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Words by Ben Mondy
"I swear on my mother's grave, that's what I saw, why would I make that up? I couldn't even begin to make that up." I'm in the passenger seat being driven down from LAX to Huntington by Red Bull Rising coach Andy King. And I'm incredulous. Kingy had just told me that only an hour ago, in a mall, he had watched slack jawed, widemouthed and freaked out, as a dog came walking through carrying a cat. Now that, possibly, is weird enough, but not only was the dog carrying a cat, but the cat was carrying a rat. He was too stupefied to even take a photo. The dog, the cat, and the rat just walked by, no owner (or owners) in sight, off into the fluro lit distance.

"I love coming to California, I really do. You know it's a good place to prove yourself and even if the waves are sloppy, it's still such a good place to do well. To me, down here, it feels like a real sport. There's the infrastructure and the hype and just the interest, so I'm always excited to come to California and try and win.

Before here I'd been home back in Kauai for a little while, I went home to work on my boards and my surfing and gather my marbles and just get ready for this event, the Honda US Open. I came in about a week and a half ago - I came early as there was no waves in Hawaii and I heard there was swell here, so I got here as quickly as I could.

Story By Ben Mondy

“I’m going to sleep well tonight,” Michel Bourez is sitting on top of a Dhoni, a traditional Maldivian boat, and the transport equivalent of a truck in these parts. “I’ve tried to just two hours a day surfing, but I must have done at least four hours today, the surf was too good.”

We were chugging along a glassy Indian Ocean on the roof of the Dhoni, under a molten pink tinged sky, five minutes before dusk, heading back to the Teate, a sweet boat, Maldives Red Bull Rising HQ and our home for the week.

It had been another epic freesurfing session, as Michel was joined by Tim Boal, Clint Kimmins and Gavin Gillette, in a tune up session for their heats in the Sri Lankan Airways Pro, a six star WQS event being held in the turquoise waters, tropical heat and ruler edged reefs of the Maldives.

Last January 19 of the world’s leading junior surfers were invited to the Red Bull WQS Selection Camp held in Australia. After an intensive selection phase only four made the cut into Red Bull Rising, Red Bull's high performance program. The surfers that made this unique elite athlete surfing development team were Brazilian Wiggolly Dantas, the Hawaiian Gavin Gilette, Clint Kimmins from Australia and Frenchman Tim Boal. The fifth surfer, Michel Bourez from Tahiti was nominated through a wild card due to his outstanding talent.