Waiting for the wave starved Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast to continue, we fans have been tuning in every night (for me) to see if its going to run. We had 10 consecutive lay days then Kierron Perrow announced that the WSL would extend the waiting period from the 11th to the 13th of March. Apparently that cost them in the region of 100,000 US dollars, not exactly pocket change.
What we got was one and a half days of watching the worlds best getting frustrated and taking it out on each other in hip high, sloppy conditions. It was awesome, sorry to say so, but bring on the drama. Of course I would rather see a classic Kirra barrel shoot out, but if the waves are going to be small and the surfing's going to be boring, why not turn up the drama dial to full, and they did.
In one day they had Kelly, Parko, Medina, Jordy, John John, Bourez all out of the comp, it has been the day of the blue jersey and not without its controversy too.
Kelly was first to fall to Italo Ferriera in heat one, the first time he has ever gone out of this event as early as round 3.
Medina had an interference called on him, harsh words where exchanged in the water with competitor Glenn Hall, he lost the heat and gave a Bobby Martinez style interview saying f**k on air. (We are waiting for the WSL to dish out a fine on the one.)
Parko lost in his heat against rookie Wiggolly Dantas, then claimed that he was blocked on a wave and implied that Wiggolly should receive an interference. In his post heat interview Wiggolly said that Joel lit him up in the water for some time afterwards.
My personal favourite was Freddy Patachia who did not catch a single wave in his heat against Filipe Toledo, instead, to show his frustration he surfed his board straight into a rock and threw a tantrum in the water.
The waves did get better though out the day and the quarter final match ups feature 4 Brazilians and 4 Australians left in. The final day is going to be live soon and the win is up for grabs, who knows what could happen!!
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