Mele Kalikimaka

A day late but it was busy yesterday with work and family things. Plus I sat out in the water for 3 hours waiting for the Christmas swell !!!!!!!!!!

2010 ASP World Tours

With the end of the 2009 WCT the seeded surfers for next year have been released. Lots of the bottom rung of WCT surfers have disappeared after failing to back up on the 'QS and there are some exciting rippers taking up rookie spots next year. Owen Wright made the WCT and Andy Irons was given the ASP wildcard he was promised before taking a break in 2009.

Taj finished fifth ater his win at Pipe and a reasonable year. Four of the top five were Australian but the rest of the top ten were Yanks and Adriano DeSouza.

On the womens side Steph Gilmore ended up winning easy. WA's Clare Bevilacqa made it back to the 'CT with a strong WQS season. Jessie Miley-Dyer back up on the QS to keep her spot and will be joined by super-grom Carissa Moore and Tom's little girl, Lee-Ann Curren. Unfortunately Alana Blanchard is out.

Next year both a new seeding system and the number of surfers in each event will change after Tahiti. Eventually there will be a single rating system but that will be fully implemented in 2011. After Chopes the number of surfers will drop from 45 on the 'CT to 32 plus wildcards. Anyone on the WCT in that bottom 13 will be back on the WQS. From then on the events will have 36 surfers (top 32, 2 ASP wildcards and 2 event wildcards) basically cutting a day off the running time.

Mundaka has been cut with the licence moving from Billabong to Rip Curl but remaining in Europe.

The Mens and Womens WCT surfers are -

ASP Top 27 (ASP World Tour)
Mick Fanning (AUS)
Joel Parkinson (AUS)
Bede Durbidge (AUS)
Taj Burrow (AUS)
Adriano de Souza (BRA)
Kelly Slater (USA)
C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Bobby Martinez (USA)
Damien Hobgood (USA)
Dane Reynolds (USA)
Jordy Smith (ZAF)
Taylor Knox (USA)
Tom Whitaker (AUS)
Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Dean Morrison (AUS)
Kai Otton (AUS)
Kekoa Bacalso (HAW)
Mick Campbell (AUS)
Chris Davidson (AUS)
Michel Bourez (PYF)
Ben Dunn (AUS)
Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Tiago Pires (PRT)
Jeremy Flores (FRA)
Roy Powers (HAW)
Drew Courtney (AUS)

Top 15 (ASP WQS)
Dan Ross (AUS)
Patrick Gudauskas (USA)
Jadson Andre (BRA)
Adam Melling (AUS)
Owen Wright (AUS)
Luke Munro (AUS)
Jay Thompson (AUS)
Nathan Yeomans (USA)
Dusty Payne (HAW)
Brett Simpson (USA)
Matt Wilkinson (AUS)
Tanner Gudauskas (USA)
Travis Logie (ZAF)
Marco Polo (BRA)
Blake Thornton (AUS)

ASP Wildcards:
Andy Irons (HAW)
Luke Stedman (AUS)
Neco Padaratz (BRA)

The national breakdown for the 2010 ASP World Tour is:

Australian: 46.7%
American: 22.2%
Hawaiian: 11.1%
Brazilian: 8.9%
South African: 4.4%
French: 2.2%
Tahitian: 2.2%
Portuguese: 2.2%

Top 10 (ASP Women’s World Tour)
Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
Silvana Lima (BRA)
Sofia Mulanovich (PER)
Coco Ho (HAW)
Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
Melanie Bartels (HAW)
Chelsea Hedges (AUS)
Paige Hareb (NZL)
Rebecca Woods (AUS)
Rosanne Hodge (ZAF)

Top 6 (ASP WQS)
Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS)
Carissa Moore (HAW)
Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Lee Ann Curren (FRA)
Bruna Schmitz (BRA)
Nikita Robb (ZAF)

ASP Wildcard
Amee Donohoe (AUS)

The national breakdown for the 2010 ASP Women’s World Tour is:

Australian: 41.2%
Hawaiian: 17.7%
Brazilian: 11.8%
South African: 11.8%
Peruvian: 5.9%
New Zealand: 5.9%
French: 5.9%

Some XXL nominations from this month

Small wave and low tide

There are a few waves down south but with a little bit of southerly on them. The tide is super low. There was a dog running around on the reef at Marges where it would normally be waist deep !

