Another goofy takes chopes
The final day of the Billabong Pro dawned to the distant hiss of four-foot barrels along the Teahupoo reef. Bobby was ready. His performances throughout the lay-off period had bordered on preternatural. After every freesurf at Teahupoo or some other surrounding reef, a deluge of clips and images would pour through the tour’s Macbooks. It was obvious Bobby had a level of control over his speed in the barrel unmatched by anyone ontour. In one spasm he would jet from near stationary through an oncoming section before squeaking out the end. He was like a character in a surfing video game.
As it has done over and over again, Teahupoo cut a swathe through the tour’s title contenders. By mid morning on the final day, Parko, Slater, Fanning, the Hobgoods and Bede were all gone, replaced by two unlikely semi-finalists.
In what developed as a pattern, those who had surfed feverishly during the lay-off period continued to progress. Mick Campbell had spent his time on Tahiti in solitude. He would eat alone, stay alone, and twice a day pack his boards into his hatchback rental and head east or west along the coast, to surf alone. After fixing his back-up board to a floating buoy, Mick Campbell paddled out for his semi-final and lost to Taj.
Aritz Aranburu was another loner. Most nights he could be found walking home alone having spent the past hour on Facebook and Skype. He had surfed Teahupoo almost exclusively in the lead-up, a fact vividly demonstrated by his far superior wave selection. Aritz would be combo-ed by two Bobby barrels late in the other semi, but not before putting the American through a nasty scare.
Whilst the final was mathematically close (Bobby 18.46, Taj 16.10), the contest was over within five minutes. Bobby’s first two waves were an 8.7 and a 9.7. It was the highest combined total of the contest and a combo situation from which Taj would never recover. It was the fourth year in a row the event had been taken by a goofy (Bobby 06, Damo 07 and Bruno Santos 08). The last natural to win was Kelly in 05. - Jed Smith
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Reply #3 on : Sat May 23, 2009, 13:03:13