Conditions: Contestable is an understatement. 3 to 5 feet and shwackable.
Events Held: Remainder of Round two and the first four heats of Round three.
Nature’s Call: I’ll set ‘em up, you knock ‘em down.
Predictions: For his next film, Taylor Steele’s just gonna film the Boost Pro.
There sure is a lot of ‘straight’ media interest being generated by this year’s Dream Tour. Case in point: I found myself explaining the finer intricacies of heat strategy and judging, not to mention the meaning of the word “boost” (no, not the event sponsor), to Megan, an attractive young journalist from CosmoGIRL magazine in New York... and her “gay boy fashionista” (not my words) friend from Seventeen Magazine (didn’t they shut down a fledgling surf label?). But my lesson in surf contestery was brief –– they had ‘surf hotties’ to interview. Don’t believe me? Go here http://www.cosmogirl.com/blog/. Sadly, I was neither surfer nor hot enough to warrant an interview.
But on the flipside of surfing’s diffusion into mainstream media is the uncovering of talent from unexpected places. I almost popped my cork listening to “Prison Break’s” Dom Purcell commentate a heat on the webcast purely through the use of onomatopoeia. And it’s in tribute to the Dom that today’s highlights will be described by the same poetic device.
Ptooey...waaaa: Andy Irons spitting the dummy then throwing a tantrum while beingcombo’ed by a high flying Yadin Nicol in heat one .
Thwick, thwick, thwick...ad infinitum: The first wave of the contest I see in real life, asopposed to via webcast is Freddy P. doing about a million backhand hits on the first wave of the heat for the princely score of 6.33. This shit is way better in real life BTW. He loses to Heitor Alves who does slightly fewer turns, but slightly more powerfully.
Phew: Kieren Perrow’s gasp of relief after he beat out an unlucky Pancho Sullivan in thedying seconds (0.00 seconds remaining according to the ASP) of heat 14.
Tick, tick tick: The competitive gears turning over in Mick Fanning’s head. He didn’t have to surf today and confessed to only turning up to see T. Knox’s heat. Was he supporting his Rip Curl stable mate or examining a potential threat? It’s anyone’s guess, but he should have been dissecting Taylor’s surfing ‘cos the veteran was looking as sharp as Gordan Ramsay’s steak knives today.
Beeep, beeep, beeep: Surfing’s high performance meter warning of imminent disaster if the level of surfing is raised any higher. Starting with Jordy’s heat against Damo Hobgood, the boys all started getting retarded in the water. Jordy was looking to stick an off the lip reverse all heat and managed to put it together along with a heap of other massive turns and an equally massive claim with 8 seconds left in the heat for a 9.93. Then Bede Durbo ruthlessly tore Travis Logie a new one, showing his trash-talk about wanting to take out Slater is not unfounded. Dane Reynolds put together a wave that had 10 written all over it, but apparently two of the judges are dyslexic and read ‘10’ as ‘9.7’ and ‘9.9’. Then, as if to show the tour’s greenhorns that the old boys can bring the noise too, Parko went absolutely bananas in the last heat of the day to lock in the highest heat score of the event so far and send Dan Ross packing back to Oz.
So that’s a wrap for today’s audible commentary of the Boost Mobile Pro Day 2 and what an awe inspiring day of action it was. Actually, there was one final highlight...
Hubba Hubba: My reaction to the Cosmo GIRL journalist. Megan, we should do coffee.
COMPLETE ROUND 2 RESULTS:
(1st advances to Round 3; 2nd finishes =33rd)
Heat 1: Taj Burrow def. Shane Beschen
Heat 2: Bede Durbidge def. Rob Machado
Heat 3: Yadin Nicol def. Andy Irons
Heat 4: CJ Hobgood def. Ricky Basnett
Heat 5: Jeremy Flores def. Jihad Khodr
Heat 6: Bruce Irons def. Aritz Aranburu
Heat 7: Travis Logie def. Adrian Buchan
Heat 8: Heitor Alves def. Fred Patacchia
Heat 9: Rodrigo Dornelles def. Dayyan Neve
Heat 10: Luke Munro def. Tom Whitaker
Heat 11: Chris Ward def. Neco Padaratz
Heat 12: Tim Reyes def. Mick Campbell
Heat 13: Jay Thompson def. Ben Dunn
Heat 14: Kieren Perrow def. Pancho Sullivan
Heat 15: Taylor Knox def. Tiago Pires
Heat 16: Jordy Smith def. Damien Hobgood
COMPLETED ROUND 3 HEATS:
(1st advances to Round 4; 2nd finishes =17th)
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge def. Travis Logie
Heat 2: Luke Stedman def. Mikael Picon
Heat 3: Dane Reynolds def. Dean Morrison
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson def. Dan Ross
REMAINING ROUND 3 HEATS:
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez v. Ben Bourgeois
Heat 6: Kai Otton v. Luke Munro
Heat 7: Roy Powers v. Kieren Perrow
Heat 8: Kelly Slater v. Sunny Garcia
Heat 9: Mick Fanning v. Yadin Nicol
Heat 10: Tim Reyes v. Taylor Knox
Heat 11: Adriano de Souza v. Rodrigo Dornelles
Heat 12: Jeremy Flroes v. Royden Bryson
Heat 13: Taj Burrow v. Brett Simpson
Heat 14: Chris Ward v. Jordy Smith
Heat 15: CJ Hobgood v. Heitor Alves
Heat 16: Bruce Irons v. Jay Thompson