Locals would call today 2 - 3 max, everyone else would claim 4 - 6. There were a couple of over head and a half take offs at Main Break and a couple of head height plus at Southside.

Not looking good for a while unless we get some cyclone swell !

Taj is Pipe Master

Taj has just beaten Slater in the Pipe Master final and scored another $US 90 000 for his bank account.

I'm late for work now !!!!!!!!!

Taj and Slater in Pipe final

Taj and Slater have just hit the water in the Pipe Masters final. The waves are onshore and it looks like an air-fest rather than tube-fest.

Parko has won his second Triple Crown in a row, despite not making a heat in this contest.

The final is live now on Fuel TV and the net.

Mick Fanning is world champ

Parko has just been eliminated in round three making Mick Fanning the new World Champ.

Round four is on in decent waves. Fuel TV is showing it live

Round 2 over

The Pipe Masters run the rest of round two last night and hopefully tonight the higher seeds, especially Parko and Mick, will surf for the first time in round three. Both are up against Hawaiian wildcards. Mick will surf against Torey Meister who only made the contest when Sunny Garcia turned up late for his round one heat. If Torey wins this heat he will challenge for the Triple Crown, which Parko has a grip on. Parko takes on Gavin Gillette in the second last heat. Gillette flogged Mick Campbell in round two.

Taj has a horror draw coming up against Bruce Irons. Bruce pulled into one of the biggest and deepest Backdoor pits on day one. His brother Andy was all over Backdoor today, riding deeper and longer than anyone else and having a round two score of 18.40 out of 20. One wave where he stalled through a long barrel and then came out for a power figure 8 cutback re-entry was topped off with a little 360 in the foam. Worth watching on the heat on demand.

Fuel TV are showing the contest live for those with Foxel and it is webcast. With the dual heat format and hopefully good waves, it will be good viewing

BILLABONG PIPE MASTERS ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Dean Morrison (AUS)
Heat 2: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Torrey Meister (HAW)
Heat 3: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Andy Irons (HAW)
Heat 4: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. John John Florence (HAW)
Heat 5: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Flynn Novak (HAW)
Heat 6: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Michael Picon (FRA)
Heat 7: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Chris Ward (USA)
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Hank Gaskell (HAW)
Heat 9: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Liam McNamara (HAW)
Heat 10: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 11: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Bruce Irons (HAW)
Heat 12: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Heat 13: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Phillip MacDonald (AUS)
Heat 14: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Shane Dorian (HAW)
Heat 15: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Gavin Gillette (HAW)
Heat 16: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Kekoa Bacalso (HAW)

Nice day at Pipe

Plenty of high scoring and broken boards for rounds one and two of the Pipe Masters. Nothing dramatic in the results and the big boys are yet to surf.

There is rumours of a kick in swell in a couple of days.

If you have 10 minutes to spare click on the video and watch today's highlight package.

Pipeline Masters has started

The Billabong Pipeline Masters has started in some great looking waves. Pipeline is breaking both ways at 6 - 8 foot and offshore. Its sunny and blue and looks like classic Hawaii.

They are running the dual heat, basically two seperate two man heat running at the same time, which means there are plenty of waves being ridden. Scores are consistently in the high sevens and early eights and the high seeds don't surf till round three.

The webcast is top quality as you expect from a WCT event and worth watching.

Greg Long wins the Eddie

Well known big wave charger Greg Long has won the Eddie is some nice big waves at Waimea Bay. The last few Eddie's have been held on brown stormy days but today's conditions were nearly perfect and for a change the water was blue and so was the sky

What was interesting this year is how 25 + feet doesn't seem big or dangerous any more. Many of the surfers seemed to be playing with the conditions like it was a 2 foot beachie, being goaded by the crowd into trying to link up to the inside and pull into a dry suck death pit in the shorebreak. Having said that there was something extra to this event compared top watching endless tow ins.

