Island Ink Kneeboard Pro
Moderator: Moderator
brief report on the Island Ink Kneelo Pro
Saturday
16 heats for round one with a good spread of quality surfers across the draw and a large contingent of guys who travelled form Venezuela.
2 - 4ft surf on day 1 Conditions were difficult early on the low tide, the banks at Woolamai were average, and the tide and onshore wind made it tough going. Gavin Colman's barrel was probably the highlight of the day.
The new contest format, had first place in rd 1 going thru to round 3, second and third place into rd 2 and fourth place into the amateur B division. First and second in rd 2 went thru to rd 3 and third and fourth went into the amateur A division. Three divisions in total - simple and well received by all.
Sunday
Round 3 started at Surfers point - a right hand sand and rock point break, waves were 3-5 feet with the odd 6 foot set catching guys and girls by surprise. A very difficult wave to hit the lip on the outside meant that the guys with strong, well timed, full rail top turns, and or lots of commitment came to the fore.
Local host supreme, Gavin Lewis set the bar for commitment free falling into the bowl and getting splat.
Round 4/quarter finals was when some of the upsets started, World champ Albert Munoz went out in one of the tougher heats.
Falling by the wayside in semis were Dave Parkes, Chayne Simpson, Mike Novakov and some guy from Avalon who peaked in the quarters when he and Parkes ended Alberts run.
The final was an old school affair.
Gavin Colman went out and did not die wondering, giving the lips he could find everything he had(sometimes too much). A valiant 4th.
Kyle Bryant was his usual smooth self, linking long rides together with impressive hits in the shore break, unfortunatley one of his scoring rides gave him little opportunity on the outside and this left him in 3rd.
Dean Bould a Phillip island local and many times finalist in the past was the crowd and sentimental favourite. He matched Gav Colmans attack on the lip and stuck each landing, none of his waves had much to offer on the inside and this probably cost him his, phillip islands and Victorias first win in a pro kneeboard contest on the island.
Simon Farrer was dynamic and fluid as usual, getting from top to bottom on the outside and linking his waves thru the inside with exclamation mark finishes on his waves. 1st place again with a promise to be back next year.
Armando Colucci from Venezuala was a popular winner of the Amateur A final and is without doubt the most well travelled competitive kneelo in the world, multiple events in Australia, United States, Peru and his home country during the last 5 years. All ways smiling and happy - i was super stoked to see him win.
Finally Big Jim Brown was the winnner of the Amateur B final and like Armondo everyone was happy to see him win. Tom Nova won the cadets and Narelle Fenn took out the girls
Apologies to the other finalists of the amateur divisions, hopefully someone can post them later.
Much appreciation to Jim and Jill Brown, Dave Rosenbrock, Paul turtle Mannix and the rest of the crew from kneeboard surfing Vic for putting together another world class event with support from Surfing Vic and Adrian Sorati.
Major sponsors Island Ink were the best and have backed the event next year.
Bendigo bank followed up from last years worlds with more support.
Island Surfboards kept their 29 years of support ongoing, Dave Parkes, Flashpoint, Strapper, Neil Luke, Ilse of Wight, Ryhll Fishing Park and Bush Tucker, and Phillip Island Nature Parks all made sure the Event went off in style and kneelos around the world could do worse than support these organisations.
See you all next year.
Saturday
16 heats for round one with a good spread of quality surfers across the draw and a large contingent of guys who travelled form Venezuela.
2 - 4ft surf on day 1 Conditions were difficult early on the low tide, the banks at Woolamai were average, and the tide and onshore wind made it tough going. Gavin Colman's barrel was probably the highlight of the day.
The new contest format, had first place in rd 1 going thru to round 3, second and third place into rd 2 and fourth place into the amateur B division. First and second in rd 2 went thru to rd 3 and third and fourth went into the amateur A division. Three divisions in total - simple and well received by all.
