Balint Hambalko is, by most accounts, living the dream. He didn’t grow up as a surfer or even around surfing at all. He was born in a landlocked country, Hungary, where skateboarding was the only board sports outlet accessible to him. By the time he got his hands on a video camera, he was in his 20s and it wasn’t too long before his love for skate filmmaking took him to the Alps where his camera was pointed at snowboards. But as many of us can relate to, he was hooked once he finally fell in love with surfing. The fact that he’s now living and filming surfers almost daily in Indonesia is pretty amazing when you look back on where it all started.
Hambilko now manages SurfRawFiles, which has collected a solid following on social media since he set his bags down in Indo because he documents so many great sessions, often from the archipelago’s A-list waves – Nias, Uluwatu, Desert Point, Padang, and the list goes on. He’s seen a lot of great rides from everyday surfers on vacation, underground chargers roughing it through the Indian Ocean without a sponsor payroll, and familiar big-name pros alike. So seeing his pick of the 10 best waves captured through one of his viewfinders is an interesting proposition. There were some big days at Nias, picture-perfect drone shots over Rifles, a Taj cameo at Padang. But I imagine the people’s choice has to go to 73-year-old Larry Lendingham nabbing some shade on a long overhead left. Guys like Larry give us all hope that chasing waves as good as this isn’t something you ever have to grow out of.
