A clip of a female surfer being punched in her head by another surfer over a dispute while riding the waves at Pandawa Beach has gone viral.
The clip was first uploaded by the woman in the video, Sara Taylor, to her Instagram @salad_tray yesterday, after which it was reshared by various social media accounts.
In the clip, Taylor can be seen riding the waves and lightly bumping into a surfer guy wearing a white t-shirt. It appeared that they both pushed each other away to avoid a collision. No one seemed to be harmed.
However, a shirtless man, reportedly friends with the white t-shirt guy, then paddled over to Taylor and sucker punched her in the head.
The argument escalated on land and Taylor can be heard repeatedly asking the guys to go away.
Taylor’s friend, who was recording the whole situation, also became the victim as the shirtless guy kicked their motorbike while the other guy said, “suck my dick.”
“After being dropped in on, on my first wave, the guy’s friend punched me in the head and then after being confronted about hitting me, he attacked Charlie on the beach for filming him. this is insane, does anyone know who they are?” Taylor wrote in her post.
Separately, an Instagram post by @adrianoportela82, who was apparently one of the people involved in the frackas, responded by deeply apologizing for the whole situation.
Coconuts Bali has reached out to Taylor and @adrianoportela82 for further comments.
“I got pushed out of the wave as you can see in the video posted. Unfortunately after that a punch was thrown in the water, however not by me and I was not involved in it happening,” he wrote.
“I swam out of the water to see what was happening and not fully understanding what had happened i lost my temper and spoke with disrespect towards the girls and acted in a disgusting way that i’m very ashamed of.”
Bali Police spokesman Stefanus Satake Bayu Setianto told Coconuts Bali separately that Taylor is from California while her friend, Charlotte “Charlie” McCharg is British.
“[Taylor] suffered bruises on the back of her head and felt nauseous,” said Bayu on the effects of the assault.
“[McCharg] suffered bruises on her legs.”
Bayu confirmed the chronology of the incidents and added that both Taylor and McCharg reported the incident to the South Kuta Police. He confirmed that Bali Water Police will handle the case.
The alleged perpetrators were revealed by the police authorities as Adriano Portella and Joao Paulo De Azevedo – both men reside in Uluwatu.
This story has been updated to include the police statements.
