Scribbles Abroad

Day 1 is complete.

They got through an entire first round and part of the second round.  This newer format sees immediate elimination with no repocharge heats.  In other words, once you lose you are out.  Pack your bags and go home or relax and enjoy Jeffreys Bay.  We’ll see what those who have been eliminated choose.

The contest comes along with a music festival, but it ended last night.

The most intriguing fact regarding the weather here in Jbay is this; if the weather is nice and warm there will be no waves.  You hope for cold and cloudy days because it means the waves are coming or will  be staying.  Today was the first cold day we’ve had since the start of the contest window and the surf delivered perfect 3 foot waves rifling down the point.  Did I mention it was cold?

While the kids chased the pros down the beach to get their autographs we felt a tinge of sympathy for the pro surfers.  They travel the world with another 43 of the best competitive surfers in the world.  If they paddle out, there is bound to be a bunch of other professionals around and all the people that come to watch the contest out in the water as well.  Unless you travel away from the contest site, you are subject to crowded conditions and people gawking at every contest.  Although the waves are usually really good and sometimes those gawking are beautiful women, most of the time if its firing, the contest is on and those girls gawking are actually only 16.

We watched a bunch of heats today but that’s not why we are here so we ended up going for a surf half way through the day.  You can surf right on the fringe of the surfing contests area.  Therefore, your favorite pro can catch a wave and when his section ends you can catch the same one.

Our favorite heat today was Kekoa Balcasao against a hometown favorite, I forget his name.  Anyways, Kekoa, if you haven’t seen him before looks like a bruddah.  He’s thick, could have played football for St. Louis or maybe even Kahuku.  Yet he fricken rips and handled his heat.  I wish I could say the same for the rest of the Hawaiians.  Other than Kekoa and I think Torrey, the Hawaiians took an early exit.  Freddy Patachia, I think, got robbed.  He was up against Kai Otton and that guy played all kind of paddle around bullshit games that suck about competitive surfing.  The guy starts off the heat by burning Freddy and then a couple waves later the guy got the barrel of the day.  As time expired and Freddy didn’t get a good enough wave to answer we concluded that sometimes Karmas not listening.

Tomorrow morning EARLY, probably in the dark, is the Clash of Icons.  OCCY vs. CURREN.  They’ve met up 16 times competitively and they are both 8-8.  They’ve both been out of the tour for a while and both are in their 40’s, yet it is set to be the heat of the contest.  They are both legends and we can’t wait.  Once its done we’ll be hitting the water.  Tune in.