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On the first day of
this contest last year, Gordo, the ASP's hyper manic camera man, successfully
fried an egg on the scorching North Narrabeen pavement. This year, we huddled
in whatever semi-sheltered spot we could find trying to find a way to watch the
day's action, as all around us torrents of thick, hard rain flooded every low-lying
spot and a wild, snapping wind tore away at the flaps of the marquee conveniently
erected for our protection. 
The
wind threatening the contest infrastructure had, however, managed to whip up an
unruly but serviceable 2-3 foot chop, and out there in the deluge there was still
some sizzle going on. In particular, for me there were two magic moments on this
dank, dark day. Former winner of this event, Brazilian Adriano
de Souza was paddling back from a long, efficiently surfed left in a heat he had
totally commanded. At the bottom end of the sandbank, just where the Northy left
hits the inside shorey and starts to wind down into the car park close out section,
the very odd short right wedge occasionally pops up to provide a short but diverting
amusement for the attentive surfer on his way back to the line up. Adriano, fresh
from a rookie WCT season in which, for the first time in his short career, big
results were hard to come by, found a tasty wedge standing up rather temptingly. 
These
are not percentage waves to surf in a heat. With a maximum one turn on offer,
why would the focussed, competitive surfer waste a precious minute or two of heat
time of one of these? Adriano thought differently. He took the drop, set up a
massive bottom turn and launched himself at the apex of beautifully bowling, if
compact, throwing lip. 
His
trajectory took him up the face, through the lip and high into the vacant space
above the wave, and as he started his flight path, he applied just a little, slow
spin - enough spin, it turned out, to ensure that his landing was a fins first
affair. So far, so good. A bog standard air reverse, I hear
you say, well beyond the abilities of your Average Joe admittedly, but a bread
and butter move at this level. In theory, the place to land an air reverse is
on the foam, where the white water bubbles cushion the impact and allow an easy
spin to bring the board around to face the right way. But that's not where Adriano
landed. His splashdown was on the steepest section of this still bowling wall,
so it was as if he was taking the drop again, this time tail first and switchfoot.
As he landed, to avoid tail diving, Adriano shifted his weight onto his left foot,
nearest the nose, but now his back foot, landed solidly and carved a tail first
turn that initiated a seamless about face. 
And
that was it - a single moment of breathtaking brilliance, packed with subtlety,
over so fast that if you looked away ever so briefly, you would have noticed nothing. Equally
brilliant was another flight of fancy in the very next heat. This time the airman
was the insanely talented South African youngster, Jordy Smith. Jordy worked over
the Alley rights into the lagoon entrance, and was being reasonably undiscriminating
about his waves. On this wave, a smaller wobbly wall, he had completed a reasonably
nice opening turn and was weaving his way along the next section, without much
speed, for what looked to be a throwaway score. 
And
then it happened - an innocuous face turn, and suddenly, shockingly, Jordy was
flying unreasonably high, hanging in mid air for a good while and then landing
smoothly, uneventfully. Usually, when someone pulls a special,
big move in a comp like this, the crowd hoots in appreciation. Instead, this time,
it just went quiet. It took it good three or four seconds for us all to process
and understand what we had just seen, and as brains caught up with eyes, the clapping
started, slowly at first, then enthusiastically. Jordy's surfing is so surprising,
and there's nothing quite so stoking as a surfer that surprises you. 
Both
Adriano and Jordy were easy winners in their heats, but they weren't the only
ones to excel. Young Aussie hope Matty Wilkinson was superb in his demolition
of a number of hapless rights, and his backhand goofy foot attack is as good as
anyone's - there's good smattering of Occy's unique backhand bottom turn here,
but Matty's well on his way to becoming a more complete, more electrifying surfer. Also
strong was fellow goofy Mitch Coleborn, while Dion Atkinson was the other Aussie
success here today, somewhat generously awarded the score he needed to progress
late in his heat. On the other side of the ledger, Julian Wilson,
Sam Page, Luke Cheadle, Wade Goodall, Heath Joske and James Wood all failed to
find rhythm in this shifty and difficult to read wind slop, while event poster
boy Laurie Towner looked slow and laboured - far from recovered from his too recent
shoulder dislocation. Tomorrow is most likely Round 2,
where things get seriously serious, and a second place is an equal last. It's
such an honour and a thrill for these stars in the making to start in this event,
but no one wants to walk away without at least one heat win. Nervous action starts
early, Huey permitting. | 