Sunday
Round 3 started at Surfers point - a right hand sand and rock point break, waves were 3-5 feet with the odd 6 foot set catching guys and girls by surprise. A very difficult wave to hit the lip on the outside meant that the guys with strong, well timed, full rail top turns, and or lots of commitment came to the fore.
Local host supreme, Gavin Lewis set the bar for commitment free falling into the bowl and getting splat.
Round 4/quarter finals was when some of the upsets started, World champ Albert Munoz went out in one of the tougher heats.
Falling by the wayside in semis were Dave Parkes, Chayne Simpson, Mike Novakov and some guy from Avalon who peaked in the quarters when he and Parkes ended Alberts run.
The final was an old school affair.
Gavin Colman went out and did not die wondering, giving the lips he could find everything he had(sometimes too much). A valiant 4th.
Kyle Bryant was his usual smooth self, linking long rides together with impressive hits in the shore break, unfortunatley one of his scoring rides gave him little opportunity on the outside and this left him in 3rd.
Dean Bould a Phillip island local and many times finalist in the past was the crowd and sentimental favourite. He matched Gav Colmans attack on the lip and stuck each landing, none of his waves had much to offer on the inside and this probably cost him his, phillip islands and Victorias first win in a pro kneeboard contest on the island.
Simon Farrer was dynamic and fluid as usual, getting from top to bottom on the outside and linking his waves thru the inside with exclamation mark finishes on his waves. 1st place again with a promise to be back next year.
Armando Colucci from Venezuala was a popular winner of the Amateur A final and is without doubt the most well travelled competitive kneelo in the world, multiple events in Australia, United States, Peru and his home country during the last 5 years. All ways smiling and happy - i was super stoked to see him win.
Finally Big Jim Brown was the winnner of the Amateur B final and like Armondo everyone was happy to see him win. Tom Nova won the cadets and Narelle Fenn took out the girls
Apologies to the other finalists of the amateur divisions, hopefully someone can post them later.
Much appreciation to Jim and Jill Brown, Dave Rosenbrock, Paul turtle Mannix and the rest of the crew from kneeboard surfing Vic for putting together another world class event with support from Surfing Vic and Adrian Sorati.
Major sponsors Island Ink were the best and have backed the event next year.
Bendigo bank followed up from last years worlds with more support.
Island Surfboards kept their 29 years of support ongoing, Dave Parkes, Flashpoint, Strapper, Neil Luke, Ilse of Wight, Ryhll Fishing Park and Bush Tucker, and Phillip Island Nature Parks all made sure the Event went off in style and kneelos around the world could do worse than support these organisations.
See you all next year.
Last edited by jamie on Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Jamie
-
Tinso
- Local (More than 25 post)
- Posts: 71
- Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 1:25 pm
- Location: Newcastle, Australia
The Phillip Island Pro was a nice way for me to start off competing in KSA events! Jim has done an awesome job and deserves huge kudos for his effort - even taking time to help out an interstate-first-time-nobody (me) to find a place to stay on a crowded island! On top of everything else, he goes and wins himself a First place! Bloody Legend!!!
The crew are the best. Everyone I met was glad to see more kneelos supporting the event, and welcoming to a newcomer. I look forward to catching up with them again, and meeting the crew I didn't get around to this time.
Thanks to the SA crew - Legends! Run the SA comp, Pinebox! You know you want to! And we need to get together again to drink more Coopers...
See you all in Coffs Harbour!
The crew are the best. Everyone I met was glad to see more kneelos supporting the event, and welcoming to a newcomer. I look forward to catching up with them again, and meeting the crew I didn't get around to this time.
Thanks to the SA crew - Legends! Run the SA comp, Pinebox! You know you want to! And we need to get together again to drink more Coopers...
See you all in Coffs Harbour!
...but I like to be different...
-
southpeakbrad
- Legend (Contribution King!)
