{"id":7828,"date":"2009-05-06T09:29:49","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T16:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=7828"},"modified":"2009-05-06T09:30:46","modified_gmt":"2009-05-06T16:30:46","slug":"air-tahiti-nui-vonzipper-trials-on-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=7828","title":{"rendered":"Air Tahiti Nui VonZipper Trials On Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Trials<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Healey<\/strong>, Clay Marzo<\/strong>, Reef Mcintosh<\/strong>, and Wade Goodall<\/strong> are few of the big wave chargers who have advanced out of round three in the Air Tahiti Nui VonZipper Trials<\/a><\/strong> at Teahupoo. The action continues today with more of the round 3 action including Daddy Bruce Irons<\/strong> (pictured above) in his heat against Nick Vasicek<\/strong>, Heremoana Luciani,<\/strong> and Niuhi Marere<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Billabong Pro Teahupoo waiting period begins May 9.<\/p>\n

[Link: <\/strong>Billabong Pro Teahupoo<\/a><\/strong>]<\/strong>
\nVZ Trials, Day 1<\/p>\n

Air Tahiti Nui VonZipper Trials
\nTeahupoo, Tahiti, May 2-6 2009<\/p>\n

Bruce Irons (Hawaii), back in competitive mode and progressing through to round three at the Air Tahiti Nui Von Zipper Trials at Teahupoo today.<\/p>\n

Drollet, Irons and the Hawaiians Dominate At Teahupoo Trials<\/p>\n

Tuesday 5th May 2009 (Teahupoo, Tahiti): WITH one wildcard spot up for grabs for next weeks Billabong Pro Tahiti, 32 international surfers have matched up against 32 Tahitians on day one of the Air Tahiti Nui VonZipper Trials at Teahupoo.<\/p>\n

In clean 1.5-2m waves, it was the overseas challengers who dominated opening day proceedings as competition moved from round one, through to heat four of round three.<\/p>\n

Former world tour competitor Bruce Irons (HAW) showed why he is regarded as one of the most dangerous surfers at Teahupoo by winning through two trials heats and booking a spot in the third round. (the final four heats of round three are yet to be surfed)<\/p>\n

Having not surfed a competitive heat since 2008, Irons grabbed a last ditch tube ride in his second round heat to scrape through behind proven Teahupoo specialist Damien Wills (AUS). Eliminated from the heat were Tahitian duo David Dandois and Heifara Tahutini.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t surfed a heat for seven months, the first time since high school I \u2018ve had that sort of break, but watching Bells and Snapper over the internet made me want to pull a rash vest on again,\u201d said Irons. \u201cEvery time I came here to surf the main event the trials were pumping, so I figured I\u2019d quit the tour and come do the trials, hasn\u2019t really worked out that way yet though.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really slow out there, but Tahiti\u2019s always nice to get away to, so I\u2019m not complaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will now face Nick Vasicek (AUS) Niuhi Marere (PYF) and Heremoana Luciani (PYF) in round three. Should he win the trials, he will surf alongside Brother Andy, who has been given a direct wildcard into the main event.<\/p>\n

Fellow Hawaiian Mark Healey was another standout performer on the opening day, winning through three rounds to progress into the final 16 surfers. A perfect display of small wave tube riding in his round three heat saw him take an impressive victory over live-wire goofy footer Clay Marzo (HAW), eliminating Tahitian surfers Steven Pierson and Germain Tuataa.<\/p>\n

Hawaiian surfers excelled on day one of the VonZipper Trials, with six surfers still in contention for the wildcard slot into the Billabong Pro. Joining Irons, Marzo and Healey to progress were Kamalei Alexander, Reef McIntosh and Kalani Chapman.<\/p>\n

Australian surfers also fared well on the opening day with the Sunshine Coast duo of Wade Goodall and Mark Visser both winning their round three match-ups.<\/p>\n

The 2008 trials at Teahupoo left Goodall with 8 staples in his head after a nasty encounter with the reef, but his opening day in 2009 proved friendlier, winning through three heats in fine style.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve only got one cut so far, I\u2019m normally good at hacking myself up, but it hasn\u2019t got that big yet,\u201d said Goodall. \u201cEvery heat has been really hard today, on the high tide it was pinching a lot and not really tubing, but it was better later this afternoon on the outgoing tide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many good surfers in this event, now that the numbers have been cut down from 80 to 64, everyone in it is really good at surfing Teahupoo, there are no walk through heats in this contest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow Australians still in the event include Nick Vasicek (Gold Coast) and 2008 semi finalist Damien Wills (Copacabana).<\/p>\n

2007 trials winner and 2008 Billabong Pro runner up Manoa Drollet progressed unharmed through his opening heat of competition, posting a comfortable win over Ricardo Santos (BRA), and compatriots Jean-Claude Rota and Teiva Mare in round three.<\/p>\n

In conditions that were virtually identical to the final of the Billabong Pro last year, the top seeded Drollet used smart barrel riding to easily win through to the final 16 surfers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just like the final of the Billabong Pro last year, it was slow, but still some little waves,\u201d said Drollet. \u201cI am feeling good, but it all comes down to who gets the best waves, especially here at Teahupoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tahitian spectators were given another reason to celebrate late in the afternoon with local hero Alain Riou progressing into round four behind Australian Mark Visser.<\/p>\n

The fast surfing goofy footer threaded a deep tube ride late in the heat to scrape into second and eliminate compatriot Marama Darrouzes and Australian hot-shot Julian Wilson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy but it was a lot better than this morning,\u201d said Riou. \u201cI was expecting some great barrels but it didn\u2019t really happen as I planned, it was a slow heat but I got two good waves and made it through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Tahitians this is their one big time heat all year, their chance to get known by the outside world so they feel like they have a lot to prove,\u201d he said. \u201cTahiti is a long way away from the surfing world and they definitely feel like they have a chance to show themselves, it is a great event for the Tahitian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Air Tahiti Nui VonZipper Trials will finalise tomorrow, Wednesday 6th May. The winner will be awarded a wildcard to face the top 45 surfers on earth when the Billabong Pro Tahiti main event starts on May 9. A full list of today\u2019s results can be found at this link http:\/\/www.billabongpro.com\/tahiti09\/results.php<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Healey, Clay Marzo, Reef Mcintosh, and Wade Goodall are few of the big wave chargers who have advanced out of round three in the Air Tahiti Nui VonZipper Trials at Teahupoo. The action continues today with more of the round 3 action including Daddy Bruce Irons (pictured above) in his heat against Nick Vasicek, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7828"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7830,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7828\/revisions\/7830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}