LAGUNDRI BAY, NIAS / INDONESIA (Thursday, June 23, 2022) – The 2022 Nias Pro, a World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) 5,000 event and Junior Qualifying Series (JQS) enjoyed another super fun day with waves in the 2-to-4 foot range at Lagundri Bay on the beautiful Island of Nias in Indonesia.
The final four heats of the women’s QS Round of 32 were completed along with the opening rounds of the JQS divisions.
Australian surfer Mia Huppatz is having a breakout season on the Qualifying Series this year and the 17-year-old talent who has grown up surfing Bells Beach posted a solid result at Krui last week and won her Round of 32 heat today to progress to the final 16 surfers in Nias.
“That was a stressful heat with all four of us getting good waves and all in contention to the end,” said Huppatz. “Fortunately there were a lot of waves and we all had our opportunities and I’m really happy to advance along with my travelling partner Ellie Harrison.”
Caption: Leo Casal (top), Ella McCaffray (left) and Oscar Berry (right). Credit: WSL / Tim Hain
Other surfers to advance into the final 16 included yesterday’s standout surfer Anne Dos Santos (BRA), Ella McCaffray (USA), Japanese trio Minami Nonaka, Sumomo Sato and Anon Matsuoka along with Australia’s Piper Harrison.
The Junior Qualifying Series men and women’s divisions enjoyed their opening rounds as the waves remained clean and slowly dropped in size throughout the day. The JQS fields are strong in international representation and the local Indonesian surfers are impressively holding their own through these opening rounds.
Indonesian surfers like Bronson Meydi, Ryuki Waida, Varun Tandjung, Kailani Johnson and Lidia Kato have all advanced in the junior heat draws and are certain to prove hard to beat in their local waters. Australia’s Oscar Berry was the high-scoring, standout heat winner.
The surf was a touch smaller than yesterday’s medium range perfection however the clean offshore conditions continued to deliver outstanding waves for competition. Of interest to all surf fans is the consistency of high quality surf that this iconic point break delivers.
Caption: Anne Dos Santos continued to impress at Nias. Credit: WSL / Tim Hain
While the break has always been famous for its outstanding barrels in the 6 foot plus swell range since it’s discovery in the late 1970’s, the reef underwent changes due to an earthquake in the early 2000’s with the outcome seeing this wave actually becoming even better on small to medium swells and maintaining its perfection on the big swells.
We expect to see Nias firing over the coming weekend with a significant swell likely to arrive tomorrow afternoon and maintain well into Saturday and Sunday.
Event organizers will reconvene at Lagundri Bay to make a call on Friday at 6:30 a.m. local time for a potential 7 a.m. start.
The 2022 Nias Pro will run at Lagundri Bay from June 22-28. Be sure to tune in and watch it live at www.worldsurfleague.com or on the free WSL App.
