The Outsider: Final Day Fever

Steve Shearer picture
Steve Shearer (freeride76)
Swellnet Dispatch

"The Kings taken back the throne. A useless seed is sown"

The sun has finally poked through the parade of passing squalls as the final day seems to draw towards an inevitable conclusion. The school children are chasing each other around the playground and the good ol' boys are camped underneath a tree.

The Messiah was eliminated while I was still drinking my morning espresso. We note again the truism that has become apparent in this epoch-shattering year of Pro Surfing: the Messiah don't do mornings, 'specially not windy, squally mornings in the South Seas.

Your correspondent got to the meedya boat just before the hotly anticipated Freddy P/Owen clash. Owen was in the boat with his father, both silent, watchful. Perhaps tense, if I could be permitted a small interpretation of the mood. Luke Egan was squinting into the weather, looking grim-faced and concerned as the squalls lined up to windward of the island. Freddy was paddling around engaging the small crowd in some friendly banter. I had witnessed the two freesurfing the evening previously, comparing the two approaches. Freddy P busy, ducking and weaving, throwing plenty of jabs in boxing parlance, while the Big O sat patiently for the bigger sets. I would estimate Freddy P surfed 30 waves compared to O's 5 or 6.

The heat started where the freesurf left off. Freddy P off the mark straight away, too deep on a set and losing priority but getting back out and catching another wave. Meanwhile O stayed immobile, waiting for a set that refused to come. This so-called "Martinez strategy": of waiting steadfastly for waves that may not come has been Owen's undoing before, notably in his high tide heat against Taj at Snapper.

Still twenty minutes into the heat and Owen has no score. He is too deep for a set wave, that clamshells on him. 'Where is Plan B Owen?', your correspondent wonders aloud to no-one in particular. This remains the greatest competitive advantage of Slater: his ability to adapt and respond to the changing reality of the ocean during a thirty minute heat.

It calls to mind the operational method of legendary test Pilot Chuck Yeager, described so memorably in Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff. "If Plan A didn't work then it was time to try Plan B and so on and so forth until you found something that worked." I'm paraphrasing, but you get the drift. If Owen is to become a legit title contender he needs to expand his strategic repertoire. EOS.

Kelly uses the slow strangulation method against Melling, applying relentless pressure until the final death blow was delivered. In a real sense he never got out of a canter. Your correspondent got to talk with Slater after the heat. I was thinking it might be the last chance to get an audience with the champ if he continued his run. The last time I spoke to him was at Bells after a similar Rd 4 win. He went on to win that contest.

There's a peculiar charm and remote intensity about Slater up close. He's there, intensely present for the conversation, and yet you are acutely aware that at any point he could brush you off with a royal haughtiness. People in the media find this combination unsettling and opinion is divided as to how they respond to the Slater schtick.

He is candid with your correspondent, explaining the lessons he learned from last years board experimentation, which he has now repackaged into a more aesthetically acceptable form, whilst still enjoying the benefits of his small board revolution. Lessons learned largely from the tow-surfing realm. He explained also, how a disappointing year like last year acts like a protracted retensioning of the bow of his competitive instinct, drawing it back to a point where the arrow of his career arc can reach further and further. I can pass on the fact that in the break he completely redesigned his quiver, changing outlines and rocker and experimenting with all tail shapes while maintaining the low volume paradigm.

He has increased rocker through the whole board, increasing concave concomitantly. He is riding the best boards of his career. Fact. For his event defining ten-point ride heat against Ace he rode a small McKee set-up quad, a board we detailed in an earlier post. We'll come back to this ride in a minute.

As a parting shot he carefully dissects the line-up, wave rhythm and strategic options: "You gotta pay attention".

Word, holmes.

Before coming back to Kelly's ten we must first deal with the problem of Ace Buchan. How do you solve a problem like Ace Buchan? Resolutely competitive, unfashionable and outdated as determined by the overwhelming weight of evidence provided by the anonymous experts of internet chat forums. Ace will not make any Mod Coll redux but his surfing has a particular fast twitch edge to it and a pleasing neo-classical look. He dominated the last remaining Tahitian, Michel Bourez, with wave selection and super precise tube-riding.

Kelly's ten was shocking. Devastatingly similar to his layback to barrell 20 point heat which still stands as a high water mark in Pro Surfing history. It was wave that very few Pros would have even attempted, let alone made. As a statement of both intent and luck, synchronicity, intuition: call it what you will it established his credentials as a Primary Cause in this event.

But there is another First Principle and Primary Cause left in the event. A surfer whose emotional intensity can sometimes lead to full scale meltdowns but can, at times, produce an incandescent dominance. I speak, of course, about Andy Irons.

Andy had to re-design his quiver from the ground up as well. His emotional quiver. In place of his arrogance we have seen a humble acceptance and self-deprecating honesty, at times almost painful to watch, since his re-emergence on the world stage. But while Slater's remoteness has alienated, AI's humility has endeared him. He is universally loved by all on this tour. Even Slater, following his narrow loss to AI in the semi expresses his love for Andy, maybe for real this time my fellow pro surfing historians. Can love triumph in this hyper-competitive world?

