The second collectione is made by our favorite fellow island bloggers Rottenfresh(.com). Behold the result of an experiment with dyes, washes and hand screen printing. A straight line of some raw tees. Chris and Jonathan call it their ANTI collection. “The ANTI collection is our interpretation of Lars von Trier’s dark and controversial film, Antichrist. Von Trier splits his audiences into extremist factions. We aim to adapt the richly painted, visually powerful and completely unnerving avant-garde film into our ANTI collection.” Aight. Go boys! Go see on shop.rottenfresh.com and don’t forget to keep an eye on their blog side of life.

Quick. Note. Tonight. Hu’u Bar. Seminyak. Jalan Oberoi. Girls Love DJ’s. Dutch concept. Awesome. We like! Come on. Let’s pardie. Woopwoop!

Padang Padang, Bali – Contest directors for the 2010 Rip Curl Cup Invitational at Padang Padang switched the official event status from red to yellow, or “high alert,” on Tuesday. Currently, a promising Indian Ocean swell is moving closer to impact with Indonesia. So far, this swell has been tracking on an ideal course to send a solid dose of west swell towards the reef at Padang Padang. According to official event forecaster, Magic Seaweed, the estimated time of arrival for this new swell is looking like Tuesday, Aug. 3, with the peak hitting early Thursday morning. Tides for Padang are also looking ideal during this time, with medium tides all day Wednesday and Thursday.

Contest directors are monitoring this swell closely and the 32 contestants for this year’s Rip Curl Cup have all been put on standby for a possible Wednesday morning start. Many of the 16 international invitees are already in Bali or en route. For now, it’s on when it’s on…

Official opening-round heat draw:

Heat 1: Putra Hermawan (Bali), Takayuki Wakita (Japan), Mega Semadhi (Bali), Ozzie Wright (Australia).
Heat 2: Kalani Chapman (Hawaii), Ryan Turner (California), Rahtu Suargita (Bali), Wayan “Gobleg” Suyadnya (Bali).

Heat 3: Wayan “Betet” Merta (Bali), Makua Rothman (Hawaii), Lee Wilson (Bali), Morehu Roberts (New Zealand).
Heat 4: Garut Widiarta (Bali), Tipi Jabrik (Bali), Flynn Novak (Hawaii), Ian Walsh (Hawaii).
Heat 5: Pepen Hendrik (Bali), Ryan Hipwood (Australia), Made Lana (Bali), *FINAL SPOT TBA*
Heat 6: Rizal Tanjung (Bali), Koa Smith (Hawaii), Marlon Gerber (Bali), Anthony Walsh (Australia).
Heat 7: Ry Craike (Australia), Tom Lowe (England), Made Lapur (Bali), Raditya Rondi (Bali).
Heat 8: Mikala Jones (Hawaii), Mustofa Jekson (Bali), Dede Suryana (Java), Jamie O’Brien (Hawaii).

Find Out When ‘It’s On’! Event Website is Live!

Fans can now check the official event website at www.live.ripcurl.com to view the current event status and find out when “It’s On.” On the day of the contest, fans will be treated to “Heats On-Demand” which can be viewed on the website minutes after they go down. Also check the website for in-depth interviews with all the invited surfers and daily video features on all the hottest surfing, parties and happenings in Bali during the waiting period. See it all at www.live.ripcurl.com.

About the Rip Curl Cup
Now in its seventh year, the Rip Curl Cup Invitational at Padang Padang is Indonesia’s longest-running surfing competition and the only ISC tour event featuring top international surfers alongside Indonesia’s best. This year Rip Curl will continue to infuse the contest with international flavor and big names. The field of 32 surfers will be split equally between 16 of Indonesia’s all-time Padang surfers and 16 of the world’s best tube slayers. This invitational format, along with the allure of the wave at Padang and a 65 million rupiah prize purse, makes the Rip Curl Cup the most anticipated event of the Indo surf season.

