Growing up in poverty in Indonesia and having faced a medical condition at an early age, Rio found peace in surfing. On the surf-obsessed island of Bali, Rio began to rise above his problems. Shortly thereafter, he made his breakout official by winning the Quiksilver Young Guns Surf event in 2016 and hasn’t stopped since. His radical approach has led him to begin the first Indonesian surfer to represent his country in two Olympic Games and became the first Indonesian surfer to qualify for the WSL Championship Tour. 2024 marked a lifetime achievement for Rio when he finished runner-up at the Fiji Pro and landed himself on the CT’s top 10 year-end ranking. Don’t count Rio out, his best is yet to come.
