Later Slater. C-ya CJ. Game Over Dam, er… Over.
Yep, by now it’s old news that the East Coast’s hopes for a 2009 ASP World
Championship vanished in Round Three of the Rip Curl Pro Search in Peniche,
Portugal, when South African spoiler Jordy Smith socked it to Floridian
contender CJ Hobgood, 14.67 to 8.87. In the round
prior, 19-year-old wildcard and 2010 Dream Tour freshman Owen Wright claimed the upset of the
event by hucking lofty air-reverses and threading moody barrels to put the
kibosh on Kelly Slater’s slim-but-still-attainable reach of a tenth crown. It
was déjà vu for the goofyfooted (and goofy-looking) young Aussie, who shocked the
nine-time world champion at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach back in April. “The
Dream Tour has been a nightmare this year,” Slater said. “One guy wins, one guy
loses. That puts me out of the title race.”
But truth be told, I don’t feel too bad for Kelly. With all that he’s shown us
in the past two decades, the way I see it, the longer Kelly slacks on checking
#10 off his “My Own Records To Break” list, the longer nepotistic East Coast voyeurs
like myself can relish in the confused posturing, streaming tears, and refilled
anxiety prescriptions of his rivals. Pondering retirement via too-cool-for-tour
pull quotes trashing ASP competition is a far more realistic proposition than
believing they can actually own any title that Kelly really wants. Read into
that however you like.
Damien Hobgood,
meanwhile, never really had a contender’s shot at the title prior to the Euro leg,
and going down in Round Three in France and Round Two in Spain didn’t help his
cause any. But Damo did manage an impressive quarterfinal against Wright in
Portugal before the kid ejected him with a perfect 10 mere minutes before
rupturing his eardrum upon freefalling into a nasty righthand trash compactor.
But that was after the Dam-age was already done. Nevertheless, the slightly
younger Hobgood twin slipped cozily into the Top 10 with 5116 points on the
board. And to me at least, he’s never looked looser — breaking out his
fins on wimpy lefts despite being a much better surfer in meaty rights,
historically speaking. That said, Dam will always be on my Fantasy Surfer team,
title contender or not.
But CJ… oh man. Never in my life have I rallied so hard for an athlete to
prevail. The 2001 ASP World Champion is undoubtedly doing the best surfing of
his life, thanks to recent ergonomics that have lifted his game physically,
mentally, and technologically (i.e. gym, visualization, magic quiver). But once
Jordy erased CJ’s ’09 title campaign, I kind of stopped caring. The
championship is now a mano a mano race between Coolangatta mates Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning, concluding this
(or next) week at the final event of the season, the Billabong Pipeline
Masters. And that’s why this post-European leg update is coming to you
readers so late. To be quite honest, I’ve been sulking for the past couple
months like a pre-pubescent Cookie Monster placated with a plate of carrots and
peas. Here’s why Europe was so disturbing:
“Bouncing Back From A Stolen Magic
Quiver, CJ Hobgood Rises To #1!”
That headline would have rung so sweet. After some scumbag jacked all nine of
his surfboards in France, CJ found an old board he had left at a local’s place
the year prior. And with so much on the line, the tour’s most gregarious competitor
had to lower himself to that of an Indian giver. Karma knew no different, as in
Round Two of the Quiksilver Pro France, held at the Les
Bourdaines beachbreak, our World #3 found himself comboed by event wildcard
Alain Riou. Launching a hell-for-leather aerial in the shorebreak, he snapped
that repo-ed stick, sending him into a very uncharacteristic wrath —
beating the living shit out of what remained of the board while slinging curses
the webcast couldn’t quite pick up. I personally love a flawed hero, and up to
this point have had a hard time finding any with Ceej. But check this out:
after the hissy fit, CJ grabbed a spare board he had never ridden before, paddled
back out, and tube-jousted his way out of the combo situation and into a Round
2 victory over Riou, 15.17 to 14.83. “We all have a breaking point and a lot of things went through
my mind and I was just wondering how much worse it could get,” he said. “I was
comboed, my board was broken, and I know my back-up one is not even that good. If
the ocean didn't turn on I would have had a nervous breakdown. But whatever, I
am happy to get through that heat.”
CJ went on
to take down dirty-dog Aussie Phil MacDonald in Round Three, 14.50 to 12.80,
before falling to clean-pup Aussie Ben Dunn in Round Four, 13.83 to 12.37. He
was still sitting at #3 in the world, though. So there’s that.
“Best Mundaka in Three Years Grants Hobgood Repeat
Victory!”
That might have been a cool headline, as well. Actually, the North Atlantic did
offer Euskadi locals the best waves they had seen in three years… only it was a
couple weeks after Dream Tour competitors showed up for the Billabong Pro
Mundaka. Then it sucked. But being the last week of the waiting period,
organizers had to get the show on the road. Ceej, our defending Billabong Pro
Mundaka champ, took down Parkinson in the ‘08 final and had this to say about
his chances for a repeat: “The sand looks really good and I heard there may be a swell
coming next week which would be really exciting. For me, I am just looking
forward to having a normal event. I had a little bit of a shocker in France. I
had my boards stolen, came back in a pretty exciting heat, and then lost sooner
than I would have hoped. I’m having an okay year, but I really want to win an
event. I want a breakout event. Hopefully the magic is still here for me in
Mundaka.”
But after
chasing suitable conditions at both Mundaka and the backup site of Sopelana,
organizers were forced to call six consecutive lay days before utilizing the new man-on-man
elimination format for Ceej’s Round Two heat against Aussie Nic Muscroft at
Mundaka, which Ceej won, 15.00 to 8.27. A 24-heat marathon followed, where CJ matched his best 2009
result, taking out Kekoa Bacalso and Bede Durbidge in their respective Round
Three and quarterfinal matchups before going down to Chris Davidson, 13.84 to
10.53, in the semifinals. If nothing else, it solidified CJ’s position at #4 in
the ratings. “I’m happy that I matched my best result this season,” he said, “but
I was hoping for better. I felt like I prepared well and surfed conditions
similar to this most of the week, but in the end, I couldn’t edge into the final.”
“Murphy’s Law In Portugal Doesn’t Halt Hobgood’s Charge
For The Title!”
I hadn’t crunched the numbers to see how far CJ could climb with a win at
Peniche. But everything that could go wrong for an event did here. First, high
seas and heavy storms destroyed the event structure at the primary site of
Supertubos, forcing organizers to go on hold after salvaging what they could of
the setup. Then they opted to wait out onshore, eight to ten-foot surf at
Lagido, which never materialized. Then, after three consecutive lay days, clean
conditions showed up at the third backup venue of Mohle Leste, and Round Two
commenced at the second backup site of Belgas. Ceej took out Cali pal Nathaniel
Curran 13.94 to 11.50, before Round Three was called off due to fog. Yeah, fog.
Then you throw in injuries, broken boards, and everything else that comes with
six to eight-foot Supertubos, and you ultimately come to three perfect 10-point rides in a
single round. Unfortunately, none of them belonged to CJ Hobgood.
As effeminate as it may sound, I don’t really care for sports from a
spectator’s standpoint. The Yankees can yank my doodle dandy. Jimmy Johnson
might as well be another pencil-necked acne case working at my local video
store. But for better or for worse, I love watching competitive surfing. And I
really, really wanted CJ Hobgood to
win the ASP World Championship this year — as much as if I had dropped
five grand to my bookie.
But there’s
always Pipe. There’s always 2010. And there’s always a new headline to write.
For updated
ASP World Tour ratings, visit www.ASPWorldTour.com.
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