Top Five Stories: (in no particular order)
1) Damien Hobgood, 29, and Courtney Conlogue, 19, win the Telstra Drug Aware Pro at Margaret River. The contest saw just about every different type of surf, beginning with beautiful six to ten foot peelers, followed by 10-15ft, victory at sea conditions, and finally three to four foot dribblers on the last day of the event. Although the fixture ended in barely contestable surf, it seemed fitting that the harsh and testing conditions of the first few days would yield to a sunny offshore final, with celebration and relaxation on everyone’s mind moving into ASP stop number two at Bells Beach in under a weeks. The final saw Hobgood face off against local favorite Yadin Nicol. Yadin had been watching conditions all day and opted for an eventually losing strategy: waiting for the one or two wave set that would never materialize. Early in the day, despite tapering conditions, every heat would still be able to produce one or two scoring waves, but by the end of the afternoon, the fading swell left Nicol out in the water wondering. The wave at Margaret River, according to Baldy, is, “Unlike anything around here.” The wave breaks on a reef and taking the predominate left will move you towards a section known as the surgeon’s table, where the reef becomes exposed on a low tide. This path leads you towards the channel and as a result, if you make the section, you can cruise back out into the lineup with ease. The Telstra drug aware pro saw many of the contestants choosing the right, due to the crossed up nature of the swell. The right offers a little bit steeper of a wall, followed by a close-out section with high scoring potential. The jet-ski assist is what makes the right out at Margaret’s River workable, since it is a battle to paddle back onto the peak after cruising down the line. Hobgood’s performance in Western Australia demonstrated how much of an effect rhythm can have on one’s performance. Damien never let the break get the best of him, catching wave after wave, despite height or scoring potential, ultimately using everything that the ocean was offering up to him. Congratulations to both surfers, who received hefty amounts of points and cash.
2) T.K. Brimer and his iconic Newport Beach surf shop, the Frog House, have received special zoning rights by the city of Newport Beach after initially being given notice that they would have to shut their doors due to new governmental regulations. The city was considering rescinding the businesses’ permits in accordance with the zoning districts that had been drawn almost forty years ago, but were never properly enforced. The area where Frog House now sits is considered a residential zone, but until 2008, when new legislation was passed, the city had never needed to protest the shops’ location. The 39 year-old mom and pop style surf shop, as well as other various small businesses, were out of place in the residential only district and were required to apply for special rezoning. After much support and protest from local surfers and residents, the city of Newport Beach has decided to ‘grandfather-in’ the Frog House and it’s sister shops in an effort to maintain the rich surf culture of Newport Beach.
3) A man was bitten by a snake during his morning surf check at Trestles State Beach in California. He parked his car and took a quick walk down the trail along the cliffside to have a look at the conditions, but on his way back to his car he was surprised by a fully grown rattlesnake. Early spring is the time of year that snakes will come out of hibernation and begin looking for food and shelter. This from the Orange County Register:
"Surfer bitten by rattlesnake on trail near Trestles"
San Clemente landscape contractor Jim Miller, a lifelong surfer, determined he would not go in the water for an afternoon session Sunday after checking the waves from a popular clifftop lookout off Basilone Road above Trestles surf beach.
As he returned to the road along an overgrown cliff trail, he was bitten on his right foot by a rattlesnake he never saw.
The trail he usually takes is overgrown because of recent rains and has narrowed to less than a foot from the usual 3 feet, he said.
"I heard the rattle just as he got me and then again as he was taking off," said Miller, 54. "I knew it was a rattlesnake right away and called 911 with my cellphone.
"At the hospital, the nurse asked me twice if my affairs were in order and if I had a will."
4 & 5) The ‘Travis-sham’ mockery of the decade is worth two ‘top-stories’ spots and is currently happening thousands of miles across the Pacific. After the enormous earthquake and tsunami that Japan recently suffered, many of the country’s nuclear power facilities began experiencing problems keeping their radioactive waste contained. This has led to Japan’s releasing up to 7.5 million times the legal limit of radioactive waste into the coastal waters around the island. Of course, the surfing culture in Japan has all but been destroyed, and this type of fallout will only contribute to further difficulties in re-establishing a solid surf family there in the future. The Surfrider Foundation is one of the few outlets who have even broached this subject, and theirs’ seems to be a minimal effort. You can find the blog-site explaining the situation and asking for donations for Japan’s Surfrider Chapter online. Unlike the non-stop news coverage received regarding the radioactive waste that was being released into the air, this story, which holds as much weight or more, seems to be shunned by the major news sources. A greater effort needs to be organized in order to mitigate the damage that is currently being done to our oceans. Of course, the people in Japan are suffering greatly right now, and they have huge problems to deal with, but loss of life does not equate to the degradation of our oceans on such a large scale.
