Archive for June, 2008
Bipan Kapur Heads the Team while Syaiful Imron Control Finances at Bali’s Westin and Bali International Convention Center.
Bipan Kapur Heads The Westin and BICC
Bipan Kapur has been appointed General Manager of the 350-room The Westin Nusa Dua and the adjoining Bali International Convention Center (BICC).
Commenting on his recent appointment, Bipan said: “I am looking forward to learning more about this beautiful island, working with the people and re-initiating the Westin brand of hospitality. Westin is more than just a hotel. It’s a destination where our guests are understood and where they can be at their best. Providing a series of experiences through our signature initiatives such as Unwind-A Westin evening ritual, Westin Destination Club, runWESTIN, ensuring that guests feel better when they leave than when they arrived.”Â
Before joining The Westin Resort Nusa Dua, Bipan opened the inaugural Westin-branded property in India, The Westin Sohna Gurgaon Resort & Spa (TWSG).
Bipan has been associated with Starwood since 1992. Past assignment include working as a F&B Manager with Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast, Australia, prior to stints in China, Malaysia and Brunei.
A graduate from the Oberoi School of Hotel Management he also holds a Masters degree in Hotel administration from the Institut de Management HĂ´telier International (Cornell/ESSEC) - Paris, France.
An Australian national, Bipan is married and has a son. He is a keen golfer and swims to stay fit.
Bipan replaces Jan Bungaard who held the same position at The Westin since April 2005.
Syaiful Imron Holds the Purse Strings at The Westin
Syaiful Imron has been appointed Financial Controller at The Westin and BICC. Prior joining the Resort, Syaiful served as the Financial Controller of Sheraton Surabaya Hotel and Towers and has been associated with Starwood since 1995.
He is a graduate from STEI Perbanas majoring in Finance and started his career in the hospitality industry as Income Auditor of Sheraton Surabaya Hotel and Towers.
Syaiful and his wife are the proud parents of three children.
© Bali Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com. All images and graphics are copyright protected.
Source: http://www.balidiscovery.com/
June 30th, 2008
In Bali, death calls not for tears, but a fiery celebration.
By Anne Supsic
For The Inquirer
UBUD, Bali - A parade down Main Street with marching musicians and eye-popping pyrotechnics - sounds like the Fourth of July, right? Well, that’s not far off the mark. As we discovered, a Bali cremation is like Independence Day for the dead.
Cremation, this most personal of Hindu religious events, begins with a mid-morning meet-and-greet at the home of the deceased. In our visit to a rural village outside Ubud, the deceased is a Brahman priest, and the family compound teems with family and friends enjoying food, drink and lively conversation.
Women are dressed in lacy blouses and patterned sarongs, while the men are more casual in T-shirts, sarongs and turbans. The atmosphere is festive because, in Hinduism, cremation day is a happy occasion - the spirit of the departed is released from this world to seek reincarnation in a future life. No one cries at a cremation in Bali because, if they did, their sadness might distract the spirit of the deceased from making the journey to that next incarnation.
Family members graciously thank my husband and me for coming as they serve us snacks and cups of extremely hot, strong coffee. Meanwhile, the deceased looks on from his perch in an open pavilion where he lies wrapped in white funeral cloth. He has been on display like this for the last week, injected with enough embalming fluid to keep him “fresh” in the 100-degree heat.
Our visit has been arranged by Suta Tours, which drove us from our Ubud hotel to this rural village in central Bali. For us to show respect, our guide, Poni, provided sarongs, which she deftly secured around our waists. There are only two other people on the tour, a couple from California.
Until now, my husband and I have been content to enjoy Ubud, the SoHo of Bali. The streets are lined with art galleries, handicraft shops and health spas. Intriguing dance performances are available nightly.
We are spending a week on the island as the last leg of a two-month visit to Southeast Asia. After hiking through Thai hill-tribe villages and scaling the ruins of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, we were ready for some R&R. We were looking forward to a week of art museum visits, souvenir shopping, and luxurious massages.
But a brief mention in my Lonely Planet guidebook of the unique Bali cremation ceremony sparked my interest. Learning about other cultures is one of the main reasons we travel, and we are constantly on the lookout for the unusual. When I spotted a flyer at the Tourist Information Office in Ubud about a cremation, I knew we had to do it.
