Who comes to mind when thinking back on the last couple of years of the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast? Who are those surfers who have left some sort of indelible mark on the long history of this event? Well, the event winners obviously, but life is much more than just winning, isn't it? It's also about playing the game, of having fun, of being a good sportsman or woman and it's about engaging with fans and viewers alike, isn't it?
Who remembers the time when we were all huddled around King Kelly after a heat win, microphones and iPhones in hand, ready for some pearls of wisdom from the man, to record and use as the basis for our daily reports, when he decided to have a rant?
He asked of us bottom feeders, 'Who is Will, and what was that piece of shit that you wrote about me me this morning and performance enhancing drugs?' or words similar. Read about it here
I went cold as ice for a split second until I realized that it wasn't me who wrote it. Then it was a joyous moment, as someone else was about to get crapped on by the king and it was all going to get captured by the other journalists and reporters.
Hats off to the guilty party, a very talented writer called Will Swanton. He replied, 'it was me.' And Kelly proceeded to admonish him and his skills and research level, adding that he would do a doping test any day of the week, providing that the writer paid for WADA prices. It was such a priceless, squirmy moment in the annals of Quik Pro history, even though Kelly did chat to Will afterwards and settle his grievances.
One year, not too long ago, the event was graced by a visit from Nicholas Cage, who came and hung out for a while and added some personality to the event. The star of what seems like a hundred average movies and two good ones (Wild At Heart and Con Air, the rest are shit, with Ghost Rider II: Spirit Of Vengeance so bad it’s like spew going into your eyes) had a drink and huddled with the masses for an afternoon, but the unruly and remorseless scrum at the RSL bar eventually proved too common for him and he left.
I remember bumping into Cheyne Horan and Glen Winton both having a chat with Gary Elkerton one afternoon, and they regaled stories and quips from years of visiting Jbay, Cape Town and Cave Rock, including Mr X's 2nd place finish to Wes Laine in massive Cape Town surf for the 1985 Spur Surfabout Challenge, and Cheyne surfing whites-only beaches with Free Mandela emblazoned on the underneath of his Lazor Zapp in the heart of Cape Town in 1984, the year of the South African boycotts that cost Tommy his title.
I sat on the beach one day with the inimitable Matt Biolos and we shot the breeze about surfboard technology, the future of surfing, the Medina factor and the chequered past of legendary tyke Chris Ward, as he kept a running judging criteria commentary going after every ride. His scoring predictions were uncanny, and mine were shit. He explained to me why I was wrong nearly every time. I had a propensity to over score because I was overestimating the difficulty of some moves that are commonplace moves for your common or garden championship tour surfer, apparently.
One year I got really friendly with Woody. We spoke about violence and tense situations, about who the real good guys on tour were and who the not so good guys were. About how calm Africa and JBay was in comparison to Brazil and Portugal.
One year I remember Occy being there, but he didn't seem to have anything to do at the event, any function. I never heard him say a word. Instead he just wore his hair in a long, plaited kind of dreadlock ponytail and smoothly rode his skateboard up and down the walkway with his head down, as you're allowed to do when you're that much of a legend…