Excerpts from Bassy and Baldy’s interview with Bill Sharp, executive director of the Billabong XXL Awards:
Bassy: Thank you for waking up and being with us so bright and early on this crisp Sunday morning. Now I’ve got to tell you Bill, last week, Baldy and I went through our potential winners, and I believe Jeff chose David Scard, at Cloudbreak, for its aesthetically pleasing style, and I claimed that Brennan at Shipsterns would be the winner. How do you feel about these picks?
Sharp: I think those are valid, and I kinda have to laugh because I think, more-so this year than in the past, a case can be made for every single ride. Everyone’s talking about [it], Mark Healey on his wave that looks like a flea circus; how can you not get excited by Danilo Couto paddling into Jaws, with that air drop, pulling into the pit.
Baldy: We went through every different idea like that, because you have three tow-ins and two paddle- ins, and they’re all kind of different angles and colors; Healey’s is hard to see, with the color and everything, you kind of lose some of the dynamics of how amazing because it’s just grainy and dark and far away.
Bassy: Yes, Healey’s ride is just not aesthetically pleasing simply because you can’t see it.
Sharp: That’s true. And without the advances in modern camera technology that wave would have never been seen by anyone that wasn’t there.
Bassy: I appreciate you throwing a bone to Mark Healey because that is an incredible ride. Obviously, it’s one of those waves where, if you could have had better clarity there, we probably would have been blown away. It’s something that only Mark Healey could have pulled off. He’s an incredible surfer, in the top two all time big wave chargers, right up there with Shane. Quite frankly, Benjamin Sanchis is an incredible ride but when you stack that up against Teahupoo - it’s just an average ride at Teahupoo.
Sharp: Ya, which is interesting, not to get off topic, but where was Teahupoo this year? We had so many places that are usually complete machines at cranking out XXL contenders that just didn’t come through this year; there wasn’t a single ride that came in from Teahupoo this year
Bassy: Bill is so good at deflecting. Did you notice that? He got away from the whole Ireland thing.
Baldy: A lot of places didn’t break. It was funny because right up until the day that Dorian and Walsh got that paddle in at Jaws - I was actually talking with Mike Parsons that night – there was nothing coming in from the North Pacific. It just came alive that week before the cutoff, but not as much paddle-in, where as the year before there was so many paddle- ins.
Sharp: A lot of the paddle-in missions didn’t quit live up to what had been hoped for. That November 2nd swell at Mavericks, there was a whole crew there frothing to ride giant waves but it just wasn’t quit over-the-top big; a group of us went overnight to Cortez Bank, and again, it was solid, but compared to what had gone on the previous year it wasn’t that mind-blowing. That stuff just barely made it into circulation.
Bassy: The Europeans have got to be feeling like they got shafted at the last minute - it seemed like this was the year for the Europeans, just because the Pacific Northwest basically shut down while big things were happening in Europe. Then at the last minute, a flurry of stuff seems to have taken the ‘mojo’ from the Eastern Hemi.
I’d like to talk to you about the ‘big wave’ award. I’ve done some research and by my calculations the wave by Francisco Porcella, at Jaws on Maui, is 63 feet and this is the wave that will win the award. What are your thoughts?
Sharp: Well, it’s all unofficial until the group of surfing supreme court justices get in and measure it. I think that one is really big. Belharra is in contention too, even though they’ve got the short end of the stick in the past. If you look at the Bellharra wave just based on pure height, it could be the winner - and it’s not as soft as some of the Belharra waves of the past – it is certainly in contention for pure height
Baldy: It’s hard, they all look huge. It’s all just hundreds of feet to me
Bassy: Let’s move on to the paddle-in winner. As I went through these, the Danilo Couto wave with the air drop and thirty seconds of pure leg burning, driving his toes into the wax; that one stands out as the winner. Quite frankly, Dorian didn’t make the wave. I know he got to the bottom and made a bottom turn; perhaps that makes it a contender, but in my opinion he didn’t make that wave. Scion doesn’t really make his wave either. The Waiamaia Bay wave is just not as heavy as Danilo’s wave - Healey’s is the only one that might have a chance.
Baldy: The other wave that didn’t make it was Ian Walsh’s wave with Shane Dorian in that same session. Like we said last week, ‘Why did he do that? ‘It looked like he just fell when the hard part of the wave was done, and his wave would have been amazing had he finished it.
