CONDITIONS: Clich beachie conditions. 2-4ft, shifting sections with the occasional barrel.
EVENTS HELD: Round 4 of the Oakley NB Pro, Round 2 of the Oakley Pro Junior.
NATURE’S CALL: I’m gonna extend summer for a couple more weeks.
PREDICTIONS: Quality, not quantity, will win heats.
Today was one of those days at the beach that reminds you exactly why you surf. The sun was shining, the waves were fun and there were lovely ladies in bikinis wherever you looked. Well, not exactly, but two out of three aint bad. Despite the lack of eye candy (with the exception of one anonymous pro-junior competitor’s mom), the Oakley Newport Beach Pro was a dandy reason to come and hang out at the beach and watch some cutting edge surfing.
It’s cool that the ASP’s rule changes from a couple of years ago to make contest surfing more progressive have filtered down to the WQS events. There are always exceptions to the rule, but for the most part the surfers that progressed through their heats today were the ones who were throwing down ‘man-sized’ maneuvers. Some guys didn’t understand at first, but after watching a competitor early in the day’s proceedings get a 4 point something for doing 6 safety turns the message was clear: “If you’re not gonna blow-up, don’t show up!”
Timmy Curran threw some man-sized buckets in his heat and came second to a flaring and barrel riding Brent Barley. Both these guys edged out ’09 WCT rookie Pat Gudauskas, not a bad scalp to hang in the trophy room.
Ironically, young Nat Young showed maturity in his heat, which just happened to feature his Team Manager Kieran Horn, kept a cool head and surfed extremely unwell...err...sick. He ditched his fins whenever he could and put his team manager in his rightful place: below the child prodigy, attending to his every need. YNY had a smile the size of the Grand Canyon when he heard the result.
Micah Byrne kept his pimpin’ arm strong and smacked up what was probably the wave of the day. Actually it was the wave of the day AND the event so far, a 9.93. Not bad for two turns (read: two make-it-rain-like-a monsoon turns).
Asher Nolan surfs fast. Really fast. He got the second highest wave score of the day by pumping and nailing the lip for about 100 yards on a left that most would have travelled 30 on, tops. He made it look easy too. For my money either Asher or Timmy should take this thing out.
On the youthful side of things, the Oakley Pro Junior heats that were held today showed that the kids can slap the lip as good as the grown-ups. Fisher Heverly stomped a big closeout reo for a one turn wave score of 7.83. Tasty. Tanner Gudauskas was a mirror image of big bro Pat’s earlier layback style with a nice dropped wallet spray thrower. Thankfully, he didn’t place the same as Pat, and won his heat.
Bruno Rodrigues lived up to the clichs that normally come to mind when you think of Brazillian surfers: He had a hot girlfriend with him, dropped in on someone in his heat and then punched the shit out of his board... I think they call that a trifecta in the horse racing world.
Finally, Dillon Perillo gets the Sunny Garcia ‘Heavy Back Foot’ award for today. He won his heats in both the ONBPro and OProJr by making it rain hard on every wave he took off on. And on a sunny summer’s day, that’s a lot of water.
For more information on the Macys California Trifecta Surf Series visitwww.catrifecta.com.
Wavewatch.com Forecast for Friday, September 19, 2008:
On Friday the SSW swell (185-205) will start to slowly wind down. There willstill be plenty of workable/playful surf coming through, but we may see alittle less consistency on the bigger sets. The SSW'er will also continue tomix with a small pulse of local WNW windswell.
Surfwise there will be waves in the waist-shoulder high range on the averagesets, with a few inconsistent head high faces on the biggest sets as we movethrough the morning tide push.
Like Thursday, shape on the bigger sets will be fairly lined up with someoccasionally makeable mostly lined up sections off the jetty. The smallerwaves will be a bit peakier but breaking close to shore as the tide fillsin. Tides will continue to hamper shape at times, but the early morninghours should continue to be the most fun with the tide push.
Condition-wise, look for mostly light to light onshore texture in themorning with winds below 10-knots. W winds around 10-15 knots build inthrough the afternoon.
