A recent incident in Bali, Indonesia, wreaked havoc on the surfing community. American surfer, Sara Taylor was suddenly attacked by a local at Pandawa Beach, on Wednesday. She and her friend, Charlie were ambushed by the local surfers. Her friend managed to capture the mishap and both posted it on their social media. The video is currently going viral on the internet, thus, deriving attention from notable athletes. Legend, Kelly Slater called for an investigation into the matter, while mentioning several surfers. In a recent article by G1, the attacker was identified as JP Azevedo hailing from Espírito Santo, Brazil.

The publication revealed the shocking revelations made by the Brazillian surfer in his defense. He claimed that her negative surfing demeanor sparked the tussle. Moreover, Azevedo couldn’t grasp that Sara was a woman, initially. However, after he found out, he stepped back and allegedly apologized. Here’s what happened. 

Brazillian surfer justifies his terrifying act

Despite the video giving momentary glimpses of the surfer’s antics, his justifications were contradictory. According to the article, he attempted to defend his behavior with an absurd statement. “This girl looked like a man, I didn’t know she was a woman. She surfed like a man, dressed like a man,” he said. Giving a deeper perspective into what really went down there, Azevedo detailed that Sara was being disrespectful to the other surfers. He added that she even shoved his friend out of a wave. Thus, he narrated, “She was riding everyone’s wave, she wasn’t respecting anyone. She went with my friend’s wave and pushed my friend out of the loop.”

Reportedly, the Capixaba surfer decided to confront Sara for her disturbing attitude and approached her to enquire. “She went by and threw water in my face, cursed me,” he said. Furthermore, JP admitted to his hostile actions and stated, “I lost my mind due to momentary stress and ended up attacking her. I lost my reason. After I attacked her I saw that it was a woman.” Azevedo professed that he tried apologizing to her and even deterred his friend from assisting his attacks. Hence, the Brazillian-native uttered, “Soon after I apologized, a friend of mine came paddling up and I said: calm down, it’s a woman.” 

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The surfer has been residing in Bali since 2019, per sources. The dispute was further taken to the beach. As the attacker claimed that Sara and her girlfriend came to avenge his act after he got out of the water. “they tried to throw me to the ground, broke some pieces of my board, which they took from my car. When I saw that she took my board, I ran away. They came after me, I just defended myself,” Azevedo elucidated. Nevertheless, when the video surfaced, the community was left clueless and devoid of any reasoning, including Sara herself. Her caption is proof of her dilemma at that moment.

Sara Taylor opens up about her surfing nightmare in Bali

The victim, Sara took to her Instagram last week to share the details of the incident. Her caption disclosed, “After being dropped in on, on my first wave, the guys’ friend punched me in the head.” Even her friend, Charlie was attacked after he stood for her and filmed the entire ordeal. “after being confronted about hitting me, he attacked Charlie on the beach for filming him. This is insane, does anyone know who they are?” the caption added. 

The other post by Charlie also narrated a similar experience and enquired about their identities. Both their posts were acknowledged by the community’s greats. Brazilian icon, Filipe Toledo apologized on their behalf saying, “Hope you guys are ok! Don’t stress with people with this kind of energy! They don’t last long, life will comeback to them !” Whereas WSL legend, Slater seemed quite concerned with the issue and wrote, “Get this guy @jp_azevedosurf sent home where he belongs.” 

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The source even interviewed Sara, who revealed that she has taken legal action against the assailants. She has filed a police report in Bali itself. Stricter measures need to be implemented to prevent athletes from falling prey to such grievous acts. What do you think? Tell us in the comments.