South West board rider Richard Wain put on a brilliant performance to defend his title at the recent Longboard SUP Revolution 2024 Bali Cosmic Experience.
Held in Sanur with surfing taking place at both Serangan Island and Oka Point, the event is considered the largest and most prestigious international longboard SUP surfing competition in the world.
Serangan Island delivered smaller swells on the first two days of competition, before the event moved to Oka Point for two days of epic, challenging waves.
The Yallingup local was the back-to-back winner of the Over 60s world title, fending off a challenging field of 18 other SUP riders.
"The judges were scoring on 50/50 traditional and progressive moves, meaning riders had to mix up big turns along traditional surfing like, nose rides and drop knee turns.
In his semi final, Wain took on the biggest waves and performed some critical manoeuvres and traditional nose riding to score a total of 15.17 with an excellent range wave of 8.17 to win.
Scores remained fairly level in the close fought final, but Wain's last wave allowed some nice turns before getting a nose ride to finish - helping him overtake fellow WA surfer Jamie Ralston in second place and event founder Michael Jenkins in third.
The competition drew a large field of athletes from around the globe for its second year, and Wain said the quality of surfing and depth of talent across all divisions was outstanding.
"Conditions for the finals were perfect and produced some of the best longboard SUP surfing ever witnessed," he said.
The Elite men's final - in which Richard said he was was privileged to have been on commentary - was regarded by the international judging panel as the most exciting and highest level of surfing they had seen.
The final was taken out by Benoit Carpentier (France), while his brother Mathieu won the Men's Weekend Warrior division from a field of 38.
Fellow French competitor Camile Dubrana won the Women's Elite division, and Australian Dimity Faulkner collected the Women's Weekend Warrior title.
"You really have to see these competitors in action out here on big waves to really appreciate their amazing skill level, it was super impressive," Asian Surf Cooperative tech manager Alex Hontoria said.
