Today was one of those days that reinvigorate your love of competitive surfing. Hell, it was a day that probably reinvigorated most of the top 34’s love of competitive surfing, where losing doesn’t feel like losing and winning becomes a form of spiritual transcendence. Round 4 and 5 wrapped up in the kind of mindless perfection the Dream Tour’s been dreaming of all year, and the surfing that went down was as good as any we’ve witnessed in a long time.
Here’s the best of it:
Gab’s perfect 10
A little less than ten minutes into the opening heat of Round 4, Gabs pulled into the kind of barrel the rest of us poor suckers would be bragging about for the remainder of our days, then he came out and pulled in again. It was the most flawless of waves, ridden to perfection, and when he flew off the back to the sounds of the channel going ape-shit, the decision from the judges was unanimous—a perfect 10, the first of the competition.
Slater’s near-perfect heat (plus bonus profanities)
Let’s face it, when it comes to pumping Cloudbreak, Slater could probably still win out there when he’s fifty, such is his affinity with the wave. Today in his Round 4 match-up with ADS and Wiggolly he was in vintage form. First wave he takes off on an immaculate insider and proceeds to ride the thing deep and critical, tussling with the foamball the whole way, his hands never once touching his rails. It nets him a 9.77. On his second scorer he goes one better, getting drained the whole length of the reef for a perfect 10. By the time he took off impossibly late on a wave that’d already eaten ADS it was clear he was in the type of headspace that only a guy who’s destroyed so many fellow competitor’s hopes and dreams can reach. He didn’t make the thing, but the moments that followed when he went to retrieve his back-up board from the channel were priceless.
‘Fuck, that was the wave of my year right there,’ he fumed. ‘And I break my fucking good board!’
Fanning kills it, does weird post-wave celebration for Narelle
Fanning put on a clinic against Jadson and Kerrsy. Two long, near-perfect pits ridden by a guy who’s taken his backhand tube-riding from nothing-special-by-pro-standards to second only to Slater, Jamie O, JJF and the like. After his first deep barrel he came out and did one of the more original/less graceful claims anyone’s witnessed, which confused Ronnie and had Strider offering up the observation that: ‘It’s going Richter out here’ (which was confusing and mildly irritating in itself).
‘Yeah that’s a shout out to a friend that’s on the mainland—Narelle,’ Fanning told Strides afterwards. ‘We always joke around about doing the hula, so this year she said you’ve got to do the Micky.’
There you go, Narelle. Please don’t ask for another one.
Wilko outpoints JJF, banks another keeper
After his poor showings in recent heats, most people probably thought Wilko would get crushed by John (or even Ace) in their Round 4 match-up, but the former easy-beat put it together nicely to take the win. While JJF did his usual thing for a 9.93 and Ace was as consistent as ever, Wilko cranked it up a notch and combined some solid forehand tube lines with power hacks, eventually outpointing John by 0.13, who couldn’t find a back-up over 6.5. A quarter-final finish (or better) here for Wilko means he’ll hold on to the number 1 spot coming into J-Bay, which has traditionally been one of his stronger venues.
