24th February Skate
Bondi Bowlarama - 09

Crowd By Bill Fonseca

The Bondi Bowlarama has rolled again (5th year) and even with rain interruptions the level of skating was the best Bondi had seen in the history of the event.

Pro’s - Jimmy Beck, Bucky Lasek, Omar Hassan

Masters - Mick Mulhall, Steve Caballero Nicky Guerrero

Bucky Lasek took out the Pro division with Steve Caballero winning the Masters, both skaters being the defending champions from last year.
The Masters final had to be cancelled due to the rain with Caballero awarded the win as he was the highest qualifier in the heats.
Australian skaters held their own with Jimmy Beck 3rd and Renton Millar 4th in the Pro division and Mick Mulhall 3rd in the Masters.

Photos by Bill Fonseca except Omar Hassan by Rafael Badillo. (click these images for larger version)

Bucky Lasek

Steve Caballero	Omar Hassan

Lester Kasai	Sergie Ventura

20th February Surf
Big Wave Awards
The Surfing Life Big Awards were on at Bondi last night (19/2/09) and the top award (Biggest Wave Ridden) was won by Mark Mathews on a Cow Bombie wave in W.A. estimated at 14 metres high. The video was shot by Tim Bonython.

19th February Skate
Bowl-a-rama
These are the results from Bowl-a-rama Wellington.

PRO FINALS
1st Place US$3500 Benji Galloway (USA)
2nd Place US$2000 Ross McGouran (England)
3rd Place US$1100 Tim Johnson (USA)
4th Place US$800 Otavio Neto (Brazil)
5th Place US$700 Jimmy ÒGreekÓ Marcus (USA)
6th Place US$600 Corbin Harris (Australia)


MASTERS FINALS
1st Place US$1500 Nicky Guerrero (Denmark)
2nd Place US$800 Pat Ngoho (USA)
3rd Place US$500 Jason Parkes (New Zealand)
4th Place US$400 Sasha Steinhorst (USA)
5th Place US$300 Mike Rogers (USA)
6th Place US$200 Mark Samuels (New Zealand)

10th February FMX
Really sad news - Metal Mulisha FMX rider Jeremy Lusk has died from injuries sustained from a crash at the X Knights contest in Costa Rica at the weekend

Here is the official press release from his publicist:

It is with the greatest sadness that we report…our beloved Jeremy Lusk passed away at approximately 11:03 PM PST this evening due to complications from the crash sustained Saturday evening in Costa Rica. Still in the Calderon Hospital Intensive Care Unit, he was surrounded by his loving Mother and Father, Chuck and Gina Lusk, his wonderful wife Lauren, his Mother and Father-in-Law Lynne and Larry and many of his closest Mulisha family members including Brian Deegan, Ryan Hagy, Cameron Steele and Erik Apple.

Please keep Jeremy and his family in your thoughts and prayers. All the warm thoughts, comments and support are comforting in these times.

This is obviously a personal choice but there is footage of his last jump at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay7XDfLcsLA

9th February Skate
Battle For Supremacy
The first ever battle For Supremacy was held at Monster on Saturday (7/2/09). Organised by Renton Millar, sponsored by Mountain Dew and endorsed by the World Cup Of Skateboarding The Battle Fro Supremacy consisted of 20 of Aussie/NZ’s best park riders fighting it out to decide who reigns supreme in park shredding.
After heaps of insane tricks through the heats, semis and final, it was Keiran Reilly who took out the win. Keiran definitely deserved the win but the judge’s decisions for the minor places were a lot more controversial. In 2nd was Jack Fardell, 3rd going to Tommy Fynn and Jeff “Skunk” Williams 4th. Skunk only getting 4th place was a surprise to many at the event.
Congrats to Renton for staging such a sick comp and lets hope it becomes an annual event.
Battle Of Supremacy will be covered in the next issue of Neutraliser together with a Jack Fardell interview. Thanks to Bill Fonseca for the photo’s.

