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RIP CURL PRO SEARCH: DAY EIGHT
Pea-soup-thick fog thwarts start of R3 despite good surf; big swell on the way
"A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush" is one of those rare colloquialisms that translates directly from English to Portuguese. And the phrase been muttered around the contest site in various languages since they called off R3 yesterday during contestable conditions here at Belgas.
As we explained in yesterday's coverage, contest director Damien Hardman is waiting for solid six- to eight-foot beachbreak tubes. Which is actually what's forecast. And fair enough -- everyone wants to see the contest finish in pumping surf. He was backed by Head Judge Perry Hatchett, and while surfer's rep Kieren Perrow wasn't present when the decision was made, he agreed with it when he came in after losing to Timmy Reyes in the last heat of R2. Not consistent enough.
Ironically, as the day wore on, the sandbar peaks became more consistent, and various media, event staff and locals enjoyed a leisurely Sunday afternoon of a-frames. As the swell filled in and the wind clocked around to light E, Supertubes itself saw some damn fine waves in the evening, with Pat Gudang, Davey Weare, Adriano de Souza, Damien Hardman, and more getting some serious sand-bottomed pits amongst all the local spongers. All of which boded very well for today.
But despite the fact that the forecasted swell kept filling in and the wind was light and offshore, a seriously thick-ass fog decided to sit right on the beach and wreak havoc on the event, forcing a series of excruciating calls that started at 8am and finally ended at 2pm -- once the surf was completely invisible from the judges tower for two hours. After the weekend's mad crowds, the beach-scene was light, but the event site was packed; the girl's waiting period started today, so the world's best women surfers were on call as well as the last 16 dudes in R3. Needless to say, there was a lot of milling about and muttering.
The first heat of R3 is a Superheat on its own: CJ vs. Jordy. They were both blowing up in the morning's warmup surf -- and you could almost see 'em, too, when the fog retreated enough to see the lineup. And around noon, it looked like it was gonna clear enough for CJ to grab his jersey. But the fog moved back in, and CJ retreated to the competitor's area to wait out the next series of calls.
We asked Ceej the hardest thing about stop/start affairs like this. "Probably just blocking out all the negativity that starts to creep in," he explained. "Like, 'should have ran yesterday, food's crap, waves have been crap, long leg, yadda, yadda, yadda.' But you gotta keep it positive; it sounds like a cliché, but it's the truth."
With two days left in the waiting period and eight hours of heats to run, we're going to take CJ's advice and keep it positive. Tomorrow's call is 8am back at Supertubes. It's gonna be all-time-best-ever, with epic six- to eight-foot tubes and we'll see some of the best surfing we've seen on Tour this year. Check back for the full story.
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Surfline's Official Rip Curl Pro Search Forecast, 10/26/09
--Kevin Wallis
BRIEF OVERVIEW: Mid period WNW swell will continue to provide small to medium size waves at Supertubes Monday morning, along with favorable conditions. A much larger WNW swell will build in and be strongest on Tuesday, even offering a few new waves late in the day on Monday.
MONDAY 26th
SWELL/SURF: WNW swell will continue in the morning, offering very similar surf to what we saw Sunday afternoon/evening; mainly in the head high range on the better waves for Supertubes, even some slightly larger sets. We'll start to see long period forerunners of our new WNW swell build over the late afternoon/evening, offering more powerful surf in the shoulder high to slightly overhead range by sundown and possibly a little better.
WIND/CONDITIONS: Light/variable to light ENE through the morning; very light W/WSW for the afternoon.
TUESDAY 27th
SWELL/SURF: Solid WNW swell with well overhead to double overhead+ waves at Supertubes and even some larger sets.
WIND/CONDITIONS: Building S/SSE wind 8-14kts.
WEDNESDAY 28th
SWELL/SURF: Dropping WNW swell through the day. Still solid overhead waves early at Supertubes, but down a few notches from Tuesday.
WIND/CONDITIONS: Light to moderate SSE/S wind 8-12kts.
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October 26, 2009
