Hey Everyone,
Well sorry about the shortage of posts lately, guess that's how it goes eh?!
Plenty happening since my last post, had the
QS on for a week before I went away last time. Yet again been blown away by the standard of surfing in waves we wouldn't look twice at, one of the highlights would have to have been the free surfing at the bowl when it was onshore mush one of the mornings halfway through the contest. It's also pretty amazing to see the airs that the guys were doing, not just in free surfing but in heats too!
Must say that they boys put up a good effort, Boydie had a good game plan and stuck with it throughout. His knowledge helped him to get quite a few good waves however he was out pointed on better set waves. Georgie had a tough heat with not many waves going his way, the waves he did get weren't really keen on cooperating. Scratch put in a fine effort, his experience from the past two events helped him prepare for his heat. Surfing well throughout his heat Scratch did himself proud unfortunately he found his roll of the dice not in his favour. He found himself in one of the highest scoring heats of the first round, even though he did not make it through his heat he could still walk up the reef with his head held high.
I'm sure that everyone seen the photos that have come from the event, I'm going to upload some of my favourites soon. The photo above is Scratch just before his heat and for me this is an outstanding photo. It really sums up the feelings and thoughts that go through your head just before a heat like this. In all honesty its not a very nice position to be in, sure you have all of the journalists calling and talking about how you are the wildcard, the chosen one. Here we have the warrior that the Scots have chosen to put forward as our best.
The ego boost that the journalists give soon subsides leaving the cold hard reality, you are about to surf against some of the best surfers in the world. This is their job, they surf heats every week, winning means continued support and a shot at the big time loosing isn't really an option. Here you are waiting for the countdown, thinking... All I want to do is my best, if I do the best I can and fail that's OK I've done my best. The other option is to surf badly, make the wrong decisions, pick the wrong waves, fall, get stuck inside, it could go flat and I won't get any waves. There are more things can go wrong than right.
Then you have the walk back up the reef, that in itself is a daunting thing. If anyone knows anything about the guys who are at the top of their game it's that they HATE loosing. On the other hand if you win, the world is your oyster all smiles and life is good. winning means living up to the expectation, all the hype from the journalists, the support of the guys on the reef. Loosing is something that you have to deal with and I think that some handle it better than others. Whichever way you look at it it's a long walk with your head bowed.
Anyway I'm getting sidetracked, as you can see from this photo here Scratch surfed well and as far as I'm concerned he did enough to walk up the reef with his head held high.
Later
Chris