Rielly	Fardell

Williams	Corbin finished 7th

Shane O’Neill

3rd February Skate
Battle of Supremacy Saturday 7th February
If you’re been checking the event section you’ll know the Battle For Supremacy is on this Saturday at Monster.
Renton sent through the updated list of invited riders:

1st February Wakeboarding
Australian Pro Tour Of Wakeboarding
The 1st round of the Australian Pro Tour of Wakeboarding was at Penrith over the long weekend (January 25/26th).
In the men’s Pro division defending champion Dean Smith suffered an injury leading up to the event and was unable to compete. Two previous champions in Daniel Watkins and Jeff Weatherall were in the event but it was the young guns that dominated the event and progressed to the final. Australia’s most promising young wakeboarder and the last year’s event runner up 15 year old Harley Clifford edged out USA Junior Pro Tour champion Jimmy LaRiche in the final. In third place was Padiwat J Bomb and Brad Smeele was fourth.
In the women’s Pro division we are used to seeing Amber Wing on the winners podium but this year Amber only managed a third with Hayley Smith a very close second to the event winner American Melissa Marquadt.

Harley Glifford	Jimmy LaRiche

Padiwat J Bomb	Brad Smeele

Melissa Marquardt	Hayley Smith

29th January BMX
2009 Rockstar BMX Games Presented by Strictly BMX
Haro Bikes Park
The 2009 Rockstar BMX Games went down over the long weekend with the event being held in Melbourne (Docklands) for the first time. Event organiser Dinny Spicer told Neutraliser Melbourne worked out well and the games will definitely be back there next year.
The Park comp was held over Friday and Saturday with the new course being unveiled that was designed and built especially for the BMX Games. I missed the qualifying rounds on Friday but made it on Saturday where the finals of the juniors, expert, girls and pro’s went down. The level of riding all day was insane with the pro’s turning on a world class event.
There will be a full rundown of the event in the February issue of Neutraliser but here are several of my highlights of the event:
The two American riders who came over for the event, Anthony Napolitan and Craig Mast pulled out the top tricks of the day. Check out Anthony Napolitan’s front flip over the box below, while Craig Mast pulled off an amazing front flip flair down the stairs right at the end of his last run. Unfortunately I was in the wrong position to get a good photo.
Jaie Toohey just gets better each time I see him ride and was the pick of the Aussie riders. Jaie rode ultra aggressively and consistently pulled the biggest airs of the day. If Craig Mast hadn’t pulled off that front flip flair maybe Jaie might have even won the event.
Also impressed by local rider Andrew Ahumada (Mini). Andrew threw tricks all over the park with his tight triple whips being the highlight of his run. Definitely a rider with a big future. Hopefully we will catch up with Mini in the next issue of the mag.

Here are the results and some photo’s to check out;
Haro Bikes Park Final
1 Andrew Mast
2. Jaie Toohey
3. Vince Byron

The Park podium minus Anthony Napolitan

Anthony Napolitan’s massive front flip.

2009 Rockstar BMX Games Presented by Strictly BMX
Backbone King Of Dirt

The BMX dirt course was one of the sickest I’ve seen.
The windy conditions on the day delayed the comp for several hours but when the Pro Final got underway in the late afternoon the crowd witnessed some massive tricks. Cam White is currently the best BMX dirt competitor in the world and although the other riders pushed him all the way Cam took the BMX Games King of Dirt title for the second year in a row. In second place was Jaie Toohey, who just like in the park contest the day before, when big all day.
It will be interesting to see the impact Jaie makes on the American Pro events later this year.

22nd December Surf
BILLABONG PRO MAUI - FINAL EVENT OF THE WOMEN’S WCT AND THE TRIPLE CROWN
Finals day



Stephanie wins another one, her fifth WCT win of the year.

Stephanie Gilmore won the double: the final event of the WCT, The Billabong Pro Maui and in the process the win also secured her the Vans triple Crown, her first victory of this highly regarded title.
The event is scheduled to be held at Honolua Bay where rounds 1 – 3 were contested on day 1 but due to lack of waves for the last week and the forecast predicting the small swell to continue to the end of the waiting period the final day was moved to Ho’okipa Beach Park.

Ho’okipa Beach park

With Stephanie having already wrapped up the world title at the previous event, The Roxy Pro Sunset, the main interest in this event was who would win the Triple Crown and who of the WCT surfers would re-qualify for next year. The last place for re-qualification was between Jacqueline Silva and Megan Abubo. Jacqueline had already been eliminated in round 3 but Megan was trailing her in the ratings and needed to make the finals of this event to move to the top ten. (The top ten surfers requalify for next year).
This contest was also Layne Beachley’s last event as a full time pro surfer. Layne won her quarter final against Rosy Hodge and then in her semi came her match up with Stephanie Gilmore. Layne would have loved to go out on a high note and a win against Stephanie would not just have moved her to within one heat of winning the event but Layne was also leading the Triple Crown ratings and defeating Stephanie would have moved her very close to winning that title also. Stephanie has been so hard to beat in 2008 and although Layne pushed her all the way Stephanie won the semi and moved through to the final. It was a close heat though, Stephanie’s two heat score was 16.80 with Layne scoring a 15.07

