After the battles that went down in the Round 5 heats of the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, the final between Kelly Slater and defending Champ Taj Burrow was a bit of a fizzler. It wasn’t the fault of either surfer, but more the junky, ripped up Snapper surf.
Slater jumped in first with optimism on a smaller wave, threw a little frontside air, and then stalled into a perfect, though tiny snapper barrel. It was a classic example of how Kelly seems to bend waves to his will. He didn’t have the same power over the judges, however, and they gave him a 5.0 in what could turn out to be one of the best 5 point waves in ASP finals history.
With 14 minutes to go the heat basically blew up in both surfer’s faces. Slater and Burrow fell on wave after wave. It almost became comical. Kelly railed out on a drop. Then Taj would get caught up in the white water or fall off on a simple bottom turn.
The quarterfinals and finals of the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast will go down today beginning at 1:30 PM PST (7:30 AM March 9, local time), but some of the most most savagely contested heats in ASP history went down in Round 5 as five of the ASP’s top ranked surfers fought to get back in the game after losing their morning Round 4 heats.
Kelly Slater, Jordy Smith, Taj Burrow, Adriano de Souza and Joel Parkinson all found themselves out of the winners slot on Tuesday morning. After four heats of Round 5, however, Kelly slipped past Ace Buchan, Taj Burrow pulled out the highest heat total of the event so far (19.06) to edge Adriano de Souza, and Jordy Smith snuck past Parko in the last minute of the final heat of the day.
Jordy Smith (ZAF), 23, 2010 ASP World Runner-Up and Runner-Up at the 2010 Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, kept his dreams alive tonight with a sensational come-from-behind victory over local standout Joel Parkinson (AUS), 29, in Round 5. Needing a big score in the dying moments, Smith took a wave off of Parkinson’s priority and secured the 7.50 out of a possible 10 and the win. . . “I’m really stoked right now,” Smith said. “Finally something good came. I had a bummer of a morning and I was kind of down after losing my first heat. He (Parkinson) always beats me and I’ve looked up to him forever. I don’t know what to say, I’m rattled right now.”
The NSSA State Championships presented by Nike 6.0 will be held in surfing’s most famous stadium on the south side of Huntington Beach Pier. Competition will begin on March 11th with the College Championships. Competition will resume on March 12th with the High School Championships and continued on March 13th for the Middle School Championships, additional College preliminary rounds and all State Championship finals.
With 14 minutes to go in the final of The Roxy Pro Gold Coast and Hawaii’s Carissa Moore, 18, in the lead Australian Tyler Wright, 16, dropped in on a epic, heaving Snapper barrel. She stalled, pulled in, and was slotted for nearly 25 meters. Just as it appeared that Tyler was on her way to a perfect 10 and a shot at taking control of the heat, master competitor Carissa Moore, using her priority, dropped in directly in front of Tyler and shut her barrel down saving her win in what many are calling the best women’s surfing final in history.
Wright kicked off the 30 minute final with confidence. She made two turns before realizing it was the wrong wave. Directly behind her Hawaii’s Carissa Moore blasted down the line to a rocking 9.17 first wave score solidly putting her foot down on the heat. Wright spent the rest of the heat playing catch up. Without the competitive instincts driving Moore to use her priority so well, Wright could have won the heat. But Moore was there regulating with a wisdom well beyond her years.
From the podium Moore was happy, but apologetic about the priority stuffing she delivered to Wright. “I just had a really good time out there,” Moore said. “Tyler was surfing really well. I think if I hadn’t dropped in on her on that barrel I would not have won. Sorry I had to do that to you.”
Wright did not seem to mind. “That final was probably once of the best finals I’ve ever had,” she said. Carissa surfed amazing. It was really fun out there. To be in the final in my first event in my rookie year was pretty great.”
Suddenly women’s surfing is as exciting to watch as the mens. Thanks to all the women who charged.
Follow the jump for full results and the official ASP version of the day. [click to continue…]
Volcom has released their official judgement for Santa Cruz’s Zoltan Torkos’Friday kickflip and the word is “No.”