We are fortunate to witness this ceremony, because individual cremations are rare. Cremations are expensive, so poor people usually are buried in a common grave, where they can remain for two to three years while the community pools its money. When enough people chip in, they dig up the bones and cremate the remains en masse. Because of his high rank, our priest cannot be buried and must be cremated within seven days of his death.
By early afternoon, the excitement is building as the priest’s body is tied to a colorful, 20-foot tower. The person’s status determines the number of tiers in the tower. Our priest merits a six-tier tower, elaborately decorated in orange and gold, that looks like the top of a giant wedding cake.
The tower sits on a bamboo pallet, with pallbearers positioning themselves to lift the unwieldy load. With the body securely strapped on the top tier, the strong, young pallbearers carry the tower, procession style, down the village street to the cremation grounds.
It feels like Mardi Gras as we join about 300 people swirling around the Balinese-style hearse. The tower, which rises above the telephone poles, lurches along. The pallbearers purposely swing it in circles and from side to side to confuse the dead man’s spirit so that it will not try to find its way home.
Children laugh, gongs and cymbals resound, and women sway past us, balancing baskets of offerings on their heads.
A half-mile away, the parade ends at the cremation grounds, where a giant, white papier-mâchĂ© bull, looking like an oversized Mexican piñata, stands on the funeral pyre. Boys cut a rectangular opening in the bull’s back and stuff the priest’s body inside, followed by offerings of food and flowers. Then everything is splashed with a kerosene-like fuel.
The gongs and cymbals really get cranked up, and a group of old men, sitting on the grass in front of the bull, chant an eerie song that recalls National Geographic specials about funeral pyres floating down the Ganges River.
At last, it’s time for the big event. The piñata bull, dripping with fuel, is ignited from beneath with a torch. Within minutes, the bull is ablaze. With his head poking out of the flames, it looks as if he is screaming. The fire becomes so hot that the crowd draws back.
A man notices my husband discreetly taking photos and escorts him to the front of the pyre, saying, “I will make sure that you get some really good pictures.”
As the fire burns, the priest’s skeleton drops through the underside of the bull, and the flames rise toward the heavens.
Meanwhile, the carnival atmosphere continues. Vendors sell ice cream and balloons, and children run around, acting as though the circus has come to town. We are mystified, but we wish our priest well and hope this wild send-off helps him attain a first-rate reincarnation.
Source: http://www.philly.com/
June 30th, 2008
Environmental Group Walhi Bali Cites Alila Villas’ Tanah Lot Project as Violating Set Back Rules. Government Responds by Halting Project.
The Bali Post reports that a large project creating tens of villa units is underway on Kelating Beach, Kerambitan, Tabanan. According to the paper, a portion of the project rests directly on the shoreline of Kelating – an area some distance north of Bali’s famed Tanah Lot Temple.
The Director of the environmental watchdog group Walhi Bali, Agung Wardana, told Bali Post he was shocked after he saw the construction site for the new villas which he see as clearly violating beach setback regulations with several of the units standing only a few meters from the beach’s edge. Following the publication of his objections in the Bali Post, Tabanan’s Regent N. Adi Wiryatama, moved quickly to halt the project, summoning the investor, broker and local village chief to his office for urgent consultation.
The Regent’s office told the press that the actual construction at the project site was not in conformance with the original plans submitted to his office which did not show the illegal construction on the beach front.
Alila Villas Tanah Lot
According to the website for the project, the luxury villa complex is being developed by PT Bhavana Andalan Kelating and will be managed by Alila Hotels and Resorts. That same website [Alila Villa’s Tanah Lot Site Plan] show a site plan that appears very close to the shoreline while elsewhere on the website include a statement insisting the resort has been “designed, constructed and managed in accordance with Green Globe international environmental standards.”
Quoted by the Bali Post, Wardana said he is very disappointed with many projects in Bali, including Tabanan which ignore environmental factors. He said that his organization will soon correspond with the Regent of Tabanan, following up his observations in the field.
Wardana, who is also a native of Tabanan, said: “We are very disappointed that such a large development is being undertaken without an explanation given to the public. We will also ask the Regional House of Representatives for Tabanan (DPRD) if they know of this construction. Let’s hope our representatives have not been duped again.”
The Bali Post said that during a visit to the site on Tuesday, June 16, 2008, they observe substantial construction activity at the site and the beach was being excavated with piles of soil in evidence along the beach.
According to a security guard on duty in the location, he knew that starting from about 8 months ago 35 villa units have been under construction at the site. Each unit has many room, explained the guard who hails from the local community.
