Thanks for that video Scott. I watched with the family. I made a comment about an off the lip by Barry and then my daughter kept going on and on about how she wants to surf like "that strawberry guy"
The best kneeboarding contest ever? One wave on my best day may have been close to the average ride. Barry's bash havent seen a lip hit so hard sence Mike Tyson was in his prime.
To do what I want to do
I have to do what have to do
What a day! The final day of surfing for the 2009 World Titles. It’s all over now, except for the awards ceremony tomorrow and all the post-contest analysis and media postings.
Can you believe we got to Arawhata this morning to find the wind soft and offshore, and the swell had picked up again a foot or two over yesterday? It was also more consistent, although there didn’t seem to be a corresponding increase in real power. But otherwise, how perfect for surfing the semi-finals, the finals and the team competition! The wind did switch later somewhat sideshore-offshore, but never strong enough to deteriorate the overall surf conditions. NZ really came through with quality surf for the week—thanks, God.
Gavin Colman repeated as World Champion, as I’m sure you all know by now. To win his heat over former world champs Baden Smith and Simon Farrer, and to hold off the charge of a brilliant young talent like Albert Munoz, required a surfing level and an ability to read lineups/select waves that is truly amazing. For us, it’s so fun to sit on the cliffs and watch it all play out. If there was any controversy in the final it was the dreaded triangle call—“interference”—that was leveled on Albert when he wanted to go left on a wave and Simon, on his left, wanted simultaneously to go right. Both got up to their knees about the same time, and there was a soft collision as they crossed over each other. Albert fell immediately and Simon kept on riding. The call went against Albert. Meantime, Baden was careful not to make the same mistake from two years ago, sitting out too deep to get a final high point set wave. This time he got plenty of waves and surfed them so confidently, but ended up just short on points below Simon and Gavin. He got a 3rd place.
Albert did get some measure of satisfaction in his last minute win over Barry Baker in the Senior age division finals, also today. Barry surfed with power and took risks on every big move. He actually led the whole heat until the final minutes. Then Albert got a inside wave that stood up on the reef for some extra power, and he exploded up off the lip and then a series of top to bottom turns at high speed, some freefalls into the pit, and finished it off with a tremendous closeout lip whack. His 9.7 put him ahead of Barry (finishing 2nd) and gave him the title.
Another standout age final, the Masters Division, had Robb Saffan going at it with Simon Farrer and others amazing surfers. Robb struggled a bit in a few of his early heats, but not today, even with all the pressure on. He picked off the best waves, surfed freely all over the face of each wave, made no mistakes and finished third to Simon and the talented Jamie McHugh.
Some guy named Scott Wessel…or Weasling, well, something like that, also took a 2nd in the Veterans Division. He also led his heat through most of the 25 minutes, but a terrific late heat 9.7 ride by John O’Brien (aka Smurf) ultimately gave John a well-deserved win. Tom Backer received a 4th in his final, also surfing well but lacking the high point scoring waves to show everyone how over-the-top his surfing can be.
Perhaps the most stirring final was the Pro Juniors Division. To see the future of kneeboarding, you had to watch Chayne Simpson, Matt Novakov, Cameron Stanley and Hammish Christophers (who lives in the Opunake area) battle it out. They all traded wave after wave, simply ripping the heck out of each one. Keep your eyes and ears atuned to Hammish—he’s the real deal. He tore apart each wave with amazing power and finesse. Near the end of the heat, with the scores still knotted up closely, Hammish got a set wave. He made a hard bottom turn, came off the top hard, then went out on the shoulder. We all expected the classic cutback with a bounce off the foam to score a few points while he waited for the inside wave to develop. Instead, he aggressively carved back into the wave at full speed, bashed into the foam and immediately spun the board through a 360 as he was half buried in the white water. He smoothly came about, stuck a strong bottom turn and was back out into the race track, further destroying his wave. About 30 spectators, including the announcer, immediately gasped and launched themselves headlong off the cliff in a human sacrifice to King Neptune. Well, maybe that’s overstating our reaction, but that singular move is really a harbinger of what we can expect out of Hammish in the future. Matt Novakov also displayed some great 360 lip whacks on the final section. The future of kneeboarding is in good hands with the likes of these juniors.
