A powerful new swell hit Bali throughout Tuesday and solid 4-5 foot barrels began cracking over the reef at Padang Padang on the dropping afternoon tide. While the waves weren’t quite up to the high standards required to run the 10-year anniversary of the Rip Curl Cup, event directors took advantage of the swell to run the Telkomsel Expression Session.
The 32 invited surfers in this year’s Rip Curl Cup were divided into five expression session heats and each group had the dream scenario of surfing uncrowded 4 to 5 foot Padang for an hour. The result was a highlight reel of deep tube rides and big maneuvers off the end section, much to the delight of the massive crowd gathered on the golden sands of Padang Padang beach and watching live all over the world via www.live.ripcurl.com and the Rip Curl Live Events App for iPhone.
With seven days remaining in the event waiting period, the attention of the surfing world now turns to this weekend’s upcoming swell, which looks to be bigger and more powerful than Tuesday’s expression session swell. According to official Rip Curl Cup swell forecaster Magic Seaweed, two new swells are set to arrive back-to-back from Saturday through Monday. The first pulse is predicted to arrive Friday night (Aug. 9th) and peak Saturday. The second pulse should arrive Sunday with a similar size but more southerly direction and a lower period, less ideal for the wave at Padang.