- Posts: 872
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:42 pm
- Location: San Diego
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Casey Patelski
- Ripper (more than 100 posts)
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:04 pm
- Location: Costa Mesa, Ca
WOO HOOOO Way to go Simon and Hart/Flashpoint! Thanks for the mention of Cove Pads. All us kneelos in So Cal have input on the the design, function and finish of these pads. Cove Pads are an on going evolution. Congrats to Gavin, Kyle and Dean too. Casey
COVE PADS,KneeloLab 6-0PoisonDart DeanCleary 3x Cncav Roundtail 5Fin, 6-0 PoisonDart Infinity 3x Cncav Pintail 3 Fin, Blast 5-9StubVector Swallow Quad, 5-9Vartanian Poison Dart 3x Cncav PinTail 3fin, 6-0Flashpoint DoubleBump Swallow & 5-10 WingPin 3fins.
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Sparrow
- Legend (Contribution King!)
- Posts: 316
- Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2003 3:37 pm
- Location: Sth Coast of NSW Australia
- Contact:
OK, it's been a week since the event and it appears very little is being said about an event that was turning out to be one of, if not the biggest, line ups in its history. Jim Brown brought it to my attention and to many others I'm sure that he thinks in this years field has every winner of the main events history, except for one (Matty G). That's quite a field to think about.
I feel uncomfortable in writing something about the event seeing that I won but it does surprise me that an event so big went down and for once in some quality waves with good size (for a comp)at a different surf location and to top it off some good weather! Yet, so very little is being said, excluding Jamie's post.
So, I thought I would give my 2 cents worth.
Throughout the comp some big names went down and some old faces stepped it up but what was pretty cool through my eyes was some young blood demanding respect with their performances in the main event, not just in their age divisions which is now a thing of the past.
Tom Novakov and Jethro Cooney stepped it up. Tom's 1st round performance in very average reforming Wollamai beach break was spectacular and explosive. The guy is no longer a grommet with the way he is surfing and was on his way to take out some big names on Sunday but due to a faulty fin he came unstuck though no fault of his own. I'm guessing, but I think it was the quarters when this happened and he was competing against his dad, Michael. I remember watching from the top of the hill shocked when I saw him throwing his tail round backwards in all the wrong places and having a real awkward approach on the waves to what had been up to this point exciting. I was deep down dissapointed watching this young fella trying to be way too radical in all the wrong places and just blowing his chances of progressing, so I told myself I'm going to have a word with him about rail to rail surfing and not this new age flat sliding. I was about to go out in the next round and we would be crossing paths walking down/up the endless steps to and from the point. As I started my decent the results had been announced and Tom was out, 4th place. I think it was Baden 3rd and Nov senior 2nd, sorry 1st I'm not sure about but it did not matter as i was keen on getting into Tom's ear. Anyway, on my way down Nov senior came up and I mentioned how Tom just seemed to have lost the plot in that heat for some reason which he replied yeah, he snapped a side fin out!
Instantly it all made sense and I shut my mouth. He was dissapointed and you could tell he saw his opportunity this year to step it up, which he did.
Jethro Cooney, local boy and world junior champ is another kid to watch out for. He has got the junior world title but if he keeps on track he will hold the open in his hands in the future. Sunday morning he got a decent size wave and did a beautiful snap out the back with full commitment then recovered and back doored straight into the hollowest section everyone saw all day which caused the crowd watching on the hill to go nuts. I missed it but Chayne & Albert were buzzing on what they just saw. They showed me the wave on film that they recorded and both said it was best thing they had seen done all morning. He did not make the barrel but sometimes they are the most memorable ones. I did not see Gavin Colman's barrel on the 1st day which he won best tube award for at the ceremony but Jethro's barrel was the real thing and got full respect from everyone.
The Vicco's, never under-estimate the bloody mexicans! Few travel out of state to compete but when the Island comp comes around a wealth of talent crawls out from all areas of this wild coastline with very distinct Victorian style boards and styles which shows a real history of kneeboarding to this state that has not been too influenced by out of staters but more by the type of waves that hit their shores.
