Flagler wins the CSA East Coast Championships
Posted by: Zander | March 10th, 2010
ET, Adam, and the other Surf Station sponsored Flagler surf team dudes won the Collegiate Surfing Association East Coast title at Sebastian Inlet on Monday. This is actually the first time I’ve heard of the CSA, but I guess it’s been around a while as this is Flagler’s second straight EC title. That’s pretty rad. Those guys seem like they win everything, which is pretty much what you’d expect as they have a solid team plus 100 time NSSA/ESA East Coast champion Eric Taylor. Congrats guys. You can check out ET shredding over at ESM’s website, they have some good event coverage.
The 1,000th first prize trophy this guy has won at Sebastian Inlet.
THE END-12/16/09
Posted by: Zander | December 16th, 2009
This is it for me. The end of my trip. Today, I’m coming home.
This month has flown by faster than any of my Hawaii journeys over the past six years. Between big waves, big contests, and big parties, there’s been hardly a dull moment. It’s been a great trip. Even so, it’s always nice to head home for the holiday season. I look forward to the cold weather, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas when it’s 80 degrees outside.
Taj Burrow won the 2009 Pipe Masters today in an anticlimactic finish. Unfortunately the surf was head high and crumbly in the final, and with the world title and triple crown already wrapped up it just didn’t feel like there was anything left to surf for. Except a first place 90k check of course, which I’m sure Taj doesn’t mind at all right now.
Ryan and Cristen Miller’s daughter Izzy turned 1 today, so we all partied hard with her. She is an awesome little grom.
Unfortunately, I have some bad news to report. The ASP decided to award the 2010 injury wildcard to Luke Stedman and Neco Padaratz (who hasn’t competed on the WCT since 2008) and not Gabe. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest shafts in the history of the ASP. As you’d expect we are all pretty bummed on that situation, but Gabe won’t let it get to him too much. Instead of letting it bring him down he’s going to attack the QS hard as ever and hopefully requalify by mid year. It’s a tough break but Gabe isn’t one to complain about it. Instead, I will.
As I’m sure you know Gabe never even had a shot to compete on the 09 tour that he worked so hard to qualify after seriously jacking his knee and ankle in March. After trying every possible rehab method and not healing up he opted to have his ankle surgically repaired two months ago. You can read more about it here.
Anyway, whats done is done, but I think this proves a major flaw in the CT wildcard system and I’m calling major BS on the whole thing. Hopefully Gabe use sit as motivation to smash some people on the QS this year. Wish him luck.
On a final note hopefully you’ve enjoyed following my 5 weeks over here on the North Shore, and I’ll make sure to keep blogging away about any interesting happenings in the near future! Thanks for checking me out!
FANNING 09 WORLD CHAMP-12/12/09
Posted by: Zander | December 13th, 2009
Mick Fanning is officially the 2009 ASP world champion after Joel Parkinson lost in his third round Pipe Masters heat today. The waves were pumping. Though not giant, it was the most perfect day of waves I’ve ever seen at Pipe/Backdoor. I’m happy for Fanning, he was down on the beach taking time signing autographs for all the groms even before his heat and is completely deserving of the crown. Seems like a pretty cool guy to me.
On another note, we are still a little bitter about the way Gabe’s heat turned out. Many people over here (and not just Gabe fans) feel his last wave was deserving of the score and that he was purposefully robbed of advancement because Roy Powers WCT requalification hung in the balance. Check the image below.
At the Pipe contest there are only three judges (instead of five) and so all three scores are averaged out rather than throwing away the high and low score for each wave. What you’ll notice above is that on gabe’s final wave the first two judges threw him a mid range five (he needed a 5.43 to advance) and then the last judge gave a 4.7 which brought the wave average down and thus kept him from making the heat. Coincidence? possibly. Conspiracy? We think so.
Either way it’s over and done with now and we’ve spent the last two days getting barreled, so no one is really complaining. I’m down to my last three days over here so I’ll be surfing as much as possible (except Sunday AM from 8-11, I’ll be watching Jaguar football!) and enjoying this amazing place.
PIPELINE MASTERS-12/10/09
Posted by: Zander | December 11th, 2009
The Pipe Masters started today in flawless double overhead plus surf. There were plenty of scary ones out there but for the most part guys were getting shacked out of their minds at fun sized Backdoor all day long. Gabe was one of them. He streaked through an amazing one in his first heat this morning and dispatched Pipe specialist and former finalist Kalani Chapman from the event.
Unfortunately in Round two he wasn’t as lucky. The surf was still epic but he got stuck in a slow heat against Roy Powers and Roy got the better of him at the end. The last minute was a bit controversial with Roy and Gabe getting similar waves at Backdoor and both making medium sized barrels before the buzzer. Roy ended up with a 5.43 and Gabe a 5.23. In my opinion Gabe’s wave was better and he should have advanced through the heat, but that’s how it goes sometimes. What’s important is he’s back surfing 100% and ready to take on the WCT full time next season. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that Gabe is rightfully awarded an injury wildcard so he has that chance. We all know he deserves it.
My battery on my camera died halfway through his second round heat, but I put something together anyway. Check it out below and check this link to watch both of his heats in full on demand.
12_10_09 from zander morton on Vimeo.
