By Matt George
Photographs by Federico Vanno

With the pandemic motoring towards its third year and the crowds famously down, the hotshots of Bali have doubled their wave count per session. On any Sunday, Keramas can look more like a trampoline park than a surf spot; the perfect tapering peak-to-wall set up and the sheer talent in the line-up inspires wild attempts and produces huge success rates.

With so many surfers employing the pump-pump-and-a-jump technique, the barrel-on-take-off at this spot is looking more like a mere transition these days. And with names like Eli Hanneman, Kai Lenny, Bronson Meidy, and Lee Wilson all shoulder to shoulder in the line-up, the standards of the air game is…well, sky high. Every one of these guys are forged by the fact that they are usually the hottest guy in the water. But get them all together and the peer pressure creates a line-up that could use an air traffic controller.

“Yeah, it gets heavy out there,” says local Bronson Meidy, “especially with the international guys out. But that only pushes us locals to make our statements just as loud”.

Just paddling out into one of these sessions can be a sensory overload, and the sound of slap landing surfboard lends it the atmosphere of a shelling barrage. The punishment of surfboards seems a small price to pay. The speed, mass, and power of the break, combined with glassy to light offshore conditions, make it any aerialist’s muse. At least for now. When the world really opens up the 're-population' of the Balinese line-ups is going to be confusing.

But hopefully - and this is a hope against a hope - surfers this time will bring their best angels. For the opportunity to boost an aerial of a lifetime in one of the most exotic settings in the world, maybe this time it won’t be too much to ask.

With a success rate calculated at 90%, Eli Hanneman leads the charge at Keramas. What separates him is his angle of attack: vertical at the least and most times more so. His technique involves not only up, but in, so that he matches the speed of the wave as it moves toward shore. A technique obviously honed in the shrieking cross-shore winds of Ho’okipa, his home break back on Maui.

If there is any proof that the Texas wave pool is a synthetic training ground for real world airs, then Jackson Dorian is its lead proponent. When he and the old man paddle out at Keramas, a wave seemingly tailor made for both of them, Jackson’s yee-haw antics really pay off.

Varun Tandjung , son of the great Rizal Tandjung, is carrying the family name into the stratosphere at Keramas. “It’s been great to have all these empty waves,” he says. “It’s like working on tricks at a skatepark. No anxiety if you miss one, there’s plenty more”.

When Kai Lenny shows up with his Jaws-high airs, the whole show stops. All disciplines considered, he is easily the finest surfer in the world today.

New board, new move. On this day Jackson Dorian was working on back flip variables. With a little more consequence for failure considering the Keramas reef is a more serious matter than that swimming pool with waves 10,000 miles away.

The man in black. Lee Wilson’s relationship with Keramas is intimate and dynamic. He has been sticking airs like this for the last ten years here. Certainly the top performer in Bali, the respect he garners in the line-up borders on awe. A match race at Keramas between him Gabriel Medina would be a sight to see.

In a shot that shows the momentum involved in a Keramas wave, Ryuki Waida is already eyeing the air section up ahead. With an older brother who carried the Indonesian flag into the Olympic stadium this year, Ryuki has been driving himself hard, determined to leave his own mark on history.

On the bigger sets, Keramas will cap over on the outside before lunging onto the reef in a howling barrel. Locals like Bronson Meidy take off deep and use the time to boost an air before facing the mayhem on the inside. Only a handful of guys even attempt this risky approach.