As a contest the final lacks the drama and intensity of the quarters and semi's. But no matter, Andy wins. Love is everywhere! Love conquers all!

Good news for modern man.

Thank you linesmen, thank you ballboys. I drink a Hinano to all of your good health.

Past articles by The Outsider:

Comments

t-diddy's picture
t-diddy's picture
t-diddy Saturday, 4 Sep 2010 at 2:31am

great coverage! perfect mix of existential rambling and real contest coverage. AI is the man! so stoked he took out...pau hana brah!

ricep's picture
ricep's picture
ricep Saturday, 4 Sep 2010 at 4:34am

spot on observation. Especially Owen, at the end of the day or heat for that matter you have to catch something!!!,and like the outsider said he went down to this strategy in the past. Slater is supreme because he can adapt to any situation and is willing to completely throw game plan out the window to do what it takes to WIN the heat. I am surprised that other s can't take this onboard. Ok Ace is not new new school but he does shred enough to well and truly remain relevant. Great to see Andy back for all his flaws and vulnerabilities, the tour isn't the same without him. You can almost sense that this victory has truly fanned the competitive fire inside. Trestles will be a cracker. Hope there is swell.

windjammer's picture
windjammer's picture
windjammer Saturday, 4 Sep 2010 at 10:13am

Well, that's it hey bru?
Pinch yerself again, one more time.

Big up from the bridge to SWELLNET for putting The Outsider out there!

The return of the Irons man.... ??... Erring is all too human. Forgiveness, utterly divine.
The humble and self-depricating shall inherit this earth....well, at least the waters that surround it.

Slater ?? Now there's a fargen enigma and freak if ever there was one.
Not 'special' enough to be loved unequivocally. It's a conditional love that Kelly demands.

Nonetheless, bravo Shears. One more espresso for the Jammer! The Messiah will rise another day!
Safe travels hombre.

jimmy's picture
jimmy's picture
jimmy Saturday, 4 Sep 2010 at 10:26am

Umm.. Windjammer.. You might be surprised to know that Swellnet didn't pay for putting him out there pal.. They weren't willing or able to front all of the cash so a few people such as myself chucked in to get him there.. Also he lost his job by going there.. wonder if Swellnet will give him a fully paid job which he deserves... Because we all know that this is the best surf writing to come our way in a long time..

And I reckon they would have had more hits on their site because of the fact that Shearer was there..

jimsheedy's picture
jimsheedy's picture
jimsheedy Saturday, 4 Sep 2010 at 1:23pm

good work. Glad you were there. I honestly wouldn't have read anything on this contest other than the result, if you weren't.

edimilk's picture
edimilk's picture
edimilk Sunday, 5 Sep 2010 at 12:39am

Really well done mate! It's great to have more than just the surface shown by average meedya. I'm just a little upset about that cut in the middle of the year. It would be less painful if it had happened at the end of the year... anyway. Show must go on. It's always a pleasure to read you... thanx.

windjammer's picture
windjammer's picture
windjammer Sunday, 5 Sep 2010 at 10:10am

Ummm... Jimmy, put it back in your pants sunshine. Gomer Pyle I ain't.
I know swellnet didn't pay for Shearer.
I was just acknowledging them for giving him the time o day to spray his banshee rants.
Heaven help us if any other avenue published them, and the bogan wax massive would be baying for blood, nay, hauling him off to a stake for burning al la joanie of the arc.
I sold some stamps and my kids playstation to cash converters to fund this sojourn too, so as he could get a headstart on the tan for spring.
Worth every penny too.
Couldn't give a busted cassette about the pro circus.
Just love a good travelogue.
I'm always on the lookout for a trusty bilge rat. There's work if he wants it.

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Monday, 6 Sep 2010 at 4:14am

Just to correct the public record: in addition to all the wonderful public support, Swellnet made the trip happen, in every sense of the term. It ain't accurate to insinuate that Swellnet weren't a massive and crucial part of the deal. Private and public partnerships are part of the new paradigm: I'm grateful to both.
Cheers, The Outsider.

prawnhead's picture
prawnhead's picture
prawnhead Thursday, 9 Sep 2010 at 7:57pm

ah shearer ,your rhetoric and wit will be sorely missed when the call (and bucks)of mainstream journalism eventually beckon you....
a "travel blog" for the SMH,"weekends away" for the AGE and after the recent video efforts,no doubt a job on the pinnacle of the small screen travel docs "getaway" (This week Steve and Sophie(Monck)explore the over water service at Bora Bora)
i will only be left with snippets of Carroll v Mantalos on kurungabaa and articles that even my thesaurus can't decipher!!

great style and entertainment

cheers mate
"denial ain't just a river in Egypt" Mark Twain

caro's picture
caro's picture
caro Thursday, 30 Sep 2010 at 8:49am

Quotes from Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, I loved that book, also your Good News for Modern Man made me laugh. Reading this retrospectively it is still a great read