In the Beginning

At normal World Tour surf contests, today would never have happened. The contest would have gone on hold, and everyone would have gone home for a late breakfast. Thing is, the Quiksilver Pro and the Roxy Pro at Snapper Rocks aren’t any normal contests. They’re the first events of something bigger, and something better. The new ASP, the ZoSea management, call it what you will. It’s new. It’s pretty exciting, and it’s going to be big.

The towers are bigger. The VIP area is bigger. The surfers’ area is expansive. The media centre is large. Everything seems to be two steps up from last year. But bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. The controversy surrounding the freelance photogs and their rights has not been totally resolved, and the din around Lewis Samuels and the pulling of his editorial has also not totally gone away either. Still, this is all a part of the murky rumour-world, and on the ground things seemed to be working extremely smoothly, well-organised, with a large contingent of very new faces running around a lot and looking very busy, often carrying a heat sheet or some other important document.

While the towers might be bigger, the waves definitely were not. The girls were sent out into the 2-foot slop, on the wrong side of the tide, to get the ball rolling, so to speak. They quickly transformed the shitty little two-footers into highly rippabe double-up runners, and as many mentioned, were surfing incredibly fast and tight on the right-handers. The girls surf tour has expanded tremendously, with 10 events on the calendar this year, and it seems like the girls have just improved exponentially along with this groundswell of support.

First heat of the year had a little bit of drama as well, with Steph Gilmore suffering an interference against Alessa Quizon and coming third in the heat, with Bianca Buitendag coming second. Steph and Bianca will both now be surfing in the sudden death round 2.  “That priority mistake really caught me off guard. I learnt something; it’s always good to come out from a heat learning something", said Gilmore. ”Sudden death is always a hard one and I don’t particularly want to be in Round 2.”

After round one of the girls, they sent out an expression session so that the boys could cut loose a bit.

As the tide dropped out, the waves improved somewhat and we could start getting a glimpse of the much talked about Snapper sandbank. It’s there all right, plenty of sand lining up along the point. Sucking out on the sets, with a few sneaky sets barreling behind the rocks and with Kerrzy getting a little bit of precarious tube time in front of the wall. Jordy was his usual dynamic self on the air-friendly sets, Tiago was throwing spray remarkably well for a 33-year-old with fucked knees, and Gabby Medina was trying to hoist big backhand flips onto the sand. Felipe Toledo owned the sesh however, with some crazy forehand flips and slides and grabs, usually all on the same wave.

As the tide dropped out, the waves improved somewhat and we could start getting a glimpse of the much talked about Snapper sandbank. It’s there all right, plenty of sand lining up along the point. Sucking out on the sets, with a few sneaky sets barreling behind the rocks and with Kerrzy getting a little bit of precarious tube time in front of the wall. Jordy was his usual dynamic self on the air-friendly sets, Tiago was throwing spray remarkably well for a 33-year-old with fucked knees, and Gabby Medina was trying to hoist big backhand flips onto the sand. Felipe Toledo owned the sesh however, with some crazy forehand flips and slides and grabs, usually all on the same wave.

Tiago is one surfer who is pretty cheerful about life right now.

 “I’m pretty happy to be back on the tour,” said Tiago after the session. Tiago spent 5 months last year nursing a knee injury and was awarded the ASP wildcard to compete in 2014. “The new ASP seems really organized, and it all feels really good right now. They’re looking after us and it all seems to be working well. You know, sometimes in the last the surfers felt a little bit disappointed with the way some things worked out, and it wasn’t really any one’s fault, just maybe the systems or something, but it seems that the new guys are treating us more like stars, you know. It feels good.”

Tiago is a superstar in Portugal and the rest of coastal Europe, and here in Australia a running bodyguard escorted him from the water today, after a somewhat arbitrary Expression Session, with the beach medium-filled at best, like a true superstar.