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RIP CURL PRO SEARCH: DAY NINE
Epic tubes, perfect tens + horrifying wipeouts as R3 + quarters finish in SOLID Supertubes
It's been a very long time since I've seen grown men jump up and down at a surf contest. Even longer since I've gotten chicken skin from watching a surf contest. Longer still since I've seen every single surfer eat very dramatic shit in every single heat during a surf contest. All of this happened multiple times today.
The mayhem starts early. We park on the other side of the dunes at Supertubes, and before we barely turn the car off, there's a steady rumble, punctuated by loud-ass BOOMS every 15 seconds or so. I know this sound, and start amping a little. I ask photog Rowland if he hears it, and he's replies -- "yeah, that's a jet." I look over. He stops. "Oh, man. That's the surf." Indeed. It's the surf. The forecasted swell filled in overnight, yesterday's pea-soup-fog has lifted and contest director Damien Hardman gets his way: R3 and the quarters of the Rip Curl Pro Search are being held in thumping six- to eight-foot beachbreak tubes. Whoo-fricken-hoo.
The morning starts off with a very light onshores, which create a slight wonk, as lots of full-on double overhead death closeouts detonate on the Supertubes sandbar. There's some talk in the morning about moving the contest down to the wall, where it's a couple feet overhead and rippable, in fact. But then freesurfers Pat Gudang and Tommy Whits get crazy-mental OTW-like shacks right in front of the judging tower and everyone starts jumping around a little. Rip Curl's Doug 'Claw' Warbrick is wringing his hands with stoke: "This is exciting!" He loves this kind of gladiator-pit death-or-glory stuff.
CJ Hobgood is one of the early-morning taste-testers. "You need a little more foam out there," he explains of his board choice, a 6'1" step-up. "There's these little ripples on the face that you have to get across, but there are some sick ones for sure." The crowd trickles down from the parking lot to the beach, and they all agree, clapping and hooting every time someone even paddles for one. When someone actually gets spit out, which happens every ten minutes or so, there's a standing ovation. It's a soccer (I mean football) stadium on the sand. And keep in mind, this is BEFORE heats start. Once R3 starts around 10am, all bets are off -- in the water and on the sand.
The thing that becomes immediately, painfully and extremely clear is this: watching a surf contest with pumping surf is infinitely more interesting than watching one with bad, or even mediocre surf. Funny, that. Seeing Jordy take down CJ, on a brand-new 6'6" rounded pintail, in man-sized tubes reminds everyone why the hell the big Saffa was such a big deal as a rookie last year.
"It's like Puerto Escondido out there," Jordy smiles afterwards. "You have to get in early and get a line going."
By late morning, it starts to feel like Puerto on the sand, too. There's a dull haze overhead, it's still and sticky and getting hotter by the minute in the sun. There's crazy rips all over the place, the waves are still big, many/most are unmakeable, guys are falling from the sky and breaking boards and running up the beach to make it back out. It's carnage.
Bobby Martinez takes the most dramatic wipeout of the morning, a full-on Hail Mary jump on a double overhead + wall. "I didn't mean to do that," he laughs afterwards. "I saw a lot of fun looking ones down in that zone, and figured I'd make that one. The wipeout was actually pretty short, but super violent."
And despite R3 being sorta low-scoring on paper, Bobby echoes the rest of the tour talking about the surf. "It was like, 'FINALLY,'" he says. "It's been such a long time since we've had any serious surf. It's been a gnarly leg." Parko, who wins the next heat, agrees. "It's nice to get your heart in your mouth."
The most anticipated heat of the day paddles out just after lunchtime. Owen vs. Dane. Owen has been paddling around all morning out here, mainly getting donuts and snapping boards, but familiarizing himself with the lineup. Dane just shows up and watches for a couple heats. It goes back and forth a couple times, but Owen nabs a perfect right tube followed by power-whack for a 9.67 with a couple minutes left, and Dane doesn't come back. Turns out to be the highest combined heat score of the day. (See Surfline's heat of the day for the full recap.)
Owen's a smart kid, especially for being just 19. "Patience can work for you or against you," he says afterwards. "I was picky at the beginning, got busy in the middle and then patient again at the end."
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October 27, 2009