Oakley Newport Beach Pro Round 3 Results:
Round of 64 (1st and 2nd advance)
Heat 1: Dillon Perillo (USA) 16.23, Jason Harris (USA) 16.00, Chaz Chidester(HAW) 3.93, Shey Yates (USA) 1.93
Heat 2: Marcelo Trekinho (BRA) 11.93, Darrell Goodrum (USA) 10.93, KaiBarger (HAW) 10.74, Quinn McCrystal (HAW) 7.10
Heat 3: Jesse Merle-Jones (HAW) 12.93, Jason Miller (USA) 10.50, Adam Virs(USA) 10.23, Matt Meola (HAW) 8.96
Heat 4: Dane Johnson (USA) 12.74, Dane Gudauskas (USA) 11.17, Tommy OBrien(USA) 9.53, Dylan Goodale (USA) 8.30
Heat 5: Travis Mellem (USA) 15.00, Danny Estes (USA) 14.03, Chris Abad (USA)11.33, Anthony Petruso (USA) 6.70
Heat 6: Richie Collins (USA) 12.94, Matt Mohagen (USA) 10.00, Macy Mullen(USA) 8.86, Brent Dorrington (AUS) 4.86
Heat 7: Brandon Guilmette (USA) 11.07, Brent Reilly (USA) 10.06, Sean Moody(USA) 9.57, Shane Beschen (USA) 6.50
Heat 8: Brett Barley (USA) 15.50, Tim Curran (USA) 13.33, Patrick Gudauskas(USA) 12.53, Eric McHenry (USA) 8.00
Heat 9: Nathan Yeomans (USA) 15.33, Dane Zaun (USA) 14.67, Andrew Gesler(USA) 8.06, Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 6.10
Heat 10: Nat Young (USA) 12.30, Kieran Horn (USA) 12.26, Matt King (USA)12.13, Dylan Melamed (USA) 6.80
Heat 11: Micah Byrne (USA) 16.33, Blake Jones (USA) 11.33, Shaun Ward (USA)9.94, Kyle Knox (USA) 3.94
Heat 12: Brad Ettinger (USA) 11.17, Leif Engstrom (USA) 10.00, Shey Perkins(USA) 6.26, Nick Rupp (USA) 6.10
Heat 13: Brandon Ragenovich (USA) 16.80, Evan Valiere (HAW) 14.17, ConnerCoffin (USA) 8.10, Tanner Gudauskas (USA) 6.73
Heat 14: Dane Ward (USA) 10.74, Justin McBride (USA) 10.37, Blake Howard(USA) 9.60, Bud Freitas (USA) 5.90
Heat 15: Asher Nolan (USA) 17.33, Shaun Burrell (USA) 12.40, Andrew Doheny(USA) 9.40, Phillip Goold (USA) 8.33
Heat 16: Ted Navarro (USA) 7.60, Ryan Briggs (USA) 10.30, Evan Geiselman(USA) 8.60, Joel Centeio (HAW) 7.60
Oakley Pro Junior Round 1 Results:
Round of 48: (1st and 2nd advance)
Heat 1:Tanner Gudauskas (USA) 13.26, Fisher Heverly (USA) 13.16, Ian Crane(USA) 6.97, Colin Schildhauer (USA) 4.10
Heat 2: Daniel Shea (USA) 12.66, Kyle Kennelly (USA) 12.30, Ford Archbold(USA) 11.53, Luke Davis (USA) 10.43
Heat 3: Dillon Perillo (USA) 15.17, Victor Done (USA) 10.70, Logan Strook(USA) 9.94, Riley Metcalf (USA) 6.66
Heat 4: Albee Layer (HAW) 11.10, Quinn McCrystal (USA) 10.76, DavidSuhadolnik (USA) 9.50, Kekoa Cazimero (HAW) 5.30
Heat 5: Oliver Kurtz (USA) 10.93, Jeffrey Lukasik (USA) 10.60, Nate Zoller(USA) 8.80, Bruno Rodrigues (USA) 6.63
Heat 6: Hunter Heverly (USA) 11.03, Spencer Regan (USA) 9.35, TaylerBrothers (USA) 8.80, Jensen Callaway (USA) 7.20
Heat 7: Michael Dunphy (USA) 13, Leif Engstrom (USA) 11.57, Gabe Garcia(USA), Adam Lambert (USA) 6.73
Heat 8: Brett Barley (USA) 15, Taylor Thome (USA) 8.4, Nick Rupp (USA) 6.56,Tyler Stanaland (USA) 5.5
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