Dane Reynolds scores a wildcard entry into the 2013 Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast.
Dane Reynolds and girlfriend Courtney before a heat at the Quiksilver Pro France where he finished 2nd behind Kelly Slater
The announcement yesterday of Dane Reynolds receiving a wild card entry into next month’s season opening Quiksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast no doubt sent shivers through a lot of the ASP’s new Top 34.
Reynolds didn’t enjoy the grind of touring the world competing in WCT events when he was a member of the Top 34 but he does love competing and it shows when he turns up at an event, competing as a wildcard and goes about winning heats.
He cut a swath through the Quiksilver Pro in France last year, finishing second to good friend and mentor Kelly Slater and all but ending any hopes that Mick Fanning had of a 2012 World Title along the way.
Dane getting shacked in the beach breaks of Hossegor France.
Reynolds was the Vans Wilds card for the whole of the Vans Triple Crown in Hawaii last season and while he didn’t get close to winning an event like he did in France he certainly caused a few headaches for his fellow competitors along the way. An equal ninth at the Billabong Pipe Masters in testimony to that. With virtually no ratings points to his name Reynolds will likely draw either the new world champ and hometown hero, Joel Parkinson or the #2 seeded surfer, 11 times world champ Kelly Slater.
“As a wildcard you’re automatically the lowest seed in the contest so you get a really tough draw in the first three rounds which makes it really exciting but really difficult,” he said. “Joel would definitely be a fun heat but I like to surf against Kelly too.”
The draw for the Quiksilver Pro wont be worked out until the results of the Trials are known because the other wildcard will go to the winner who may or may not have a higher seeding points than Reynolds. The Quiksilver Pro Trials will run on March 1st, the day before the beginning of the waiting period for the Quiksilver Pro.
Reynolds is a crowd favorite partly for his enigmatic reputation and also for his devil may care attitude which results in some of the craziest moves ever attempted in contests. he sent the internet into melt down last November when he pulled off an amazing snap to reverse at Haleiwa during the Reef Hawaiian Pro. Fans will be watching via the webcast or flocking to Snapper Rocks to see what he can do this time around.
Dane smacking his way through a heat in the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa last November
Last year at just
18 years of age Brazilian Gabriel Medina split open a huge hole in the ASP
world tour. As a teenage giant killer, Medina went from young grommet to
full-fledged world title contender in the blink of an eye with two World Tour
wins from four contests.
At 15 years old
Medina is the youngest surfer to win a WQS event and amazingly had only begun
competing in pro surfing events at 14. Last years ASP mid-year rotation made it
possible for him to jump straight from the WQS and into the 2011 ASP Top 34.
2012 should be
shaping up as a big year for him but an =25th place at the
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast is not what was expected by him or his fans. What went wrong?
Snapper Rocks can be a tricky place to surf at times especially in less than
ideal conditions. Medina couldn’t find any rhythm in either of his heats and paid
a heavy price being knocked out in Round Two by fellow rookie, Aussie Yadin
Nichol. But there is one thing for certain about the year ahead, Medina wont be
down for long. The Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach is just around the corner.
Steph is Back:
The first Women’s World Tour event for 2012, the Roxy Pro Gold Coast, is all wrapped up with Aussie girls filling the top four spots. Four times world champ Stephanie Gilmore was back on the podium holding the winners trophy and lighting up the crowd with her infectious smile.
Steph, the local heroine, defeated North Narrabeen’s Laura Enever who was surfing in her first tour final, with a excellent nine point plus wave right on the siren.
Fellow Aussies Tyler Wright and Sally Fitzgibbons bowed out in the semi finals. The tour rookies put in solid performances and it looks like it will be an exciting year ahead for women’s surfing.
Check out all the action in this Gallery. Also check out the latest issue of www.18seconds.com.au for a cool multi media interview with yours truly.
The next big event is the Women’s Six Star rated Telstra Drug Aware Pro at Margaret River in Western Australia. I’ll be covering all the action so keep an eye on this blog.
Cheers
Joli
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast 2012 - Images by Peter 'Joli' Wilson Happy Vegemites
Aussie surfers scored a double victory at Snapper Rocks with Taj Burrow winning the Quiksilver Pro and (former world champion) Stephanie Gilmore winning the Roxy Pro.
