better each event this year. Dusty Payne has alot of time in at Keramas, just search online for footage, and lets be honest its about time he did something on tour. Sebastien Ziets is going to rip it and Nat Young always looks so good on the backhand, he could go really far. Lastly, keep an eye on Travis Logie – no joke, that backhand snap of his could go to town out at 4ft Keramas! (Oh and Yadin, he rips this kind of wave.)
All in, this should prove to be one hell of a contest!
