The waves at the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup yesterday left a lot to be desired. You can see how the beach break and mini-rock point at Merewether could get quite good with swell. You can even see how it’d be an excellent place for a contest. But unfortunately, that swell eluded WSL officials yesterday as clean, 2-3-foot surf rolled through in the morning with the afternoon winds getting on it slightly as the day wore on, limiting contestability.
Still, the World Surf League soldiered through the seeding rounds. There were several highlights including the wearers of the yellow easily advancing on and looking totally healthy (see John John Florence and Tyler Wright). But one man stole the day. Italo Ferreira did what Italo Ferreira does: make marginal surf look really, really fun. Opening up, he went left repeatedly, ignoring the other direction and any semblance of turns, starting off with a clean air revo and a pretty little straight air (followed by a ridiculous miss on an alley-oop). The man literally didn’t turn until his fourth ride. Jack Robinson certainly looked good, too, with several enviable laybacks.
But Italo. The man basically went to town on the shorebreak (how’d you like that layback hack at 5:35, above?). Air revos and blow tails followed. The Brazilian looked like he was definitely having the most fun. In fact, he had fun 17 times over the course of the 30-minute heat and not one moment of fun looked the same. He was, without a doubt, the best thing to happen to the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup on the event’s opening day.
The next call from Newcastle is April 4. Go to WorldSurfLeague.com for the latest details.
