Billabong Pro Tahiti The Outsider: Final Day Fever

In: Billabong Pro Tahiti by Steve Shearer 10 Comments Sat 4th Sep '10

Tags: tahiti , kelly slater , owen wright , freddy patacchia , The Outsider , Teahupoo , Andy Irons , Adrian Buchan

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"The Kings taken back the throne. A useless seed is sown"

The sun has finally poked through the parade of passing squalls as the final day seems to draw towards an inevitable conclusion. The school children are chasing each other around the playground and the good ol' boys are camped underneath a tree.

The Messiah was eliminated while I was still drinking my morning espresso. We note again the truism that has become apparent in this epoch-shattering year of Pro Surfing: the Messiah don't do mornings, 'specially not windy, squally mornings in the South Seas.

Your correspondent got to the meedya boat just before the hotly anticipated Freddy P/Owen clash. Owen was in the boat with his father, both silent, watchful. Perhaps tense, if I could be permitted a small interpretation of the mood. Luke Egan was squinting into the weather, looking grim-faced and concerned as the squalls lined up to windward of the island. Freddy was paddling around engaging the small crowd in some friendly banter. I had witnessed the two freesurfing the evening previously, comparing the two approaches. Freddy P busy, ducking and weaving, throwing plenty of jabs in boxing parlance, while the Big O sat patiently for the bigger sets. I would estimate Freddy P surfed 30 waves compared to O's 5 or 6.

The heat started where the freesurf left off. Freddy P off the mark straight away, too deep on a set and losing priority but getting back out and catching another wave. Meanwhile O stayed immobile, waiting for a set that refused to come. This so-called "Martinez strategy": of waiting steadfastly for waves that may not come has been Owen's undoing before, notably in his high tide heat against Taj at Snapper.

Still twenty minutes into the heat and Owen has no score. He is too deep for a set wave, that clamshells on him. 'Where is Plan B Owen?', your correspondent wonders aloud to no-one in particular. This remains the greatest competitive advantage of Slater: his ability to adapt and respond to the changing reality of the ocean during a thirty minute heat.

It calls to mind the operational method of legendary test Pilot Chuck Yeager, described so memorably in Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff. "If Plan A didn't work then it was time to try Plan B and so on and so forth until you found something that worked." I'm paraphrasing, but you get the drift. If Owen is to become a legit title contender he needs to expand his strategic repertoire. EOS.

Kelly uses the slow strangulation method against Melling, applying relentless pressure until the final death blow was delivered. In a real sense he never got out of a canter. Your correspondent got to talk with Slater after the heat. I was thinking it might be the last chance to get an audience with the champ if he continued his run. The last time I spoke to him was at Bells after a similar Rd 4 win. He went on to win that contest.

There's a peculiar charm and remote intensity about Slater up close. He's there, intensely present for the conversation, and yet you are acutely aware that at any point he could brush you off with a royal haughtiness. People in the media find this combination unsettling and opinion is divided as to how they respond to the Slater schtick.

He is candid with your correspondent, explaining the lessons he learned from last years board experimentation, which he has now repackaged into a more aesthetically acceptable form, whilst still enjoying the benefits of his small board revolution. Lessons learned largely from the tow-surfing realm.
He explained also, how a disappointing year like last year acts like a protracted retensioning of the bow of his competitive instinct, drawing it back to a point where the arrow of his career arc can reach further and further. I can pass on the fact that in the break he completely redesigned his quiver, changing outlines and rocker and experimenting with all tail shapes while maintaining the low volume paradigm.

He has increased rocker through the whole board, increasing concave concomitantly. He is riding the best boards of his career. Fact. For his event defining ten-point ride heat against Ace he rode a small McKee set-up quad, a board we detailed in an earlier post. We'll come back to this ride in a minute.

As a parting shot he carefully dissects the line-up, wave rhythm and strategic options: "You gotta pay attention".

Word, holmes.

Before coming back to Kelly's ten we must first deal with the problem of Ace Buchan. How do you solve a problem like Ace Buchan? Resolutely competitive, unfashionable and outdated as determined by the overwhelming weight of evidence provided by the anonymous experts of internet chat forums. Ace will not make any Mod Coll redux but his surfing has a particular fast twitch edge to it and a pleasing neo-classical look. He dominated the last remaining Tahitian, Michel Bourez, with wave selection and super precise tube-riding.

Kelly's ten was shocking. Devastatingly similar to his layback to barrell 20 point heat which still stands as a high water mark in Pro Surfing history. It was wave that very few Pros would have even attempted, let alone made. As a statement of both intent and luck, synchronicity, intuition: call it what you will it established his credentials as a Primary Cause in this event.

But there is another First Principle and Primary Cause left in the event. A surfer whose emotional intensity can sometimes lead to full scale meltdowns but can, at times, produce an incandescent dominance. I speak, of course, about Andy Irons.

Andy had to re-design his quiver from the ground up as well. His emotional quiver. In place of his arrogance we have seen a humble acceptance and self-deprecating honesty, at times almost painful to watch, since his re-emergence on the world stage.
But while Slater's remoteness has alienated, AI's humility has endeared him. He is universally loved by all on this tour. Even Slater, following his narrow loss to AI in the semi expresses his love for Andy, maybe for real this time my fellow pro surfing historians. Can love triumph in this hyper-competitive world?

As a contest the final lacks the drama and intensity of the quarters and semi's. But no matter, Andy wins. Love is everywhere! Love conquers all!

Good news for modern man.

Thank you linesmen, thank you ballboys. I drink a Hinano to all of your good health.

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