The Threat of Tsunami
According to the guard, quoted by the Bali Post, he warned it is possible that the units located on the beach’s edge will suffer erosion and abrasion if conditions such as those experienced a few year’s back occur again. Refuting his suggestion, the developers of the villa project in their FAQ section state “in written history and in geological terms, there is no evidence that Bali has ever experienced tsunami conditions. The deep ocean conditions and the geographic location of the tectonic plates make such an event highly unlikely.”
Such a claim, however, is curiously at odds with the fact that Bali’s shores regularly record tsunami wave effects, fortunately mostly on a minor scale. According to Wikipedia, significant waves were generated in the Bali Sea by the 1815 Tambora volcanic eruption, and other geophysical events in 1818, 1857 and 1917. That Bali could potentially be affected by a sub sea earthquake anywhere on its wide ocean approaches is also acknowledged by the Indonesian government’s installation of an extensive tsunami early warning systems to safeguard the Island’s populated regions.
In the Bali Post report, a local citizen was quoted saying he regretted that the construction violates setback rules. According to the resident, the acquisition of the land has been underway since 2006. “As far as I know, there has been no socialization about the project (to the local population),” he explained.
Walhi Promises to Continue the Fight
In a page-one story in the Sunday, June 22, 2008, edition of the Bali Post the Chief of Walhi welcomed the news that the Regent had taken the firm action of stopping the errant project. At the same time he pledged that his organization would continue pursue the matter by issuing a formal “cease and desist” order (Somasi) against the regional government seeking to force officials to demolish the project and return the land to its original state.
Wardana said that the Alila Villas Tanah Lot project must not be allowed to stall and buy time while the investors seeking allowances and special considerations to allow the project to continue in its current configuration. The head of the local environmental group said the project had the potential of becoming a “colony of foreigners” who will close the access of locals to beach areas in order to preserve their privacy and enjoyment of the area.
Shown on balidiscovery.com are photos taken recently from the villa project now underway at Kelating beach.
Source: www.balidiscovery.com
June 27th, 2008
Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Balinese women are renowned for their skillful dancing, which is usually accompanied by gamelan music played by men.
However, the Guna Suara women’s angklung group from Jembrana put a twist on Balinese tradition with their performance at the Art Center in Denpasar recently.
The Guna Suara angklung performance accompanied three traditional dances Wednesday at the Denpasar Art Center’s wantilan (hall).
“This performance proves that women are not only capable housewives, but are also capable of participating in musical shows,” the master of ceremonies said when opening the show.
More than 20 women wearing orange kebaya (traditional blouses) appeared on the stage of the wantilan to take their places at a set of gamelan angklung instruments.
Gamelan angklung is a four-tone orchestra — one of more than 20 different types of indigenous gamelan in Bali — consisting of gongs, metal xylophones, cymbals, flutes and drums.
The group opened its performance with a Tabuh Lelambatan, which literally means “slow composition”. This piece has long been closely identified with Balinese temple festivals, where the music is presented as an offering to the gods.
Their first set was awarded with a huge applause from the audience members, most of whom were men: Some even nodded their heads showing their approval.
The group’s second performance accompanied the Penyembrama, a welcoming dance, performed by students from the Pekutatan junior high school in Jembrana.
The show continued with the Margapati dance, a dance that depicts the story of a forest king.
The dances were all performed by females, except in the third dance, the Majagau dance, where male dancers accompanied the female dancers in the performance. The dance tells of the beauty of the Majagau tree, a rare tree and considered sacred by the Balinese.
According to A.A. Ketut Anom Sukadana, one of the managers of Guna Suara, the women’s angklung group was established around a year ago.
“The group was basically a side activity of the housewives of Banjar Dalem, Gumbrih Village in Pekutatan District in Jembrana,” he said.
He added the women usually practiced once a week; but that ever since they had decided to perform in the 30th Bali Arts Festival, they had increased their practice schedule to three days a week.
“We want to show people that women can also do what men do, and that women and men are equal,” he said.
He added the establishment of the group was based on its member’s principle that if men could do something, so could women.
“We can see that women are more enthusiastic and they can play really well,” he said, adding there were currently 35 women in the group.
Sayu Raka Suandewi, a member of Guna Suara, said most women in her village actually had basic angklung-playing skills.
She added it took a lot of hard work and dedication to be able to play Balinese gamelan, considering its complex and vibrant rhythm.
