A dingo's got my leggy
Dean ‘Dingo’ Morrison describes his Pipe Masters quarterfinal with Damien Hobgood as a “dogfight.” For 50 minutes they paddled all over each other to keep one another out of position, before on the final scoring opportunity of the heat, with Hobgood requiring a a 3.83 to progress, Dingo got tangled in Hobgood’s leggy sending him bungeeing down the face. Dingo maintains it wasn’t deliberate.
“I’m getting the blame and look like the bad guy. Fuck man, I had priority, there were 30 seconds to go, he needed a three and my arm got tangled,“ he says.
If the decision is split, no call will be made under ASP guidelines. That is unless the head judge overrules.
“If you see both sides of your panel’s argument you can let it ride. I could see both sides. If anything it would have been against Damien for hindering the scoring potential of Dingo’s wave,” says ASP head judge Perry Hatchett.
The decision not to call an interference hinges on whether Dingo intentionally or accidentally got tangled in Hobgood’s leash.
According to those close to the Cooly kid he has history of “accidental” leg rope rakings longer than Hobgood’s quarterfinal leash, as well as a reputation as one of the gnarliest hasslers on tour.
“I’ll be honest, he used to be the worst [on tour],” says an unnamed Gold Coast World Tour surfer, before saying he’s “mellowed a lot in the last two years.”
Friend and fellow Cooly kid, Damon Harvey can barely remember a time when Dingo wasn’t yanking legropes.
“He’s been doing it since he was tiny, to everyone. That’s how he got all his waves out Kirra when he was young,” he says.
Even Damon endured a brutal raking at the hands of Dingo. It took place during a Gold Coast titles as teenagers and resulted in a nasty rift between the pals.
“It was getting hectic toward the end. We’d hassled earlier. I paddled for the wave and I got stopped really quickly, I think because he pulled my leggie.”
Dingo denies it.
“I was paddling, he paddled in front of me and my arm got stuck in his leggie. He didn’t talk to me for two years after that. We were best friends,” he says.
For some, the Pipe Masters quarterfinal was a throwback to a halcyon period of gladiatorial surfing. For others, it was yet another example of the pro tour's amateur underbelly.
“If we want to make this sport professional, people have to be accountable, and something has to be done,” says Hobgood.
“We’ve watched it happen over and over and over again. Whether it’s stuff like this or examples out of the water where someone was bullying someone.”
For Dingo, the issue is far simpler. “He was trying to paddle underneath me and I had priority. He shouldn’t have been there anyway…Of course, I wasn’t gonna let him get the wave.” – Jed Smith
leash pull?... from thegoods:CJ and Damien Hobgood on Vimeo.
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Reply #78 on : Mon July 05, 2010, 18:01:14