Check out the heats on demand at the Eddie website.




RESULTS: Listed in order of 1st through 28th
Greg Long (California)
Kelly Slater (Florida)
Sunny Garcia (Hawaii)
Bruce Irons (Hawaii)
Ramon Navarro (Chile) * Monster Drop Award
Ross Clarke-Jones (Australia)
Jamie O'Brien (Hawaii)
Mark Healey (Hawaii)
Garret McNamara (Hawaii)
Noah Johnson (Hawaii)
Shane Dorian (Hawaii)
Makuakai Rothman (Hawaii)
Reef McIntosh (Hawaii)
Andy Irons (Hawaii)
Grant Baker (Hawaii)
Carlos Burle (Brazil)
Kohl Chrtistensen (Hawaii)
Kala Alexander (Hawaii)
Peter Mel (USA)
Takayuki Wakita (Japan)
Ibon Amatriain (Spain)
Clyde Aikau (Hawaii)
Keone Downing (Hawaii)
Mike Ho (Hawaii)
Darryl 'Flea' Virostko (USA)
Brian Keaulana (Hawaii)
Rusty Keaulana (Hawaii)
Pancho Sullivan (Hawaii)

The Eddie is go

As predicted a big swell has hit Waimea and the Eddie is on. Slater is currently leading from Andy Irons and Ross Clarke Jones.

The waves are big and clean, the weather is fine and the surfing unbelievable. These guys are surfing like it is 3 foot mush burgers. Andy, Kelly and Jamie O'Brien have all linked to the shore break and tried to get tubed on the massive dumpers.

Its live on the net with a couple more heats left here.

WQS Finishes

With the O'Neill World Cup over the fat lady has sung on the men's WQS. The top 15 will now be on the WCT next year, at least for the first few events before the new ratings system kicks in.

The final 15 ASP WQS qualifiers are:
Ross, Daniel AUS
Gudauskas, Patrick USA
Andre, Jadson BRA
Melling, Adam AUS
Wright, Owen AUS
Munro, Luke AUS
Thompson, Jay AUS
Yeomans, Nathan USA
Payne, Dusty HAW
Simpson, Brett USA
Wilkinson, Matt AUS
Gudauskas, Tanner USA
Logie, Travis ZAF
Polo, Marco BRA
Thornton, Blake AUS

Jay Thompson may re-qualify with a good result at Pipe and then no. 16 will take his place. There are a couple of gumbies there who seem to do the tour yo-yo each year, being just good enough to re-qualify via the 'QS but struggling to make it out of a 'CT round one.

Interestingly the current bottom 15 of the WCT haven't bothered to cross qualify and will drop out after the last event.

Parko wins in big Sunset

After a layday where it was too big for Sunset but too small for the Eddie, Parko has won the WQS O'Neill World Cup on the last day of the waiting period.

He beat world title nemesis Mick Fanning, old hand Sunny Garcia and Hawaiian Dusty Payne. With his good result in the first event a finals berth at Pipe could give him both his second Triple Crown and his first world title. The last news was that Pipe was full of sand and just a close out so it will be interesting to see if the recent swell has moved stuff around. The waiting period starts tomorrow night our time.

The waves were big and pretty clean at Sunset, with tubes and huge hacks off the top scoring well. The sort of day you think you could almost handle it ..... until a clean up set comes through !!!

Rumour is that a massive swell will hit tomorrow and the Eddie might go !!!!

Just like puppy dogs

This video from Shark Bay shows you don't have to be smart to be a researcher. How many hands would be left if the Tigers were full up on whale blubber ?

Click on the picture to see the video.

Big waves in Hawaii

The O'Neil Cup is on at Sunset in some clean solid surf. World champion contenders Mick and Parko are both through to the Round of 32. Parko has a very winnable heat with Mick's slightly harder.

The webcast is at http://www.triplecrownofsurfing.com/oneill/live.php