It’s been a while since Team Hawaii monopolised the podium at a surfing world championships, but it was fitting that the true home of surfing should take team and individual gold at the place that self-styles itself as Latin America’s true home of surfing.
When it comes to hyping its dubious surf cred, El Salvador’s Surf City leaves California’s Surf City Huntington Beach for dead, but the right point break of El Sunzal sure has hosted a lot of events in recent years, including last week’s ISA World Longboard championships for the second year in a row.
And, it must be said, El Sunzal produced the goods with several days of head-high and bigger clean, workable faces, providing a perfect canvas for the veteran Kai Sallas, the current WSL world longboard champion, to take out his second ISA title with a mix of powerful turns on the face and extended nose-rides. Three-times WSL longboard champ Honolua Blomfield also surfed beautifully to take out her first individual ISA title, handing Hawaii the world team title, with great backup from Kaniela Stewart teenager Kelis Kaleopaa.
For Team Australia, the results weren’t quite what we were hoping for, despite some spirited performances from Sydney’s Declan Wyton and Tully White and Sunshine Coasters Clinton Guest and Kirra Molnar. Noosa’s Kirra finished equal 17th while Declan was the best of the Aussies with a ninth. Better luck next time, guys.
Kelly-mania at Snapper
Meanwhile the opening weekend of the first WSL Challenger Series event, the Snapper Rocks Pro, was overshadowed somewhat by the presence of the GOAT!
We really have to stop talking about Kelly Slater so much before he gets a swelled head, but how good was it to see the recent retiree back in action after saying so long and thanks for all the fish just a couple of weeks back at Margaret River.
Of course we knew he wouldn’t stay out of the contest jersey for long, but this must be some kind of record. And his seeding into the round of 64 at Snapper is not just a one-off, the 52-year-old 11-times world champ having been granted wildcard entries into the WSL tour event in Tahiti in just a few weeks and for the Fiji Pro in August, both of these held in waves custom-made for his powerhouse surfing.
In my opinion, Slater was woefully under-scored on Sunday to be turfed out of the Snapper Pro in his first official heat in front of thousands of wailing fans, but Saturday belonged to the GOAT. On a mostly sunny Coolangatta afternoon, the WSL wisely advertised a world champs expression session to follow the last heat of the day. Conditions were near-perfect just after four when the champs hit the water – 1999 world champ Mark Occhilupo, three-times world champ Mick Fanning, 2012 world champ Joel Parkinson, eight-times world champ Steph Gilmore and, of course, Kelly Slater.
Although they all surfed beautifully, especially Mick and Steph, it was like turning the clock back to 2013, the last time Kelly won the Snapper event in epic conditions. A huge crowd roared from the rock gallery every time he took off, and he didn’t disappoint. All the trademark moves came out, and when the long session was finally over, the middle-aged champ staggered up the beach to sign autographs for another hour or two.
If this was Kelly’s Nellie Melba farewell tour, then he more than matched her for style and substance. Well played, GOAT!
Vale Geoff McCoy
Look, he wasn’t the easiest bloke to get along with – I’ve seen the word “cantankerous” pop up in a couple of the obits – but Geoff McCoy, who died of heart complications at age 79 last week, was a master shaper and visionary designer of surfboards whose legacy will be huge and lasting.
After working in the Brookvale factories of Ron, Keyo and Barry Bennett through the ‘60s boom, Geoff went out on his own with McCoy Surfboards in 1970, with some financial assistance from Ray Richards, father of Mark. But it was Mark Warren, not Richards, who became the lead pilot in the group of surfers soon known as the McCoy Boys. By 1975 Geoff had signed up most of Sydney’s leading surfers for free boards and maybe an occasional handout. I satirised the team in Tracks magazine in a spoof called Biff M’Boy and the M’Boy Boys. Geoff was not amused and pulled his advertising.
The following year, having perfected his revolutionary “no-nose” design, which changed the weight dynamics of surfboards, Geoff enlisted young Cheyne Horan and together they came up with the no-nosed single-fin Lazor Zap model. (As a speller, Geoff was a great shaper.) Horan and the Lazor Zap gave Geoff McCoy his greatest successes, but by the early ‘80s, Simon Anderson’s thruster design had taken over, Geoff was broke and somewhat bitter.
He continued to create cutting edge surfboards from a base at Byron Bay, but in later years had dropped out of sight, although I would see him from time to time shuffling into Round Hill Creek at 1770 for a leisurely swim.
I wish I’d known him better, but I always appreciated the way he backed his vision beyond compromise.
