Indonesian female surfer makes history in Japan

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian female longboard surfer Dhea Natasya has made history after winning the World Surf League (WSL) Longboard Qualifying Series (LQS) 1000 Hamamatsu Open 2026 in Hamamatsu, Japan, on Sunday.

Quoted from the official social media account of the Indonesian Surfing Association (PSOI) or Surfing Indonesia, this achievement entitles Dhea to compete in the WSL Longboard Tour 2026/2027. She is the first Indonesian woman to achieve this.

“Dhea is also the fourth Asian woman (the previous three were from Japan) to join the ranks of elite female longboarders in the world,” PSOI stated in its post.

In the final match at Nakatajima Beach, Hamamatsu, Dhea managed to score a total of 15.87 from her two best waves. This was the highest score for the women’s category in the competition.

Dhea also scored the best single wave score of the competition with 8.67.

This achievement is the second for the gold medalist in the women’s longboard at the 2019 SEA Games in WSL. Previously, in July 2025, Dhea was the best in the WSL Longboard Qualifying Series Siheung Korea Open.

“This victory (in Hamamatsu) is my second in WSL. I am very happy. Now I will return home and continue to train so that I am better prepared for the Longboard Tour,” said the 25-year-old athlete, quoted from the WSL website.

In addition to Dhea, Indonesian longboard surfer Dhany Widianto also achieved a good result in Hamamatsu by winning second place in the LQS 1000 men’s category.

Dhany collected a total of 12.96 points from his two best waves. He gave strong competition to the champion, Taka Inoue (Japan), who scored a total of 13.36 points from his two best waves.