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RIP CURL PRO SEARCH: DAY SIX
Thousands cram middle-of-nowhere backup venue; Owen takes down Kelly (again!) while Parko and Mick advance
Remember yesterday, when I said that European surf contests are civilized affairs? Well, that wasn't entirely true. Perhaps it was the coffee. This is more accurate: When European surf contests are held at the intended venue, like yesterday, they're quite civilized. But when surf conditions force a move to another backup-backup venue, as they did today, things start to get a little feral quickly. (Side note: the closest town to today's backup venue was actually called "Ferrel." Go figure.)
This morning dawned smaller than yesterday and clean, and the sandbars of Belgas, ten miles north of Peniche, were offering up the finest surf seen on Tour since J-Bay -- head-high, glassy peaks peeling along a well formed, close-to-shore sandbar. Thing is, Belgas literally translated means "the middle of nowhere" in Portuguese. How middle-of-nowhere? Last night, word is that some gypsies (real gypsies, not the strip-mall hand-reading type) had set up camp at the contest site and had to be at least temporarily evicted for the webcast trucks. First time THAT'S ever happened on the ASP World Tour.
As heats got underway at 9am, I figured it'd be a mellow day, crowd wise. There was hardly any signage, no infrastructure, no beachside cafes, no parking, etc. Plus, local hero Tiago was already out. Bouncing across dirt tracks towards the ocean, we almost didn't even find the place. More Baja than Huntington Beach. But a funny thing happened at like 9:30am. People started...showing up. Diehard surf fans, all decked out in the latest Rip Curl/Bong/Hurley/Quik gear, sporting tattoos, piercings, kids, dogs, etc. By the hundreds. Parking five miles away and trudging up the soft sand with barely a bottle of water. It was surfing's Woodstock, minus the Hendrix and brown acid.
"Tiago told me to expect craziness," said Mick Fanning after pipping Pat Gudang in the last heat of the day. "But I didn't expect anything like this."
Indeed. The fans, estimated at 20,000 strong (!) by midday, were semi-rabid. Apart from the US Open in HB, it was the biggest, most responsive, engaged crowd I've seen in over a decade of going to these things.
Woody, the Tour's main security guard, the guy who walks competitors through the frothy fans to and from the beach, was in overdrive. "It's a logistical nightmare," he deadpanned from behind Oakley shades. "This is the hardest event we've ever done. It's throwing everything at us. We hadn't dealt with the crowd in Portugal before, so we didn't know what to expect." Woody's partner Alex smashed his foot walking Kelly out through the sea of people and had to finish the day off with taped toes.
And there was nary a skater, BMXer or Paintballer or otherwise X-gamer to be seen. The crowd showed up, all day, to watch actual surfing. When a dude was about to paddle out? Polite applause from the beach. Big turn? Louder applause. Barrel? Applause and cheering. Heat win? Applause, cheering, whistling, and chasing down the beach. "The crowd was awesome," smiled Taj after smoking Miki Picon. "They're so into it, it's rad."
There were of course many highlights in the water -- barrels, airs, carves, etc. -- but seeing as how Parko, Mick and Taj advanced to R3, the biggest, most dramatic heat of the day was undoubtedly Kelly Slater losing to Owen Wright. Slater's world title chances were pretty slim going into this, but there was still a whiff of a possibility. A possibility, that is, until the tall, lanky goofyfoot half his age took down the nine-time world champ in the dying minute of their heat with a clean tube followed by a couple classic carves. After pulling the event's biggest air reverse this far.
Owen smiled through a half hour of interviews, and was walking back to the competitor's area when the mayor of Peniche stopped him and gave him a European style man-hug. "The page is turning," he smiled. "You are the future." Owen smiled back politely and thanked him and walked off through the dunes with his dad. Wright just re-signed with Rip Curl, funnily enough, and is going to be the youngster on Tour next year. And the Tour is paying attention. He gets Dane Reynolds next heat, which'll make everyone else pay attention, too.
The next call is tomorrow morning, back at Belgas. We still have a day and a half of heats to run with a fine looking forecast. Stay tuned.
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October 24, 2009