Rip Curl has set aside a five-week waiting period to hold the “one-day, one-swell” event. The window will run from July 25th through Aug. 29th and the contest will be run entirely on the chosen day. When contest directors see an ideal “Padang swell” in the forecast, they will give the green light and the 32 competitors will have 24 hours to make it to Bali’s Bukit Peninsula. Rip Curl Cup 2010 is proudly presented by Power Balance. $500 will be up for grabs this year for the Power Balance Best Tube Award. This special prize will be given to the surf that scores the best barrel of the entire event…

photo’s: Mick Curley

“Clap clap clap, yioeeeew, pffiiieeeew, wooohooooow, clap clap, yeeeeaaaah!” It’s sound of the end of the 4 day ride thru well selected independent surf movies, music and photography. Ombak Bali 2010 is over guys! And it ended last Saturday beyond well. The busiest night of all. Surfably speaking “like totally like awesome and stuff”! Everyone came out to gather for a night of two strong independent surf documentaries, great performances and of course, mister Jimmy Beam. We spotted satisfied smiles on the faces of the Ombak Bali team.

Talking about spotted… the crew of Surfing The Nations -the ones from the opening documentary ‘Gum for my Boat’- are in Bali now for a tour and came out to enjoy the night at Ombak Bali as well. Surfers giving back! (What they do is awesome, check out surfingthenations.com when you got time).

A little word on the movies of the eve. First up, the impressive documentary God Went surfing with the Devil by Alexander Klein. A story on a small and dangerous surf scene in Gaza, of Israeli and Palestinian boys. A ride out of their dark day to day reality. In the water they’re all friends. Out the water they’re enemies. When a group of American surfers try to smuggle boards to them, we actually realize how dangerous the situation is. Second movie was a little lighter. Beautiful cinematography. It’s Castles in the Sky by Taylor Steele. It took the crowd into places in the world where no one has ever surfed before.

And where Pandora played the first 3 days, finally, the last day, everyone stood up and danced to their flow! The boys of reggae band Marapu joined the jam and Ripcurl’s Ratu showed off his hidden b-boy talents. Big party going on! People dancing and all. The perfect closure of a successful 3^rd Ombak Bali. WE LIKE!

Guess this was it. See you all hopefully next year on Ombak Bali. Keep Surfing. Love. Aloha. Gila. Ciummmmmmmmm! ++ eve and pris ++

To be sure not to miss out any news and updates on next years Ombak Bali. Click “like” on Ombak Bali’s facebook or we-like’s. We’ll keep you posted.

An artsy night in Bali it was! Another success on day 3 of the International surf film festival on Kuta Beach. This day was definitely the most independent and edgy one. No mainstream stuff going on here. This was one to be sharp on! And it was goooood.

The evening kicked off by beats of New Yorker DJ Solomon. Followed up by the first documentary: ‘Hanging Five’ by Chris Cutri. The filmmaker documents five surfers who make art. An inside look on their lives. We enjoyed almost an hour full of surf and art culture in the USA. Jolinde from Ombak Bali told us they we’re a bit nervous how the public would react on this movie, “Because it’s not an easy or mainstream movie”, she said. Luckily the crowd received the doc great!

After the movie, singer/songwriter Max (the singer of the band Pandora) threw in his Italian swagger for a relaxing break. More people started to walk in for the next movie. –Blink- and the steps we’re full again! Next up was the Asian Premiere of ‘Idiosyncrasies’. Well, as complicated this title sounds, we found it also a bit hard to follow. But not to say that that’s a bad thing! Although the storyline switches a lot, it sucked us right into the minds of the surfers producer Patrick Trefz (USA) dives into. All characters in the movie have their own unique kind of lifestyle, not bothering about trends or rules. Beautiful shots of the joy they find in their own way in surfing.

The breezy night ended with Pandora jamming on stage. Not as planned, but the musicians from 55 Frets we’re not able to perform (better not tell you why, looong story…). Didn’t spoil the fun though!  We we’re nodding our heads off when they threw in some Jimi Hendrix riddles. “Heeeeeey Joe..”, pfoooooo we like! We continued nodding our heads all the way home (btw: we boycott Rotiboy now, made us soooo sick).

Anyway, yall here in Bali reading this. Thinking, shiiiiizl, what did I miss! Tonight is the last change to take your ass out to Kuta Beach for some Ombak Bali happiness. Ombak Bali is ready to push in those last movies. Everyone is pretty excited about these ones! And cause it’s the final night, Rhythm arranged some pretty awesome acts on stage to rock on. We can’t wait. Woopwoop!

