By PHIL JARRATT
We’ve had such a good run of surf lately that I felt I could dodge the dawn patrol sessions towards the end of last week and indulge my inner couch potato by watching the concluding stages of the Fiji Pro on TV.
It was a good call because I caught some of the most exciting world tour surfing of this or any other year. On Thursday Cloudbreak was as good as it gets, on Friday just a little too big but with some great sets coming through in between the giant wash-throughs.
Matt Wilkinson, who still retains the tour leader’s yellow jersey by a good margin now at the halfway point, is a big, strong lad but he was absolutely knackered after being caught inside over and over again in his back-to-back semi against Ace Buchan and final against Gabriel Medina.
Even at half that size, getting caught inside at Cloudbreak is a mission fraught with peril as you fight the force of the ocean to keep yourself off that treacherous reef.
At this level of competition, and at double-overhead plus, these guys were really putting it on the line.
Having surprised everyone by despatching John John Florence in the quarters, Wilko had no answer to the superb barrel riding and flourish finishes of the young Brazilian, giving Medina his first win for quite a while and a boost up the rankings.
Likewise, the evergreen Kelly Slater bolted back from ratings Siberia with some incredible performances until he met the Medina machine in the semi-finals.
But for me the real highlight of the event we’d almost forgotten was happening (after eight straight lay days) was the extraordinary and emotional swansong of Taj Burrow.
I first met Taj at a trade show in Munich when he was just starting out.
A group of us had a rowdy dinner at a bierkeller and I decided that this talented young surfer (rookie of the year in 1998, world runner-up in ’99) was also a great bloke.
Judging by the party atmosphere on Namotu Island last week, and the fact that half the competitors were sporting Taj Farewell mohawks, the West Australian is still the life of the party and has no shortage of friends.
In every generation there are great surfers who just fail to clinch a world title – I’m thinking of Simon Anderson, Cheyne Horan, Gary Elkerton – but over his illustrious 18-year career, you’d have to think that Taj was dead unlucky not to adorn the mantelpiece.
But his many fans around the world are happy enough just to watch him surf. And last week at Cloudbreak he put on a clinic.
It was tough bananas that Taj drew John Florence in the third round, but at 38 he wasn’t leaving the tour without a fight, and in absolutely pristine and pumping conditions he really took it up to the young Hawaiian, trading deep barrels and high nines from hooter to hooter. In the end it was too much to ask, but what a way to bow out!
Mick Fanning and the rest of his mates mobbed him in the water before he even made the boat to have a rest, and a swooning Taj later said it was the heat of his life.
Well, there have been many highlights in a wonderful career, but this was one session between two giants of our sport that I won’t forget in a hurry.
Vale Romaldo Giurgola
I know this column sometimes should be renamed Deathwatch (you wait until you get this old!), but I have to belatedly note the passing last month in Canberra of that most brilliant of architects and gentlest of men, Romaldo Giurgola.
Italian-born Aldo, who made his name as an architect in the United States, was asked in 1979 to judge the worldwide competition for a design for Australia’s new Parliament House.
He declined the offer, saying that he wanted to enter and win the commission, which he did, the Mitchell Giurgola and Thorp design beating 329 other entries from 28 countries.
Being a huge fan of the old Parliament House (still a magnificent building and museum today), I was somewhat underwhelmed by what I saw taking shape on Canberra’s highest hilltop in the 1980s, but Aldo’s vision, and the incredible creative team he built up around him, finally delivered the goods – not some pompous edifice but a brilliant construction that related in every way to its environment, and actually nestled into it.
On the 25th anniversary of its opening in 2013, photographer Michael Amendolia and I spent a wonderful day with Aldo at Parliament House and in his book-lined apartment in Kingston, interviewing and photographing him for Australian Geographic.
Michael and I agreed when we floated out of there that it had been a highlight of our professional careers.
He was an old school Roman gentleman who combined great wisdom with great humility. I cherish the fact that I was fortunate enough to meet him.