Sighting official Rule #3: “The kickflip must be a real air ‘above the lip’ – No backwash, No chop hops, or anything in the flats or below the lip of the wave,” the judges have said no cash for Zoltan.
Here’s their official word:
With that said, Zoltan’s kickflip is clearly below the lip and not a real air. Zoltan has pulled the first kickflip on a surfboard, but the $10,000 still remains up for grabs. We called Zoltan with our decision and he replied, “I’m not here to argue against your decision, but I am here to revolutionize surfing.” . . We are stoked on Zoltan and his reaction to our call. He wants to dedicate his kickflip to the memory of his lost friend Carl Reimer, and he says the money is his and he will keep trying for the $10K. Making a kickflip on a surfboard IS possible, Zoltan proved it. We anticipate seeing the winning kickflip in the near future.
We’re not going to argue with the VeeCo either, but if that video had been shot from the water we’re guessing Mr. Torkos would have had a much stronger case and most likely $10,000. Watch it again and let us know what you think.
The Quiksilver Pro and Roxy Pro Gold Coast events are on for the day (March 8, 2011). Men’s Round 4 is over and the Roxy Pro quarter finals are in the water.
After the women finish their event, the men’s Round 5 will take to the water at Snapper.
QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Dusty Payne (HAW) 14.07, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.83, Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.80
Heat 2: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.53, Michel Bourez (PYF)11.14, Kelly Slater (USA) 11.06
Heat 3: Brett Simpson (USA) 16.60, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.63, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 13.87
Heat 4: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 15.23, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 12.76, Taj Burrow (AUS) 11.56
ROXY PRO GOLD COAST QUARTERFINAL MATCH-UPS:
QF 1: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Tyler Wright (AUS)
QF 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Laura Enever (AUS)
QF 3: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Coco Ho (HAW)
QF 4: Chelsea Hedges (AUS) vs. Carissa Moore (HAW)
Hola. It’s SIMA Surf Summit time again. This year the dates are May 11-14, 2011 at the Hola Grand Faro Resort (formerly the Crowne Plaza Resort & Spa) in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico. All SIMA and BRA members are invited to the 14th running of this industry surf fest (hard to believe). If you don’t know what any of this means, just skip the rest. If you do, follow the jump for all the details. [click to continue…]
There is no doubt that many male surfing fans have been finding themselves paying more attention to the 2011 Roxy Pro Gold Coast and as much as we’d like to think it is due to the massive advances in women’s performance surfing, there is a chance that at least some of this new focus has more do with all that rocket ass bobbing in the lineup at Snapper.
This seems to have gotten the Courier Mail wondering if the whole “sexy surfer girl” thing isn’t going too far.
At the Roxy Pro, at Snapper Rocks, many of the young males interviewed by The Sunday Mail admitted they were watching the heats for the women, rather than for the surfing tips. . . Manu Maier, 20, said he believed it was impossible for beauty not to be a factor in judging the heats. . . “They look great, don’t they? I heard about this surfing competition. I said to myself that I had to get here,” Maier said, as a female competitor turned her back on the right-hand break, her small bikini shrinking to a G-string.
Follow the jump to see what wisdom Rabbit Bartholomew had to add to the discussion.
It really felt like the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast just got started in Round 3. Sure, there were some waves the day before in Round 2 (waves that no one was happy about surfing) and a couple two weeks ago for Round 1, but only on Monday, March 6, 2011 did things really get started.
Dusty Payne took out Mick Fanning by .77 of a point in Heat one. Matt Wilkinson (pictured above) nearly landed a Rodeo flip, and Kelly Slater reportedly had a shark in the line-up during his Heat 6 match against wildcard Matty Banting (maybe that was the real reason he came in after three waves to “switch boards). Then in the following heat Jordy Smith reminded everyone that he did nothing but improve his game during the Christmas break.
At the Roxy Pro, the women danced on through Round 4 and are set for a quarterfinal that pits surfing’s new wave against a couple World Champions.
Alana Blanchard turned 21 yesterday and apparently Laura Enever, Coco Ho, and the girls did a little warm up. And we thought they tore it up in the waves. . .