“But we are happy because there are more and more people acknowledging this group and we now have many invitations to play for the public,” she said.
Sukadana said the group had five invitations in the coming months to perform in different regions of Bali.
Source: The Jakarta Post
June 27th, 2008
Jetstar - the Australian budget carrier has announced their intention to operate three flights a week (four times a week during peak season) between Perth and Bali starting October 27, 2008. The new service utilizing A320 aircraft will complement a thrice-weekly service between Perth and Jakarta slated to begin on the same dates.
The announcement of the new service was made by Jetstar’s Group General Manager Commercial Bruce Buchanan in a speech before the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE).
The new Perth-Bali service will replace Qantas Airways’ terminated service over the same route.
Special Fares
To help celebrate the new service Jetstar offered special introductory fares of AU$179 one way between Perth to Bali. Those tickets, in limited quantities, were reportedly sold out shortly after they were put on sales.
Normal “every day low fares” on the new Perth-Bali route will start form AU$249 one way.
Source: www.balidiscovery.com
June 26th, 2008
Indonesia is hosting a major meeting of waste disposal experts from more than 170 countries, looking at how to handle the mountains of rubbish produced by an increasingly throw-away global society. Broken computers, old mobile phones, toxic chemicals - even used condoms - pose an increasing challenge. As well as how to get rid of legitimate garbage, the Basel Convention meeting in Bali is also looking at illegal waste exporting.
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Rasio Ridha Sani, assistant minister for hazardous waste and substance management, Indonesia Ministry for the Environment; Sarah Westervelt, e-waste project leader, Basel Action Network
HILL: Across Indonesia’s nearly two million square kilometres are thousands of border entry points - easy targets for illegal activity - from human trafficking to consumer waste dumping. Rasio Ridha Sani, from Indonesia’s environment ministry, says the country is a target for unscrupulous dumpers.
RASIO: Indonesia is I think one of the most vulnerable countries from the impact of illegal transporting and movement of hazardous waste because we are the largest archipelago country in the world.
HILL: Indonesia is one of 170 signatories to the 16-year-old Basel Convention, a UN treaty which makes exporting certain hazardous materials illegal. It requires importing countries to properly manage legal waste and encourages the minimisation of waste production at source. While the Convention has focused some international attention on the risks of exporting toxic waste, it’s proven difficult to enforce, as Rasio Ridha Sani discovered six months ago.
RASIO: Last December we found that there was illegal trafficking from one European country bringing in used condoms. Now we are sending letters to the government of Germany because we don’t know where it comes from actually, but we know we’re receiving it from Germany. This is not easy because since December until now this is two containers with 25 pounds of condoms still in our harbour in Jakarta.
HILL: Rasio Ridha Sani says this illegal load of rubbish illustrates a much broader problem.
RASIO: We don’t know actually how many tonnes that waste come to Indonesia because we know we just found some of them perhaps, kind of, iceberg.
HILL: This year’s summit in Bali has chosen to particularly focus on controlling illegal waste traffic. As an example, 80 per cent of all American electronic component waste is exported, most of it to Asia, and much of it illegally. The US is not a signatory to the Basel Convention and it’s accused - along with other developed countries, of taking advantage of poorer nations. Sarah Westervelt, is an electronic waste activist from the US-based lobby group, the Basel Action Network.
WESTERVELT: It’s so profitable to export this hazardous waste to a developing country that will actually pay for it like China or India or Vietnam. There is a big incentive to do that rather than to pay to have it managed responsibly in the developed world.
HILL: Massive amounts of electronic waste, are generated every time someone upgrades their PC, changes to a flat screen TV, or gets a better mobile phone. At the other end of the waste chain, this means hazardous items are disassembled all too often by workers unprotected by occupational safety and employment laws. Sarah Westervelt again.
WESTERVELT: Batteries, for example lap top batteries, or burnt-out fluorescent lamps in an LCD screen, which has mercury in it of course, CRT - cathode ray tubes, that’s full of leaded glass that no longer works and all that lead ends up being exported in the name of reuse and gets dumped in the receiving country because its not reusable.
HILL: Ms Westervelt says workers often handle life-threatening toxins with their bare hands and no masks, for as little as $US1.50 a day.
WESTERVELT: The impacts have just been absolutely horrific. It’s really hard to conceive of, but what we have documented in China is absolutely extraordinary levels of these toxins from the e-waste processing operations all over rivers and soil and in human tissue. Some of the water samples had lead levels 2,400 times higher than the World Health Organisation’s limit for lead in drinking water.
