April 09 Archive

Check out Tay Tay Clark on Surfline! He got snubbed for the Hot 100 for some strange reason, but so did Kanoa Igarashi (Most NSSA wins in one season, ever!) and Keanu Asing (your current junior world champ!) . . . . I guess they should call it the Not So Hot 100!

Whatever . . . . . Surfline hooked him up big time - yeah Tay Tay!!!

Congrats to Bubble Gummer Freddy P on his third place finish at the Rip Curl Pro. For complete story and pics check out the contest site.

Owen Wright Triumphs Over Slater; Parko On A Roll by Sean Doherty, Surfermag.com

Bells Beach is six foot, offshore, sunny, warm… and the Earth has surely shifted a few degrees off its axis.

“It’s pumping, proper,” offered Joel Parkinson as he jogged down the hill at Bells for his Rip Curl Pro heat this morning. For all the venom it cops, Bells shone today, the best day for a contest here in a decade.

As soon as Rip Curl committed to the new format, pruning a round off their event and consigning 16 surfers to a sudden and bloody demise on day one, you could have almost guaranteed this eventuality would present itself. Here is an event generally starved of waves suddenly with more waves than it knows what to do with.

It doesn’t rain, it pours.

“When the contest started on day one this swell was only 50/50,” surmised event forecaster Ben Matson. “And now we’ve got two of them.” So good is the forecast for the remaining days that they even called off the contest yesterday – the best day at Bells in six months, and surely the best layday in Bells’ history.

The surfing today, fittingly, lifted, and it was most evident in the top-heavy top half of the draw. The magic in the early heats came from the likes of Taylor Knox, Parko and Mick Fanning in particular. Parko looked the pick, surfing weightless yet brutal.

“I’m just glad he didn’t get another high nine,” laughed Joel’s travelling mentor, Luke Egan after the heat. “What can ya tell a guy who just got two 9.8s? You should have got two 10s?” Managing talent of that calibre can be the easiest and hardest job in the world, and in the case of a guy like Joel, seemingly, it’s more about managing momentum than anything else.

Joel’s win became even more significant after Kelly’s loss. The top half of the draw became somewhat less stacked when the world champion was bundled out by Aussie wildcard, Owen Wright. Kelly Slater’s love/hate relationship continued today, with little love out there for the defending Bells champion. Surfing a board substantially longer than his well-trumpeted 5’4”, a board with a nose even, Kelly surfed well, even managing to conjure a barrel from the barrel-less expanse of the Bells Bowl. But at no stage could you clearly say either he or Wright owned the heat.

“I just didn’t want to look him in the eyes out there,” said the stringbean Aussie after walking back up the stairs. “The boys had warned me about it.” Owen, a long heralded prodigy here in Australia, threw a couple of turns big enough to get some traction with the judges and consign Kelly to his second 17th, and second wildcard loss in a row. Where that leaves his 10th world title was anyone’s guess, but the sound of champagne corks popping were notable by their absence. With Tahiti next he’s still in the mix.

The contest was shuffled over the headland after lunch to Winkipop as the tide filled in and the wind swung sideshore. The only established star still floating around in the bottom half of the draw is Taj Burrow, and he’ll be first heat in the water when the contest resumes in days ahead. With the wind expected to stay sideshore south-west tomorrow before swinging back to the ideal nor-west on Thursday, it looks like a day off is the likely outcome.

See you Thursday.

RIP CURL PRO BELLS BEACH ROUND 2 RESULTS: Heat 1: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 16.00 def. Mick Campbell (AUS) 11.00 Heat 2: Taylor Knox (USA) 16.93 def. Chris Ward (USA) 10.67 Heat 3: Kai Otton (AUS) 12.67 def. Dayyan Neve (AUS) 12.50 Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.76 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 11.66 Heat 5: Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.16 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 15.27 Heat 6: Bobby Martinez (USA) 16.40 def. Tim Boal (FRA) 12.50 Heat 7: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 13.00 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 12.17 Heat 8: Owen Wright (AUS) 14.67 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 13.83 Heat 9: Adam Robertson (AUS) 16.10 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.84 Heat 10: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 12.57 def. Jihad Khodr (BRA) 9.67 Heat 11: Drew Courtney (AUS) 16.07 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.60 Heat 12: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) 15.60 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 13.47

REMAINING RIP CURL PRO BELLS BEACH ROUND 2 HEATS: Heat 13: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Jay Thompson (AUS) Heat 14: Tim Reyes (USA) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS) Heat 15: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Dean Morrison (AUS) Heat 16: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. David Weare (ZAF)

RIP CURL PRO BELLS BEACH ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS: Heat 1: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Taylor Knox (USA) Heat 2: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Joel Parkinson (AUS) Heat 3: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Bobby Martinez (USA) Heat 4: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Owen Wright (AUS) Heat 5: Adam Robertson (AUS) vs. Tom Whitaker (AUS) Heat 6: Drew Courtney (AUS) vs. Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) Heat 7: TBA Heat 8: TBA

Christian Saenz Age: 17
Hometown: Huntington Beach, Ca School: Huntington Beach High School-11th grade Sponsors: Hurley, Arnette, Cobian, Huntington Surf and Sport, Timmy Patterson Surfboards, Prolite, Bubble Gum, Vertra sunscreen.

Christian joined an elite club of surfers which includes Tom Curren, Mike Parsons, Pat O'Connell, Timmy Reyes and Pat Gudauskas by clinching the Southwest Conference Open Men's title at Open #10 at HB Pier. To make this achievement all the more sweeter, he iced it with a victory on his home court in epic 4-6 foot HB perfection. Christian's thirst for competitive success and nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic are second to none so look for him to make a strong statement at the 09 championships.

