Chelsea gets her ducks in a row at the Drug Aware Pro

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

Kerr gets high to win the Drug Aware Pro

Kerrsey, kerrsey kerrsey. That's all I'm hearing right now. It's a couple of hours after Josh Kerr pulled a joey out of the Kangaroo's pouch by disposing of a 16 point combo in a matter of minutes to win the six star prime Drug Aware Pro at Margaret River . With about five minutes to go Josh pulled two huge airs to score the only perfect 10 point ride of the week. The rights at Margs with the side onshore were providing the perfect ramps for airs. Kerrsey punted again on his next wave to hit the lead, leaving Taj needing over an eight with 90 secs to go.


Apparently Taj and Josh had been joking out in the water late in the final about the roll that Taj Burrow was on. "Yeah I was telling Taj how many points he'd have and how he was killing it in the ratings and how he'd won three contests this year and then he didn't win" said Josh with a laugh." Even the beach commentators were claiming Taj had won 23 heats in a row and won three finals on the way. They were being a bit liberal with the truth cos Taj had lost his first round heat at the Quikie Pro before winning the contest but as Bede Durbidge, who lost to Taj in the semi's reckoned, "Nobody counts first round losses, so technically he has won 23 in a row."

If anybody was on a roll this week it was Josh. He beat the current world champ Mick Fanning twice and then took out the World #1 Taj in the final. Maybe a drop of the Margaret River reds (not the kangaroo variety) helped him along in the early rounds but last night he went to bed by 8.30 and was stressing that he wouldn't be able to perform today. An unnecessary worry and if you look at his board preparation for the comp then maybe it just sums up his whole week.

"I only rode two of my own boards this week,' said Josh '... and I haven't ridden them for over a year. I've been riding everybody elses boards and then today I jumped on a board that I'd never even seen before... (laughing) .... It was a 6'0" and I've only been riding 5'8"s, 5'6"s and 5'5"s for months...it was strange riding 'normal' boards this week and I certainly wasn't prepared for the contest (laughing again) but I've enjoying riding them again."

It was Kerseys first ever WQS win. He's won plenty of air shows but never a CT or a WQS. He said later he only came over to the West because Rusty were one of the Sponsors and he'd come over to hang out and have fun. He did all that, hung out, had fun and won the whole damn thing.

Peter 'Joli' Wilson