As I wrote in this space last week, I honestly did not believe there was any chance of the World Surf League’s Billabong Pipe Masters resuming after five event officials tested positive for Covid-19. But they do things differently in America, and on The Rock, they sometimes do things very, very differently.
After also calling a halt to the women’s tour event on Maui following a fatal shark attack on a recreational surfer at Honolua Bay – not a great week, all things considered – the WSL went into its normal default position in times of crisis, the cone of silence, only to emerge in the middle of last week with: “The WSL is pleased to announce that we are ending our suspension of the Billabong Pipe Masters and we’ll look to run competition over the coming days with a promising forecast.”
Not only that but the Maui Pro would also be completed at Pipe, offering a rare chance to see the world’s best women surfers competing in that toughest of waves. But how? After nine months or so of listening to epidemiologists and government health advisers on the nightly news, we have all become experts in quarantines and lockdowns, and we know that not even God or Kelly Slater can kill a cluster in six days.
Try telling that to the State of Hawaii health officials. Da boys gotta go surfin’, bro! And they did, running a very full second day of competition last Friday our time, despatching 22 heats using the overlap system up to the round of 16. So now they can finish both men’s and women’s in one long day, but as I write, the swell has evaporated and isn’t expected back within the event window. Will, they extend? Well, who thought they’d even be running?
With a huge amount of luck, this may be past tense by the time you read this, but there is plenty of interest left at Pipe for us Aussies, if they get to finish. First heat up will be West Aussie young gun Jack Robinson against the GOAT, Kelly Slater, who is almost old enough to be Robbo’s grandfather, but Pipeline doesn’t seem to know that.
Both surfers have looked the goods in this event so far, with Slater casually dismissing our other young gun, Ethan Ewing, while Jack absolutely wailed on Newcastle’s Julian Wilson in the heat of the day, scoring an 8.5 and a 9.23. (Note how Jules is from Newcastle when he loses, Noosa when he wins.) The other two Aussies left in the draw both have Brazilian world champions who shred at Pipe to contend with, Ryan Callinan up against current world and Pipe champion Italo Ferreira, and Jack Freestone facing Gabriel Medina.
Meanwhile, in the relocated women’s semis, we have Tyler Wright and Sally Fitzgibbons, both armed and dangerous. Let’s just hope we get to see them strut their stuff at big Pipe.
Remember Wave Flow?
No, me neither. But back in 1972, I had only been to Noosa twice in my life, for two cyclone swells that occupied my attention to such a degree I don’t think I ever got down Hastings Street past Thatcher’s caravan park, so I was therefore blissfully unaware of the existence of Wave Flow Surfboards, the first actual surfboard factory in Noosa Heads.
And before you Noosa nostalgia freaks start raising the roof, yes, I am aware that Trevor Hewston set up shop in the old Green Gables caf¨¦ at Sunshine Beach long before this, and that Trevor subsequently set up Shane Surfboards on Hilton Esplanade in Noosaville, but as my local surf history guru Stuart Scott tells me, Wave Flow was the first in Noosa Heads, and probably the only time there has ever been a surfboard factory in Hastings Street.
Says Stuart: “Rick Bennet had the first surf shop in Hastings Street before this, but no boards were made there. The late Derek Male once told me that Nat Young’s brother, Chris, shaped a few in the stables behind Laguna House in the late 1960s, and Su Daddow reports that Bill Wallace made a few in the garage at The Breakers, also in 1972. But Wave Flow was the first actual factory, with a shingle on the door announcing its presence.”
And Stuart ought to know – his family home was right next door. There is a photo of the front of Wave Flow floating around on social media, showing Bruce “Bean” Fewings and John Devereaux standing in front of the sign, but unfortunately it is such a battered old print that it can’t be reproduced here. It had been a three-room holiday shack at the Woods end on the site that later became Belmondo’s.
Stuart tracked Bean down in Victoria where he still makes boards under the Balin label and extracted the following: “We were there for a couple of years, then Kevin Platt Surfboards dobbed us in to the tax man, then we ended up working for them at Sunshine Beach for a few years.”
So there we have it, another forgotten nugget of Noosa surfing history.
And speaking of forgotten nuggets of surfing history, your wrinkled old columnist would like to wish all readers and their families a very merry and wave-filled Christmas. (And good luck with the latter, charts are not looking great.)