It's always great to see the following guys mix it up with the rest of Australia's best and again make this contest that much harder by having these guys in the water.
Gavin "meathead" Lewis, Greg Budgen, Dean Bould, Jethro Cooney, Paul Mannix, Tim Cadwell, Kev Fisher and James "pommy" Anderson to name a few of a much larger contigent. I would love to have seen 2 other Vicco's surf on Sunday but unfortunately they never made it to the event even though they had entered. Mike Di Sciascio and one of my favourite people to see surf in big waves, Chris Carey. Things may have been very different if these two had turned up. Hell, maybe they did? I know when I turned up on the island Friday lunch time and saw 1ft onshore slop, slapping on the shore brought back a disgusting feeling in my stomache of last years waves which almost made me turn around straight away and have no problem with not competing after travelling solo in my gypsy set up for the past 3 days. Especially when the whole east coast was being attacked by a low pressure system causing either smoking waves in protected bays and points or enormous closeouts in normaly perfect rivermouth set ups which oozed filthy black flood water from days of relentless rain cutting off towns from major roads. Time was repeating itself again, exactly 1 year ago the very same thing went down, rain, severe flooding, pumping east coast waves and poor conditions for the island event. Very hard thing to deal with knowing your home area is pumping of its face and you turn up to surf in a comp 1000km on another shoreline to be greeted with nothing. The weather was way better though!
Depending on what surf forecast you read either gave you anxiety with at best maybe 2ft onshore or from other forecasts stated 3-4ft on Saturday with a building swell Sunday of 5-6ft maybe bigger sets but inconsistant.
Faces were showing up at the beach and the talk of swell forecasts was the main topic. I was praying on the more positive forecast and chose not to keep watching the shore slapping dribble and went for a 3 hr walk around Cape Woolamai to everyones amusement.
Day 1
3ft of Sth/SW wind swell and onshore winds. Low tide Woolamai with very poor banks. The early heats were just difficult to say the least but as the tide filled in eventually the reform bank started to offer the surfers much more opportunity to show their stuff. The format allowed the winner of round 1 to progress past round 2 into 3 with other place getters taking another path. Explained in Jamies post above.
Round 2 was run throughout the day which started showing an increase in the swell.
Saturday night?
I set up my gypsy home in the paddock at Gavin Lewis' beautiful home. A horse caught my eye wondering around the paddock with a bag over its head which completley freaked me out. Gavin later explained it had an eye injuiry and as silly as it looked the horse could actually see out through this hessian bag and just left it at that. I had caught up earlier in the day with an old face from the past, Johnny Rotton. During the 1st year of the phillip island comp back in the 80's a couple of guys opened my eyes to big wave surfing with style, Gavin "meathead" Lewis and Johnny Rotton. These 2 Phillip Island local kneelos amazed me as a young 15 yr old grom and I'm sure influenced me as I never forgot what I saw.
As I mentioned above, time was repeating itself in many different ways. Back in 1985, the 1st year of the Phillip Island comp, I won in perfect conditions as a 15 year old and was introduced to the wild going ons of kneeboarders including such names as Meathead and Johnny Rotton, Parkes, Albert Whiteman, Mono, Dean Bullivant, Jamie Mchugh and many more, post presentation it was crazy, many drinks were consumed and other strange smelling herbs were shared like the oxygen we breathe.
I remember waking up beneath Albert Whitemans car in a paddock covered in vomit lying next to a semi naked grown woman with very few teeth smiling at me!
Many years later I am having beers with Dave Parkes, Meathead, Johnny Rotton, Jamie Mchugh and some mystery guest that brought a very similar herbal smell I had smelt once before? The night was great, many a story was told but ended up in an oh so familiar situation, in a paddock vomiting, but instead of a toothless lady friend by my side I opened my eyes and semi focused on a horse about 5 ft away from me with a bag on its head and I swear it was laughing at me.
