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After stops in Tahiti and
Brazil that lacked a spark in the wave department, ASP World Tour competitors
and fans alike were jonesing for a juicier swell at the Billabong Pro Jeffreys
Bay, South Africa’s fabled righthand pointbreak that also served as the midway
point of the 2009 season. After a few lay days in the early part of the waiting
period, along with the implementation of man-on-man elimination rounds from the
outset, J-Bay delivered just what the surfing world needed — a pulsing
six to eight-foot swell, thigh-burning barrel sections, and enough high-profile
matchups to make the rumored “alternative tour” — speculated about by
everyone from defending World Champion Kelly Slater to Surfline.com to ESPN —
disappear into the offshore mist of a 200-yard right breaking from Boneyards, past
Supertubes, all the way through the Impossibles end section.
In addition to the pure joy
brought about by watching two days of flawless J-Bay, the East Coast’s three
active World Tour surfers — CJ and Damien Hobgood and Kelly Slater
— all seized the opportunity to improve their rankings (Gabe Kling is
still out with an ankle injury; stay tuned to EasternSurf.com for more
on that). But instead of CJ or Kelly retaining the spotlight, 2009 sleeper Damien
Hobgood boasted the best East Coast result of the contest, finishing runner-up
to Aussie winner Joel Parkinson, who strengthened his own grip atop the
rankings.
Damo, who along with twin
brother CJ recently turned 30, proved that he could still perform at an elite
level by downing fellow thirty-something Chris Davidson in Round Two, last
year’s world #2 Bede Durbidge in Round Three, California veteran Taylor Knox in
the quarterfinals, and progressive prodigy Dane Reynolds in the semifinals. But
all of Damo’s wins came by the skin of his teeth, with his margin of victory
dwindling from .83 in Round One to a meager .06 against an in-form Dane in the
semis.
So Damien knew he had his
hands full battling Parko in the final, which featured a rapidly dying swell. In
addition to the Aussie’s intense 2009 focus, Hobgood also had to battle
history, which told us again and again that the last goofyfoot to win at J-Bay
was Mark Occhilupo, way back in 1984. Parko and Damo paddled neck and neck for
the 40-minute heat’s first wave, which Joel eventually caught and manhandled
for the highest score of the final, a 9.47. Damien waited 20 minutes to catch
his first wave, a shorter right that he sliced repeatedly for a 5.67. With
seven minutes left in the final, Damo dropped into a bomb, but unfortunately
couldn’t make it around the section, ceding priority back to Parko, who
completed a few of his trademark carves with three minutes left to bag a 6.5
and win the event. “Joel opened up with that really good wave, and at that
point the only thing I could do was pray for an eight-footer to come through,”
Damien told the ASP. “It’s not an easy wave for goofyfooters to excel at, but I
feel really fortunate to finish in the final. It’s a great result for me.”
Slater came off a blistering
performance in Round Two, where he earned a whopping 18.84 total heat score and
threw away two lower 9s to beat Nic Muscroft, but The Champ sputtered in Round Three,
only managing a 6.04 total in losing to Taylor Knox. “I’m going to probably
have to win three straight now to get back in this thing,” Kelly said. As for
CJ, who barely survived a Round Two nail-biter to Frenchman Mikael Picon, he couldn’t
find a rhythm against fellow goofy Kai Otton in Round Three, losing 14.60-10.17.
But with other Top-5 surfers like Adriano de Souza, Taj Burrow, and Mick
Fanning suffering Round Two defeats at the Billabong Pro, CJ did jump to #2 in
the rankings, while Kelly bumped up from #9 to #8. CJ still holds a legitimate
chance to battle Parko for the 2009 title, but Kelly’s hopes for a tenth world
title, which surged after his recent victory in Brazil, look to have been
tempered for now. “If you do the numbers, I think before this contest Parko was
ten heats ahead of me, and if I want to contend, I need to catch up. That
obviously wasn’t happening for me [here].”
Damien made the biggest jump
in the rankings, going from a respectable #10 to a title-contesting #5. “This
is definitely my best result of the year, and moving up to 5th puts me in good
position for the back half of the season,” he said. “I opened up with a pretty
good result on the Goldy before having some average outings in the last three.
[This] finish definitely gives me a lot of confidence heading into the next few
events, and I’m looking forward to the next one.”
For full results, photos, and videos visit www.ASPWorldTour.com
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