O’Neill Cold Water Classic California 2009
The world's coldest surf competition kicks off a new leg in Santa Cruz.
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The swell might have dropped slightly but the competition definitely stepped up for the O’Neill Cold Water Classic California.
With five ASP World Tour surfers in the water today, it was always going to be a day of surfing not to be missed. World number three Adriano De Souza came top of his heat as the event started in the Californian sunshine.
“It’s important for me to compete in the California events because I’m living here,” said Adriano. “I didn’t set a goal of being in third or winning a title this year but I just wanted to do better this year than I did last year. It’s great though.”
Timmy Reyes had the heat of the day (finishing with a 9.33 and an 8.50) and making it look both easy and fun at Steamer Lane. “I knew where to sit out here,” said Timmy. “I’ve been back and forth here my entire life. It makes it easy when you come to place that you really like. I feel really good here.”
Nathaniel Curran, another World Tour surfer at this 6-star Prime ASP WQS event, was enthusiastic to be part of the Cold Water Classic California. “I love coming to this event,” said Nathanial. “I’ve been coming here since I was 10, watching my brothers surf as well as seeing people like Tom Curren.”
Although part of the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Series, the last stop in California stands out. Not for it’s cold water temperatures of 13°C that is the norm for the series but more for its sunny climes.
The outside heat was almost enough to counteract the cold water completely. “It’s not too cold. I like it like this,” said Timmy Reyes. “I like the cold water. But I am actually sweating right now after that heat.”
In an interesting development for the Cold Water Classic Series rankings, the current leader Blake Thornton was knocked out of the first round. Another contender for the US$50,000, Glenn Hall, was also knocked out.
Their elimination puts the $50,000USD into the hands of either Jarrad Howse or Adam Melling – currently ranked second and fourth respectively. With both surfers due to get in the water tomorrow morning, they need to get through the first heat to be in with a chance – and the rest is then between them.
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O’Neill Cold Water Classic California 2009 (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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