How’s this little exchange? Adriano De Souza chucks an air kinda like Strange Ben surfs…raw, powerful, a little stiff! Start stretching Strange B.
Then comes Zeke the Hawaiian Freak out of nowhere with a little slash and burn agriculture approach. Yew!
Felipe wins the heat. Looks like his power surfing is getting better. Onto Heat 4.
Our very own Strange Ben is out there. I think I see him between two beautiful women. Or are those long haired Aussie dudes? Tough to call.
Mick Fanning put on a carve clinic in Heat 2 of Round 4 dropping a 9.93 and a 8.93 only to become undone by a JJF buzzer beating alley-oop for a 9.97. More coming from Strange Ben later today but top notch surfing is going down…down under. Might be the first claim in JJF’s career.
Round 4 Heat 1 just started but looks like the lights have turned off at the stadium down out Bells Beach. We are waiting for the wind to blow this fog away and hear from our very own Strange Ben who is reporting live from Bells. Stay chooooned.
After some car trouble and too many beers, I’ve finally made it to Bells. Eureka!
It’s a lay day, but we still went into the contest area anyway. On our way in we saw, fittingly, two of our most favorite boys, Strider and Uncle Kaipo.
Our cameraman was rushed and didn’t quite get us all in there, but WOW! Kaipo really got all cute for the camera.
“What do you think…the contest going to run tomorrow?”
“We need some wind!” said Strider, or more affectionately known as All Weather Waz.
“Will they finish it all tomorrow if the waves are good?” I asked.
“That’d be torture!” laughed Uncle Kaipo.
They quickly had to run off. We checked the surf from up top and decided to paddle out, so we drove around to the other side.
Guess who we saw…yeah. Strides and Uncle Kaipo! “Sup boys?” They rejoiced at meeting us again.
They were walking to check the cove north of Bells and hang a leak or something like that. “Who do you guys think is going to win it?”
Strides raises a finger to the sky as he continued to walk to the edge of the cliff and says, “Owen.”
Kaipo looks back and agrees, stating, “It’s a heart thing, not a head thing….Owen!” Then the two best buds saunter around the corner, but not before giving us one more smile and wave. We’ll see them again.
Out in the water we saw Kanoa Igarashi and Zeke surfing with Jake “The Snake” Patterson. I asked Kanoa if he was still in it, to which he responded with a smile, “Nah, I lost to Wigolly.” Ah shit. I’d been off the grid. He then declared he wished his heat had been at Bells. He thinks he would have won.
“Who you got winning it?”
“I hope Zeke,” he says with a smile before catching a reeling bomb swinging in to clean up everyone except him.
Zeke caught a screamer from deep, and pumping down the line, he was being yelled at by The Snake to, “Do something!”
He was noticeably irritated after that, choosing to paddle almost all the way over to Winkipop for a couple bowlier insiders.
So you got yourself a couple predictions, weather and Champion wise, and a classic photo of the two sweetheart best buddies romping around the contest area on a lay day. Alright.
Onya.
Bottomless mimosas.
Most surf fans in The States griped when ADS won the tour 2 years ago. His stink bug stance, claims and repetitive lip bashings wasn’t exactly poetry in motion. Admittedly, we felt the same way until we heard a story that his older brother worked his ass off to save money to buy Adriano his first used surf board for $7.
I’m pretty sure that story is made up but anyway ADS didn’t grow up like Kolohe and should be respected. Here, ADS late drops on a big one, throws in a couple carves and finishes with his signature claim. Adriano took down his fellow countryman Jadson Andre in Round 2.
Do you think Parko gets tired of over slicing waves like a seasoned surgeon’s scalpel? I don’t think so. Here Joel, 2012 World Champ, shows his moves, with a clutch 8.33 to overtake rookie Leonardo Fioravanti.
O-Dog casually tears this wave apart on his backhand, taking his time setting it up before unleashing on the end section. This guy is a year removed from a major head injury and is ripping harder than ever. He looks poised to go far here at Margaret River. He takes down rookie Zeke Lau with ease to move onto Round 3.
Ethan Ewing is one of the most talented and stylish rookies to come on tour in a long time. His style is comparable to Andy Irons but honestly this 8.60 seems to be overscored. 3 turns, boring, except the first carve. I’ve done that last carve 100x and I’m a bald dude with a bum ankle. Santa Barbara legend Connor Coffin beat Ewing to advance despite the inflated 8.60.
Ace jams it on the first one and keeps his speed throughout the ride for an 8.83 vs Freddy Wap Morais. The second and third turn were the most critical and Ace kind of fluffed it on the end section but still advanced to Round 3 with an excellent score.