Paddocks, vomiting and strange company followed with success. It was a sign!
Splitting headache and feeling like death wondering what have I had done when the mobile phone rings! Baden on the other end saying the swell had come up and Woolamai is too big. He tells me the judges are waiting for a call to be made and I should go check Flyns reef out because that's what always happens! Wooly gets too big, we go over to the other side and surf Flyns. Not particularly happy if that's the case but I sucked it up and packed up my gypsy home, said good bye to my new found friend, the bag head horse, and went straight to Flyns. It was 2ft low tide and flat and weak looking. I ran into a good friend of mine Pete and got talking longer than I thought. The phone rings again and it's Baden saying what am iI doing, your heat is starting in approx. 15mins time at Surfies Point and I was about 15mins away. Fu#k I thought!
Get to Surfies Point with Baden saying you look like sh#t and your heat is paddling out, here is your shirt.
I remember running down the stairs looking for the 1st time at the break and seeing 6ft clean lines with the good ones running right down to the joining beachy with off shore winds. I was as happy as a pig in sh#t and smelt as bad as one also. I had loads of experience at this break. Over the years I had surfed this place by myself quite often and even taken to hospital once from a big wipeout back in 1985 with nasty concussion.
Everything was coming together, I was familiar with the break, my board was feeling fantastic, it was 6ft and with power. Post two Panadene Forte to get rid of the severe hangover, I felt great. Everyone I surfed with was respectful and no one hassled anyone that I saw. The names started dropping off the perch and guys that were more comfortable in the bigger waves started showing their strengths. Gavin Colman with his power surfing and no holding back, Kyle with shear strength and comittment, Parkes was surfing great up to the semi, Dean Bould was completely at the other side of the draw to me all the way to the final and I had not seen him surf once. Local boy, always in the finals always a contender and he was heading into the final as the local boy with the majority of the crowd, especially from Victoria, cheering him on as the favourite and maybe the very first Victorian to ever win the event. Hahahahahaha, not much pressure!
In my opinion, the semi finals were the best heats. More waves that allowed big turns and bigger commitment where the final had waves but lacked the quality that of what the semis did.
Anyway, the final was run. Some say it was an old school final (what ever that means). Aggression, power, commitment, stamina and determination got 4 of us there. It was quite funny to the 4 of us when we all were paddling out into the line up prior to the hooter starting the heat. I asked Dean did he know how long the final was? He responded he had know idea and was to embarrassed to ask me. I looked at Kyle and he just laughed shrugging his shoulders and Gavin also was laughing and I'm sure he said 35 mins joking around. It was a short 20 mins and it was all over, the second the hooter finished the final the sets just poured through one after another.
After the final, everyones opinion on land was different on who could have taken it out. You're 2nd I was told, then you're 1st, Dean is 1st, Kyle did bigger moves on the inside which could make him the winner, Gav was supposedly 4th across the board.
It's something that plays in your head like after sitting an exam and going outside afterwards and talking with people about how they answered the same questions and when you hear their answer you start questioning possibilities, hope goes out the window, confusion with comments on what someones perspective of good and bad. It felt to me that the final was going to go to Dean for a few reasons after hearing many views. 1, he was the local and favourite which might just get him across the line. 2, he surfed obviously well enough for people to think he could have won it and 3, some very odd results have happened in the past that were quite obviously no where near as close as what they were saying this was, so i had told myself to just let it go.
The end of the day, I looked back and thought that it would be cool if Dean won the event and get the monkey off his back and all Vicco kneelo's could finally claim a win in their back yard.
The presentation went ahead and the results were read as they were. I'm sure there was a lot of disappointment with another year passing without a Vicco winning but I know there was one bloke that was stoked.
I feel uncomfortable in writing something about the event seeing that I won but it does surprise me that an event so big went down and for once in some quality waves with good size (for a comp)at a different surf location and to top it off some good weather! Yet, so very little is being said, excluding Jamie's post.
