Well, there is going to be some swell next week, maybe even some on Sunday, but it doesn’t look like there is going to be enough to run a contest. Everyone is talking about the poor charts, and how this could be another event cursed by the recurring Dream Tour nightmare of the best surf locations in the world and no surf. Whenever there is an event like the Billabong Pro, there is always going to be a high percentage of people who are around for the party scene that ensues. When the waves don’t come and there isn’t that much to do, then the party scene gets even more out of control. Word on the street is that this year is going to be completely off the Richter.
I was chatting to a mate of mine yesterday about it, and he was visibly shaken by the whole concept. Being a ‘man of the world’ himself, he was dealing with the fact that his darling daughter, the apple of his eye, decided to spend her 18th birthday in JBay over the Billabong period. He knows what could go down. he knows what it is all about. He is well aware of all the hungry-eyed males that cruise the main drag, of all the wild-eyed girls that are in town to carve notches in their bed posts.
So we need to pray for surf, to keep things together in this town. A town that is loosely held together at the the best of times. With it now jammed full like never before and a complete swell drought on the charts, the immediate future is grim. Slater is around with some more really weird looking boards, and the famous sushi restaurant where he spent so many of his prime years playing guitar and crooning for the diners is now an art gallery. Tom Curren is around, remarkably lucid and media-savvy this time around, which is surprising considering what he has been through. Shaun Tomson is also around, signing his new book, and many more surf glitterati and intelligentsia can be found cruising the spar or the bottle store.
The Von Zipper Trials were run off yesterday, was a bit of a lucky packet event. If a surfer got lucky and scooped one good wave, that person was in with a good chance of winning the heat. It was a somewhat listless ocean, at the risk of litotes, that saw Devyn Mattheys finally overcome his Xhosa Ledge infatuation that includes wanting to fight anyone who goes near there with a camera (except himself and Buzz Lightyear) and win through to a slot in the main event. Mattheys was the only South African to get through, and there were many stoked locals on the beach watching and giving support. Well done bru. The other surfers to get into the main event from the VZ Trials were Australian Heath Joske and Torrey Meister from Hawaii.
Today has already been called as a Lay Day, which is precisely not what my friend with the 18-year-old daughter wants to hear.
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