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RIP CURL PRO SEARCH: DAY FIVE
R1 finishes off in with a bang in improving surf at backup venue
European surf contests are pretty civilized affairs. Today, for example, at the main backup site of Lagido, the omnipresent and superhot Buondi coffee girls smilingly delivered tar-strong espressos to industry types, media and other hangers-on who had the correct wristbands. There was a fully catered lunch, with salad, Spaghetti Bolognese, three kinds of desert and actual silverware. The super VIP section saw government officials feasting on a six courses with bottles and bottles of vino tinto, discussing how important and valuable surfing is to the town -- all of which helped fuel the most recent rumor on tour: that Peniche wants to hold a permanent annual ASP World Tour event.
(Again: this could just be a bit of coffee-fueled optimism, but one local industry dude who shall remain nameless said the town and the Portugal tourism board could afford to put it on without even a surf-brand sponsor. But like I've said before, that coffee's pretty strong -- stay tuned for the scoop on this.)
But we're still in R1, with single elimination, and there's not much civilized out in the water. Dudes are scrapping for spots on next year's tour, sponsorship bonuses, respect, all kinds of stuff. It's not quite UFC or anything, but no one's making any friends out there.
And the surf? Well, there's a Portuguese saying that goes something like this: "waves are like melons, you never know if they're sweet or not until you open them." Which kinda describes the wonky, occasionally sweet reefbreak at Lagido today. It's a long, rock-finger reef, offshore in a SE wind, peppered with urchins, that needs a medium swell and some water over it to do anything good. Which it sorta was for the first couple heats, though the flat, slow faces favored the goofyfoots. "It's easier to link your turns frontside," explains the standout of the morning, Miki Picon, who takes down Wardo by actually being able to see the freaking lip and belting the hell out of it.
Once the tide gets too low, officials call a two-hour break (civilized!), which allows some of the aforementioned hangers-on to enjoy a short surf and the aforementioned lunch without feeling guilty for missing any heats.
As the water fills in and the swell drops, the reef at Lagido starts showing more sweetness. Timmy Reyes, who's been hanging out in the 33rds for a while now, manages to take down Bottle Thompson. "I learned a lot this year," explains Timmy afterwards. "I feel like I'm surfing better than I ever have, but losing teaches you a lot. Anyone on this tour can win at any time."
The surf, meanwhile, keeps getting better. Greg Emslie, Bigfoot himself, benefits tremendously from the steepening waves, nailing the highest score of the day thus far and taking down Aritz. "I surfed this morning during the high tide," explains Greg. "And I figured you have to take off on that one boil and look for the double up to hit -- also, I went home and spent the afternoon watching Taj in surf movies so I could be more light-footed." He laughed.
The tide keeps coming in and the surf keeps getting better and the last heat of the day, Drew Courtney vs Dustin Barca, ends up seeing the highest scores of the contest thus far. Both surfers are dwelling pretty low in the ratings -- though Drew had a great finish in Mundaka -- so many folks aren't expecting fireworks. But their low center of gravity backside carves fit the wave perfectly, and we start to see some eight-point-plus scores drop -- which got the Buondi-coffee-fuled crowd to their feet a couple times. Courtney even manages the day's only actual barrel! "I got off to a great started and the waves really suited me out there," he explains afterwards. Dustin, for his part, is only stoked that he gets to go home early to his beloved Pipeline.
And that, sports fans, was a wrap. Word is, the other backup-backup beachbreak of Belgas was a solid five-foot and barreling this afternoon, so we may move up that way. Check the forecast below and stay tuned.
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Surfline's Rip Curl Pro Search Forecast, effective 10/23/09
BRIEF OVERVIEW: Dropping surf prevails today and into Saturday morning. A new, medium size WNW swell will build through the end of the weekend with potential for a larger WNW swell to end the waiting period. Southerly wind looks likely for the next few days, ranging from moderate in strength to possibly very light by late this weekend/early next week.
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October 23, 2009
