Batten down the hatches, people. We’re in for a big one.
Yes, another week in the books. And it’s about time the surf world starts shifting its focus to something bright in our near future. What’s that? Well, with a solid swell that blasted the Pacific in May and last month’s Indian Ocean affair, I think we are pretty much ready to start marking off the days on the calendar until El Nino starts wreaking havoc on our work schedules. Let the countdown begin. Until then, let’s rehash another week of making and catching waves:
Video of the week:
I’m not a big Shark Week guy. Yeah, sharks are rad and completely fascinating for a trillion different reasons, but once you’ve seen one video of a great white breaching, you’ve seen them all. And then this video popped up on our radar this week. I learned more new stuff about great whites in this 2:19 than I’ve learned in my last 5 years of educational television programming. They “mouth,” kind of like human babies, which I’ve always known but never actually seen in action. And they practice “priority” unlike most surfers, who are mostly just larger versions of said human babies. Same temper tantrums and all.
The moral of the story is I’m officially hooked on this web show.
From the Tour:
Tahiti, duh. Here’s the deal with Chopes, just bare with me. Every other tour stop has lay days when it’s flat. I actually get a tad embarrassed every fall when Lowers inevitably shuts down while the top 34 are in town. Here’s a world class wave just a short drive from my adopted Southern California home that I regularly ditch any and everything to surf when “it’s on.” And if when it shuts down during that contest window, I just know people all over the world are looking at us west coasters thinking, “How the hell is this a tour stop?” Granted, Lowers is an amazing wave. But it’s just a little embarrassing.
Teahupo’o, on the other hand, hands out lay days because it’s too psychotic to hold a contest. I always imagine those scaffoldings get smoked by a bomb with a hundred boats scurrying to the outside, all while the top 34 are taking the day off to watch dudes score XXL entries. That’s Teahupo’o. Then it settles down to a “mellow” 12 foot day sooner or later and the contest jerseys go back on.
On the 2015 title front, there’s actually a TON on the line going into Tahiti now. Five surfers are within 10,000 points of the Jeep Leaderboard’s #1, Adriano De Souza. Rounding out that list, as if coming out of nowhere, is Ke11y himself.
