Bells may be flat, but its fans sure aren't.
After a two-hour wait in warm sunshine, as Taylor Knox, CJ Hobgood, Lee Winkler, Shane Dorian and several others blew the dust off their babyhotdoggers in fun 2- to 3-foot peelers, the surfers voted not to restart. The 2000 spectators, many of whom had coughed up $11 for the privilege -- yep, Bells has an entry fee -- did not react well to the news. "So THAT was the Rip Curl Pro," one tall bloke murmured to his baffled-looking girlfriend on their way out the parking lot gates.
Event director Damien Hardman was diplomatic, telling Surfing: "The surfers have their vote and we go along with it." But underneath the professionally savvy exterior, Dooma isn't such an easy touch. After all, he was there when the surfers didn't vote on anything. "I've surfed FINALS in worse waves than that," he muttered.
Rip Curl co-owner Brian Singer was concerned, too. "A few more days like this and people will stop coming down," he said. "All that goodwill we've built up is at risk."
In such dilemmas, you've always got an Expression Session to call upon, and one was rapidly whipped out to fill the afternoon's yawning gap. Richie Lovett took the big-move money with a beautiful air almost on the rocks at Little Rincon, Bells's slithery little inside section.
There's a lot of talk about a move to Johanna tomorrow. The renowned beachbreak, beautiful yet fickle, was big and onshore this morning according to event scouts. "The sandbars are very deep down there right now," said Doug "Claw" Warbrick, Rip Curl's other co-owner and a bit of a surf guru around these parts. "It would handle solid surf."
Claw's voice sounded mildly hopeful, as well it might. There's two more days of contest time, and five more days to wait. Right now this event is running behind its odds. -- Nick Carroll
ROUND THREE RESULTS(30-minute heats, best two waves counted)
Ht 1: 1 Mick Fanning 15.2, 2 Fabio Gouveia 10.83
Ht 2: 1 Kalani Robb 17.27, 2 Paulo Moura 15.67
Ht 3: 1 Damien Hobgood 11.23, 2 Luke Hitchings 8.5
Ht 4: 1 Guilherme Herdy 15.37, 2 Taj Burrow 14.74
Ht 5: 1 Kelly Slater 12.4, 2 Nathan Hedge 10.73
Yet to run:
Ht 6 Mark Occhilupo vs Lee Winkler
Ht 7 Dean Morrison vs Neco Padaratz
Ht 8 Andy Irons vs Adam Robertson
Bt 9 Joel Parkinson vs Victor Ribas
Ht 10 Shane Dorian vs Sunny Garcia
Ht 11 Daniel Wills vs Richard Lovett
Ht 12 Shea Lopez vs Armando Daltro
Ht 13 Luke Egan vs Darren O'Rafferty
Ht 14 CJ Hobgood vs Taylor Knox
Ht 15 Kieren Perrow vs Flavio Padaratz
Ht 16 Cory Lopez vs Phillip Macdonald
Stay tuned for Surfing's ruthless blow-by-blow online coverage of this ASP WCT super-event all week!
Guilherme Herdy shocks Taj Burrow in Round Three.