HILL: Mr Rasio Ridha Sani says he hopes the Basel Convention Summit will produce a stronger global treaty banning the movement of hazardous waste altogether.
RASIO: I think this is why for us we really need this kind of instrument because we have to care for our people and also our children as well as our environment.
Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/
June 25th, 2008
By ROSLINA MOHAMAD
KUANTAN: Warm hospitality, efficient service and cleanliness are simple and inexpensive attributes that bring changes in the tourism industry, said State Arts and Tourism Committee chairman Shafik Fauzan Shariff.
However, he noted that these qualities needed constant reminders.
“It is not new to have awareness campaigns to remind people and the industry players.
“It is something that needs to be done from time to time,” he said in an interview.
Shafik Fauzan said he emphasised these qualities on his rounds of duty and wanted the same dedication from the public and industry players.
Things would not work out well if the commitment came only from the state, he said.
He cited his recent visit to Bali where he was taken up by the warm hospitality of locals and workers.
“They greet you with a warm, sincere and respectful welcome.
“It makes you feel nice,” he said.
Shafik Fauzan said that Bali had no grand infrastructure but was clean and friendly, and visitors found it appealing and kept going back.
“We should do the same to make visitors feel welcome,” he added.
Source: http://thestar.com.my/
June 24th, 2008
It is a well known fact that golf is one game which encourages its 50 million players worldwide to travel extensively in search of an endless variety of golf courses and playing conditions. And Indian golfers are very aware of the potential income from inbound golf tourism into our country.
Unlike a tennis court or soccer field, which is nearly same all over the globe, none of the approximately 40,000 golf courses worldwide can be identical to another. There are mountain courses and seaside courses which look particularly attractive based on scenery and elevation changes. Then there are desert courses and courses that have been carved out of dense forests. The constant change and challenge for players generates billions of dollars of golf travel dollars worldwide. Being an outdoor sport which last for 4-5 hours per 18 hole round, golfers also travel in search of ideal weather. In the winter they leave the cold northern climates in search of the sun which makes the northern winter the season of highest revenues for tropical courses.
Asian countries have been quick to capitalise on golfers’ search for the winter sun. Besides their sun kissed beaches, our ASEAN neighbours have also developed world class courses which complement top quality hotels, restaurants and shopping. Thailand and Malaysia have cashed in on this opportunity better than anyone else through extensive facility development and global marketing efforts.
Perhaps lesser known but in no way inferior is Indonesia and Bali in particular. On the island of Bali, the Nusa Dua area is an example of a government planned community fuelled by private funding — an example of public private partnership and a perfect example of how a cluster of hotels, restaurants and shopping with a world class championship course and some savvy marketing has created a successful business model.
The Bali Golf & Country Club in Nusa Dua, built in 1990 is surrounded by five top class five star resort hotels which include well known chains like St Regis and Novotel. The famous Nusa Dua beach is closeby. A well laid out gated complex controls access to this master-planned resort area. Within the master-planned area is a complex known simply as the Bali collection — an assortment of restaurants, boutique and a supermarket laid out in a picturesque open air plaza — the entrance reminds you of an amusement park.
When the complex was ready, the Bali government decided to market and advertise the course through a series of world class golf tournaments. In 1994, ’95 and ’96 they hosted the Alfred Dunhill Masters which attracted worldwide TV audiences through the participation of top stars Nick Faldo, Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomerie and others. This quickly established the region’s attraction to golfing tourists in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Since travelling golfers expect a choice of more than one golf course, the Nirwana Bali Resort, less than an hour’s drive away is another world class facility with three spectacular cliff top holes where golfers have to tee off across the surf. As developers in India examine business models and make revenue assumptions based on golf tourism revenues, successful cluster models such as this one in Nusa Dua, Bali should be considered strongly.
Today in India, only Gurgaon presents a cluster of three world class golf courses which could be complemented by the old world charm of the Delhi Golf Club and Greater Noida’s Jaypee Greens. With the new international airport and new Gurgaon hotels scheduled to be completed by 2010, winter season golf tourism in Delhi should be ready to go. Combined with day excursions to Agra and Jaipur and one day sightseeing of the capital, the package should be complete.