So, I thought I would give my 2 cents worth.
Throughout the comp some big names went down and some old faces stepped it up but what was pretty cool through my eyes was some young blood demanding respect with their performances in the main event, not just in their age divisions which is now a thing of the past.
Tom Novakov and Jethro Cooney stepped it up. Tom's 1st round performance in very average reforming Wollamai beach break was spectacular and explosive. The guy is no longer a grommet with the way he is surfing and was on his way to take out some big names on Sunday but due to a faulty fin he came unstuck though no fault of his own. I'm guessing, but I think it was the quarters when this happened and he was competing against his dad, Michael. I remember watching from the top of the hill shocked when I saw him throwing his tail round backwards in all the wrong places and having a real awkward approach on the waves to what had been up to this point exciting. I was deep down dissapointed watching this young fella trying to be way too radical in all the wrong places and just blowing his chances of progressing, so I told myself I'm going to have a word with him about rail to rail surfing and not this new age flat sliding. I was about to go out in the next round and we would be crossing paths walking down/up the endless steps to and from the point. As I started my decent the results had been announced and Tom was out, 4th place. I think it was Baden 3rd and Nov senior 2nd, sorry 1st I'm not sure about but it did not matter as i was keen on getting into Tom's ear. Anyway, on my way down Nov senior came up and I mentioned how Tom just seemed to have lost the plot in that heat for some reason which he replied yeah, he snapped a side fin out!
Instantly it all made sense and I shut my mouth. He was dissapointed and you could tell he saw his opportunity this year to step it up, which he did.
Jethro Cooney, local boy and world junior champ is another kid to watch out for. He has got the junior world title but if he keeps on track he will hold the open in his hands in the future. Sunday morning he got a decent size wave and did a beautiful snap out the back with full commitment then recovered and back doored straight into the hollowest section everyone saw all day which caused the crowd watching on the hill to go nuts. I missed it but Chayne & Albert were buzzing on what they just saw. They showed me the wave on film that they recorded and both said it was best thing they had seen done all morning. He did not make the barrel but sometimes they are the most memorable ones. I did not see Gavin Colman's barrel on the 1st day which he won best tube award for at the ceremony but Jethro's barrel was the real thing and got full respect from everyone.
The Vicco's, never under-estimate the bloody mexicans! Few travel out of state to compete but when the Island comp comes around a wealth of talent crawls out from all areas of this wild coastline with very distinct Victorian style boards and styles which shows a real history of kneeboarding to this state that has not been too influenced by out of staters but more by the type of waves that hit their shores.
It's always great to see the following guys mix it up with the rest of Australia's best and again make this contest that much harder by having these guys in the water.
Gavin "meathead" Lewis, Greg Budgen, Dean Bould, Jethro Cooney, Paul Mannix, Tim Cadwell, Kev Fisher and James "pommy" Anderson to name a few of a much larger contigent. I would love to have seen 2 other Vicco's surf on Sunday but unfortunately they never made it to the event even though they had entered. Mike Di Sciascio and one of my favourite people to see surf in big waves, Chris Carey. Things may have been very different if these two had turned up. Hell, maybe they did? I know when I turned up on the island Friday lunch time and saw 1ft onshore slop, slapping on the shore brought back a disgusting feeling in my stomache of last years waves which almost made me turn around straight away and have no problem with not competing after travelling solo in my gypsy set up for the past 3 days. Especially when the whole east coast was being attacked by a low pressure system causing either smoking waves in protected bays and points or enormous closeouts in normaly perfect rivermouth set ups which oozed filthy black flood water from days of relentless rain cutting off towns from major roads. Time was repeating itself again, exactly 1 year ago the very same thing went down, rain, severe flooding, pumping east coast waves and poor conditions for the island event. Very hard thing to deal with knowing your home area is pumping of its face and you turn up to surf in a comp 1000km on another shoreline to be greeted with nothing. The weather was way better though!