While most of the winners were announced at the conclusion of each final so that the accompanying news media would be able to take some pics and get their stories, there will still be a formal awards presentation tomorrow evening. While the judging stands were being disassembled, Troy Simpson, Chayne’s brother, paddled out into the main lineup for a free surf on his kneeboard. He hasn’t been on a kneeboard for many months, concentrating instead on his standup surfing. But he simply killed it at Arawhata road while many of us remained to watch clearly one of the best kneelos on the planet
What in the meantime? I’m sure there will be a lot of free surfing tomorrow as all of us “have the day off” until the concluding festivities. Tonight was Karaoke Night at the pub. Each country’s team had to have at least some of its members sing a song. For the glory of Team USA, but certainly not for its dignity, Brad Colwell and I sang the Eagles’ “Take It Easy”. And Brad got into it way more than the pitiful mannequin singing next to him!
Speaking of Team USA, there was the final team competition between the various squads this afternoon, with the US team taking second to the Aussies. The competition features a water start for the 5 contestants from each country, with a limited number or waves to score points. It was a lot fun to behold, with razzing and jeering at each other’s teams going on atop the cliff, and also between the teams in the water. Barry, Brad, Tom B. and Tom L, and Robb surfed well against a particularly strong Aussie team, but we don’t know who ended up with the highest point scoring waves.
Hats off to Murray Weir and company for a very well run event. It was so smooth with professional judging. The event was similar to our experience with KSUSA contests, but with some very positive distinctives:
a. announcing scores while the contestants are in the water and the heat time left, just is done for the pro surfers.
b. excellent color commentating on the P.A. while the heat progressed.
c. a special evening event each night to encourage the various teams to come together at the end of the day and just have fun meeting one another.
Well, that’s it for now. In fact, this will be my last briefing summary as KSUSA is now pretty well all briefed up. It’s been fun, and your encouragement has meant a lot to me and kept me on the path to posting daily.
Fantastic read Scott. Thanks so much, you really kept us covered on the week. Have a great finish to your vacation and will see you when you get back. Jon
Team USA showed well in NZ! We had 15 surfers make it to NZ and everyone had a great time. In the airport we met up with Tom Linn who was picking up Chris and had already been surfing around NZ for several days with Greg and Paul and had great stories to tell. We had 11 of us milling about waiting for shuttles or connections and the stoke was palpable.
Meeting up in Opunake was fun to compare stories of initial surfs at Fitzroy, Raglan, or Stent. The parade was too cool as was the Opening Ceremonies. Special thanks to Scott for his efforts on the updates!! I know how hard it is to sit home (Tahiti '04) wanting information but not being able to get any. He would read us the post before posting so the highlights were all included.
We made up 15% or so of the field but we had 25% of the final 24 surfers in the Open. Highlights were seeing Barry surf so strong throughout and just missing the Open Final by seconds, both Wayne and Ed winning heats in their age groups, and seeing Bob advance through heat after heat on Wednesday, the pumping day, to make the quarter finals (final 12). As usual, both Toms were solid and many of our team made finals in their age groups. Robb was fast and agressive throughout. The great thing about the Worlds is being inspired to keep pushing it on an individual level...not hard with so much great surfing everywhere you look
Thanks for the well wishes from everyone, especially from the Hawaiians (Darren ) and Katy at work who said "go kick some butt". Hopefully we can get at least 20 for Phillip Island in 2011
If you would like to get some Team USA gear just PM me. I have some beanies, hats, T-shirts, and hoodies left over that I would like to part with. All items will be at my (and the Team's) cost.
T h a n k s! Brad