“I’m feeling great mate!” said Burrow after defeating Brazilian Adriano de Souza in what was a tense see sawing 35 minute heat battle in front of a packed Snapper Rocks beach.
“I felt like I was in Rio [Rio de Janeiro],” said Burrow about the massive crowd that spilled into the water. “There were so many Brazilians here chanting for Adriano and I was a bit unnerved at first but it got me revved up, and I heard the Aussies bounce back with a really good roar on a couple of my waves, I could actually hear them as I was going through my turns. That’s a pretty special feeling.”
Burrow’s definitely needed some local support after de Souza had opened the final with an eight point ride nailing an air reverse on his very first turn.
“I was freaking after Adriano’s first ride, it’s quite an exclamation mark to come out on the first wave and try an air on your first turn,” explained Burrow later. “He did a sick turn and got eight (points) for just that one turn which is quite intimidating for sure but I knew I could get those scores too, if not better, if I could pick the right waves, but he (de Souza) sure makes it hard for you.”
Adriano de Souza, who had avoided a lot of the contest hype that focused on Joel Parkinson, Kelly Slater and Jordy Smith has come second in this event and would have dearly liked to have won, but Burrow got the better of him again today.
“We’ve met about 10 times now and Taj has won about six times,” said de Souza as he watched Burrow being mobbed by a massive media scrum. “I had the heat of my life against Taj last year and I would have really liked to have had a win today. What can I say, he belongs in the top three or four in the world and he has been knocking on the door (of a world title) for pretty much like 10 years. I’m sure we’ll met again and maybe next time it will be different.”
Both third place getters, Josh Kerr and Jordy Smith would have liked to have the results go differently too.
“If you’d told me a week ago I was going to get a third I would have told you I’d be stoked, “ said Kerr as he watched Burrow and de Souza battle out the final. “I really wish I was out in the final right now,” he continued with a shrug. “I had that heat this morning against Adriano and I really wanted to get through so I’m really disappointed right now, but I’ll take a third.”
Jordy Smith had his own reasons for wanting a win at Snapper Rocks after the news last week of the downgrading of the World Tour event at Jeffreys Bay (to a six star); Smith would have been the defending champion.
“I had an added incentive to win here because they’ve taken JBay (Jeffreys Bay, South Africa) away and I wanted to win one of the right hand point breaks this year.”
Smith was runner up two years ago at the Quik Pro and made the semis twice in the last three years so he was more than a little disappointed about his result.
“@#%*, I’m just really bummed, I wanted to make the final so bad. If you want to win a world title you’ve got to win finals,” he said. “I guess it’s a really good start to the year and now I hope to go and do really well at Bells, hopefully win or make the final at least.”
When asked about the conditions today he answered with a smile, “It wasn’t perfect Snapper but I’m happy to have beaten Parko out here (Joel Parkinson’s home break). He’s probably beaten me 10 times and I’ve only beaten him three, so I don’t think I’ve got it over him yet, (laughing) but those three times are all out here at Snapper.”
The 2012 Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast didn’t have perfect waves and for a lot of the Top 34 surfers it was a nervous start to the year. The tour rookies didn’t really get a chance to shine with the seasoned pros filling the final top eight spots.
Taj Burrow has led the world tour ratings at this stage of the year before, but it’s another long year ahead. He just laughed when asked how he felt about his World Title chances this year?
“Right now, it’s all about rating points and having a few beers with my mates.”
It's the last day of April and the surf has returned to the Gold Coast after a week of tiny waves. Cool south westerly winds early and an easterly swell made for some fun conditions this morning. I figure it caught a lot of people by surprise as the line ups were fairly sparsely packed early. The dropping tide made a bit of difference and the news of the 'weekend' swell arriving a day early started to filter out. We've got a long weekend here in Queensland for May Day so today could be a little entre for the next few days. Get out there and enjoy it. Cheers Joli
Kirra Point is the northern limit of the fabled Coolangatta, Queensland's most southeastern town and the home of a long line of "Coolie" surfing legends such as Rabbit Bartholomew, Peter ‘PT’ Townsend, Michael ‘MP’ Peterson and the new Coolie Kids, Mick Fanning, Dean Morrison and Joel Parkinson.
On Australia’s National Day, January 26th2009, more than 1500 surfers gathered for a protest paddle out. Their mission was to bring public awareness to the fact that the fabled Kirra Point had all but disappeared due to sand pumping from the mouth of the Tweed River just a few kilometers south.
