Surfing’s a funny old game from time to time, as a couple of recent events at various levels of the pro tour have rammed home to me.
The first was the seemingly-inexplicable naming of Nathan Hedge as WSL sponsor wildcard for this week’s season-ending Outerknown Pro Tahiti. Don’t get me wrong here. Hedgey is one of my all-time favourite surfers, not to mention one of the most endearingly loveable louts who ever made the championship tour. I had a bit to do with him in his early years on tour and I loved his go-for-it attitude, in and out of the water.
But the guy is 43 years old, hasn’t been on the big tour for a decade and a half, and this year only managed a 49th at the Challenger event in Manly and a more recent round of 16 finish in a minor event at Nias.
So why him, when there are so many better qualified barrel pigs recently bounced off tour who would just love to go berserk at Chopes? I’m thinking Owen Wright or Ryan Callinan, just off the top of the head. There are many more.
Well, the short answer is Kelly Slater, but I’d better unpack that a bit.
The naming rights sponsor is Outerknown, Kelly’s French-funded upmarket surfwear brand, so if Kelly says Hog’s in, then Hog’s in.
Why would he though?
One reason might be that Hedgey is actually a minor team rider for Outerknown, which is almost certainly an act of compassion for a still-great surfer who has fought hard for years to finally beat his alcohol addiction.
But there’s actually more to this unlikely story.
Despite his frequently-expressed distaste for the antics of the Aussie booze brigade on tour 20 years ago, Kelly actually had a sneaking admiration for the way guys like Hedgey, Hoyo and Mick Campbell would never hold back and never leave you wondering.
On tour Hedgey was far more likely to be holding up the bar with Andy Irons than Kelly Slater, but in 2005 at the Nova Schin Pro in Brazil, these two great champions and the gutsy journeyman from North Narrabeen formed an unlikely triangle.
It was the most famous quarter-final of Nathan Hedge’s pro career and he was surfing brilliantly.
But as it came down to the wire, with three-time world champion Andy Irons desperately trying to peg back Hedge’s substantial lead, no one was watching.
Suddenly all eyes were on the drama unfolding in the beach grandstand where Kelly Slater was just moments away from capping his remarkable comeback by winning his seventh world title. All Hedgey had to do was hold on and Irons was out of the race and the title was Slater’s.
The emotion of the moment is captured beautifully in the documentary Letting Go.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as Hedgey picked up another long left on the siren, rode it all the way to the beach and with clenched fist in the air, claimed the victory. But who was the battler claiming it for? Himself or Slater?
“I think he did it for both of us,” Slater told me a couple of years later.
“We have an interesting friendship, and at times it’s been almost brotherly, where I’ve felt he really wanted to show me something.
“He beat me fair and square at Jeffreys Bay the year before, and maybe he was completing something in Brazil. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone so focused on a plan to win a heat, and I think almost anyone else that day would have been blown out of the water by Andy.”
I know it’s not going to happen, but I’d love to see Hedgey and Kelly in the final at Teahupo’o this week. Then we’d see where the favours lie.
Marzo whistles up perfect 10
The other oddball thing that happened last week also peripherally involves Kelly Slater.
I first met a super-talented grom called Clay Marzo in 2007 when we were both enjoying the hospitality of the soon-to-be GOAT at Kelly Week on Tavarua, Fiji.
I saw the young goofy-foot get some amazingly-deep barrels at Cloudbreak and Restaurants that week, but one beautiful day at Cloudbreak he was inadvertently responsible for my most embarrassing moment in surfing.
I was sitting out at Middles with Kelly and Shane Dorian, waiting for them to take pity on me and let me take off on my borrowed nine-four Aipa Sting.
A set came and they gave me the nod, but as I paddled up the line to get a little deeper, I spotted Clay Marzo paddling. He was far too deep to make it but as I took off I heard the shrill, loud whistle he’d been using all morning.
I pumped hard to get through the first section then pulled out in his favour.
Slater and Dorian were right there, gob-smacked and furious.
I said: “Marzo’s in that thing!”
They looked up the line to where Clay was sitting quietly in the line-up, still waiting, and shook their heads sadly.
So Marzo was in Bali last week for the Rip Curl Cup at Padang-Padang. Knocked out in the quarters, he got a recall when Benji Brand retired hurt, went on and won the thing with a perfect 10. Apparently there was no whistling.
FOOTNOTE: It’s hard to top Marzo’s performance at Padang, but 15-year-old Hawaiian super-grom Erin Brooks almost did. Having won the women’s event, she also made it to the final of the men’s and held her own against three of the best tube-riders in the world. Bravo!
