Dark Pandemonium: Parko@Pipe.

[buzzy]

My takeways from Day 2;

There are surprisingly few Aussies in the last few rounds. Mick just got beaten by Dorian. Kerr just pipped Bede. Kai felt dudded by a priority call against the messiah. Parko surfed great though.

I really hate so many pipe specialist wild cards. I just think it's real amateur hour that a world title or the continuation of a person's professional career can be determined by someone who isn't even competing - not for that bigger picture prize. I personally don't think there should be any wild cards for any event. That there are seemingly 100 of them for this event as some sort of reward for stand over tactics just irks me.

Andino seems to feel more comfortable at this level. He lost, but his surfing was pretty good on the smaller inside waves. He seemed to be taking a similar approach to what Funky Cold Medina did last year.

Medina looks on fire. The guy's a complete natural. He'll win a world title no doubt- the question really seems to be how many. I'll have to unsubscribe to any social media though if he does.

Slater looked composed and surfed great, even though I was praying for him to fall in a heap. Pipe suits his surfing much better than Sunset.

Parko has now put the pressure back on Slater. Mind you, Slater has to lose two heats in a row and that rarely happens. He's got a tough R4 and could easily be outpointed by one of Kerr and Medina. The question then is would he lose again in R5. Unlikely but, all due respect Slats, I'm hoping he will. Anyway Parko is in the next round and its now over to KS to match him.

[Nappy]

Was just watching some heat analyzer as I didnt watch live and noticed Billy Kempler gave Slats the BIRD in there heat

Right at the end when he ollie over slats after his last wave he turns arounds mid air and flips him off. When they do the slowmoe replay if ya pause its 100% visible double handed bird.

Nick get on it whats the story? Did he feel the champ was hassling him to much all heat or was he just pissed slats didnt paddle out the way. Will Da Hui soap his board or jig his leash or steal his horse back riding girlfriend?

(It classified as wipeout and the last ride of Billy on analyzer if want to watch]

[Nappy]

Your a gumby plain and simple.

[Buff_Brad]

Any observations from anyone over there that witnessed the session the night before with 100 plus guys out with the top 44 or so "practising" - interested in the antics of possibly the most intense pecking order ever. How did anyone get a clean wave? Heard KS JP and Fanning killed it......

Thx in advance.

[Lucky Al]

first two days have offered excellent viewing. i'm going to have real trouble keeping my eyes open tonight if day three goes ahead but still can't wait for more. i find myself both repelled and impressed by dave stanfield's commentary at once, it's weird. shane dorian is weird too, like alien, to look at and to listen to. i think last night or the night before he even said something about his bow and arrows and the woods.

[godsavetheking]

Dave Stansfield has that faux sincerity and reverence that very many seppo sports commentators seem to go with. He also has a tendency to intone non-interesting factoids like "Coming out of Cocoa Beach, Flooridah, he's three-and-oh for wins at the Round Four stage this year" as if he's announcing the second coming of Christ.

Shane Dorian, I've been quite enjoying. He's pretty fluent and handles his co-commentators' hospital passes with the right measure of quiet contempt while still answering the question. However, it does look like his scalp has been skilfully removed and replaced with a subcutaneous grapefruit juicer.

[Donweather]

Is it just me, or was Medina way over scored on his 2*9 point+ rides. Compare Medina's 9.5 (Rd 3) to Joel's 9.5 in Rd 4....chalk and cheese IMO.

[godsavetheking]

I have to agree with you. What are your thoughts about the nugget fiasco?

I'm still coming to terms with the horror. It seems to happen at every comp that one of the alpha chimps coins a new word for a wave ('corner', wtf?) or a turn and then all the submissives rush to be the first to copy.

Anway, doesn't the public use of 'nugget' need to be pre-approved by the McCoy camp? kayu will know

[alakaboo]

Least noone is doing check-turns.
Though there have been a few drop-wallet larry laybacks.
Parko's turn was great, Dorian lost his mind.

I'm a big Dorian groupie, I even didn't mind In God's Hands.

[godsavetheking]

On the troll front, I'd only accept photographic evidence to disprove my doubts. As in - what you suggested earlier on in your tenure, about standing in front of a surf cam in the Southern part of England... or was it Wales?

Oooh, you're good tommy. Very fcuken good. That was like Dicky Attenborough and Gordon Jackson being tricked into speaking English in the Great Escape.

Of course I'm a troll. Isn't everyone?

[Nick Carroll]

nappy I'm not there yet, going tomorrow.

Billy had lost the heat, outplayed by Kelly, he was prolly getting out a bit of frustration, whatever.

The webcast and tv is just not getting the most out of the location imo, it's reducing it down, Pipeline is far more dramatic and intense of a situation than it looks on screen. Those waves that look kinda like a heavy beachie are way heavier; the waves that look fairly big and heavy are orders of magnitude heavier. You want to factor that in while watching the final day and the heat analyser stuff.

That's where medina's big scores came from, he handled quite heavy situations with smooth ease, where a lot of others were fighting for control

Pretty much anyone who's left can now win this event, maybe Yadin and Miguel a bit out of their depth but they can both rise to the occasion. To me the revelation so far is Dane, v interesting, I suspect he might just now at the age of 27 be amassing the contest experience that he needed five years ago, the understanding of heats and how he wants to surf 'em. Dane did very little competing as a teen compared with pretty much every other top level pro and it as much as anything else undermined his WCT efforts; he knew he couldn't match it on heat knowledge and so bunged on a "I don't really care" act that had its predictable effect. But he's actually surfed a lot of heats now, specially in the past year, and clearly knows himself in a heat a lot better. There's way less uncertainty there. He is a massive danger in this event and could be Parko's greatest challenge in the quarters.

[Donweather]

It would now appear that they're waiting for the Friday West swell. Nick, this seems to coincide with a strong tradewind swell also. Will this affect the waves at Pipe? Make them wonky like we saw on the first day?

I don't think these conditions are going to favour Parko at all. Parko got ALL his scoring rides going right. He looked to struggle going left IMO (shoulda been riding a quad if ya ask me). Whereas Slater on the other hand revealed in the big lefts, standing tall after his bottom turn rail grab and just looking the part.

[alakaboo]

first two days have offered excellent viewing. i'm going to have real trouble keeping my eyes open tonight if day three goes ahead but still can't wait for more. i find myself both repelled and impressed by dave stanfield's commentary at once, it's weird. shane dorian is weird too, like alien, to look at and to listen to. i think last night or the night before he even said something about his bow and arrows and the woods.

http://stabmag.com/shane-dorian-reps-hunting-knife/

[crabmeat thompson]

http://stabmag.com/shane-dorian-reps-hunting-knife/

The comments at the bottom are pretty epic.

[JaM71]

I'm a big Dorian groupie, I even didn't mind In God's Hands.

I like Dorian but not that much Boo, I think that you have a "man crush"

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[steve shearer]

I won't hear a bad word said about GT.

He's a man of the people, robs the rich and gives to the poor.

Once on the boat in Tahiti, when the lunch came around he gathered up the unused food and distributed it amongst the poor plebs who weren't on the catering list,.

His campiness is totally real and very funny.

[Nick Carroll]

It would now appear that they're waiting for the Friday West swell. Nick, this seems to coincide with a strong tradewind swell also. Will this affect the waves at Pipe? Make them wonky like we saw on the first day?

Nah, that wonk was partly a product of the not so terrifically shaped fetch that made the swell (you'll notice the same wonk was present as the swell dropped) and partly the OTW sandbar which creates backwash and which now has prolly been washed away. You won't even really see the tradewind swell. It looks all big on the charts but in real time it'll just blow past.