Indonesian Rio Waida and Australian Molly Picklum emerged victorious after a close fought finals day at the Ballito Pro pres. by O’Neill today.

In the first final of the day, Waida (22) from Uluwatu in Bali, made it his second Challenger Series (CS) win in a row after claiming the Sydney Surf Pro earlier this year.

This also catapults him ahead of Italian Leonardo Fioravanti (tied-3rd), to first place in the CS tour rankings which will determine next year’s Championship Tour (CT) field.

Waida delivered one of the biggest combined scores of the entire competition, with a 15.50 in the final to defeat Frenchman Gatien Delahaye (9.50).

“Thank you so much Ballito, I am so happy. See you next year,” said Waida.

For Delahaye, who comes from the French territory of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, the second placed finish was the also the best result of his career.

In the women’s final that followed, young Australians Molly Picklum (19) and Macy Callaghan (21) went head-to-head over a thrilling 35 minutes.

Callaghan led from the first wave, with Picklum slowly clawing back ground on her countrywoman.

In her second last wave of the day, Picklum grabbed a 6.57, just enough to edge out Callaghan who had no time left to catch another wave.

It was a perfectly timed dagger from the CT surfer who comes from Shelley Beach outside Sydney.

Her 12.40 total left her just 0.23 points ahead of Callaghan in second, which is one of the closest finals in recent memory.

“We are both from the same town, so I have surfed with Molly for years. Congratulations to her and I will be back fighting in 2023,” said Callaghan.

For a full list of results, through all of the heats, visit worldsurfleague.com/events/2022/cs/22/ballito-pro/results.

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