The next two cities which might offer a package are Kolkata and Bangalore. Kolkata because it offers the experience of playing Royal Calcutta Golf Club, the oldest golf club in the world outside the British Isles along with the quaint Tollygunge Club, if combined with the Victoria Memorial, old world ambience of Bengal Club, could be particularly attractive for British Tourists looking to connect with the days of the British Raj.
Bangalore might attract new age businessmen who could combine visits to offices of Microsoft, Genpact, SAP, Infosys and Wipro with golf at the Eagleton Golf Resort, the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) club and the 150 year old Bangalore Golf Club. This could be called “The World is Flat Golf Tour” because the opening line of that best-selling book (The World is Flat) mentions the first hole of KGA where shots are aimed at the IBM office building located behind the first green.
Golf Tourism is available to any destination with a clear marketing and differentiation strategy. In Bali, the courses overlook the beaches and oceans and are well marketed. In India we can come up with our own unique selling points. If India can get a complete package, we too can make golf tourism work in our favour.
(The writer is an Asian Games gold medallist)
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
June 23rd, 2008
Denpasar (ANTARA News) - The economic recession currently hitting the Americas seems not to have discouraged people in those countries to spend vacations in Bali, provincial tourism data show.
The number of American tourists who came to Indonesia`s “island of gods” during the January-April period in 2008 rose 29.5 percent from 24,148 to 31,280, according to a report released by the Bali provincial tourism office on Saturday.
Local tourism business circles had assumed the economic recession in the Americas would cause a decline in tourist arrivals from those countries but the data disproved this belief.
The monthly number of American tourists who flew directly to Bali increased continously during the January-April period. In January the number was 6,620, in February 7,282, in March 9,304 and in April 8,074.
With the continuous rise in the number of American tourists coming to Bali, the continent is now one of the 10 biggest contributors to the foreign tourist flow to the resort island, accounting for 5.2 percent of the overall number of 594,068.
Of the 32 countries in the American continent, the United States, Canada and Brazil were those from where most of the American tourists came. During the January-April period the number of tourist arrivals from the US was 19,939, from Canada 7,334 and from Brazil 1,636.
Most of the overall number of foreign tourists who flew directly to Bali in the January-April period came from Asia-Pacific countries, namely 355.029.
The second biggest number of foreign tourists came from Europe (152.005), followed by ASEAN member countries (51.854), Africa (3.271), America (31.280) and the Middle East (629).
(*)
COPYRIGHT © 2008
Source: ANTARA News
June 23rd, 2008
Ed Earl
THE Gold Coast surfing gods can breathe a sigh of relief — the next wave of Coolie kids has been unearthed.
After moving from Lismore 10 years ago, the Pereira-Ryan brothers, Sol and Ice, are getting ready for their next journey — to continue on when surf legends Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson retire.
The journey is not an easy one for the Snapper Rocks based surfers.
The teens aim to compete in the Occy Grom competition in Bali in early August and will have to work and fundraise to get more than $8000 needed for travel and accommodation by mid-July.
“Hopefully we’ll be getting some good waves in Bali,” said 16-year-old Ice.
Tourism operator Worldtourism will match every dollar raised.
“Some people just go in, get a contract and then they fly straight off all over the world. It’s a bit hard for us and we are struggling,” said Ice, a part-time labourer, who works with his dad.
“We can only do Gold Coast comps because we can’t travel to many other places,” added Ice’s 15-year-old brother, Sol.
Ice, whose nickname is the Iceman, said he moved from bodyboarding to board riding six years ago and had always loved the water.
He said he had dragged Sol into surfing about four years ago.
“I got him into it and he’s better than me. He’s been surfing nearly half the time as me,” said Ice.
“That’s why half the time, I don’t let him get waves, I don’t want him getting better than me. I just try to pull him off and make him get the little ones,” he joked.
Sol, a Palm Beach Currumbin High School student, placed first at the Queensland School Surfing Titles.
Ice recently won the Surf to Save Kirra competition and placed in the Rip Curl Grom Search.
Sol and Ice have four sisters and one brother.
All family members have three letters in their names, as do their Samoan-born mum and their Aussie dad.
Sol said it was a challenge warming up to some of the fierce local surfers.
“People don’t really like us and some don’t really like the outsiders around here — they are really competitive here,” said Ice.
“A lot of the guys don’t like it because we’re from a different background. They don’t really like it but we tell them to get lost and they are just going to have to accept us.
“We don’t let other people bring us down.”
Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/
June 20th, 2008
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