The annual event called Kustom Airstrike is really simple this year: they put five surfers on a boat in the Mentawais for 10 days and best air gets fifty thousand dollars. It's happening now and we have men there on the boat to document all flight activity.

We'll put said flight on display here at whatyouth.com over the next couple weeks. The story begins with this dispatch from Padang:

It was bigger than the Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony. It was more spectacular than the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The opening ceremony of the 2012 Kustom Airstrike was a grand affair held at the bar of the Basko Hotel in Padang, Sumatra. Speeches were made in pidgin. The rules were set. A $500 bar tab was run up, and two photographers and a surfer ejected their dinner over the side of our boat later that night.

The highlight of the evening was the farewell gift from our bartender: a child-size cycling jersey left over from the bar's Tour de France party. Our five surfers agreed that the frontrunner after each day of the Airstrike would wear the jersey, the same way the leader of the Tour De France wears Yellow – only without the spandex bicycle shorts.

Leading the pack after Day 1 it's currently a toss up between Chippa's backside mute air reverse and a “what-the-fuck-was-that” landed by John John on his last wave of the day. We're still not sure what it was. But it looked like he went upside down. —Leo Maxam

More from the Airstrike on the way. This year's surfers are John John Florence, Chippa Wilson, Albee Layer, Matt Meola and Ryan Callinan.

Dion Agius was meant to come but he got hurt. Kelly Slater was rumored as well but, you know.