The Perfect Non-Day

As the professional surfers on the ASP sleep fitfully in Fiji, with a wild and booming ocean for background music, there are a lot of people – webcast spectators and ASP fans – who are wondering what the fuck just happened.

The superlatives have been flying around for a few hours now. The greatest day of paddle-in surfing in the history of the sport; the most perfect big waves ever seen for an ASP event; the best barrels for a surf contest ever, and a whole bunch of similar phrases.

Yet as the greatest waves rolled through, and as some of the best surfers charged on them and got what they later called The Best Barrels Of their Lives, the contest was called off. No singlets, no sirens, no judges.

Contest Director Matt Wilson was the man who had to make the hard decision, and his decision was never going to please everyone, but based on the chop going up the face, and the dangerous conditions, the event was called off after two heats. Who surfed in those two heats? Who cares, as the best surfers in the world paddled out for the ultimate freesurfing session and the cameras rolled on.

Twelve to fifteen-foot sets continued to pour through. Then 18 foot. Then 20ft. Big wave chargers went as hard as big wave chargers go. They had the right equipment, and they had the balls, but this whole thing has left me with a weird taste in my mouth. While most of South Africa slept, I crawled out of my warm bed into the freezing night at 3:50AM (I overslept) to watch what I was expecting to be the greatest day of contest surfing ever. Everything was in place, I had coffee and a heater and my high-speed connection, and as I got comfortable the contest was called off. Face-palm.*

I got on the blower to the ASP International Media Director to ask him what was going on, and to express my dissatisfaction that I was not going to be able to witness the best surfers throw themselves over the ledge at Cloudbreaks to possible death by drowning, impact, ruptured bowels or fear. Death By Fear. That would make a good epitaph. I digress, Dave Prodan was forthcoming.

“Craig. The final call today was at 2pm and Volcom Fiji Pro Contest Director Matt Wilson opted to pull the pin due to the unfavorable winds that had plagued the lineup since we'd gone on hold following the completion of Round 2. Today's wind in the morning that postponed our start was the same wind that ultimately led to the event being called off for today and was not on any of the forecast models; event organizers were unsure of how it would progress throughout the afternoon.

"As it turned out, the wind became more manageable after the event was called off. It's unfortunate, but in dealing with Mother Nature, that comes with the territory. The positive we were able to draw from the afternoon was Volcom and the ASP bringing the free surf session live to the masses for a couple of hours. I think that was really special and, personally, I was pleased to see a dozen or so ASP Top 34 surfers out there mixing it up in those conditions. We still have plenty of swell on the charts and we'll see what tomorrow morning brings."

Still not totally satisfied, I pumped a few questions to Kelly Slater, who spent some of his time commentating on the free surfing webcast, and would have had the best seat in the house.

Still not totally satisfied, I pumped a few questions to Kelly Slater, who spent some of his time commentating on the free surfing webcast, and would have had the best seat in the house. Combine the best seat in the house with him being the best surfer in the world, and I knew we would get to the bottom of this. He had already sent comments to swellnet.au but he was too tired to redo it all so he repeated it all to me.

“Hey Craig. I won't agree or disagree with the decision by ASP but looking back it was probably the right one,” said Slater to my interrogative demands. “Early morning was amazing, but only for a short window, on first hour of light then it went through a weird period of too high a tide and swell washing thru but not properly setting up on any part of the reef. Then the wind was up the face like the devil wind at J-Bay. Nobody here that was present is questioning it much at all to my knowledge.”

Kelly continued, “What people at home didn't understand is that there were 3-foot chops up the face of the waves from that north wind all the way though until it was called off, making barrel riding nearly impossible. Then it got really good from about 2:30 on. Amazing actually. Prior to that hardly a barrel was made and it definitely wasn't good by anyone's standards.”

So just how heavy was it, and do we actually have any right to call the best surfers in the world chicken shit? Slater thinks not.

“The best big wave guys on earth charged waves that most people couldn't, deal with or will never see, and it really was life or death. That's not really worth points and money. You have to really love that environment, and have the experience to back it.”

Either way, a barnstorming day of incredible surf and wild talk. There were some of the biggest barrels ever, and entire quivers of boards broken. Slater agrees.

“Today was a milestone in big wave surfing no matter how you slice it. When the call was made it may have been right based on conditions but it did get really good right after. Heavy day!”

I’ve stated my warped opinion, and Dave and Kelly have responded to my naivety with honesty. Which brings me on to my final, sweeping open-ended question. What do you think? Should they have surfed the event? Throw down an opinion. Comments below.

* face palm

the physical gesture of placing one's hand flat across one's face or lowering one's face into one's as a display of frustration, embarrassment, shock, or surprise. - Wikipedia