| 
Because we're running the clock down at Sunset
Beach, and the residents of surftown's struggle street, the WQS underclass, have
got only one day of surfing before their year plays outs, and because I know you
care about what happens to this noble, blighted mob, I thought you'd like to see
if their dreams are edging towards reality or whether they've been ruthlessly
smashed into a million pieces. First let's cue The Last Post
and honour our fallen…  Drew
Courtney - A perplexing surfer, capable of true greatness, and great awfulness
in back to back heats. Drew's first round heat was sublime. Big open face hacks,
bigger than surfers have right to pull in the nasty tastiness of a Sunset bowl,
for a stand out pairs of eights. Round two, and Drew is lost chasing wisps of
hope around the peak, coming up with nothing better than a drop and a bottom turn.
Say goodbye, Drew.
Glenn Hall, Drew's Umina Beach co-local,
just couldn't hold on in his first round heat, despite a blood stirring 8.67 late
in the proceedings. See ya, Micro.  Kieran
Perrow, who used to look like his CT career would stretch on forever before
he stumbled two years ago, stumbled again here. Farewell, Kieran.
Jake
Paterson, whose CT career has gone on forever, down before he could get close.
Unlike most here, Jake still has one more tilt at CT requalification at Pipe,
where's he has famously won before and where he knows he can win again, so we
won't let him go just yet. Jake will need a strong Pipe result,
but Jarrad Howse's only remaining out is a win at the Pipe Masters, and
that strains credulity a little too much. Clouse looked good at Sunset today,
but just not quite good enough, and where last year he pulled off a miracle to
make into the top grade, five CT heat wins in '07 was not what he had in mind.
It's one thing getting there; it's another thing completely sticking around. Later,
Jarrad.  Also
sliding from grace were Tiago Piries, Heitor Alves, Roy Powers,
Ben Bourgeois, Russell Winter, Patrick Beven and Simao
Romao. We don't care about them as much, because, well, they're not ours,
are they, but it doesn't stop us empathising. They're all now collecting their
thoughts and planning what, if anything, their '07 campaign will look like.
At
least they got a chance. Brazilian Jihad Khodr never did convince US immigration
that he wasn't a national security threat, and missed the contests that could
have made his career. A change of name might be a useful career move.  With
this sort of carnage, the goalposts have shifted significantly, and there's now
a bunch of battlers who thought their chances had disappeared with their early
exits here, but who find themselves, to their surprise, clinging tenuously to
life.
All up there's still 13 surfers in this thing with some
sort of shot of filling one of the four, five, maybe even six vacant positions.
For whoever comes in on the precarious 17th, 18th and 19th spots in the QS rankings,
Sunset won't be the end of it. They will have to sit through the Pipe Masters
willing on Troy Brooks, Travis Logie and Victor Ribas to double qualification.
I hope they remember to breathe. The Brazilian trio of Leonardo
Neves, Neco Padaratz and Rodrigo Dornelles are looking good.
Neves is pretty much a definite, Neco is looking fairly safe and can still improve
his position, and if Dornelles makes his next heat he's probably locked in his
spot. The Aussies, however, are on more of a knife's edge. Kai
Otton, currently in the qualification zone but teetering, lost out in the
same heat as Drew Courtney and failed to improve his position. Now he sits in
the stands, sweating on the outcomes of heats he can't influence. He can afford
to be passed by a few, but if too many of the seven or so long shots gets up,
he's history. He's looking like he may just get away with it. Luke
Munro went so close yet again. Sunset has not been on its best behaviour this
season, with sloppy, disconnected swells making gems rare, and scores that would
be dross elsewhere sparkled here. When Luke opened his third round heat with a
9.17, head and shoulders above the crowd, his win was just as good as guaranteed.
For twenty minutes, Luke chased the minor backup he need, but Sunset, a sadistic
mistress if ever there was one, offered no more delights, and Luke's heat fizzled
painfully out. Luke has a slim pipeline of hope - if no one
passes him here, and if two of Victor Ribas, Troy Brooks and Travis
Logie double qualify at Pipe, the last WCT, Luke scrapes in. Otherwise, my
money would be on him occupying the injury reserve spot for next year. Kirk
Flintoff is chasing revalidation after his brief stay at the top in '05, but
Sunset was never going to be his ideal arena. There's not much scope for air reverses
on the brutal inside bowl, and in twenty minutes, twos were all he could find.
Like Luke, Kirk still hangs on ever so feebly, but the prognosis is not promising.
If an almost impossibly large number of factors fall his way, then Kirk limps
in. Behind them are the remaining chasers. Most, maybe all,
will come up short, but the odds are that someone will guts their way through
to the finish line. All are capable, but perhaps the best chances are South African
David Weare, struggling to stay in the CT for another year, and Hawaiians
Joel Centeio and Dustin Cuizon, simply because they're Hawaiian,
and that makes a big difference here. The lone Aussie in this
group is Cory Ziems, doing it tough sponsorship wise like far too many
of our talented surfers. A top two finish gives him a chance. There's
one day to go at Sunset, and once again the surf on the fabled North Shore is
small and sloppy. This comp will likely tie up its loose ends on either Tuesday
our time, when a moderate NW swell is slated, or if the contest directors are
really ballsy, on Thursday, the final day of the waiting period, when a real,
traditional North Shore high surf advisory is set to light things up. That could
really be something. | 
