Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Day 2
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It's freezing in J-Bay, and it's early. Spectators drift around the site with bleary eyes from the previous night's partying as we await the sun's appearance.
It's not even 7am yet but we're getting ready to go. Contest director Mike Parsons struts nervously around the site, the swell forecast is patchy at best and every effort is being made to squeeze every ounce out of the questionable and constantly changing swell charts. In retrospect, he needn't worry, today will go down as one of the event's most memorable days as half of this season's perfect 10's will be scored in the afternoon, but we don't know this just yet, so we get underway with thin morning sunshine ushering in a weary dawn.
In the stands spectators nurse their way gingerly into the day over fresh coffee and bacon rolls as Tom Curren and Mark Occhillupo do battle in the ‘Icon Series'. The small and inconsistent waves don't do justice to the occasion but Curren takes the heat with some classic arching turns, Occy vows revenge in tomorrow's rematch. The sun comes up; we can shed our woollen hats.
Picking up where we left off yesterday, Heat 3 of Round 2 hits the water and there's a palpable sense of tension as quality waves continue to elude us. If the swell swings south as it should then we're in business, but the set are weak and shapeless. As a result the early heats are dogged by small wave counts and low scores and several top seeds are felled by their lower ranking contemporaries. Current world number two Adriano Da Souza goes down to rookie Nathan Curran, Quiksilver young gun Jeremy Flores looses to an inform Dean Morrison and Tom Whittaker is taken out by his Aussie compatriot Ben Dunn. By now it's around 11am, the South swing is expected and phones are ringing with waves starting to show up the coast as we enter the stacked lower half of the draw.
As current World Number one Joel Parkinson waits out the beginning of his heat off to the top of the point at Boneyards, the first real set swings through. Four waves deep, each wave ruler-edged as it foils perfectly down the point and off into the distance. The hooter sounds and Parko takes off at the top of the car park section. Pulling into a long azure tube he is gone, emerging some seconds later for a series of high speed top turns and re-entries and becomes the first competitor to ride through Impossibles and kick out down towards Tubes. The first 9 of the day is rung out by the judges, the stands wake up to the sound of applause and Parko is on a roll, soon backing his previous ride up with a high six to combo his hapless and shell-shocked opponent Heath Joske and stamping his authority on the competition. As the heat comes to a close with a Parko victory all viewing spaces are taken as local hero Shaun Holmes paddles out to take on Taj Burrow.
The sets funnel through with increasing consistency and the site becomes electric as Holmes takes off on a solid six foot set, pulling into a high barrel, carving off the top and emerging from a long, deep Impossibles tube to earn a 9.33. Taj blows his next wave as whistles pour down from the dunes to indicate a large set looming. Holmes positions himself and goes, every turn draws louder cheers and the 8.7 rings out to rapturous applause to leave Burrow comboed and facing defeat. Holmes by contrast has just earned himself the highest heat score of the event and a shot at the Nixon High-Score prize of a $10,000 diamond encrusted gold watch. Holmes wins, the crowd erupts and the day heats up.
Michael Campbell beats Timmy Reyes in another high scoring heat before 2007 World Champ Mick Fanning takes to the water for the first time. Searing across the wave faces he eases into a lead over Michel Bourrez and is widely expected to take the win. That is until Bourrez paddles into a double-up set at the top of the car park and pulls in. Emerging not once, twice but three times the beach goes wild and 10's ring out instantly and he kicks out miles down the beach, Fanning is gone.
By now the waves are running forever and the judges can no longer keep track. A camera is positioned at the bottom of the point to capture the second half of the ride so the footage can be replayed and judged accordingly. In the day's most anticipated heat, SA wonderkid Jordy Smith takes on Dane Reynolds and the world's two most explosive surfers go toe to toe in a thrilling exchange, eventually taken by Reynolds who emerges from an endless tube to pull an impossible floater and claim the day's second perfect ten. And then comes Slater.
Nobody will remember it is was poor Nick Muscroft who had to face Kelly today. All we will remember is a combined heat score in the 18.7's and a combined four wave score of around 37.8. By his third wave the heat is over after a series of jaw-droppingly impossible tube rides and outrageous floaters and in-the-tube gauges. But it's his third and fourth waves that stand out, his third taking him off into the distance down to the Point (half a kilometre away) where he is lost among the free surfers, only to run back up the beach, paddle back out in the channel, and do it again. It's an untouchable display of surfing that lights a smile on the face of every spectator, judge and competitor.
Round two is completed by victories for Taylor Knox and Bede Durbidge who takes down SA local Greg Emslie in a tight exchange. Round 3 begins and with Supers resembling the Super Bank. In the first two heats the Aussies prevail. Kai Otton takes out CJ Hobgood who falls just short on his final wave and is unable to repeat the last minute heroics of yesterday. Dean Morrison then takes out Nathanial Curran and in a bizarre event, deep in the tube far down by the Point, he is dropped in on by an unsuspecting free surfer. Unfazed, he weaves a path of least resistance and emerges to claim an almost perfect 9.6.
The final two heats of the day pitch Joel Parkinson against Kierran Perrow and Shaun Holmes against Mick Campbell. As Parko takes to the water whispers of a Tom Curren 11 second barrel through Tubes and the top of the Point pass through the stand. One minute later, Parko emerges from a ridiculous tube to claim the day's third ten and the victory. With the setting sun over sheet evening glass the stage is set for Shaun Holmes to deliver the victory that the site so desperately wants to round off an incredible day of surf. Despite Campbell's best efforts the local is inspired and cruises to a stylish victory to send us home happy.
The final will run tomorrow. Parko vs. Slater?
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Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay Day 2 (text) by Tim Conibear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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