BACK TO SERIOUS BUSINESSFrom Sarge, Gold Coast, Monday May 2nd 2005.
So what have the WCT lads been up to since we crowned Trent Munro as the 2005 Rip Curl Pro champion at Phillip Island’s Woolamai Beach on March 31st?
It’s been a busy month with the crew flitting all over the globe in search of waves, mainly on promotional editorial trips for their various sponsors.
After partying with a large contingent of WCT crew who unsuccessfully tried to send Melbourne’s Crown Casino broke the night the event finished, Trent Munro went straight home to Scotts Head. Following a quick celebration the next night with about 20 friends and family at a local restuarant, Trent went straight back to work catching a plane to Indo’ the following dawn for an O’Neill boat trip around the Mentowais.
Munro, or ‘Knackers’ as we call him, was on board for 10 days, with WCT peers Cory Lopez and Tim Reyes. They were startled with young American team rider Pat Cadowkis who reportedly blew doors. “I’m wrappin’ him - he f’n rips,” declared Knackers, who doesn’t rave too often – not about surfers anyway. His analysis is usually limited to one expletive that starts with an ‘f’. The boys were also joined by O’Neill girls Rachelle Ballard and Melanie Bartels for a portion of their stay. The best waves they scored were five footers at Lances Rights.
If you’ve been to the Mentowais lately, you’ll know that there’s so many boats plying the waters up there now, that it’s like peak hour on LA’s 405 freeway. Well…pretty busy. On their last day there, the O’Neill team came across a boat carting Koby Abberton, Bruce Irons and Dean Morrison. That talented trio reported that they had found few good waves the previous week, but that a swell was forecast for their remaining three days. Never one to miss an opportunity to shit-stir, Trent told them they’d been scoring eight second barrels, which didn’t go down too well.
Far from the Indo hunt, the Hobgood twins conducted one of their famous ‘Camp Hobgood’ retreats after the Rip Curl Pro, not in Mexico, Florida or California as normal, but down on Australia’s mid-NSW coast. They and their seven American apprentices surfed 2-5’ waves in an area renowned for good beachbreaks.
Also swapping familiar waters for an alternate excursion was the Aussie quartet of Jake ‘Snake’ Paterson, Taj Burrow, and TB’s close mates Damon ‘Stamos’ Nichols and Heath ‘Nutty’ Walker. They spent a few weeks down in Mexico surfing around Puerto Escondido in waves that reminded Snake of some of the guillotine beachies around his home territory of Margaret River and Yallingup.
Kelly Slater headed up a Quiksilver trip to the Mentowais later in the month and scored some great waves with the awesome young guns lineup of Troy Brooks, Ry Craike, Jeremy Flores, Dane Reynolds, Fred Patacchia, Julian Wilson and Maui’s 15 year-old dynamo Clay Marzo. According to some of the Quiky heavies, Marzo could “…smash some of the Top 45 guys”. Who knows where surfing’s standards will be by the time he gets to WCT levels?
Down the other end of the Indo’ chain, a boat load including Nathan ‘Hog’ Hedge, Mick Lowe, Phil Macdonald, Andrew King and Tom Whitaker did a shuffle up from Timor to Sumba and Sumbawa, before bolting over to G-land on the whim of scoring a strong sizeable swell from the depths of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately the boys said it wasn’t quite right when the swell arrived.
Mick Fanning went to Western Australia for a couple of weeks of filming, and Nathan Webster flew out of Sydney for the North Shore, to catch a predicted swell late in the month. He’s obviously enjoying having a year off the WCT because it was his fourth quick trip over there this year.
After his earlier Indo jaunt, Dean Morrison took off again late in the month getting some practice in for the Globe Pro Fiji scoring eight foot Cloudbreak on a short trip there for his shoe sponsor DVS.
Joel Parkinson and top Billabong juniors James Woods and Ellis Ericson bolted to New Zealand with Jack McCoy to continue shooting Parko’s video production, on an overnight prediction of good swell over there. Joel raved about the hospitality across the Tasman Sea in NZ, particularly that of the Maori brothers.
Back on the Gold Coast, the famed and frantic Snapper Rocks and beyond, continued to be the scene for crowds that are getting way beyond a joke. One of the best swells came in the first week of the month which saw the prime bank turning itself inside out on the run through Greenmount, 4-5’+ & perfect with Occy, Luke Munro, Luke Egan, Kelly Slater (riding a twin-fin), Richie Lovett, Gary ‘Kong’ Elkerton, Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Lee Winkler and Dave Rastovich amongst the pro-crew who came out on top of the other 400 (!) surfers competing for waves.
If you’re thinking of travelling to Australia to try your hand amongst the hordes,
think twice, because it is increasingly escalating as a very competitive and hassle-bound lineup. Unless you are a very good surfer, and prepared for aggression, you should think twice. It is often NOT enjoyable.
photos at http://www.sargesdailysurf.com