Depending on what surf forecast you read either gave you anxiety with at best maybe 2ft onshore or from other forecasts stated 3-4ft on Saturday with a building swell Sunday of 5-6ft maybe bigger sets but inconsistant.
Faces were showing up at the beach and the talk of swell forecasts was the main topic. I was praying on the more positive forecast and chose not to keep watching the shore slapping dribble and went for a 3 hr walk around Cape Woolamai to everyones amusement.
Day 1
3ft of Sth/SW wind swell and onshore winds. Low tide Woolamai with very poor banks. The early heats were just difficult to say the least but as the tide filled in eventually the reform bank started to offer the surfers much more opportunity to show their stuff. The format allowed the winner of round 1 to progress past round 2 into 3 with other place getters taking another path. Explained in Jamies post above.
Round 2 was run throughout the day which started showing an increase in the swell.
Saturday night?
I set up my gypsy home in the paddock at Gavin Lewis' beautiful home. A horse caught my eye wondering around the paddock with a bag over its head which completley freaked me out. Gavin later explained it had an eye injuiry and as silly as it looked the horse could actually see out through this hessian bag and just left it at that. I had caught up earlier in the day with an old face from the past, Johnny Rotton. During the 1st year of the phillip island comp back in the 80's a couple of guys opened my eyes to big wave surfing with style, Gavin "meathead" Lewis and Johnny Rotton. These 2 Phillip Island local kneelos amazed me as a young 15 yr old grom and I'm sure influenced me as I never forgot what I saw.
As I mentioned above, time was repeating itself in many different ways. Back in 1985, the 1st year of the Phillip Island comp, I won in perfect conditions as a 15 year old and was introduced to the wild going ons of kneeboarders including such names as Meathead and Johnny Rotton, Parkes, Albert Whiteman, Mono, Dean Bullivant, Jamie Mchugh and many more, post presentation it was crazy, many drinks were consumed and other strange smelling herbs were shared like the oxygen we breathe.
I remember waking up beneath Albert Whitemans car in a paddock covered in vomit lying next to a semi naked grown woman with very few teeth smiling at me!
Many years later I am having beers with Dave Parkes, Meathead, Johnny Rotton, Jamie Mchugh and some mystery guest that brought a very similar herbal smell I had smelt once before? The night was great, many a story was told but ended up in an oh so familiar situation, in a paddock vomiting, but instead of a toothless lady friend by my side I opened my eyes and semi focused on a horse about 5 ft away from me with a bag on its head and I swear it was laughing at me.
Paddocks, vomiting and strange company followed with success. It was a sign!
Splitting headache and feeling like death wondering what have I had done when the mobile phone rings! Baden on the other end saying the swell had come up and Woolamai is too big. He tells me the judges are waiting for a call to be made and I should go check Flyns reef out because that's what always happens! Wooly gets too big, we go over to the other side and surf Flyns. Not particularly happy if that's the case but I sucked it up and packed up my gypsy home, said good bye to my new found friend, the bag head horse, and went straight to Flyns. It was 2ft low tide and flat and weak looking. I ran into a good friend of mine Pete and got talking longer than I thought. The phone rings again and it's Baden saying what am iI doing, your heat is starting in approx. 15mins time at Surfies Point and I was about 15mins away. Fu#k I thought!
Get to Surfies Point with Baden saying you look like sh#t and your heat is paddling out, here is your shirt.
I remember running down the stairs looking for the 1st time at the break and seeing 6ft clean lines with the good ones running right down to the joining beachy with off shore winds. I was as happy as a pig in sh#t and smelt as bad as one also. I had loads of experience at this break. Over the years I had surfed this place by myself quite often and even taken to hospital once from a big wipeout back in 1985 with nasty concussion.