The protesting surfers formed the outline of a map of Australia and drew media recognition from all around the world for their plight.
In days gone by a long lethal ribbon of sand was responsible for Kirra's supertube magic. Swells used to hit the sandbar at a 45-degree angle and suck their way with increasing intensity toward a small groyne off the Surf club and sometimes even past it.
When the sand was right it was literally sectionless, the barrel forming and reforming like some sort of incredible moving version of a wave machine. Large volumes of water ran down the outside rim of the sandbar, which made paddling back out a grueling proposition; many experienced Kirra surfers just got out of the water at a ride's finish and jogged back along the rim of the point to the jump-off point.
The loss of Kirra Point has been caused by an excessive build-up of sand that has been pumped and dredged into the Coolangatta Bay over the past 12 years. In this time there have been relatively low levels of storm activity and the sand has not naturally made its way north at the same speed at which it was placed in the bay.
An increase in the level of sand in the bay by 3–4 metres on average has resulted in a significant widening of the beaches, in some cases by over 150m, the loss of surf quality and an increase in rips
Currently the sand flow has moved slowly from Coolangatta Bay and into Kirra Beach, which now resembles a desert oasis and a 400-metre walk to the waters edge. After 6 years of sand pumping only 1/8 of the volume has moved north along Gold Coast beaches with the majority of sand volume lodged at Coolangatta and more so at Kirra and especially North Kirra. It’s the biggest pile-up of sand ever seen from Kirra to North Kirra, yet the sand continues to be pumped from the main outlet at Lovers Rock, Point Danger just north of D-bah beach.
This sand pumping issue is not one caused by Climate Change but a man made problem which current ASP world # 1 Joel Parkinson considers to be the main environmental issue facing his hometown beaches.
‘Sand pumping,’ says Joel, ‘they’re dammed if they do it and dammed if they don’t. We’ll never have Kirra and Snapper working at the same time while they continue to pump sand. Why are they even pumping sand?’ he asks.
The original reason sand pumping was put in place was to keep the Tweed River mouth clear of sand so that the local fishing fleet and pleasure craft could cross the sandbar safely. Despite nearly 12 years of dredging and pumping the bar has never been completely clear.Joel jokes that he saw Occy score one of the best barrels he’s ever seen ridden at the bar earlier this year.
Despite Parko considering the sand pumping as the major environmental threat to his surf breaks Climate Change has had an effect on the southern Gold Coast beaches. In late May this year a massive storm ripped apart the beaches causing some of the worst beach erosion in 40-50 years.
Gold Coast beaches from D-Bah in the south all the way to Surfers Paradise in the north suffered massive erosion. The ironic thing was that Kirra and Coolangatta had little damage and the massive sand build up from the sand pumping refused to budge. In the aftermath of the storm the local council used the Kirra sand to replenish some of the destroyed beaches.
‘It was cool they were able to use some of the excess sand to replenish the other beaches after that big storm hit, commented Parko, ‘… but I reckon at some stage they will run out of sand to pump.’
‘They’ve dumped a shit load of sand at D-bah and it hasn’t helped the erosion one little bit. It’s the worst I’ve seen it in all the time I’ve lived there.’
The May storm destroyed the bank at Snapper, exposing rocks and causing deep holes just off the beach.
‘There’s a hole the size of an Olympic swimming pool out the back of Snapper right now that will take a lot of sand to fill up,’ says Joel. ‘We wont even get Snapper back until that fills up.Climate Change is having a huge effect on our beaches and I don’t know what’s going to happen … they’re going to run out of sand to pump pretty soon. The beaches to the south of the sand pumping jetty are eroding too. What are they going to do? Pump sand south?’
As Joel said earlier there doesn’t seem to be one solution to the environmental damage being caused to the Coolangatta beaches. The authorities are dammed if the do pump sand or dammed if they don’t.
Parko reckons, ‘They just need to stop pumping for awhile and let nature settle things down, but we are either going to have Kirra or Snapper but we are never going to have both breaks at the same time.’
AS this piece was being written, during the Euro leg of the WCT world tour, Parko got news that, ‘The boys were scoring little low tide barrels behind the Rock at Snapper’. He just laughed when he heard the claim because he reckons it’ll take a long time before either bank, Kirra or Snapper is back to it’s best after the May storm.
