Zigzag / Hurley Sponsor me Shootout finals Day 1

Note to self:- do not discount the enthusiasm and raw flair of the underdog!

Day one of the Shootout and the charts had offered us a measly 2-foot swell (at best). Regardless, the boys were afforded the luxury of a toothpaste gargle before we bundled them into the cars with their wetties, boards, fins, wax and leashes before being shuttled to location X. Word had come in at first light that our guiding guru, Llewellyn Whittaker, to forego breakfast if we wanted to score any semblance of a wave. We were strongly encouraged to strike early, before the waves ticked away with the landbreeze. Llew chooned that a very open, 'very sharky' beachie, down the drag, was our only option. And that it would be the only place sponging up the morning push and transforming it into anything ridable.





Our first look at the waves offered a mixed reaction of hope (from the surfers) and dejection - from yours truley! The clean two footers (with slightly bigger, wedging peaks) were looking ‘cute’, but in my opinion lacked enough umph and length to yield a decent video or images worthy of your eyes. I was soon corrected by the optimism of the Shootout finalists!

Our Nigerian import, John Michiletti, was the first one on the ‘charming’ lil’ peaks. He was followed by Chris Bond and Jasper Eales. Ewald van Heerden and Adin Jeenes chose to suss it out a bit before drifting out to the peak and ambush the sets.

Despite the lack of real waves the motivation to perform in front of quality media glass shone today. After the 4 hours in ‘mediocre’ waves, on day one, the Shootout offered a glimpse of what we had set out to achieve from the start of the whole project… From the Shootout web portal to the waves today, the ‘hidden’ talent we were looking for all along had moved from the cyber realm, and blimped brightly!