2008 Gold Coast Kommunity Project Trials

SURF: 2-3 Feet and mushy
EVENTS HELD: Men’s and Women’s Trials
NATURE’S CALL: Looking pretty weak for the next few days
PREDICTED: Lots of small wave practice time for everyone

If it’s the end of Feb it must be the Gold Coast. Contest organizers of the 2008 Quiksilver Pro moved up the comp a week this year. It’s a bummer – 12 days earlier would have been perfect. The Goldie’s been pumping non-stop. The Big Groyne at Kirra even came back to life and delivered six foot and very, very round barrels over the last two afternoons. D-Bah was all time too with Bobby Martinez claiming shack of the day yesterday. And now? It’s dropping fast with no swells on the horizon. Oh well, we’ve got nearly two weeks to run this thing so something should turn up. The bank at Snapper’s a little worse for the wear after this latest run of swell and a little flat spell might do it some good.

The other good news – Kelly Slater is here. He flew in this morning and did a press conference straight away. Retirement rumors were first on everyone’s mind and Kelly did a classic job of neither confirming nor denying them. A “Something needs to change in my life” answer was followed quickly by “I’m not here to announce anything” and wrapped up with “winning this event could be a nice way to go out.” A mystery wrapped up in an enigma is Mr. Slater and it seems to work just fine for him that way. He also mentioned that he just donated a surfboard to Barack Obama and hopes to give him a surf lesson this summer.

The trials ran this morning and it was youth gone wild. Last year’s Roxy Pro runner up Carissa Moore, now a wizened vet at 15, survived a scare in the semis and then rampaged the finals – scoring the day’s only ten in route to victory. On the men’s side 16-year old Tahitian terror Tamoroa McComb scored an upset win over year’s champ Dale Richards and recent retiree Troy Brooks. Tamaroa goes hard and could be a threat in the main event, especially in the surf stays small. It also doesn’t hurt that a Round 1 match up with Mick Fanning doesn’t even faze him as much as the hordes of scantily clad shielas on the beach. "I actually feel more relaxed competing against Mick (Fanning) than I would meeting a girl,” McComb said.

So that’s it. Now it's time to soak up a few Goldie rays, sink some suds and wait for Huey to wake up again.

For all the action on the Gold Coast, visit ASPWorldTour.com

 

		THE BEST WAVES! THE BEST SURFERS! THE BEST PHOTOS! AND NOW THE BEST DEAL: SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND GET 1 YEAR OF SURFING MAGAZINE FOR ONLY $12.00! Take advantage of this special offer-act now! GIVE A GIFT
				Email: First Name: Last Name: Address Line 1: Address Line 2: City: State: Zip: Select a payment option: Charge my credit card Bill me later Do you have a promotional coupon code? Enter Code: Please send me special offers and exclusive promotions from Surfing's premiere partners.