The sky hung like a dripping cloth over a sodden sea this morning in Tahara, Japan. Cantaloupe-melon coloured two foot waves rolled in at Long Beach with an onshore breeze. They didn’t burst open like ripe fruit, but were soft and slow moving. Contests may have their detractors, but those involved meet the best in their field, and this pushes things to new levels. Whatever the conditions, everybody must meet the challenge and that is a great motivator. The ancient Greeks developed competitive sport as a complex cultural and ritual occasion, birthing the Olympic Games. Sport was a way of saying something through the body, a form of persuasion or rhetoric in front of an audience, an aesthetic event, a display of beauty. In developing what the ancient Greeks called arçte, ‘virtuosity,’ you engaged in a dramatic performance. Surfing’s total reliance on unpredictable ocean conditions has prevented it from becoming an Olympic sport. But even in poor waves, world-class surfers always put on a great aesthetic display. With no Pacific typhoons forecast for the week, the event has had to make the most of the fickle conditions, and 10 of the first round of 16 man-on-man heats has been completed. The rules changed for this year to provide knockout from the outset, in Olympian style. The weather cleared as heat 1 got into its stride on the pushing tide. Brazilian Eduardo Bage created rhythm from the chop, gliding through noserides and turns with top-drawer brilliance, to advance straight into the top 16. Countrymen Amaro Matos and Carlos Bahia echoed Eduardo’s success.
Hawaiian all-stars Duane deSoto, Ned Snow, Keegan Edwards and reigning Oxbow WLT champion Bonga Perkins set off fireworks as they won their respective heats. They ran the small waves ragged with 7 point plus rides, offering great timing and total focus on the present. But there have to be losers, and outstanding surfers such as Josh Constable, Dane Pioli and Kai Sallas lost out on a tough day. South African Matthew Moir won by generating impossibly explosive turns and then delicately summarising with hang fives. The UK’s Ben Skinner turned the off-key sets into rock music, improvising powerful pedal-key runs on disappearing and reappearing faces. France’s Oxbow WLT number 2, Antoine Delpero, signalled his intent by racking up big scores on chopped-up waves, showing how rhythm can be generated from quiet waters. Greasy green sections walled up and Antoine slid all over them in creating instant artworks, adopting great posture through long hang tens and flexing low into outlandish re-entries. The outcome was the day’s top wave scores - 8.25 and a 9.5. While the conditions were not the best, today’s winners tuned into to every expressive drop of water, and found moments of grace and power by linking manoeuvres. Maybe the secret to winning is to be charged with desire and live the moment with no excuses. Longboarding will always be full of surprises and the best improvisers usually come out on top.
Sam Bleakley
