The show’s over, Adriano and JJ are up on stage, the crowd’s going nuts and behind it all, Kieren Perrow is finally able to exhale.
It’s been a long week of perfect waves, but the man in charge knows better than anyone, it all came down to this.
He’d hedged his bets on the final day, and advice from local guru Mike McAuliffe, to deliver a fitting end to one hell of a party and he’s come up trumps…again.
The Indian Ocean is three shades of blue, the sky is shining and the waves continue to come marching in.
If anything, by the time the event is officially over, the waves really start to pump and all eyes again turn towards The Box.
But for now, KP is wearing a relaxed grin and the calm air of someone who very well might be getting barrelled, or sinking a couple beers, or quite possibly both, later today.
“That was a nervous couple of days for sure,” he tells Tracks.
“We knew this swell was coming, but until you wake and see it, it’s always nerve wracking.”
Nerve wracking because truth be told, Mainbreak is not often this good this often, let alone for a week straight.
“This Saturday was unlike anything I’ve ever seen out there,’’ he says.
“You just don’t get it that big and clean that often and we did consider running some heats out at Boatramps. Fortunately the swell pulled back a bit and we got an incredible day’s surfing done.”
Hang on…Boatramps?
It may come as a surprise to many, but the World Surf League already had one of Margaret River’s best big wave locations up it’s sleeve and would have been able to run heats out there if the swell continued to rise.
Furthermore, Perrow says signs are good WSL will have North Point by the time the circus rolls around next year.
“We had some very productive meetings while we were here,’’ he says.
“Having North Point as another option would just be incredible. But it’s a very fragile environment out there so we just want to make sure everything is in place.”
But for now, the chain of thought is broken by the victorious Brazilian and his emotional victory speech, which ironically turns to Perrow just as the interview winds up.
“I wanna congratulate Kieren for definitely making some hard calls,” chuckles de Souza.
“When he falls, we have to stick by him, when he makes the good calls…we’ll stick with him too.’’
