Monday, 01 March 2010 00:00
Day Two Video Blog
Jordy Smith surfing to the criteria - speed, power and flow. Pic ASP
The rain may be pissing down but the waves keep rolling in.
The girls opened their 2010 seasons today in fun early morning conditions at Snapper Rocks. South Coast kid Sally Fitzgibbons carried her red hot form from the tail of 2009, smashing her heat against much hyped rookie pair Carissa Moore and Paige Hareb. "I wasn't nervous at all, I was excited to get out there and surf, and that confidence paid off," claimed the bubbly Sal post-heat.
Sally Fitz arcing in the pocket. Pic ASP
Last year's rookie of the year Coco Ho out-hassled Bec Woods and Claire Bevilacqua in a slow heat, with a rattled Ho claiming post heat that she’d had words with Bevo. ASL finds it ironic that the young Hawaiian who made headlines dropping-in on Layne Beachley in the Reef Hawaiian Pro final in '08 (handing the win to her mate Carissa Moore) is now getting hissy about hassling.
Steph Gilmore put the Top 17 on notice for the year ahead as she matched Mick Fanning's heat score from Saturday. Steph didn't do it with with behind the rock pits, it was all rail carves and fin wafts. You'd think her win would have been easy but trials winner Tyler Wright gave the triple world champ a scare with a massive score for a huge lay-back snap, and another high scoring keeper in her total. "I was worried this morning, I haven't surfed surfed Snapper much lately, but it's one of those waves that if you've surfed it enough, you know what it's gonna do," said a relieved Steph afterwards.
Steph playing in her backyard. Pic ASP
Between heats I snuck around the corner for a quick surf at D'Bah. You know the circus is in town when the only place to sit is between three Gudauskas' and one punter with the word "surf" tattooed on his neck. I made it back in time to see Taj Burrow sneak by a red hot Garrett Parkes. Garrett recovered from his round one shocker, where he snapped two boards, to give the world number four a scare. I suggested to Garrett that he almost had TB. "Nah, I knew he'd come back,” laughed semi-local lad Parkes (he’s from Byron), “fun heat though."
Bede warming up for round three at D-Bah. Pic Tim Jones/Stryker
Dane Reynolds blew up against Blake Thornton, on a brand new board that "didn't actually feel that great." Dane’s surfing is clearly more suited to hollow, low tide conditions, not the fatter walls that he had in round one. "I feel like my round one heat was sacrificed, we were sent out on the high tide when it was barely contestable." It’s pumping in Dane’s home state of California later, and Professor Reynolds went on to explain the effect that’s had on his arrival in Oz. “The last two months have been high interval swells with a lot of energy to it, then you come here and it’s 8-second intervals with nothing behind it, on a shallow sandbar so the waves are round and soft. So you really need a different sort of boards to work here.”
Joel Parkinson had the day off, but still went to work. Pic Jones/Stryker
Next Jordy Smith racked up the highest heat score of the event so far, 17.86. Continuing the high seed domination, Jordy did what Jordy does best, mixing sick combinations of tubes, airs and full rail carves. Marco Polo couldn't find a wave to match his devastatingly in-form opponent. Rather than talk surfing post-heat Jordy was keener to share anecdotes about a recently failed driving license test, that cost him a sponsorship deal with Audi. On ya Jordy.
Luke Stedman and his ankle, back in action. Pic Jones/Stryker
Round two will most likely wrap tomorrow in similar conditions and word on the streets is Wednesday will be pumping for round three. Stay tuned.
Will Hayden-Smith
RAS Stats Event One Gold Coast Two10 - Day 2
Round 2 got underway at lunchtime after the ladies surfed their round 1 heats…
With half of round 2 completed today, the top 15 surfers from last season are all through to round 3 along with 4 others from the top 27 and 5 WQS qualifiers.
There are only 8 spots left in round 3 with 8 heats of round 2 still to surf.
Event highlights to-date.
In 2009- 54 scores over 17 were posted by the top 45.
33 of them were posted by Fanning 11 .. Slater 9 .. Parko 7 .. Reynolds 6.
In the first 24 heats of two10 there have been 5 already.
Guess who has three of them in two10 Fanning, Slater, Reynolds.
In 2008 Slater posted 24 .. Parko 10 .. Reynolds and Fanning 6 each, Smith 4.
Same old same old…..
All 3 wild cards lost today…
ROOKIE DAY
Day one at the start of each season is Rookie Day;
This year 11 young surfers started their Dream Tour careers at Snapper Rocks in round 1.
4 of the 11 started with a winning heat. Brett Simpson .. Dusty Payne .. Owen Wright .. Jadson Andre
3 more Rookies took to the water on day two, none of them won and all will leave Snapper Rocks with 33rd results to start with.
Good luck at Bells boys.
MILESTONE FILE
Taj (300 wins)
In round 2 today, Taj Burrow won his 299th heat on the Dream Tour in his 13th year.
C.J. (200 wins)
In round 2 today, C.J Hobgood won his 199th heat on the Dream Tour in his 12th year.
Round 3 could see both these guys go into the record books with milestone wins.
100 EVENTS CLUB-
Slater 183 .. Knox 178 .. Taj 134 .. Cambo 125 .. A.I. 116 .. C.J. 113
(next inductees Damo 99 .. Joel 94 .. Neco 94)
The day 2 winners… Red singlet day
USA mainland 4 … Aussies 2 … ZAF 1 … Hawaii 1.
Highest Scores Posted on the Gold Coast
19.93 - Joel Parkinson, Semi final 2009
19.83 – Kelly Slater Rnd 3 2007
19.63 – Andy Irons’ Quar’ final 2004
19.60 – Mick Fanning, Quar’ final 2003
19.53 – Mick Fanning Quar’ final 2007
19.50 - Chris Ward, Rnd 2 2005
Below are the 10 lowest scores on the Gold Coast including Drew Courtney’s round 1 score.
Lowest Scores Posted on the Gold Coast
2.34 - Tom Whitaker Semi final 2004
3.90 - Damien Hobgood Rnd 3 2007
4.37 – Marcello Nunes Rnd 3 2004
4.37 - C.J Hobgood quarter final 2009
4.43 - Nathan Hedge, Rnd 1 2003
4.76 – Drew Courtney Rnd 1 2010***
4.83 – Tom Whitaker Rnd 2 2003
4.83 – Mick Lowe Rnd 1 2004 (he went on to win the event)
4.93 - Aritz Aranburu Rnd 1 2009
5.00 - Taylor Knox Rnd 4 2007
There has been 146 scores under 10 points posted in the Gold Coasts history.
18 of them have been posted so far this year in just 24 heats.
2 of these 146 scores were winning scores.
In 05 Tom Whits won with a score of 9.67 against Occy 6.73 in the Quarters.
And in 07 Josh Kerr won in round 4 with a score of 9.16 against Jeremy Flores who had 7.67
In the very next round Kerr lost to Mick Fanning with the only losing score over 19.00 in history.
Fanning 19.53 def Kerr 19.10, the highest combined total on the Gold Coast. (38.63) 2nd highest in history
The highest combined score in history is;
Damien Hobgood USA 19.90 def Andy Irons Hawaii 18.96 (38.86) Fiji final 04.
Round 2 could be competed and round 3 started tomorrow.
Tune into www.aspworldtour.com first thing in the morning to see.
Aloha,
Mike Newman
RAS Sports surfing stats
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Never though I would be saying Neco was ripping and the judges were undering scoring Neco!