Maui waterman Zane Schweitzer has been on an absolute tear early into the 2023 season, and now took out the elite Men’s division at the Longboard SUP Revolution competition that took place at Sanur, Bali!
Zane impressed the judges & spectators alike with some powerful yet classic longboard surfing on his Starboard Longboard SUP – big congrats on the win!
Here is the recap from Zane;
“I first fell in love with the Sport of Standup surfing because to me it was the best of both worlds from Longboard surfing and Shortboard surfing; having the ability to nose ride and glide, yet also being able to step to the tail and rip turns assisted with the paddle. The progression of SUP Surfing has gone through the roof since my first sessions on a sup in the early 2000’s, and it’s epic to have been a part of pioneering performance SUP Surfing with smaller and smaller boards more catered towards shortboard style surfing. Today, on the World Tour for SUP Surfing, the sport is catered to high-performance ‘elite’ SUP surfers on boards that are low-volume sinkers and this in many ways may have scared away a good population of the Sport of SUP Surfing. Lately, the style of riding enjoyed by most of the SUP population is being revived in competition and coming full circle with Longboard SUP Surfing for amateurs and elite riders as a part of the Longboard SUP Revolution.
Indonesia is always a destination I look forward to visiting and I’m stoked to be back in Bali to participate in the Bali Longboard SUP Revolution. There was a big turnout of participants with over 60 amateurs and over 15 elite riders including Benoit Carpentier, Kai Bates, Beau Nixon and Iballa Moreno to name a few. Every day we would load up the boats from the Rip Curl School of Surf in Sanur and make our way to the surf spots around the corner near Sarangun that are only accessible by boat. We had three days of competition with more than enough surf for a good competition ranging from knee-high to overhead. All the 70+ participants were having a great time on and off the water, and the staff along with the Committee from the competition including our local supporter, Jonni with the Rip Curl School Of Surf, did a fantastic job hosting us all. Aside from the Starboard team and I being here to compete, we are also exploring some RRD and testing a lot of gear including foils, sup boards, along with wing and foil boards. Bali has always been a go-to stop for us doing Starboard Development as our factory/ HQ is close by in Thailand making it a great destination to get efficient testing done. So in-between heats and on our free days before and after the competition, Benoit, Trevor, Ollie and I have been logging hours working to get solid test results for 2025 production.
Day 1 of the competition got cut short due to the small swell and low tide, but I was one of the last heats to run before they called it off so we could get back with the boats safely. I was stoked to advance especially as it was a long day on the water leading up to my heat at the end of the day, and knowing the swell should be increasing for day 2 of competition. The committee made the right call because the last few boats barely made it back in over the shallow, near-exposed reef and sand flats.
Moving into day 2 of competition we woke up to a nice increase in the surf and the action kicked off with teammate Benoit Carpentier’s round 1 heat where he also smashed it and advanced with a 1st. The rest of the Starboard team in the Amateur division also advanced, so we all secured a spot in the Semi-Finals at the end of the day.
Once again the Elite men finished off the event with just enough time before low tide trapped the boats on the reef with the highlight action of the day being during Benoit’s Semi-Final heat where he scored a 10-point ride! Dropping high scores in the 9 range just behind him was Kai Bates from Australia. With these results at the end of Day 2 the final heat was confirmed and destined for some epic action with Benoit Carpentier, Kai Bates, Wesley Fry and Myself surfing for the title here.
For the final day of competition, we were able to be selective with running the event during the peak conditions of waves and as well the ideal tide as we were left with 4 heats of finals between the men and women of the Elites and Amateur divisions. The waves were slightly smaller for this final day of action but still super fun with chest-to-head high rights and lefts pushing in pretty consistently.
The final for the Elite men was a battle, with 8-point rides being pretty much throwaways for almost all riders, and near-perfect scores for the top 3 which was back and forth until the dying seconds of the heat. Benoit opened the heat with a solid score on the 8-point range kicking off his lead, then Wesley Fry jumped into the lead, followed by myself back into 1st position calling the high scores from Wesley with a 9.2 and less than 10 minutes remaining. My 8 and 9.2 which were long right on the nose followed by some rail surfing on the close-out and inside section weren’t enough to keep the lead though, and the action wasn’t over. Kai Bates ended up securing the leading position once more with two scores in the 9 range! I didn’t lose hope for a moment and knew the difference in our scores was close, regardless of me requiring another score in the 9 range to close that 1-2 point gap. In the dying moments with less than 3 minutes remaining a nice left came in and Kai and I were battling for position. I secured a priority position and got the wave I needed to impress the judges enough and be rewarded with my highest score of the heat so far, a 9.8! My wave opened with a nice long-nose ride through a critical pocket ride section, followed by a big close-out maneuver off the top! As I turn to paddle back out I see Kai Bates on the nose of a beautiful right, I watch closely as he ripped the wave all the way to the inside, and the horn blew shortly after. As I paddled into the moored boats including my team’s boat I was anxious to hear whether or not my last wave was enough, but seeing the smiles from my team I had a good feeling I secured the scores I needed to stay in the lead! Kai Bates’ Score wasn’t enough to overtake me again, and I won the final heat with a total of 19.30! Kai Bates was close behind with a heat total of 18.87, Wesley Fry in 3rd with 18.34 and Benoit Carpentier with a 17.20. This was one of the highest heat score totals I’ve seen competing in a final and it was truly an exciting battle with each one of us in the lead at one point in time from the start of the final to the finish!
No doubt this trip to Bali was a successful adventure, bringing home the win from the Bali Longboard SUP Revolution and as well getting some awesome test results for all the new Starboard gear. Big Mahalo to everyone involved for running such a great event and giving our sport the opportunity to continue growing with excitement in a Longboard Sup Surf format.”
