By PHIL JARRATT
MATT Wilkinson pumped down the line on his backhand, gaining speed for the open face ahead. He twisted his body, pressed his knees into his board and unleashed the move that would brand him as a champion in the making. As he soared high above the break, a packed audience on the beach and in the stands held their collective breath. There was an audible sigh as Wilkinson landed it, caught a rail, corrected, then lost it. He hadn’t quite pulled it off, but it was the move of the contest.
I wrote that five years ago in a profile for my book, Australia’s Hottest 100 Surfing Legends, after watching Wilko blow up at the Quiksilver Pro. Okay, the making of the champion has taken a bit longer than anticipated, and along the way the kid from Copacabana has been written off as the class clown and a good-time Charlie who was more interested in being last to leave the party than he was in winning a world title. And they’re still throwing darts at him! The surfing writer for our national newspaper described his style in winning last month’s Quiksilver Pro as “bogan”.
Even within the strong Rip Curl team he has long been held up as the exemplar of “team spirit” rather than world champ material like team-mates Mick Fanning and Gabriel Medina. But make no mistake, Wilko is sitting pretty comfortably in his yellow jersey after the first two events of the WSL season, with daylight between his perfect score (not to mention $200,000 sitting in his sometimes sketchy bank account) and the rest of the field. And with Gabby Medina down at the bottom of the field and Fanning taking time out from touring, he is Rip Curl’s Great White Hope for a title.
Of course, with nine events still to run, and two end-of-season throwaway scores to factor in, it is far too early to make rash predictions, but two things seem likely to play into his favour. One is that Glenn “Micro” Hall seems to be a much better coach than he was a world tour competitor. This is not to take anything away from the diminutive Aussie who flew Irish colours on tour and did that country proud, but he seems to have performed miracles on a surfer who was until recently, by his own admission, out of control and lacking focus.
The second is that Wilko’s personality seems immune to pressure situations. At Bells last Sunday, in the break before the final, he was cracking wise and high-fiving buddies while Jordy Smith, himself a pretty cool cat most of the time, seemed tense and perhaps unable to get over the fact that he had beaten Mick Fanning to secure his berth.
Wilko became the first goofy foot to win Bells since 1998, and although I prefer the silky smooth attack of that year’s winner, Mark Occhilupo, and the best backhander I ever saw at Bells, Wayne Lynch, he ain’t no bogan!
Relief for village from Festival Fiji Appeal
Proceeds from our Cyclone Winston Appeal at the Laguna Real Estate Noosa Festival of Surfing have been delivered directly to one of the worst-hit villages. Noosa’s Scott and Sacha Cairns presented the chief of Dreketi Village on Qamea Island, Ratu Laginikoro Dakuiyau with 1450 Fiji dollars, which the chief said would be used to buy food supplies, like flour, potatoes, taro and kasava, since the village crops, including their root staples, had been wiped out. Ratu was also quite stoked in his festival T-shirt.
A further $3000 raised at two charity auctions will be donated to the Red Cross Cyclone Winston Appeal. A big shout out to the generous bidders and the even more generous folk who donated such great stuff for these auctions.
A prayer for Uncle Buff
News from Makaha this week that one of the greats of Hawaiian surfing is ailing. Richard “Buffalo” Keaulana was one of the pioneers of modern “hot dog” surfing in Hawaii in the 1950s, won the prestigious Makaha International and became known as the spirit of aloha on Oahu’s dusty and poor Westside beaches.
Buffalo and Momie raised a fine family at Makaha, among them multiple world longboard champion Rusty Keaulana and his older brother Brian, one of the finest watermen in the world. I’d met Buffalo in the ’70s, but had no contact with the family for 20 years until I found myself touring for Quiksilver in Europe with Rusty. I invited him to come to the first Noosa Festival of Surfing in 1998, and he loved it so much he promised to come back the following year with Brian and Buff.
In 1999 Buffalo Keaulana was our guest of honour, leading the traditional Hawaiian opening ceremony and surfing with distinction and a great sense of fun, and Brian became a festival regular for many years.
In 2003, I had to call in a favour from Buff when the Quiksilver World Masters Championships I’d planned for Morocco were cancelled after George Bush invaded Iraq. I didn’t quite get the connection, but the Quik board was insistent that we were not going to a Muslim country, and we had to find an alternative venue in a hurry. The Keaulana clan welcomed us to Makaha with open arms, the surf pumped and it was the best of the four Masters that I ran.
At the end of a wonderful fortnight at Makaha, I presented Buff and Momie with an Aboriginal dot painting and he reciprocated with a beautiful koa wood spear, which hangs on my wall today. I can’t look at it without thinking of Buffalo’s true aloha spirit, which I’m sure he is carrying into this fight for his life.
Strength, brudda.
