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| Bugs Wraps His Head Around Early Season Chaos
COOLANGATTA, Australia (Wednesday, March 18, 2009) - What a fantastic launch to the 2009 ASP World Tour. The Quiksilver Pro may have had a reasonably ordinary start at back-up site D’Bah and average Snapper, but it climaxed in outrageous conditions at Big Groyne Kirra.
The highlight of the first week was without doubt the high-achieving girls. After a spluttery start to her first two title campaigns, which of course eventually met with success, Stephanie Gilmore put it all together in home surf to claim the Roxy Pro, a title she has claimed before as a wildcard. In her own words, this victory was very sweet, not only did she perform in front of an adoring home gallery, but it was a keeper this time round, as opposed to her maiden victory in ’05 when she heralded her imminent arrival by toppling the tall poppies of women’s surfing.
It will be interesting to see Steph’s mindset going into Bells. The previous two years, she has headed south badly needing a result after lackluster results at Snapper. She has not put a foot wrong in the Rip Curl Pro, triumphing on both occasions to kickstart dual title campaigns. This time is devoid of desperation, but with a hat-trick on offer, plus the fact that Bells has barometrically trumpeted a title race, I’d say there is plenty motivation in there.
Top effort to Melanie Bartels. The Hawaiian can be so dangerous when she has the game face on - will ’09 be the year she puts it all together? Mel rides on a lot of spontaneous emotional energy, much like Silvana Lima does, so the peaks and troughs are quite pronounced. All she lacks is the consistency that comes with having a solid game plan, but her surfing is right up there.
The arrival of rookies Coco Ho and Paige Hareb is indelibly etched in our minds, or at least those who witnessed the revelation of their surfing prowess. They did not quite manage to go all the way, but boy did they tear it up. The heat of the tournament was surfed out between Coco and Silvana. Wow, what a showdown, neither deserved to bow out a loser, but to her credit, Coco displayed amazing mental resilience to reel in the runaway Brazilian and graduate to the next plateau. New Zealand finally has a world beater in Paige. There have been some wonderfully talented surfers produced in the Land of the Long White Cloud, but Paige may very well represent the breakthrough the Kiwi nation has been yearning for.
The final two days of the Quiksilver Pro were dominated by Cyclone Hamish, who hovered off the Central Queensland coast and delivered a punchy, semi messed-up east swell to the Southern Points. The Round of 16 and Quarters were conducted on the Superbank, on the Coolangatta side of Big Groyne. There were some great, great clashes, quite a few blow-outs, but also some painfully close encounters. The heat of the day had to be the Dane Reynolds/Taj Burrow clash. Both had amazing rides and the lead changed back and forth. Reynolds plucked a chunky one in front of the Big Groyne, got pitted, snuck out the doggy door needing a 7.5. It was a nail-biter, I think he ended up with a 6.67. I was thinking low 7’s myself, but being a last gasp barrel it really got peoples’ blood running.
The final day was magnificient. It is difficult for people, especially in webland, to fully comprehend how insanely hard it was to harness all that tumultuous energy and generate it into a performance. Mick & Joel made a radically difficult passage of play look ridiculously easy. It was beautiful theatre, two of the fittest men on tour, two local lads just blasting out of thick, unruly kegs, leap-frogging each other for the lead, and a shot at the title. It was clear to all that whoever triumphed had a morgtage on the Quiksilver Pro trophy.
Another huge element at play was the personal watercraft assist. Under the masterful handling of Jamie Mitchell, Mick de Betta and the team, these machines simply made the whole scenario possible. Put it this way, without them, it would have been Best 1 because nobody could have got back to the line-up in the alotted 35 minutes to snare a second wave. When visualizing the jet ski assist, I always had Kirra and Big Burleigh in mind. It made these spots accessible, even manageable, and they were worth their weight in gold on this day.
Mick and Joel both agreed there were some hairy moments, and were magnanymous in their appreciation of the expert handling of the craft. At one point Joel had scored two amazing barrels in like 3 minutes, an impossibility really, even with the skis. But he did it. On another occasion Mick had to hail a cab when a torrent of water took him backwards down the point, without even riding a wave. It was extreme conditions and the boys made it look like childs play.
The second Semi was a reality check. Taj definitely struggled to overcome the conditions, there was so much energy, so many variants and options, local knowledge was definitely advantageous. But Adriano impressed, he may not have reached the heights of the Mick/Joel heat, heck, it rivaled history’s best, but the Brazilian acquitted himself with aplomb in driving rain and wind-whipped seas, not to mention a broken up 8-10’ cyclone swell.
Joel blew the Final wide open with a perfect 10. It was a door shutter for sure. There is no doubt it is a leaner, meaner Parko stepping out in ’09. A great start for Joel, Adriano, Mick and Taj.
Congrats to Quiksilver, great calls by Event Director Rod Brooks, and top marks to Andrew Stark in his final stint with Surfing Qld before taking on his new position as CEO of Surfing Australia. Logistically, it ain’t easy moving about in cyclonic conditions, great reads, awesome calls, mean event.
There was a real hype surrounding the event going to Kirra. Lots of talk about epic Kirra barrels, as though Kirra was its normal self and it was a natural thing to opt for Big Groyne with a cyclone in our midst. Obviously the "Bring Back Kirra" campaigners were a little concerned about the Kirra message, but Parko, in his victory speech, had the presence of mind to reiterate the "Bring Back Kirra" message. He instinctively knew that the images of 10 point barrels would reflect inaccurately on the true perspective and prudently re-enforced the strong local community feelings about the state of Kirra. You see, it took two of the absolute best surfers in the world, ferried around by best of breed jet ski operators, to make the place remotely surfable. That reality is not available to the every day punter who wants to ride Kirra again, so it was a sobering reflection by the two times Quiksilver Pro champ.
Regards,
Bugs
Wayne ’Rabbit’ Bartholomew
ASP International President |
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