Ask Carroll

[Beanpole]

So you were right Nick about Jimmy Buffett turning up at the quikie. Kelly shouldn't give up his day job yet.

[Trev]

Guys, take your bitching somewhere else and leave this thread alone.
I'm stuffed if I'm going spend half the evening reading every post and deleting all the rubbish.

[Beanpole]

Geez trev I didn't know you found Jimmy Buffett so offensive.
Who's this guy masquerading as fong?

[Trev]

So u promote nicks profile over me defending a mate?

This thread isnt going anywhere....buddy

Move it to tagents

Show some fairness for all

Not just the
Nick " clubbie" know it alls


Or does anyrhing he posts get special treatment ?

Fong, you chose to transplant an issue in another topic (in Tangents) to here. Leave it alone.
The thread is staying here.
Your mate has had his say. He's capable of sticking up for himself and he has. But he kept it in the right topic.
If we start thread jumping everytime someone upsets us, the whole site will be disrupted.

[godsavetheking]

Fong, you chose to transplant an issue in another topic (in Tangents) to here.

To be fair to fong, it was me that did that

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Nick Carroll]

Yeah I thought it was a silly interference. Adriano would have won the heat anyway; Jeremy was clearly frustrated by the conditions and made the error out of that frustration. A surfer at that level should have a better grip on strategy than to get tangled up with his opponent under priority at a point break. Anyway JF paid the price and is out of the contest. The reaction to Adriano's soccer type acting -- "err yuck! He's Brazilian!" -- is predictable but irrelevant.

[Davros]

Nick is there to much hype surrounding Julian Wilson, is he seen as the Australian world Champion in waiting post the Parko and Fanning era and hence Oz hopes are hanging on him as Brazzers and the new wave of US surfers start to dominate?

[Nick Carroll]

I don't think so. That's not the feeling around Julian among the pros anyway. He's seen as a super talent who hasn't quite yet developed the heat craft of the top guns. He's quite well liked across the board but is very much his own man and isn't sorta spearheading some movement or whatever. Re hype, I don't really sense there's much of that either, though I haven't been watching the webcast since being here so don't know what the boys have been rabbiting on about. Personally I reckon his best results are still ahead of him.

[BA]

Hey Nick, the surfers seem to be a bit more vocal this year in regard to speaking their mind in interviews and also on twitter. They also seem to be happy to show their displeasure with scores when in the water a bit more than in the past. Anything to do with the new ASP set-up and the fact that they don't seem to have any real control anymore in decisions about the comps?

Edit: And Mick just said that he thought Margaret River was better as a prime event not a CT. Reckons it's too tricky and there'll be plenty of upsets. Not great advertising for a new event from the World Champ.

[Nick Carroll]

I don't think it's got anything to do with the surfers' lack of control or whatever, they've clearly been given clearance to speak their minds on the webcast, after all it makes better entertainment.

[old fella]

Nick
Medina was amazing on the face yesterday. But I am at a complete loss to understand how the judges did not regard Joel's ability to negotiate the tube section behind the rocks as superior. I was at Angourie when Joel and a bunch of young Billabong stars surfed the point for four days on a big swell. What differentiated Joel by a mile was where he took off (way inside) and how he negotiated the first thirty metres . I wonder whether that skill (which is perhaps best appreciated by people that have surfed along side these guys) is going to be less recognised by judges in an era when Gabriel's face work is more attractive to the average punter?

[Nick Carroll]

Yeah look I think Joel's act was recognised. If you look at the event stats you can see it clear. He got three of the best waves and four of the highest heat scores of the contest, most of that from the point he decided to go up to the actual takeoff spot during the quarters. At his peak in the semis he was easy the best surfer in the event. I'm sure also at that point a lot of people just assumed he should win. But things changed in the final, the tide rose so the outside takeoff deteriorated, and as a result on a nasty foamy mess of a wave, he snapped his favourite board with 20min left. I think at that point he was suddenly vulnerable. I was astonished by how Gabriel kept throwing himself at the situation and trying, a lot of other surfers would have let the final slip over to Parko, but he conjured up an insanely narrow win out of sheer grommet fearlessness.

I'd sorta reserve a harder judgement for some of the other superstars who spent the final day avoiding the deep takeoff. Joel and Gabriel made them look silly IMO.

[steve shearer]

what are your thoughts on this Nick?

Surfing Life, owned by Morrison Media, ran a story titled ‘Poetry Night with Mermaid Killer’ in their March issue written by Nathan Myers, and wrote, “With his apeish face and cowering hair-curtains, I expect mlittle more than Cro-Magnon grunts from his mouth. I am caught off guard by the clarity and eloquence of his speech.”

[Nick Carroll]

sorry, I've gotta stay out of this one for now. SL issued a statement on it. Here's something from the Guardian based on that:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/m ... ous-surfer

here's the actual statement:

http://www.surfinglife.com.au/news/sl-n ... -statement

[crabmeat thompson]

Are you still here? This morning was a little bit ridiculous, was it not?

[scot]

Ridiculous good or ridiculous bad Braithy?
I thought it was pretty fun out there.

[Nick Carroll]

Are you still here? This morning was a little bit ridiculous, was it not?

I was there yesterday and in the morning before going home had the best surf of my year so far. Reinforced my thought that cramming the event into Tuesday was a really dumb call. But fcuk, then again, the whole Bank was smoking and it felt like there were heaps of waves for everyone - that whole "I wanna surf with a Pro!" vibe was gone. I really felt the gift of surfing yesterday morning, my surgically altered knee didn't hurt (much) and I had a great surf in the company of some damn good Snapper boys and girls and about 100 stoked punters of every national persuasion, it was cool.

Back in Sydney now and it's flat, not for long though I hope.