Program Day 4 –Saturday 24 july- Kuta Beach, Discovery Mall

6 – 6:45 pm: DJ Solomon (NY)
6:45 – 8:15 pm: Showcasing ‘God Went Surfing with the Devil’ by Alexander Klein (Israel, USA). A 85 minute film about surfing in Gaza.
8:15 – 8:45 pm: Rhythm lined up one of our favorite artists in Bali! It’s punkrock hiphop chick ‘Ozlem’
8:45 – 9:45 pm: Asian Premiere of ‘Castles in the Sky’, the new film by Taylor Steele (USA), we all know from last years awardwinning movie ‘The Drifter’ with Rob Macchado.
9:45 – 11:00 pm: Music by Pandora… + surprise act!

God Went Surfing with the Devil Trailer from Alexander Klein on Vimeo.

Another day in Ombak Bali paradise… day 2 is done!  It was a laid back night. We chilled on the steps of Discovery Mall with a stash of Roti Boys., lurking on a New Zealand smoothie. The night showcased two headlining movies: Seven Ways (Pete Matthews, Ripcurl) and Keep Surfing by Bjorn Richie Lob from Germany. Both directors were present to step on stage after the movie to receive a well-deserved clap clap clap.

We chatted shortly to director Bjorn, who flew in from Germany for his Asian premiere. “Wie gehts bro!” His face spoke relieve that his movie finally finished. It took him ten years to get it on screen. After five years he finally got funds and then it took him another five years to finalize the documentary. “I’m very happy to be here in Bali, I will stay for four weeks and enjoy surfing!”, said the blond curly guy. His movie Keep Surfing is a story on surf culture at the Eisbach river in Munich in Germany. It shows some interesting personalities who live the city life of surf. Bjorn says: “Even though it took me ten years to finish this film. I think that is what makes this movie special. I was able to follow the characters over the years. Giving this movie a certain depth.” What we notices is how this surf culture is not containing any prettiness, but unshaved, raw looking fellows giving no damn about rules or law and do everything to find happiness on the river waves. “Cool shirts”, we said, “we like!”. “Yeah, after the movie finished, Rhythm also hooked on the team. They made the t-shirts. Funny thing is that they just opened their Europe brand store in Munich. So it was perfect timing! We went touring a bit with Rhythm, showcasing the movie around Europe”, said the German producer.  “Ok tjuus Bjorn, see you around, enjoy Bali!”.

Not to forget: we had a little goose bump moment of the night; when we watched the short movie Birthright by Sean Mullens (USA). A five minute video clip on a man in a wheelchair, legs paralyzed, who goes surfing everyday. A touching black and white imaging, that makes the watcher feel the happiness of this man when he paddles into a wave and rides it. Sigh.

Ooooow! And we gotta give some props to Red Bull, who made an awesome trailer for the movie called Scratching the Surface. Don’t really know what’s it about jet but damn it looks good! The soundtrack is also pfoooooyaaa hot! (For the ones that wanna know: we searched a bit and it’s ‘Lying Around’ – Cassette Kids, Sharam Jey Remix). Check the trailer out down here or surf to redbullsurfing.com.

We’re always writing so much huh. Shizl. But we can’t leave this report before we said the music was rrrrrrrr (we mean that in a goood way). Pandora, three lovely boys hitting the instruments. Chasing the rain away. Funky stuff. Yeah, and we saw you drummer being MC and host in Keramas for ISC and all. Check out our snaps and you’ll see what we mean!

Anywayz! While the whole island is waiting Ripcurl to scream it’s ON in Padang2, Ombak Bali is fo sho ON already! And tonight the third night will rock again.

Program day 3 ++ Friday 23 july ++ Kuta Beach, Discovery Mall

6 – 6:45 pm: Sunset & DJ Solomon (cool dude from New York baby)
6:45 – 7:45 pm: Movie – Hanging Five, about five surfers making art
7:45 – 8:30 pm: Music by MAX, solo artist from Italy
8:30 – 9:45 pm: Movietime woopwoop! Idiosyncrasies by Patrick Trefz (USA)
9:45 – 11:00 pm: final act, music by 55 Frets… we’re curious!

Ciummmmm, see you out tonight

Keep Surfing Trailer (mobile format) from flomotion on Vimeo.

STS Trailer 2 from John De Temple on Vimeo.

It is a wrap. O no! It’s a burrito! Ok, sorry guys, this is what happens when we write a report on tipsy fingers. But it can only mean one thing: we had a damn good night out! Our friends and us attended the opening night of the 3^rd edition of the one and only Ombak Bali Surf Film festival. We congrat the Ombak Bali team with a great kick off night at Kuta Beach. We made some snaps for yall to see, scrrrowl down!

