PENICHE - 6m @ 15 sec expected

[aaronn]

http://live.ripcurl.com/index.php?aid=471

[purple pyramids]

egad!

[Lucky Al]

i get the feeling the surf for this event will be less than spectacular and everyone will be bitchin'!

[Lucky Al]

i still have fond memories of arica where giant wonky barrels smashed down onto shallow reef, cracking pro surfers' heads open and spilling their blood for dogs to lick off the rocks! there'll be no such carnage at peniche and the longest barrel we'll see won't go more than 2.75 seconds!

[Donweather]

Two words........"LOCAL WINDS"!!!!!

[munch]

i still have fond memories of arica where giant wonky barrels smashed down onto shallow reef, cracking pro surfers' heads open and spilling their blood for dogs to lick off the rocks! there'll be no such carnage at peniche and the longest barrel we'll see won't go more than 2.75 seconds!

sounds like surfers will be the winners - high five to huey

[black duck]

Holy shit they're in for some swell. Epic looking fetch.

[steve shearer]

Don;t know the area ...is there somewhere (apart from Mundaka) that will be surfable?

[munch]

balls on the block this will be kai's

[Nick Carroll]

wellity wellity wellity....

http://www.surfinglife.com.au/worldtour ... gal-blog-3

[steve shearer]

Thats the problem with the North Atlantic.

Always in the road of the storm track.

The followup systems look much better with better winds.

Any stories from the "Daka?

[lessormore]

wellity wellity wellity....

http://www.surfinglife.com.au/worldtour ... gal-blog-3

Pity that didn't happen during the contest.Could have had competitors surfing right through the judges tent!

[mical]

Pity that didn't happen during the contest.Could have had competitors surfing right through the judges tent!

Certainly give new meaning to the term '3 to the beach'!

[lessormore]

No number10 for Kelly this year! Out with the old -in with the new.Onya Owen!

[Jimi]

^^^^That was an awesome heat too!!! Kelly just nearly got it, trading barrels, I reckon the judges got it right though!! Good stuff Owen

[steve shearer]

I watched a few hears last night.
It was compelling viewing.

Came back from a bass-fishing expedition to deliverance country 3sheets to the wind after drinking Coopers Green; I normally drink fourex Gold so the beers were really fcuking me around.....turned it on...Kai Otton and Ace Buchan.

Ace was damm unlucky ...he surfed unbelievably well and got critically underscored on the best turn I saw ....a razor-sharp fully comitted rail carve through the bowl...

Parko....he looked very unconvincing. You could almost see the frustration and mental torture he was undergoing. He sort of surfed his way back into semi-form. The judges took a long time evaluating his waves, mostly because there were subtle but very obvious technical and stylistic flaws related to loss of confidence. Luckily for him, Bruno gave him the heat. From the post heat interview One thing is glaringly obvious: Parko is suffering. He is not enjoying this one little bit. Each heat is an exquisitely painful experience for him, despite the brave face he is putting on.


Slater V Wright. This was just great, great Sports viewing.
The pre match vision of Slater, stalking and flexing, snorting and firing up was just magic.

I'd have loved to have heard Slater in the line-up: he shadowed and mock paddled Owen around the lineup, trying to put him off.

The delicious irony of his pre-match interaction with Pottz was not lost on seasoned observers but went unmentioned by the commentary team. To wit: when Slater came on the scene it was Pottz, Elko etal snorting and flexing their way around the lineup trying to intimidate the young Slater.
The worm turns full circle as the sun sets on a 20 year career.

Slater took a jump and Owen made early mistakes and looked rattled : instead of retreating into frustration Andy Irons style he turned up the dial and started going for aerials.
Composure under pressure.
A threaded barrel got him back in the heat.
A completed aerial and long barrel won it for him.
It was close but Slater was outsurfed and looked for the first time a bit dated, wrt to his heat performance.

The commentary team of Mailman and some other bloke with a slightly swampy american accent, a Rip Curl apparatchik,was pretty good. The swampy bloke had some insight. That was welcome.

Tim Fisher's coverage and pusillanimous commentary deserves special mention for it's general crapulousness.
In Carroll's posted link he asked me to consider the Portugese contractor who put up the conny structures......so I did ...I saw a small balding man with family and no link to surfing, a man who likes to sit outside on a warm summers evening drinking beer and smoking tobacco with his friends. A man who couldn't give two fcuks about pro surfing except for the pay cheque it bought to his small family business.
Was I right Tim?
God knows because your lazy and unimaginative writing wouldn't inspire a mental image in a fcuking paranoid schizophrenic.

Slightly later when considering the Peniche geography he bravely declined to offer a general overview, instead directing me to Google Maps.
No Tim, I won't go to google maps, I want you to describe it for me.
FFS, is this cretin getting paid to write or direct me to a search Engine?

Carroll, you have influence here. Get these guys around a table and throw a few copies of Moby Dick or Tom Wolfe at 'em.

I know you've made it abundantly clear I'm not the target market, but just for the sake of giving back to the Culture we both love so much can't you lift the standard of surf "journalism."
Zero out of Ten Tim Fisher.
Go read early Tim Baker and try harder next time.

[Donweather]

Fanning was one very lucky boy to get through too. That Pat guy surfed pretty damn well I thought and if he'd landed that flip at the end.....whoooah....goodnight Fanning.

I personally think this new format of the top 16 starting off in Rd 2 is actually disadvantaging them.....they all seemed very nervous whilst the other guys already had a surf under their belt.

[Buff_Brad]

Interesting reading (the above) .... I think Kelly will be back next year to have a crack. Still absolutely rips and I thought he was rather unlucky this year. He apparently like numbers and 10 in 2010 has a certain flow. It would be a ridiculously awesome way to end a superb career.

I hope Parko can win it this year but wouldn't be unhappy if Fanning won a second.

I love watching surfing comps.....even better with great commentary. And that means not only informative but funny. A rare combo.