Pit Fighter
The biggest issue was not jet lag per se rather it was switching to ‘Fiji time’, like the Cornish equivalent ‘Dreckly’ or the Spanish ‘Manana’. Once accomplished, the stress of seeing event start times whoosh by would evaporate. Each day the event boat, a three hundred person capacity multihull, would present athletes with the unique prospect of intimately sharing a pre event holding room, food station, shelter and warm up venue cheek to jowl with fellow rivals. Leaving promptly at 6am (7am Fiji time), it would take competitors out to Cloudbreak and park itself out in front of the Quicksilver judging tower; this is easier said than done given the raging currents that pass the reef, more so when the anchor isn’t attached to the boat when it goes over the side! This aside, the surfing was phenomenal.
In the era of GoPro and the slick live streaming of the WSL or its Big Wave offshoot we have become accustomed to the hyper reality of waves of significance, of pitching lips and next level surfing. Similarly, Cloudbreak offered the same recipe but having spent the day watching the postponed finals day move from Wednesday to Saturday reality had a far more gritty bite than what the live stream offered. The men ripped, the final offered the obligatory cliff hanger as Mo inadvertently let Zane slip by on the inside as they paddled out allowing Zane to snag the winning wave in the last 30 seconds having dominated from the start. South African Tom King threatened as did the American Gomez but after riding waves to the inside both became tied up with arduous paddle outs and equipment failure. In spite of this heart stopper of a final, for me, it was the women who impressed the most. Shakira Westdorp proved to be a clinical tactician while perhaps Izzy Gomez succumbed to youthful impetuosity. Surfing equally as well, second place was as high as the teenager could grasp on this occasion. Both girls took absolute bombs that left the event boat swaying manically and would make a grown man cry. Having spent a heat or two in the water caddying for Alex Murry (finishing 16th) the conditions were far from flawless with chop that could be surfed in the channel. Gomez possibly took a final winning drop, riding sure footed over bumps that would fell lesser mortals to deftly lay a bottom turn that would propel her back up into the pitching cavern only to dig a rail on exit. Game over. Westdorp wins. Impressive stuff.