PIPELINE PRACTICE-12/09/09
Posted by: Zander | December 9th, 2009
The Pipe Masters were again postponed today due to wild and unruly surf. It was still a bit big for Pipe, with a lot of wash through sets and closeouts. Balaram Stack from New York paddled out alone, managed one sick stand up tube, and motivated a dozen others to join him in the lineup. Gabe and Toth were among the frothers. Though there were a few random good tubes coming through, no one out there managed any as the playing field was so spread out and the good insiders were almost impossible to ride. To get one, you had to commit to sitting in the impact zone and when it’s as big and scary as today that’s never a good idea. Either way, Gabe got a feel for the tricky lineup which should serve him well in his heat early tomorrow against local wildcard Pipe specialist Kalani Chapman. Check out this link about 1 PM Eastern time to watch him surf! Thanks to Seth Stafford for shooting the video I put together today.
12_09_09 from zander morton on Vimeo.
EDDIE WENT!-12/08/09
Posted by: Zander | December 9th, 2009
The Eddie contest ran at Waimea today and it was the most fun I’ve had watching a surf contest since the last time it went down back in 2004 (I was lucky enough to be here that year as well). The weather was perfect and the waves were giant. It actually seemed smaller than yesterday when we woke up this morning and then got bigger as the day went on. Greg Long won in the final heat of the day with four amazing waves. He deserved it, in my opinion he is the best big wave surfer in the business right now. You can read an interview with him here. It was easy 30 foot (60 feet on the face if you ask me) and really scary. All the guys in the comp were going hard, taking waves all the way to shorebreak and getting pounded for the crowd.
This was the second massive tube Slater pulled into on the day. Jimmicane took it. He was down at the comp from 6 am till it ended without a thing to eat or drink. Talk about dedication to getting the shot!
If you wanna check out what else has been going on round the Matix house, read jimmy’s surfing mag blog here.
Looks like the Pipe contest is going to start thursday in epic conditions and Gabe surfs second heat! Make sure to log on and check him out!
SAND BAGGING-12/07/09
Posted by: Zander | December 8th, 2009
I missed updating yesterday after a long day of football (Jags win!), surfing, and sand bagging. The Dunlap brothers (Matix/DVS owners) recently built a beachfront home near Pipeline and todays 100 foot swell was threatening the property. A bunch of us went down and filled 225 sand bags to build a barrier to help keep sand from eroding away. Fortunately, it seems to have helped thus far as the erosion isn’t as bad as originally expected. Now we just have to hope the swell and surge doesn’t get even larger overnight.
BUNCH OF SANDBAGGERS!
Now, on to today. Waimea was ridiculous. About 25 dudes were out practicing for the Eddie and it was mean out there. In 30 minutes we saw a closeout set, about 5 guys ride 50 footers, and one guy get smashed into the rocks and somehow come out unscathed. I was actually scared for everyone out there. The video below doesn’t even do it justice.
Closeout Set Hits Waimea from Jimmy Wilson on Vimeo.
Tomorrow ought to be another day of massive surf, and then the Pipe comp may start mid week in epic surf. Stay tuned. For now, check out my video of the last two days before the 50 year storm below. And check out Jimmicane’s Surfing Mag blog here.
12_07_09 from zander morton on Vimeo.
ONLY THE BEGINNING-12/05/09
Posted by: Zander | December 6th, 2009
The prequel to the 40 year storm hit today, and saw every spot on the North Shore (except Waimea, where everyone was warming up for Monday’s Eddie event) washed out and out of control. Instead of driving all over the state looking for a rideable corner we stayed put and watched college football all day. Tomorrow the JAGS play and I can’t wait. I’m frothing. Since the waves are still going to be giant and unsurfable it should be a great day for football. YEW!
Yeah it’s head high out there. Max.
We went bowling tonight and I got last place three times straight. I’m terrible. It was sad. A year ago at the same exact bowling alley I hit 5 straight strikes. Unfortunately this year I couldn’t recapture the magic and had a total shocker. I’ll have a whole video recap tomorrow.
POACHERS!-12/04/09
Posted by: Zander | December 5th, 2009
The surf was choppy, messy, and looked like epic overhead east coast today. No one really surfed except us, which made today one of the most fun days of surf in the past three weeks. No crowds=Lots of fun. For me, it’s that simple. The most epic days are so extremely overcrowded it can be impossible to catch waves at times.
Tomorrow’s swell is set to start a 5 day run of 100 foot surf. People are literally scared that low level beachfront homes might be in jeopardy. This should be crazy. It looks like sometime between Saturday-Wednesday the EDDIE will go. I have my fingers crossed!
12_04_09 from zander morton on Vimeo.
WISH THIS SWELL WAS HITTING VILANO-12/03/09
Posted by: Zander | December 4th, 2009
This morning dawned massive and Gabe was sent straight out into maxing, as big as it can possibly be surfed Sunset for his round of 64 heat. Normally they would have postponed the event but the forecast has nothing but XXL surf in the near future. They pretty much have to run.
Gabe went out and immediately took numerous 2o footers on the head. I watched with CJ and Shea on the webcast from our balcony, and even online could see giant waves unloading on his head. Upon return, after only catching two crap waves the whole heat, he said he once again took one of his worst beatings in recent memory. I believe it. It was scary as hell out there.
Tomorrow is supposed to be really windy with dropping swell, and then Saturday the swell is supposed to hit 40 feet (on the face) and then 50 feet by Monday/Tuesday. Looks like the entire North Shore is set to be closing out for close to 5 straight days. Should be pretty interesting. I even heard a few dudes down at the contest claiming this is the biggest swell they have EVER seen heading to Oahu. We’ll see!
The rest of today was pretty quiet as it was windy and raining, and we all sort of cruised around the house watching giant walls of whitewater explode out front. Guess we better get used to the view! Most of the house took mid day naps after the excitement of the contest this morning (and maybe from a couple drinks consumed the night prior) as illustrated by Jimmicane and Shea in the above and below photos. Jimmy slept with his Bud Light in hand the whole time.
