They were calling it Super Sunday, Ladies Day at the Drug Aware Pro and if all the punters around the contest had their money on one person it was that gal, Super Sally. At some stage this week Sally Fitzgibbons had earned the nick name (a typically Aussie thing) of Super Sally or variations of it. The buzz on the beach on the final day was all about a Super Sal vs Tyler Wright final. Both girls had been ripping and looked headed to the final showdown.
Out of the wings emerged the Super Mum, Chelsea Hedges, who had taken a year off the WCT tour in 2008 to have a baby and was now back in the women's contest mix and causing some havoc.
She hadn't won a contest since 2007 although she came very close in the WCT final in Portugal last year, which was won by Coco Ho. "I just ran out of steam in that final,' said Chelsea after arriving back on the beach today. '...I wasn't going to let it happen again."
Super Sal had racked the highest heat score of the whole contest, both mens' and women's, with an 18.43 points out of a possible 20 in the semis but couldn't repeat it in the final.She tried mighty hard and almost nailed it with her last ride. It put her into the lead but Chelsea had split the peak with her, gone right, and snatched the lead back as the hooter sounded.
The weird thing today was from the quarters on there was one natural footer and one goofy in each heat and to make it even weirder most of the rides were backhand waves. Chelsea had one forehand wave in the final while Sally surfed left the whole time.
Just a a foot note, the DNA flow runs deep in OZ. Felicity Palmateer , who made the semi's is a second cousin to former world pro surfer Josh Palmateer while Tyler Wright, who made the other semi, is the brother of Owen Wright. Dad Rob was caddying for Tyler and was stoked to have one of the siblings make it through so far. 'We had one go up and one go down this week," he said after Tyler's quarter final and was disappointed that she didn't go further but "...it's not a bad result for Tyler."
Chelsea got all her ducks in a row today and welcomed the win. She reckoned it was a great warm up for Bells which starts next week.
That's it from WA, it's been a great week here in Margaret River, the country bush smell is unbelievable and it's a great arena. Good days on the beach with sun and surf and good red wine to top off the end of the days. The Cow Parade has been a moo'ving experience and we even scored a green flash for our last sunset.
We're now headed to Bells later this week.
CYA
Peter 'Joli' Wilson
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