 | |||||||||||
A D V E R T I S E M E N T Details
| Quik Pro France runs 5 heats in tricky surf High tides, rip currents, onshore wind, and lull-y swell have forced contest director Miky Picon to call off competition today after running only 5 heats of round 2.This is the second day in a row where ideal swell and conditions have failed to produce the proper grinding tubes we've come to expect. The sand bank at La Graviere is stellar by all accounts, with a defined peak offering long rights and lefts, but the tide always seems too high, and the backwash has made tuberiding difficult. Even with the jet ski assist, competitors are doing an awful lot of duck-diving. Joel Parkinson snapped a board in his round 1 heat and with 8 minutes to go, was unable to make it back out through the rip to get one more score. Obviously I'm not in France, but this is one of the best beachbreaks on earth, with ideal conditions, and yet we are seeing a lot of single digit heat totals. Is there perhaps a better bank for these tides down the beach? I think we'd all like to see a repeat of last year's meat-grinder barrels. The weekend is shaping up to be an incredible one in terms of waves, so say tuned for the contest to be back on shortly. QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE REMAINING ROUND 2 RESULTS: Heat 4: Tiago Pires (PRT) 13.10 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 11.76 Heat 5: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 12.00 def. John John Florence (HAW) 11.86 Heat 6: Kai Otton (AUS) 12.60 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 12.13 Heat 7: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 12.43 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 7.60 Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 11.57 def. Daniel Ross (AUS) 11.50 QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE REMAINING ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS: Heat 9: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) vs. Miguel Pupo (BRA) Heat 10: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) vs. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) Heat 11: Brett Simpson (USA) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) Heat 12: Chris Davidson (AUS) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS) Channels: Surf Hurricane damage forces cancellation of Quiksilver music festival, Quik Pro still onIn a press release which you can read below, Quik has confirmed that despite Hurricane Irene's damage to the Long Beach NY area, the Quiksilver Pro, stop number 6 of 11, will begin as scheduled next monday September 4th. The coinciding music festival including a performance by Wayne Coyne and the fabulous Flaming Lips, and skate events including a vert comp with Quik rider Tony Hawk have been cancelled. Your can go here to check out the cool things that aren't happening anymore. This was a close call for surfers like Kai Otton, Adam Melling, and Freddy P, as they are just outside the bubble for qualification, and this event is their last chance to climb into the top 32. Had the hurricane caused a full cancellation they would be shit out of luck. No word yet on wether or not these changes of plan will stop Dane Reynolds and Bobby Martinez from showing up. Both opted out of J-bay and Tahiti, but have committed to this event due to sponsor obligations. Bobby now rides for an MMA clothing company based in NYC and Dane rides for Quik, who is throwing the shabang-abang. from the ASP: LONG BEACH, New York / USA (Tuesday, August 30, 2011) - An important update from Long Beach -- Quiksilver is working closely with the City of Long Beach to preserve the heart of the ASP World Tour surf contest scheduled to start on Sunday, September 4 in light of the impact of Hurricane Irene and concerns for the Long Beach community, which suffered significant damage from the storm. The Quiksilver Pro is scheduled to start its 11-day "holding period" on Monday, September 5. The Quiksilver Pro Trials presented by Unsound Surf will run on Sunday, September 4. The situation has been changing daily, and we recognize that City resources are focused on hurricane restoration and clean up as first priority. In that context, we have been informed by the City that the festival and music components of the event are no longer achievable. The Quiksilver Pro NY is first and foremost about the surf contest and Long Beach has an incredible surfing tradition and spirit. We are committed to holding the ASP tour event at Long Beach so that together we can promote the sport by bringing together the best surfers in the world to this terrific community. For updates throughout the competition, visit: www.quiksilverpro.com. Channels: Surf Pat Gudauskas wins Mr. Price Pro BallitoIt's beginning to seem like groundhog day over in Ballito, except instead of waking up to Bill Murray every morning, its been a week straight of pumping barrels. This never-ending swell continues in South Africa. With light winds and well-overhead surf still wrapping into the sandbank at Surfer's Beach, the call was made to run the quarters through to the final. After 4 quarterfinal heats packed with big tube rides and massive scoring exchanges, the swell and conditions began to hiccup as the semi-finals were preparing to paddle out. Defending champion Jordy Smith fell victim to a wave starved semi-final 1 against Pat Gudauskas. In what has become