QUIKSILVER CLEANS UP WITH BIG BALI ECO WEEKEND
Quiksilver's environmentally-friendly roots took center stage in Bali, Indonesia this weekend through the Big Bali Eco Weekend. Through a multitude of events, and in collaboration with Coca-Cola and Garuda, Quiksilver raised awareness for clean Bali beaches, protecting the environment and local turtles, along with promoting sustainable tourism.

The Bali Beach Clean Up Program (BBCU), established in 2008 by Quiksilver and Coca-Cola to help reduce the amount of garbage on the Bali coastline, has removed over fourteen million kilograms of garbage from five participating beaches. As a result, the Sea Turtle Society has been able to release over 32,000 baby sea turtles back into the wild since 2011. This year, Bali's Big Eco Weekend was able to further contribute to the success of the program with the help of over 1,000 local residents and tourists, releasing hundreds of baby sea turtles back into their natural habitat as well as supporting the local community with jobs and activities for the children.

The Bali Big Eco Weekend featured the 2nd Annual Quiksilver Uluwatu Challenge. Thirty-two participants surfed against local Balinese pros and surfing legends from Quiksilver and Roxy, including Mark Richards, Matt Hoy, Jake Paterson, Craig Anderson, Sally Fitzgibbons, Kelia Moniz, Bruna Schmitz and Rosy Hodge. The Uluwatu Challenge is designed in the Eddie Aikau six-person heat format, in which the surfers compete in two heats, gaining a total of the two highest scores from their four best waves. The winner of this year's event with an overall highest score of a perfect 10 as well as a 9.5 was American Freddy Patacchia.

The much anticipated swell of last week failed to meet Rip Curl standards, putting the Trials for the 2014 Rip Curl Cup on hold until this week.
As of today the forecasted swell looks much more than promising for tomorrow, Friday the 27th, with a massive swell approaching and good tides, a great combination for this Trials event.

According to Surfline, the official swell forecaster for the Rip Curl Cup :
" It's time to dust off that step-up, the Indian Ocean is nothing but purple and red. - Long period swell is expected to fill in across Indonesia over the second half of the week and continue into the weekend". Read article here
The massive swell is predicted to start unloading some perfect 8 - 10 feet barrels onto the Padang-Padang reef on Friday morning the 27th, where the 24 amped surfers will be on standby at 6:00 am waiting for the green light that signals the start of the Rip Curl Cup 2014 Trials.