“If you know what happened in the Mets game, don’t say anything, I taped it. Hello..”
What is that from? Drop a comment. First person to get it right wins a prize.
Well as you noticed, I got straight to the point of the New Zealand Pro. Just a brief recap on the Event Winners in last week’s Catch Up. No daily breakdowns, no event review, not even a prediction piece. What gives?
Not that it matters, but when the event started I was judging a contest of my own. Four days down at Seaside Reef. I’ve previously talked about how difficult it is to play catch up once you’ve fallen behind for these events. Shoot, I’ve got a regular job, contests, a young, growing family; All I’ve got is excuses.
I guess I will give my Final Thoughts about that event before we move on, but no point in recapping it in totality now. Too late; we all know what happened.
So here’s what I thought. Aside from this.
The wave looks potentially rad. The difference in that spot and the rest of the waves on Tour, that alone is enough for me to see it have another go next year. It’s unique.
The entire start and first half of the event was a tough watch. I’ve never seen priority and wave selection and rhythm of the heat become more of a factor than it was here during those opening days. If you were not in the right rotation of priority for when the sets would come through, you were cooked.
The couple of days before the event saw some insane free surfing, and I would hope to see conditions like that in a future edition.
The scene looked amazing. I’ve heard and read nothing but positive comments from the crew that worked the event, as well as the surfers themselves. Seemed to me like everyone truly enjoyed their time over in NZ, and I’ve a feeling that could play a big role in bringing an event back. The local crowd was vibrant. Few stories already of how stoked they ware to have the event in town and how they were great fans.
Lastly, the surfing. Fuckin hell the goofies loved every second of it, I’ll say. Ramzi lost in R1. O’Leary in R2, as well as Kauli Vaast, after dropping a tight one to Jack Robbo in the heat of the event to that point. Those must have felt like complete meltdowns. Aside from that, 4/8 Men QF were goofy, and ⅜ Women QF were goofy. Erin Brooks was a shocker to not be in the Quarters.
Italo’s ‘cheese whiz’ airs in the Final have been a topic of debate, and I completely understand why. I’m currently working on a “progression” piece, and this Final may take a center stage in that article. Morgan was fucking ripping, surprising nobody. Cole Houshmand looked really strong (shocker, he is). Rio lost on a buzzer beater, but I thought he was a threat to win. Filipe riding a 2+1 just ensured your local beachie to 50 Fishes out in the lineup this summer. And Yago was the in form surfer of the event. Think I’ve lost track of how many buzzer beaters the guy has already in his career.
Other things of note from Raglan:
- Medina and Toledo have met up at the last 2 events, Flip getting him both times.
- I watched Oscar Berry let Eli Hanneman go, while holding priority, on the last wave of the heat. I could have walked out of the room and told you with 100% certainty that Oscar lost the second Eli that was on his feet. If Oscar does not make a heat at the next event in El Salvador, he will not make one the entire year. Book it.
- Yago and Italo had an interesting paddle battle in their semi final heat that put the whole Jacob Wilcox Margies incident in a new light. It was very similar to that situation out West, where one surfer was sitting under the other and tried to force the Interference. This one was different because instead of bickering with each other and turning into a full blowout, these two boys just smiled and talked it out like friends. To me, it showed the dynamics between Brazilian surfers vs fellow countrymen and Brazilian surfers vs others.
- Anat got an interference after the heat was over, and that was maybe the only reason Steph got through a heat. That rule sucks. Makes sense, but sucks.
- BettyLou will be the reason that no female will ever speak out on another one of her competitors again. Fuck. What a turning of the tables. Carissa straight up punished her in the Semi’s, throwing away a 9 point ride in that heat. I think she was surfing with some extra fire for that Semi.
- The “seal” incident – I’ve heard that the Seal was never confirmed, and that it could have been some kind of ‘soft mouth’ shark. Stace Galbraith said the photographer that got attacked, Ed Sloane, he was pulled fully underwater. Had to paddle to get to the surface. Sketchy shit. Not just a light “WildLife Attack” like it was made out to be. Supposedly none of the locals had ever seen anything like that before.
So that’s it. The Parent Power takes over in NZ as Italo and Carissa are Winners. The Brazilian’s occupy the first ⅘ of the Men’s Top 5, and 6 of the Top 10. On the Women’s side Gabby Bryan is back rocking the Yellow Jersey, and the race is tight. She’s had three straight 5th place finishes since her Win at Bell’s to start the year.
I will have a prediction piece coming up for El Salvador soon. It’s going to be a little different this time around. I just spoke with Pedro from Surf Stats – check out that interview here – I will be using a bit of his statistical analysis to make my fantasy picks for the event. Make sure to follow his page and posts to keep your team up to par.
Back in the rashie soon.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield