Gabe Kling has put in the hard yards on the WQS this year and earned hisspot back on the Dream Tour for 2009. SURFING caught up with him to talkre-qualification, training, Penthouse Pets and the pitiful performance ofthe Jacksonville Jaguars so far this year.
SURFING MAGAZINE: HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN YOU'RE BACK ON THE WCT FOR 2009?
GABE KLING: Well, they don't ever call and tell you really. I don't know,you kind of just have to do the math yourself. The ASP puts out theirnewsletters and gives the general situation and numbers. I think if you'reover 12,000 points you're pretty much guaranteed to be in. This last contest(2nd place in the Portugal six-star event) put me over 12,000 and into thirdplace. So I've kind of just done the math myself, but I saw in one of theirnewsletters that I had secured it. So I figured that the points have gonereally high this year, but I don't think it'll go that much higher.
HAVE THERE BEEN SOME CELEBRATIONS GOING DOWN SINCE YOU'VE FOUND OUT?
I just got home (from Portugal) two days ago and yesterday was my mom'sbirthday so we had a little party for her. My roommates and everybody areall going to go up to Hooters tonight to celebrate up there. It's trivianight or something, so it should be kind of funny. I think we'll keep it alittle low key. The first time I qualified we had a couple of big blowouts,but this time around I'm going to keep it a little mellower.
IS DVS GOING TO DO ANOTHER RUN OF JAGUARS SHOES THIS YEAR? (LAST TIME GABEQUALIFIED, DVS MARKED THE OCCASION WITH A LIMITED RUN OF JAGS KICKS).
I don't know. Last time they told me we have to make them last a couple ofyears. So, I think we'll see. I don't know, but I think with all theeconomic shit that's going down we might have to make them last anotheryear. I've got a pair from the first year and a pair from the second year soI don't know how many more they're going to make for us.
AND THE JAGS AREN'T REALLY ON TRACK TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR; 3-4ISN'T THE BEST RECORD.
Yeah, they're not looking too good. They've got to fix something quick orelse it's not looking to good for them. I think we'll be all right; we'replaying some weak teams so as long as we play pretty well, we'll have achance. I don't know, I'm hoping they'll just pull it out at the end of theyear.
HOW'S YOUR TRAINING WITH IAN CAIRNS GOING?
I started training with him last year - It's pretty cool. It seems like it'shelped. Every time I've done it I've gotten at least a pretty good result,except for one time. And it seems to work for most people he does it with.Because I haven't been around, I haven't been able to do it since before theUS Open, but I've been training with him for quite a while so I feel like Ihave a lot of it down. We just keep in contact throughout the year. It'sbeen cool; he's been watching online and corresponding and gives littletidbits of wisdom every time. It's good to have somebody helping you analyzeshit and give little pep talks here and there. He's helped a lot and I'mpretty psyched on it. I think I'm going to try and go out to Hawaii and workwith him before the last two events. I'm deciding between hanging out here[in Florida] or going out there. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to go outthere and settle into Hawaii and hopefully I can finish the year strong. Thehigher I finish the better seed I'll have.
WHICH WILL BE EVEN MORE IMPORTANT WITH THE FORMAT CHANGES PROPOSED FOR NEXTYEAR.
Yeah, every little bit is going to help if it does happen like they propose.I'm not sure how everybody will finish, but if you're going against thefifteenth seed and the fourteenth seed, it could make a big difference.
ARE YOU GOING TO DO BOTH THE WQS AND WCT TOURS NEXT YEAR?
The last time, I did both tours the whole time and I didn't really burn outtotally, but it was a lot of travel. I think I'm just going to do the 'CTand focus on that and see how it goes. There are so many contests in thesecond half of the year, so I can jump back on and do them. A lot of thetime the 'QS events kind of match up pretty evenly with the 'CT's, so if theevents are close together I can do it. But I'm definitely going to focusmore on the 'CT next year.
WE HEAR YOUR CURRENT ROOMMATE IS DATING A PENTHOUSE PET, THAT MUST BE ANINTERESTING LIVING SITUATION.
Yeah it's pretty funny. We were at my mom's birthday last night and myroommate was there with her - a couple of family friends were like "Whoa isthat her? Is that the Playmate?" I told my roommate that it's about time Iget to go hang out at the mansion or something, so I get some sort of perksout of this. So we'll see; hopefully I get to go hang out for the New Year'sparty or something.
UNLESS YOU GET BLACKLISTED FOR HAVING CREEPY CALENDERS OF HER LYING AROUNDTHE TOILET OR SOMETHING.
When the issue came out I told my roommate that I was going to keep it in mybathroom so when he tells everybody to go use my bathroom, they'll have somegood reading material. Then maybe he won't send people to that side of thehouse as much.