The second World Cup Stop for 2013 comes to an end. In my LCQ I had a rough time again and after crashing out on one of my standard tricks I had to settle with watching the finals from the sunny shore with an ice cold beer in my hand. I drink pretty rarely but both myself and Red Bulls Sasha Christian felt that we deserved a “we suck party”. The riding in the finals was amazing though, some of the best I’ve seen in a World Cup stop. It was such a close call between Raimi Merritt (USA) and Nicola Butler (GBR). In the end it came down to Nicolas wild card trick, a Moby Dick which she landed just a tiny bit on the second wake and dropped the handle. Raimi grabbed her 8th World Cup title with Nicola in second and the last stop’s winner Bec Gange (AUS) in third.
In the guys finals I was really impressed with my fellow O’Neill team rider, Sam Carne’s (GBR) run. For a while it looked like he would be on the podium but as usual, no-one could stop Harley so with the Australian champ in first place, Shota Tezuka (JPN) in second and Andrew Adkinson (USA) in third, Sam ended up in the forth place. Unfortunately DC had to join me and Sascha in our “loser party” since he also fell on a roll to blind, which is one of his standard tricks and therefore didn’t make it through to the Semi’s.
I was a bit disappointed about crashing out of course but it was great to be able to make it to the closing ceremony in high heels this time in stead of in a cast 😉 The people of Palembang really go all out to make sure we feel welcomed here so after everything from fireworks to dancers and handshakes with the governor we got taken to a huge night club. Once there we got told to order whatever we wanted to eat or drink on the house. Do I have to add that things got crazy pretty fast? My only issue was to make the waiters understand that I was vegetarian since they kept bringing me chicken and everyone who know me, knows how cranky I get without food. Therefore I didn’t stay too long but went home to sleep around midnight and woke up early for a smashing breakky. Myself and Lucas had to leave pretty early to make our flight to Bali and in all the rush I realized I’d forgotten my spanking new binding by the contest site! Panicking I asked the organizers if there was any chance that they could give them to another rider so that I could maybe get them to Europe. Since the Indonesian people are the nicest I’ve ever met it didn’t take long before I got told that the bindings would be brought to me in the airport and so they were! Big thanks to you guys, you are the best! Now we’re on our way for a couple of days surfing in Bali before heading back to Europe. It’s always a pleasure to visit Palembang and hopefully I’ll be back there soon.
Talking to the locals really makes me appreciate the life I’ve got and how my problems are so small compared so the problems of others. Definitely a big kick in the face with perspective. Sometimes we forget how lucky we are and start taking things for granted. I’m going to stop that now and fully enjoy my trip to Bali with Nicola, Bec, Lucas, Andrew and Daniel. Talk soon!
Ps. massive photo update coming whenever I’ve got better wifi, for now, here’s a photo of some of the Pro Women