On August 23rd & 24th, 2019, local surfers represented Thailand, on the Asian Surfing Tour, in Chennai, India. Khao Lak surfers, Ramee, Pat and Pie, along with Phuket Surfers, Anni, Chatchai, Boy, Jimmy and Golf, battled it out for cash prizes with Asia’s best surfers from Sri Lanka, Maldives, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
With good quality waves and excellent competitive talent from all over Asia – here’s what went down.
With tricky wave conditions, five man heats in the first round of the men’s division and no priority system, it was important to pick off the best waves. In surfing, we all have great days and not-so-great days, we win some, we lose some; such is life. Lucky for Thailand, K Boy and Chatchai made it through to the next round.
In the female divisions both Anni and Ramee learned that positioning, surfing fitness and progressive surfing is what wins contests. Ramee placed 4th in the long-board final and Anni took out 2nd place in both the women’s long-board and short board events. Huge shout out to Anni, for her constant efforts to continue to surf at higher and faster performance levels.
Long board surfing is all about style, smooth transitions and controlled traditional maneuvers. Judges are looking for a point of difference from short board surfing, and like to see committed nose riding, technical foot work and staying close to the critical section of the wave.
The stand outs for delivering the kind of surfing the judges were looking for went to K Golf from Kata, and K Nueng from Patong. Both surfers demonstrated their ability to focus and provide a variety of technical surfing that will be required to win in the upcoming SEA Games.
The team all scored valuable international competition experience in India and look forward to competing at further RAST events. For now, we are focusing on short board riders for the ISA World Championships in Japan this September. We are surfing against the very best in the world and will keep you posted!
Thank You to #spreadthefeelgood #surfingthailand #wearefeelgoodthailand #optimizeyourlife #ripcurlthailand
