RAJO’S WILL GEN Z STEMPEDES THE 2026 RIP CURL CUP

Padang Padang Bridge, Bali, Indonesia, 27/08/2026, 7:05am
Knowing that the Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup is on is a force that draws you out of bed. You feel like a kid on Christmas morning. After all, this day, if the swell abides, comes only once a year. For competitors, the gift they are given is an empty line-up at Bali’s best barrel. And for you, it’s a show unlike any other.

Padang Padang Cliffside, 9:15am
Making your way through the acacia trees that form a dry, thorny tunnel leading to the judging and broadcast compound, you hear the waves before you see them. Each barrel unloading onto the reef drowns out the new sounds of the modern Bali that you have left behind today. The buses, the motorbikes, the groaning cement trucks, the pounding beach clubs, and the ever-present screeching of the rampant construction that is scarring this landscape forever. And in this moment you are reminded of what you came to Bali for. The shared elation of it all, the smiles, the waves and the Cup, despite the changes all around you here.



Padang Padang Cliffside, 9:20am
You arrive at the compound just as the women paddle out for the first heat of the event. The sun is merciless, the trade winds are up, and the water is an enchanted, pure shade of blue. You witness Jasmine Studer’s nine-point ride kick things into motion. Barrel after barrel after barrel follows, culminating with Lucy Darragh’s inconceivable back-to-back, 8.13 and 9.93-point rides. All the gifts of the day are being unwrapped now, each one a lurching, hollow, spitting barrel. A portent of the wild day of surfing ahead.

12:59pm
A 19.26 heat total for Makana Pang. A perfect ten for Dylan Wilcoxen’s disappearing act that prompted, “How the hell did he make that?” Then Rajo Barrel’s freight-train ten-point wave. And an ailing but game veteran Bruce Irons’s 15.60 heat total. The action in the water is heating up.



Padang Padang Beach, Bali, 3:12pm
At this point, the heat of the day is demanding its toll, so you head for the beach for a cool down. As you wade in the shallow waters of the cove, you look back at the beach. You notice something peculiar. Unlike the contest compound above, most of the people on the beach aren’t surfers. You approach a man with a flower-print shirt, pink boardshorts, a mismatched hat, and a harrowing-looking sunburn to get his take on everything going on around him.

“What do you think of the event?”
“Oh man it’s beautiful. The waves are so big and blue. I’m really digging it”
“You surf?”
“Not yet”
“How much would someone have to pay you to surf out there right now?”
“About twenty bucks. I’d love to try it, but I’d need an instructor.”
“How deep do you think the water is out there, where the waves are breaking?”
“Dunno. I’d guess about 12 meters? That seems about right.”
“It’s actually about a meter”
“Holy sh*t.”
“You wanna change that dollar amount?”
“You couldn’t pay me to go out there.”

The man has just given you a perspective shift. Most onlookers have no idea how dangerous these waves are. For them, the waves are like watching a rollercoaster in the distance with no idea how often a surfer can go flying off the tracks. You walk back up the contest compound on the cliff, doubly appreciative of every ride.

Padang Padang Cliffside, Bali, 4:40pm

You watch the Women’s Final. A big set looms on the horizon. Ruby Berry and Lucy Darragh are first to draw blood. Ruby gets absolutely drained and drops an 8.17. Lucy gets a 7.50 and rushes back out to the lineup with a hunger in her eyes. And then Lucy’s next wave is a nine, sewing the result up. As the heat draws to a close, you realize that, for the second year in a row, a 16-year-old girl has won the Women’s Division at the Padang Cup. The future is looking bright for the advancing surfing army of Gen Z.



Padang Padang Cliffside, Bali, 5:25pm

You see that the Men’s final has no lack of youth either. After the first two sets it is clear that this final is anyone’s game. Not halfway through the heat and you’ve already witnessed five 9-point rides. Then one of the biggest of the day’s waves rolls through. Rajo Barrel has priority. He drops in behind the section, but after the performances of his that you have witnessed throughout the day, you have no doubt. He manages to get around the towering whitewater and stall into a behemoth tube. You observe what can only be called a valiant ride. Rajo blasts out of the barrel with a smile you could see a mile away. As he cruises over the shoulder into the channel, he points to the crowd in triumph. He has locked in a perfect ten. A 16-year-old kid from Lakey Peak, against a field of experienced grown-ups, has just won the prestigious Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup.

Padang Padang Beach, Bali 6:28pm

Twenty years after Joey Barrel placed 2nd in this competition, his son raises the Padang Cup in honor of his father. Surfers of all ages from Lakey Peak are in attendance, feeling as if they have just won as well. And in a way, they have. And a 16-year-old, Lucy Darragh stands proud too, knowing that her name would be emblazoned forever onto one of the most honorable trophies any surfer on earth could win. And you realize in that moment that if the future for Gen Z surfers was looking bright before, now it is blinding.

Photography by Nathan Lawrence • Words by Tommy Milin