The steps in front of discovery mall were full with excited surf cinema lovers and here and there some lost Bintangshirt tourists. All surf world invites, semi-famous faces were hanging around the bar. All enjoying the two headlining surf movies. First one up was ‘Gum for my Boat’, about streetkids in Bangladesh staying away from trouble by learning how to surf, connecting together for the love of surf. Beautiful images. Lots of fun, eventhough the waves aren’t big or perfect. Heartwarming how to see it gives them joy and meaning, Second up was brother’s Hoffmann ’Fiberglass & Megapixels’. Showing the absurd life of surf paparazzi in Hawaii. An inside look on the personalities behind the brave ones that give their live for that one perfect shot and make the cover of most famous surf magazines. The Ombak Bali crowd loved it!

MC’s Tai and Rani entertained talking the talk during the night. Presenting the winners of the Surf Photo Competition, supported by Electric (a cool sunnies brand) and Surf Time Magazine. The expo of a total of 15 idyllic surf shots is exposed on beach side. Come out to see the winning pictures!

O! Btw. Surf label Rhythm is arranging all mc’ing and music during the festival. Very suiting to their ‘Sound of Change’ campaign. Nice one! For this night they flew in seven dreadlocked guys from well known reggae band Marapu. The lead singer’s voice was just seductively raw and gorgeous. One more Bintang and we’re jammin’ too! (pssst: we heard they’ll play in Black Dog again soon).

Anyway, let’s call it a nighty night. Thursday a new day! Don’t feel shy to be early. Dj Solomon’s (NY) playlist is one to come out on time for: 6:30 pm @ Kuta Beach, in front of Discovery mall. Hmm. And buddy Jim Beam is there too.

Program Ombak Bali day 2 [Thursday 22 july] – it’s freeee! more info on www.ombakbali.com
6 – 7 pm: warming up the moods by Dj Solomon (NY)
7 – 7:30 pm: Seven Ways by Pete Matthews –Indonesia (world premiere, director present) a Ripcurl journey with seven young talents.
8 – 9:30 pm: Keep Surfing by Bjorn Lob – Germany (Asian premiere with director present) weird but apparently true: people surfing in a river in Germany… heuh?
9:30 – 11:00 pm: Wild musicians from Pandora rocking the stage

%3

One time a year not only the waves, but also we-like is getting allllll pumped up! The International Ombak Bali Surf Film Festival is hitting the island again on 21 till 24 July. This Wednesday 21^st, Kuta will transform into surf cinema walhalla for the third time. For everyone who has a thing for waves and waving palmtrees or Jim Beam, to enjoy 4 days of independent surf films and documentaries, music and art. Ombak Bali seems to be taken their event next level fresh forward this year. With all film screenings open to the public (as in: freeeeeeeee!) and set up outside on Kuta Reef Beach, in front of Discovery Mall. Dj’s and bands are booked, a surf photography expo is well displayed, Bintangs are cold and producers and pro beachbums are invited. Only one thing left to say… get your ass out here. Woopwoop!

The range of films of this edition festival is looking tempting and exciting (all info and trailers on www.ombakbali.com). The bright blue water, the creative fonts, the dreamy music… it’s gonna be a inspiring week. The festival will be kicked off 21 July at 7pm with Asian premieres of Gum for My Boat [surfing in Bangladesh] and Fiberglass and Megapixels.

So islandboys and girls, fill up your motorbikes with enough petrol to drive off to Kuta the upcoming days. We are not gonna miss a sangle thang! Hang out for life. Out of this world for 4 days. For those not in Bali (aaaahhhh sniff), we will note the highlights in a daily festival report “we-like Ombak Bali 2010”.

By the way: the Ombak Bali programme magazine can be picked up at surf shops, surf schools, Black Dog, the Balconey, Magic Wave office, Discovery Mall, Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel and many restaurants around Kuta, Seminyak, Canggu and the Bukit.

All info on: www.ombakbali.com

Where to go? “Taman kupu kupu” (“the butterfly garden”) in Tabanan. Up north from Seminyak/Kuta on Wanasari Road to Penebel. Entrance is 50K Rupiah per person. When you’re there anyway, you can also hit Pasar Kodok, our favo vintage market in Tabanan. Only 10 minutes away. Blink-blink-blink- Butterfly kisses for yall!