Snap Attack

After facing constant ribbing all contest here at Snapper Rocks, it was good to have Bianca around on the final day. Non-stop questions about the cricket, a few questions about Jordy’s performance and then Travis taking a dive, and it was a bit awkward being a South African in the face of a barrage of grinning Australians day in and day out. The Buitendag campaign to the rescue.

Bianca went straight up and down in her semi against Lakey Peterson, showing her phenomenal backhand approach from years of surfing and training at Victoria Bay. She fitted into the solid waves of Snapper with ease, and many people felt that she was in with a solid chance in the final.

Steph Gilmore is always the favourite at Snapper and rightly so. She rips, she surfs fast and she has a lovely style. The judges appreciate the technical difficulty of her vertical backhand turns, and she gets into a rhythm and can blast off 5 ot six equally vertical backhand smashes when she finds that rhythm.

She seemed a bit overwhelmed in the final, in good Snapper waves, and Steph was at home, racing through to the inside and hitting off a number of tight hits along the way. Bianca needed a combination of scores for most of the way through the final, but she was all smiles and stoked when she left the water after her first ever WCT Women’s final.

“It was a bit overwhelming out there,” said Bianca, “but it’s been a great week and I’m really stoked with the result and with the event.”

In the men’s event we saw Kelly and Mick both leave the water in the quarters, both eliminated by the Brazilian contingent of Gabby and Adriano respectively. Kelly looked bummed after having lost twice to Adriano throughout the event. You’d be bummed too if you were in his shoes. Mick had a good run, but Gabby was in electric form, and some of his backhand surfing was beyond radical, and it was clear that it was a fair win for the young goofy-footer over the older local.

In the closest semi ever, Taj was in a position of command for the whole heat, and Gabby picked up a smaller wave in the dying second. He needed a 7.2 and he smacked the wave 7 times on his backhand. It was a close call but he scored 7.23 – one of the closest heat results of the year.

Parko went head-on with Adriano in the second semi, but picked up some nice barrels and surfed hard off the rail, dominating it all the way through to the end. It looked like a Parko win all the way, and he started the final big, getting a tube and numerous turns for a 9.0.

Then Gabby started coming back, and in the tussle between big set waves and barrels and long, winding inside waves, Gabby came back with a fighting chance. With very little time left, Gabby hooked into an insider and got the score needed – a 7.83 – to much surprise from many people. Either way, a Brazilian goofy-footer has won the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast and hats off to him.

Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Final Results

Final: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 16.33 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.27
Roxy Pro Gold Coast Final Results:

Final: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 15.80 def. Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) 10.47
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Semifinal Results:

Semifinal 1: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 14.13 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.10
Semifinal 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 18.70 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 9.67
Roxy Pro Gold Coast Semifinal Results:

Semifinal 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 17.10 def. Carissa Moore (HAW) 13.40
Semifinal 2: Bianca Buitendag (ZAF) 15.90 def. Lakey Peterson (USA) 12.50