2009 Coca-Cola Indonesian Surfing Championship Awards Night Celebration at Kut

The 2009 Coca-Cola ISC Tour capped off its best season ever with a year-end Awards Presentation Night at the Discovery Kartika Hotel Ballroom in Kuta on Saturday night November 14th, crowning Indonesia’s new surfing champions in 6 divisions, and recognizing the contributions of its sponsors and supporters while providing food and drink for the hundreds of surf industry and media invitees, and finishing it off by rocking out with the live band Pandora.

As is customary at the end of the ISC Tour season, hundreds of surfers, surf industry members, media, and supporters of the Coca-Cola ISC tour received invitations to attend the Awards Presentation Night and to join in recognizing Indonesias newest surfing champions and to celebrate the end of the ISCs 6th year of continued growth and success.

This years venue was the Ballroom of the Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel on Kuta Beach, where the doors opened and the smiling ISC and Coca-Cola hostesses welcomed the attendees with Coca-Cola products and beer starting at just after 6 pm. Plenty of drinks went down while the crew mingled and swapped stories about the past season, and then the call for food went over the microphone, so all lined up to dig into the generous buffet tables to pile their plates high with delicious Indonesian food.

Back at the tables, while everyone was eating they were treated to a video recap of all the years events, with cheers for the best waves and the winners and hoots for the best wipeouts. Then with everyones hunger and thirst satisfied, it was on to the formalities of the evening.

First up were MCs Tai Graham and Ribut Wahyudi thanking everyone for attending and then introducing ISCs president Tipi Jabrik.

After a brief welcoming and thanking speech, Jabrik presented awards of appreciation to representatives from SurfTime Magazine, Magic Wave Surf Community Newspaper, and the environmental group GUS (Gelombang Udara Segar) and the Bali Lifeguard Department (Balawista).

Next up to receive their thanks for their tremendous support in sponsoring surfing events during the year were Jeff Anderson from Rip Curl, Kane Faint from Rusty, Tim Hawken from Billabong, Luzi Sanjaya from Oakley, Febrie Arianto from Quiksilver, and Mr. Amos representing the Government of Rote. Without major event sponsors like these there would there would be no ISC tour as we know it today, for most of these individuals representing their companies here tonight have been with us since the inception of the ISC, and we owe them a big debt of gratitude, said Jabrik from the podium while thanking the sponsors.

After receiving a heartfelt round of applause, the podium was emptied and Mr. Sani Dewi and Mr. Bruce Waterfield from Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia were called up to receive their appreciation award and to say a few words. Coca-Cola has been the sponsor of the ISC tour since mid 2008, and has been a tremendous supporter of not only the surfing industry but also the beach cleanup and environmental efforts in Bali. In his thanks to Bruce and Sani for their support, Jabrik said, The support given by Coca-Cola to the ISC and to Bali has brightened the future of the surfing industry, the beaches of Bali, and the potential of Indonesian surfers to have a good life doing what they love. We thank them and look forward to their continued support.

Bruce responded saying We are delighted at how successful the ISC has been and proud to be associated with the Tour and its members. Bali is such a special place, and we want to see it remain that way, for ourselves and for the next generations to come. We are excited about the prospects for the future and look forward to being a continued part of it for a long time to come. We want to make a difference, and it looks like we are doing just that, so thank you very much!

Next was into the main event, the presentation of championship trophies and checks to the winners in the six ISC surfing divisions. Bruce Waterfield and Tipi Jabrik made the presentations to the championship winners as follows:

2009 Coca-Cola ISC Tour Champions

Mens Open Division – Lee Wilson (Rp. 50 million)

Longboard Division Husni Ridwan (Rp. 5 million)

Masters Division – Wayan Widiartha (Rp. 5 million)

Womens Division Yasnyiar (Bonne) Gea (Rp. 5 million)

Pro Junior Division Mustofa Jeksen (Rp. 5 million)

Junior Division Putra Hermawan (Rp 5 million)

Mens Open Champion Lee Wilson, who was also champion in 2007 and is of mixed Indonesian and Australian descent, was generous in his acceptance speech, saying I’m so grateful to all the supporters and sponsors of the ISC tour. Without all of you I wouldnt be standing up here tonight. I thank everybody that had a part in it, however small or large, because it all works together to create this, our Dream Tour, where we get to surf and compete in the best waves in the best place in the world. So stoked to get my name on this trophy again too! Love you all!

With the Awards Presentations completed, the crowd was then treated to some incredible musicianship by the rock trio Pandora to close the evening. Pandora did an excellent job in covering some of Jimi Hendrixs most classic numbers, while also showing off some of their own original music in the rock and blues genre. A copious amount of Balis favorite beer was consumed until the last number was played and it was time to call it a night.

The ISC Management (Tipi Jabrik and Tim Hain) would like to thank the ISC crew (Ani Suandewi, Dewa Juana, Ngurah, Lorca Leuras) and the ISC judging/event crew for all their hard work throughout the year, and to all the sponsors and supporters of the ISC, especially Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia, Billabong, Oakley, Quiksilver, Rip Curl, Rusty, the West Sumbawa Government and Tourism Forum, the Government of Rote Ndao, GUS, and media partners SurfTime, Magic Wave, Bali and Beyond, Now Bali, the Bali Times, the Beat, Trax Magazine, SurfTotal.com, Surfline.com, Baliwaves.com, SurfEdge.com, Surfersvillage.com, and Surfermag.com.