Everything was coming together, I was familiar with the break, my board was feeling fantastic, it was 6ft and with power. Post two Panadene Forte to get rid of the severe hangover, I felt great. Everyone I surfed with was respectful and no one hassled anyone that I saw. The names started dropping off the perch and guys that were more comfortable in the bigger waves started showing their strengths. Gavin Colman with his power surfing and no holding back, Kyle with shear strength and comittment, Parkes was surfing great up to the semi, Dean Bould was completely at the other side of the draw to me all the way to the final and I had not seen him surf once. Local boy, always in the finals always a contender and he was heading into the final as the local boy with the majority of the crowd, especially from Victoria, cheering him on as the favourite and maybe the very first Victorian to ever win the event. Hahahahahaha, not much pressure!
In my opinion, the semi finals were the best heats. More waves that allowed big turns and bigger commitment where the final had waves but lacked the quality that of what the semis did.
Anyway, the final was run. Some say it was an old school final (what ever that means). Aggression, power, commitment, stamina and determination got 4 of us there. It was quite funny to the 4 of us when we all were paddling out into the line up prior to the hooter starting the heat. I asked Dean did he know how long the final was? He responded he had know idea and was to embarrassed to ask me. I looked at Kyle and he just laughed shrugging his shoulders and Gavin also was laughing and I'm sure he said 35 mins joking around. It was a short 20 mins and it was all over, the second the hooter finished the final the sets just poured through one after another.
After the final, everyones opinion on land was different on who could have taken it out. You're 2nd I was told, then you're 1st, Dean is 1st, Kyle did bigger moves on the inside which could make him the winner, Gav was supposedly 4th across the board.
It's something that plays in your head like after sitting an exam and going outside afterwards and talking with people about how they answered the same questions and when you hear their answer you start questioning possibilities, hope goes out the window, confusion with comments on what someones perspective of good and bad. It felt to me that the final was going to go to Dean for a few reasons after hearing many views. 1, he was the local and favourite which might just get him across the line. 2, he surfed obviously well enough for people to think he could have won it and 3, some very odd results have happened in the past that were quite obviously no where near as close as what they were saying this was, so i had told myself to just let it go.
The end of the day, I looked back and thought that it would be cool if Dean won the event and get the monkey off his back and all Vicco kneelo's could finally claim a win in their back yard.
The presentation went ahead and the results were read as they were. I'm sure there was a lot of disappointment with another year passing without a Vicco winning but I know there was one bloke that was stoked.
Last edited by Sparrow on Sun Mar 18, 2012 4:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sparrow
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At the opening ceremony at the Isle of White on the Friday night, Jim Brown brought up that a trophy has been made. I guess you could say it has been created in tribute to the hard work over many decades that Neil Luke has put into kneeboarding, especially within Vicco. Engraved on this trophy will be every winner of the Phillip Island comp. Unfortunately no records have been kept and we need some serious input from everyone into past winners of the Phillip Island kneeboard comp since its beginning. The year the 1st event was held was also unclear until today, when I found the trophy that I won from the very first event which was in 1985. I've included the photo of the trophy, I hope it works.
[fullalbumimg]30161[/fullalbumimg]
Evidence is not thinking or guessing someone won it one year but a trophy, photo, newspaper article or anything that supports the acheivment.
This is important as all this information will go on the trophy which is going on display in the surf mecca town of Torquay, Victoria, Australia.
Put on your thinking caps people.
[fullalbumimg]30161[/fullalbumimg]
Evidence is not thinking or guessing someone won it one year but a trophy, photo, newspaper article or anything that supports the acheivment.
This is important as all this information will go on the trophy which is going on display in the surf mecca town of Torquay, Victoria, Australia.
Put on your thinking caps people.
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Joe Taylor
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southpeakbrad
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Simon, great summary! This addition to Jamie's post really makes for a great read.
Here's a start to your question:
viewtopic.php?t=5427&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
All the best!
Brad
Here's a start to your question:
viewtopic.php?t=5427&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
All the best!
Brad
