Yesterday during in Billabong Pipeline Masters quarter-final heat one between Dean Morrison and Damien Hobgood there was a little tangle up that beach reporter GT Tomlinson described as “a Burkhart” as seen in the film The North Shore.
CJ Hobgood posted a short video clip on The Goods website with the following comment:
For the record I have a great deal of respect for dingo and the ASP judges, Damo didn’t even want me to put this up. . . However I think this was something I couldn’t brush under the rug. . . LOL peeps
In his post heat interview the Dingo the the two were getting pretty physical out there and simply “got tangled up” because they were scrapping so hard. The fact that Dingo had priority at the time also entered into the discussion.
From our view, if the arm tangled in the leash had been on the back stoke (like Dingo’s right arm in the photo below) then the tangle claim would have had more validity. It appears, however, that it’s Dingo’s outstretched arm that is “tangled” in the leash.
The waves were small, and that may have been the secret to Taj Burrow’s success over Kelly Slater in the finals of the 2009 Billabong Pipeline Masters. But smaller surf did nothing to crush Taj Burrow’s mood as he accepted $90,000 in checks for winning the most prestigious event on the ASP World Tour.
“It is 100 percent as good as you imagine,” Taj said on the podium. “It’s the one and only event that everyone would pick to win. I can’t believe I’m standing here right now. . . This is the best feeling I can imagine.”
There are those who will question the 3.93 score of Kelly Slater’s right barrel, but it seems like every time Taj and Kelly meet there is something that could or should have gone the other way for one of them. Truth is, unless it was pretty close to a 10, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. This time Burrow straight up took it. [click to continue…]
Nigel Hughes, 39, a surfer from Australia’s Gold Coast lost the tip of his big toe to a shark while surfing at Coffee Rock, near Evans Head, NSW on Sunday, December 13, 2009, according to a story in the Tweed Daily News.
Mr Hughes had just taken off on a wave when he began yelling out really loud, surfing mate Paul Plenkovich, of the Gold Coast, said. “I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. Mr Hughes paddled into shore and began yelling out “shark, shark”. Mr Plenkovich said the surfing posse managed to stay calm while they paddled about 100m in to the shore.
Hughes suffered a 10cm gouge in his toe. After undergoing surgery at Lismore Base Hospital he is expected to make a full recovery.
December 12, 2009 was a huge day at the Billabong Pipeline Masters, but it was about more than the waves. Each round three and four heat had so much riding on it that it felt like a day full of finals. There were so many stories: Fanning/Parko, Slater, Andy Irons, Bruce Irons, and John J. Florence, the 16 year old who didn’t even hiccup until he met surf strategist Damien Hobgood in heat 2 of round 4. Andy and Bruce Irons both went down in round three (Andy to Damien Hobgood and Bruce to Taj Burrow). Kelly just kept on charging through his heats with the style we remember him having a year ago.
And then there was the heat between wildcard Gavin Gillette, 23, and world number two Joel Parkinson that set up the biggest news of the day. Gillette beat Parko in heat 15 or round 3 and pushed Mick Fanning into his second ASP world championship title. Playing a pivotal role in the title hunt wasn’t something that had escaped the wildcard.
“The thought crossed my mind about 100,000 times that I could have an effect on this year’s World Title in that heat,” Gillette said. “Joel (Parkinson) is one of my all-time favorite surfers and he’s a great guy. We just met up and one of us had to lose, but that’s the way that contest surfing is. Joel knows, he’s been doing this forever.” Fanning was so fazed by winning the title that he seemed to forget he was even in a contest and paddled out only to get tossed onto the reef. He appeared to pull it back together, but it wasn’t in time to win the heat against Dean Morrison (pictured above). And he was still hazy after being carried up the beach.
“I’m just a bit overwhelmed right now and I don’t quite know what to say,” Fanning said. “It was hard out there. I was trying to get ready for my heat and then Gavin (Gillette) got that one score as I was paddling out and, I don’t know, I just sort of slowed down.”