Bassy: Well Bill, you’ve got to be excited for the paddle-in nominees. I’ve got a question for you. The awards ceremony that will be on April 29th is such an incredible event. The montage that Bill and his crew put together is insane and you can see it on the webcast. What is the webcast URL?
Sharp: www.Billabongxxl.com
Bassy: Tell me about this year’s awards, the montage - I’m sure you’ve been working on it - is it something we should be excited about?
Sharp: Yes. This year, with the help of God, we’re going to be taking the production values to an entirely new level. I think they’ve been pretty sophisticated in the past but this year Fuel TV and Fox Sports are coming in and handling a lot of the technical upgrading. We aren’t using the same system at the Grove. Not only is it going to be an amazing experience for anyone that is there, but it’s going to air as a TV show two days later, which is pretty unprecedented. So you’ll be able to tune into Fuel TV at 6-9 PM on Sunday night - settle in and make some popcorn, watch the show on TV.
Baldy: That’s gonna be great. And being there live, watching all these waves played on the massive screen, with the big sound system - my hearts already in my throat; it’s incredible
Sharp: Some people are saying that this year the waves weren’t as amazing as last year, but when you distill it down to the top five in each category, and turn it into a montage, there’s no getting around that there is some amazing surfing going on. It’s pretty astonishing stuff
Bassy: One of the biggest crowd pleasers, the Verizon Wipeout of the Year, has some mental ones. My favorite is Mark Matthews’ spectacular wipeout at Shipsterns - its right in your face. That’s the beauty of Shipsterns, from a cinematography standpoint, they are right there in the channel, sitting on their boats or skis – it’s such a good angle into what’s happening. Mark Matthews takes a spectacular wipeout, one in which the crowd is going to be…well, some laughing, some crying. It’s just incredible stuff.
Baldy: Some of the waves are shot from a helicopter, like Dorian’s and Danilo’s, and you wonder how they would look if they were filmed off a ski because the wave has that much more size, girth, and fear factor at a water angle.
Sharp: Well, I’ll tell you, actually none of those shots were off a helicopter. It’s off a cliff - those fellas sauntered down to a perilous point on the cliff to get the slightly different angle. And, ya, a lot of the times those water shots offer a more shocking view. For whatever reason no one was there to hook up on some of the great rides. I don’t think I saw a single A+ water shot at Jaws for some reason.
Baldy: I just wonder how big Dorian’s barrel was from the channel on a ski, looking in it?
Sharp: That’s an incredible question. That would have been a cover shot. How everyone missed that one - just the way it goes - how did they miss Healey’s wave? There had been a bunch of shooters out there earlier but they had all gone in to have dinner.
Baldy: On Danilo’s wave, you only see how steep the wave is by his body movements, where the board is dropping out and his arms fly up involuntarily. If it was from the water you could see how vertical and massive that thing was. It almost flattens it out from that cliff angle.
Bassy: Bill is there a changing of the guard? Where are Mike Parson, Peter Mel, Garret Macnamera, and the other guys we normally see involved in the awards?
Sharp: They’re out there doing it, but there is a luck factor in that there are only so many swells per year. I think there were five major storms in the Pacific where as last year there was something like 12. If you’re number doesn’t come up you can be left out of the rotation. Not only did those older guys miss out – where was Greg Long, Grant “Twiggy” Baker, and up until the final week, where was Shane Dorian? Those are probably the three top performers over the last four or five years and they almost went the entire year without an A+ wave. Shane did his part to climb back up into the history books, I’m sure we’ll see more shocking things to come. The rest of those guys haven’t gone anywhere, their number just didn’t come up this year.
Baldy: Breaking it down in that sort of context regarding the Billabong XXL awards, I don’t think those guys look back on their year an think that they haven’t got an A+ wave, but from the award’s perspective, they really didn’t get that perfect wave. They spent their whole year throwing themselves over giant ledges, getting beaten up, and having their skis die in front of sets and whatever other horrific things happened to them – from the viewers point, they just didn’t get an A+ wave this year.
Sharp: Well, in relation to that, you can go out in the ASP and have a “shocker”, come in and have the microphone shoved in your face for a few minutes, but then you’re done for a couple months – there’s always another wave coming in, there’s always tomorrow’s swell in the XXL so things can change quite rapidly.
Watch the webcast Friday April 29th at www.Billabongxxl.com or catch the live show on Fuel TV, May 1st. You can also head over to www.facebook.com/billabongxxl and “like” the event to let all of your friends know.
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