For those of you who think doing this surf report is a walk in the park-think again. If you could have found a worse day than this morning to try and take pictures of the surf I would not like to see it!
The conditions weren’t ideal, rain squalls and a 20 knot sou'easter blowing the backs off the 5-6ft nor'east swell pushing thousands of bluebottles into the corner of Southies beach.
I broke a 5 year hoodoo and had a surf out the Point-because there wasn’t many options. It was funny seeing the look on Ricks face when I paddled out though-through the sheets of rain that is.
Kip Caddy had the right idea this morning, getting sucked out in the Voodoo express and taking off on some Southie bombs all by himself, he made it look pretty good.
The Point was copping most of the swell and as Swellnet happily forecasts it will stay 5-6 foot into the weekend when the wind will swing to the sou'west (hopefully on Friday) with the off-shores the weather should stay much the same as now, 9-19 degrees and a few showers.
Talking about the real world, you would have been hiding if you haven’t seen any footage of “Chopes” over the last few days at the Billabong Pro Tahiti…and I thought it was hard work surfing the Alley bowl yesterday morning!
The Final Day's 12-man field took on perilous conditions and monster 12-15 foot barreling waves, the biggest of the season, in pursuit of victory. It was Gabriel Medina (BRA) who came out on top to claim the coveted title of Billabong Pro Tahiti Champion after an unbelievable day of competition and what is being dubbed the best WCT contest in history.
An incredible Final saw Medina reign supreme in huge, perfect conditions at Teahupo'o. The win over 11-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater is Medina's third WCT victory of the year, after triumphing at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast and the Fiji Pro, and sees him extend his lead in the world title race.
The pair were neck and neck throughout the final, with each posting a series of excellent nine-point scores. Medina held the lead with the tiniest of margins, 0.03, and the heat came down to the last wave from Slater and a nail-biting wait for the score. He needed a 9.33 but came in just shy at 9.30 and Medina took the win to solidify his place as ASP World No. 1 going in to the final four events of the season.
Congrats to Dave Came who joined our surfpicks team (Cronulla losers) late and came out with 10,000 points! My man Owen Wright won the Andy Irons award for biggest charger and gave me a few points as well.
The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is thrilled to announce a brand new 1-Star Qualifying Series (QS) event in Indonesia — the Komune Bali Pro presented by The Mad Hueys. The event will be co-sanctioned with the ASP and the Asian Surfing Championship Tour (ASC) to provide maximum opportunity for athletes to improve their rankings on both tours.
Tony Cannon, co-owner of Komune Bali is proud of the resort and the break and is looking forward to putting on a show with Indonesian and International talent battling for barrels, ranking points and prize-money.
“All of the crew at Hotel Komune Bali are pumped the ASP has chosen our hotel and beach club at Keramas Bali to host a QS event this year,” Cannon said. “We are also stoked to be once again combining with the boys from The Mad Hueys to put on this unique event which we hope will be one of the most fun and most entertaining events on the surfing calendar this year at one of the world’s best high performance waves.”
Damon Nicholls, co-founder of The Mad Hueys is looking forward to bringing his brand’s unique personality to the ASP QS and putting on a show at one of the world’s best waves.
Meanwhile your tax dollars have led leading surfboard manufacturer Darren Handley Designs (DHD) to back the future of surf training by becoming the exclusive Australian shaper with the Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre (HPC) in a two-year partnership.
DHD shapes boards for many of the world’s best surfers including multiple world champions Mick Fanning and Stephanie Gilmore and will provide a 25-board test quiver for patrons to use during their time at the HPC.
It will ensure all participants have a comprehensive testing centre with an extensive selection of board designs and shapes to utilise. “Darren Handley is a master craftsman with multiple world titles under his belt as a shaper,” said Surfing Australia CEO Andrew Stark. “His commitment to continual improvement and quality surfboard design and manufacturing ensures he is at the forefront of global shaping.
“DHD is an absolute perfect partner for Surfing Australia and our High Performance Centre and we look forward to working with him and his team in developing the next generation of Australian world champion athletes.”
Surfing Australia National Coach Andy King said the HPC was privileged to have access to a shaper of Darren’s expertise.
“The beauty of having such a high level shaper that interacts with current world champions and have that knowledge filter down to everyone who comes to the HPC is priceless,” King said-and he would know!
In Indonesia Surfaid has been silently working away since 1999 and Andrew Judge the CEO said "We have been fortunate to attract experienced and really motivated staff, working closely with key staff from our Sumatran projects, to develop multi-year projects in these new project areas in the east. It is dry season there and we are working with isolated coastal communities, firstly to ensure water is available all year. It’s early days but enthused hygiene volunteers showed us latrines that more than half the families built themselves, most with a really simple handwashing station - a container, stick and a rope – which is foot operated for less bacterial transfer. It’s simple, locally made, maintained and used. It’s all about seeing positive change in people's lives that they 'own' as theirs.
Our Emergency Preparedness project received uniform 'excellent' ratings from an independent reviewer who looked at its design, relevance, impact and sustainability. This is incredibly encouraging from sector experts and a huge tribute to the work of our program team"- so stop complaining about the weather here!
Talking about the weather,I see it has stopped raining outside but before the winds swing offshore here’s some words from Peru-The International Surfing Association [ISA] has announced that it will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year at the ISA World Surfing Games in Punta Rocas, Peru. The event will bring together surfers from all over the world to compete in Team, Men's and Women's divisions during the surfing competition that will double up as a global celebration of the sport's governing body hosting half a century of world class surfing championships.
Taking place from October 24 to November 1, 2014, the ISA 50th Anniversary World Surfing Games will be held at the world-class Punta Rocas - the same location as the 1965 ISA World Surfing Championship, which was won by Peruvian local, Felipe Pomar and American Joyce Hoffman.
Over the last 50 years, the number of ISA member nations has grown to 86, with Madagascar and Algeria announced as the newest additions in recent months. The ISA expects to achieve its goal of reaching 100 member nations in 2015. It's also estimated that 35 million people in over 100 countries surf globally, and that number is expected to rise to 50 million by 2020 as Surfing continues to reach new markets around the globe.
Lets face it, it looks like a Brazil nut will win this years worlds title so anything could happen in the future –maybe a Norwegian 2020 World champ! Till next week, stay wet.