TEAM AUSTRALIA WINS FIFTH TEAM GOLD MEDAL AT THE QUIKSILVER ISA

(Salinas, Ecuador) April 5, 2009 - In a dramatic come from behind victory, Team Australia was crowned the 2009 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Champions today in Salinas, Ecuador. Australians Dean Bowen and Tyler Wright won individual gold medals for Under 18 Boys and Under 18 Girls. Keanu Asing from Hawaii won the Under 16 gold medal. Team Brazil won the Aloha Cup, an Olympic style ISA specialty tag-team event.

2005 ISA World Junior Champions, Hawaii, received the team silver medal, Brazil bronze and USA copper. France placed fifth overall, South Africa sixth, New Zealand seventh, Tahiti, Peru and Costa Rica came in eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

The largest crowds ever seen at a junior surfing event packed the beach for eight days at la FAE and were on hand to witness a thrilling conclusion to the contest this afternoon.

Today's final was a triumph for Australia who found itself relegated to sixth place in the standings only two days ago. “It comes down to the fact that all of our kids have the real Aussie pride,” said Australian coach Mark Richardson. “At the world juniors, there are so many good surfers and there is a lot of pressure. But when the pressure comes on, our kids step up. They've got big, big hearts. They stayed positive and they didn't give up.”

Bowen was knocked into the repercharge rounds earlier this week, losing to Costa Rican Carlos Munoz, Brazilian Thiago Guimaraes in round three. In a test of endurance, Bowen battled his way through seven elimination rounds before making it to the finals, impressing the 12 member judging panel on his way to taking first in all but one of his heats. His final match opponents, Brazilian Miguel Pupo, French surfer Maxime Huscenot and Hawaiian Dylan Goodale, all came through the qualifying rounds.

In the Boys Under 18 final heat, Bowen took the lead catching the first wave, working the left point with huge frontside turns all the way to the shore. Bowen's next scoring wave solidified his first place lead. Pupo made an attempt to move into first with two back-to-back waves and a combined score of 15.06, but Bowen held the lead. With eight minutes still on the clock Bowen sealed the door shut with a huge 9.10 leaving Huscenot and Goodale way behind and needing a combination of 17.61. Huscenot's last wave featured a huge free falling floater on the outside section and pulled him up into third but with time running out, but he couldn't find the last second wave he needed to win. In the end, Pupo won silver, Huscenot bronze and Goodale copper.

“I feel on top of the world,” said an emotional Bowen after the win. “This is by far the biggest win of my life. I train for this contest all year, it is what I do. I am stoked, I cannot believe we won. I would like to dedicate this win to my late mother whom I lost when I was nine years old, and to my father who is recovering from knee surgery back at home.”

In the Under 18 Girls Final, Australian Tyler Wright was up against 2008 ISA World Junior gold medalist Australian teammate Laura Enever, USA surfer Courtney Conlogue and Hawaiian Alessa Quizon. After charging through the main rounds through all eight days, Wright came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, posting the first big score of the final and holding on to first for the entire 30 minutes. USA surfer Courtney Conlogue kept right on Wright's heels, also posting big scores, but in the end was left needing almost nine points to overtake Wright.

Coming in from the water on the shoulders of Australian teammates and wrapped in the Aussie flag, Wright poured water over herself to cool down from an exhausting and intense final. “This is so awesome,” said Wright. “Every heat this year in Ecuador has been a hard. There are so many good competitors here from around the world. I knew I had to just focus on my own game out there in the water and not worry about the others. We hit rock bottom the other day and it didn't look as though we would be in the medal rounds, but we pulled together as a team. The support we've given each other has been amazing.”

The Under 16 Boys was one of the toughest divisions this year. Stacked with talent, the race for gold seemed as though it could easily have gone to any one of the top 16 juniors. Surfers from Brazil, USA, Costa Rica, Peru, South Africa and Hawaii all had a shot at the top podium spot and Under 16 gold medal. Coming down to the final heats, Hawaii's Keanu Asing made it clear he was going to prevail as the 2009 ISA World Junior Champion. Coming back from deep in the repercharge rounds, Asing set his radar on the gold and gave it all he had.

“This is the biggest thing I have ever won,” said Asing. “I am so stoked to have pulled through the repercharges. I think the loss in round four actually helped me. It made me more charged up and more focused. I knew I had to get good waves because every heat could have been my last. Coming to Ecuador has been an incredible experience. We have had good waves all contest and everyone surfed really well.”

In the final heat, Gabriel Medina from Brazil fought hard, just narrowly missing first by 0.16. Medina also had the highest single-wave score of the heat with a 9.52, but was unable to overtake Asing despite a combined score of 17.38. South African David Brand came in third, needing nearly a perfect 10 for first. Brazilian teammate Jesse Mendes finished fourth. In a great show of sportsmanship, all four surfers embraced and congratulated each other after the heat.

In the Aloha Cup, Brazil pulled ahead for the win over France, Ecuador and South Africa. Making the final was a proud achievement for the host nation, which showed all week how talented and welcoming its surfers are.

The day concluded with the official medal ceremony with the crowning of the 2009 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Champions. “This is where we show the world that the Olympics of surfing are for real,” said ISA president Fernando Aguerre before the medals were awarded and the national anthems of the winning teams were played. “Muchas, gracias, Ecuador!”

As winners of the Under 18 Boys and Under 18 Girls, Dean Bowen and Tyler Wright will also receive entry spots in the 2010 Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast Trials, an Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour event.

For full results from the 2009 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship and to see photo highlights and on-demand video, visit www.quiksilver.com/isa.