typical, Jordy was able to nail one last hail-mary as the buzzer sounded: only needing a 6.48. Despite a couple of solid rail turns, the judges only gave him a 6.33, to the dismay of the large local crowd. Next up Julian WIlson would fall victim to John John Florence's amazing tube-riding skills in semi number 2. Even during a slow heat with few open tubes, John John was able to secure the only high scoring ride of the heat with a 8.33 for a clean barrel ride and never looked back. The 30 minute legend's heat was just enough time for the swirling wind crumble to settle itself, and the ocean seemed to glass off just in time for the final showdown. San Clemente's Pat Gudauskas against Hawaii's John John Florence. Pat Gudang would draw first blood with a giant swooping turn at the end of a racy wall for a 7.17. Then, just as quickly as it had glassed off, the sea-breeze kicked up again, making the sections once again very difficult to make. The rest of the final would prove to be rather anti-climactic, with neither surfer getting any notable waves. And just like that, it was over. Congrats to Pat Gudauskas. With his placing in this event, John John is now in position to join the World Tour. Final 1) 11.84 Pat Gudauskas USA 2) 8.03 John John Florence Channels: Surf Tour vets feast on fresh meat at Quiksilver ProReality bit the 2010 tour rookies hard on Wednesday. Battle-hardened veterans of the ASP tour wasted no time feasting on fresh tour meat at the Quiksilver Pro. All remaining members of the 2010 rookie class were eliminated during Round Three by world tour A-listers: Parko, Fanning, Taj Burrow and Kelly Slater.  World Champion Mick Fanning got things started by coasting past Brett Simpson, reminding the kid from Huntington Beach (who cost Fanning $100,000 at the U.S. Open) that he was on Fanning's turf at Snapper. Joel Parkinson gave Dusty Payne a good thrashing while showing absolutely no signs of last year's ankle injury. He did, however, resemble the Parko we saw early in the season. Taj Burrow finally managed to put the clamp on the very dangerous Owen Wright, who wreaked havoc with the big guns last year as a wild card and is hoping to carry that momentum through in his rookie season. Then, on cue, after a day of brutal passing rain squalls and 30 mph winds the skies parted as Kelly Slater took to the water against Patrick Gudauskas. After a slow start, Slater put on his most inspiring performances in years. Though the scores didn't reflect it (because tubes were harder to find than a few heats earlier) his precision and handling of the throaty Snapper walls was as good as it gets. Slater's little swallow tail with a scooped deck fit the the low-tide bowls like a glove, and his movements and thoughts were one and the same as he surpassed even the best mind surfing session. You could say it was vintage Slater, but that implies he was better in the past, and 38-year-old Slater looks like he's still getting better. In the final heat of the day -- one of the best third rounds of competition you could hope for -- Jordy Smith fought off a late charge by Tiago Pires to survive. As for the other notables: Bobby Martinez took down a still rusty Andy Irons. Dane Reynolds came from behind to beat his Quiksilver teammate Jeremy Flores. Reynolds nabbed the lead in the closing moments after a shaky start. "Jeremy gets phsyched for big heats," said Kelly Slater, watching the Reynolds vs. Flores match. "And Dane's got a huge target on his back because he's Dane." Reynolds admitted he was struggling in the stormy conditions. "I'm sure it's pretty easy for Mick and Joel when it's like this but I was lost out there." Bede Durbidge, on the other hand, was finding every good wave that came through on Wednesday. The 6'1" Durbidge stood tall in number of ferocious caverns. He emerged repeatedly to earn scores in the 9.0 category, giving him the highest heat total of the day. As good as the Round Three match ups were, Round Four is looking even better, but witnesses won't be forgetting Wednesday's action for some time, as it was some of the best Round Three surfing the tour's ever seen. QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 4 MATCH-UPS: Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS) Heat 2: Chris Davidson (AUS) vs. Taj Burrow (AUS) Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Damien Hobgood (USA) Heat 4: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Mick Fanning (AUS) Heat 5: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) Heat 6: Daniel Ross (AUS) vs. Dane Reynolds (USA) Heat 7: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS) Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF) Channels: Surf Casualties Mount Early in Billabong's New Event Format TEAHUPOO, Tahiti (Monday, May 11, 2009) ' " Dane Reynolds looked to be in command during his Round One heat of the Billabong Pro. Entering the third event of the season the second-year tour star was hoping to recover from his early exit at Bells Beach, in Australia. Americans have pinned their hopes on Reynolds taking charge this year, especially after his solid rookie season, but his fans were dealt a serious punch to the gut Saturday when the kid from Ventura, Ca, was overtaken late in his heat by European star, Aritz Aranburu, who dropped into the set of the heat with just a couple minutes remaining and slammed the door shut on Reynolds. Channels: Surf | ||||||||||