We said we were only going to watch a couple early heats, but got sucked in glaze-eyed in front of our computer all day long. And we’re not sorry.
Follow the jump for full results and releases from the day or click here for the saucy fresh version from Kid Charlemagne because he was there, tasting the sweat and breathing in the La Roche-Posay. [click to continue…]
We’ve been John John Florence fans for a while now, but nothing compares to watching the 16-year-old frolicking in the Billabong Pipeline Masters. This morning he playfully decimated Brazil’s Heitor Alves with a 18.90 and logged the highest score of the day. John John has been surfing so perfectly in his own zone that it will be interesting to see if anyone can stop him.
“I’m just going crazy out there with only three people out,” Florence said. “There are so many fun waves and I was just trying to catch as many as I could while I had the chance. It’s good to know the lineup out here when it’s smaller because a lot of times they run along the reef faster and those right barrels get really small and can be tough to make it out of.”
Tomorrow, Bobby Martinez gets his chance in heat four of round three.
The most potentially reality warping matchup of the contest comes tomorrow in heat two when Mick Fanning meets Torrey Meister. Meister wouldn’t even be in the Masters if Sunny Garcia hadn’t showed up 5 minutes late for his round one heat against Nic Muscroft. Strange twists of fate like this often end up writing history.
Tomorrow the biggest stars of the ASP meet the North Shores offensive line and there’s a high probability for things to get seriously scrambled. Follow the jump for the ASP release from today. [click to continue…]
He alleges in the October suit that the groups are public agencies and must respond to his public records requests about a confidential January 2008 settlement concerning the Surf City USA logo. McKee said the settlement documents could prove that a lawsuit between the bureau and a Santa Cruz shop owner was not necessary because the moniker used before and after the suit is almost identical.
In his most recent column for Huck magazine surf scribe Jamie Brisick drinks “three-quarters of a bottle of bad red” wine, watches some Jackass clips and then settles down to explaining just why Spike Jonze’s video for The Beastie Boys Sabotage is so amazingly rad.
Spike Jonze’s music videos. . . exude humour, mischief and the refusal to grow up. The first one that comes to mind is ‘Sabotage’ by the Beastie Boys. As a seventies American kid, this is powerful on several levels. I’m reminded of Starsky and Hutch, Baretta, SWAT and Hawaii Five-0. The tone and urgency of the song is pure nineties, but the moustaches and suits and mock screen credits belong to the seventies. It’s an incredibly fun, high-energy video, but for me, and I suspect for many of my contemporaries, it is also nostalgic.
And after approaching bad red wine with high expectations, no one does nostalgia better than Mr. Brisick.
The final ASP WCT showdown begins today at the Banzai Pipeline with round one of the Billabong Pipeline Masters. Here’s who is up in round one:
Heat 1: Jihad Khodr (BRA) vs. Gavin Gillette (HAW)
Heat 2: Gabe Kling (USA) vs. Kalani Chapman (HAW)
Heat 3: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Marcus Hickman (HAW)
Heat 4: Aritz Aranburu (EUK) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 5: Nathaniel Curran (USA) vs. Liam McNamara (HAW)
Heat 6: David Weare (ZAF) vs. Hank Gaskell (HAW)
Heat 7: Bruce Irons (HAW) vs. Reed McIntosh (HAW)
Heat 8: Nic Muscroft (AUS) vs. Sunny Garcia (HAW)
Heat 9: Michael Picon (FRA) vs. Manoa Drollet (PYF)
Heat 10: Shane Dorian (HAW) vs. Kamalei Alexander (HAW)
Heat 11: Dayyan Neve (AUS) vs. Jonah Morgan (HAW)
Heat 12: Luke Stedman (AUS) vs. Flynn Novak (HAW)
Heat 13: Dustin Barca (HAW) vs. Sion Miloski (HAW)
Heat 14: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Danny Fuller (HAW)
Heat 15: Jay Thompson (AUS) vs. Mason Ho (HAW)
Heat 16: Phillip MacDonald (AUS) vs. Jamie O’Brien (HAW)