In the other heats, Melanie Bartels defeated wild card phen-o-grom Carissa Moore (Carissa was one of only three surfers to eliminate Stephanie from a WCT event in 2008, the Roxy Pro Gold Coast), and Silvana Lima defeated Megan Abubo in their quarter final. That loss meant Megan wouldn’t qualify for the WCT next year. Melanie Bartels moved to the final against Stephanie Gilmore by defeated Silvana Lima in the other semi.
Stephanie won the final with an impressive two wave score of 17.60 with Melanie scoring a 14.80.

Stephanie Gilmore	Melanie Bartels

Layne Beachley still competitive after 17 years of Pro surfing	Megan Abubo megan just missed WCT re-qualification for 09

This was the heat by heat results of the Finals day of the Billabong Pro Maui;

QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Layne Beachley (AUS) 11.07 def. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 9.67
QF 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 15.33 def. Rebecca Woods (AUS) 11.87
QF 3: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 14.66 def. Carissa Moore (HAW) 11.33
QF 4: Silvana Lima (BRA) 13.13 def. Megan Abubo (HAW) 10.23

SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.80 def. Layne Beachley (AUS) 15.07
SF 2: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 13.07 def. Silvana Lima (BRA) 11.07

FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 17.60
2 – Melanie Bartels (HAW) 14.80

Tuesday 16th December Surf
PIPELINE MASTERS - FINAL EVENT OF THE MEN’S WCT AND THE TRIPLE CROWN
Finals Day
Kelly Slater maintained his total dominance of the men’s Pro ranks by winning the Billabong Pipeline Masters, the sixth time he has won the event. Slater wasn’t in the running for the Triple Crown as he didn’t compete in the first two events. The Triple Crown was won by Joel Parkinson.
The surfing superiority of Kelly was best shown in his semi match-up against Tim Reyes. Reynes was surfing great and had even had Kelly combo’ed midway through their heat. Slater then decided to win the heat and in the space of three minutes had amassed scores of a perfect 10 and a 9, which cancelled Reyne’s combo advantage and gave Slater the lead. Just an amazing display of surfing in challenging Pipeline conditions.
Slater met Chris Ward in the final and in deteriorating conditions Slater did enough to win the Pipeline Masters. Slater’s combined two wave score was 14.00 with Chris Ward scoring a 7.23.
The form Australian surfer of the finals day was Adrian Buchan. Buchan ripped all day making it to the semi’s where he went down to Chris Ward.

Chris Ward	Ace Buchan

Slater’s the best but sometimes no match for Pipeline.

Here’s heat by heat of quarters through to the final;
Final Results:
Final: Kelly Slater (USA) 14.00 def. Chris Ward (USA) 7.23

Semifinal Results:
Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 19.00 def. Tim Reyes (USA) 15.60
Heat 2: Chris Ward (USA) 16.46 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 10.16

Quarterfinal Results:
Heat 1: Tim Reyes (USA) 16.17 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 6.67
Heat 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 18.63 def. Jamie O’Brien (HAW) 11.84
Heat 3: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.33 def. Kamalei Alexander (HAW) 2.67
Heat 4: Chris Ward (USA) 8.06 def. Andy Irons (HAW) 7.43

The final women’s event The Billabong Pro Maui, has one day of competition left. Will post an update when it happens.

Friday 12th December Surf
BILLABONG PRO MAUI - FINAL ROUND OF THE WOMEN’S WCT AND THE TRIPLE CROWN
With the 2008 world title already won by Stephanie Gilmore the main focus on the Billabong Pro Maui is who will win the Triple Crown and who will qualify for the WCT next year.
The three leading contenders for the Triple Crown all made it through to the quarters so it will be one of these surfers who takes out the Crown.
This was the Triple Crown ratings of the top three before this event:
Layne Beachley 3675
Stephanie Gilmore 3625
Silvana Lima 3400

On this first day of competition round 1 through round 3 were contested.
These are the quarter final match-ups when competition commences;

QF 1: Layne Beachley (AUS) vs. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF)
QF 2: Rebecca Woods (AUS) vs. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
QF 3: Carissa Moore (HAW) vs. Melanie Bartels (HAW)
QF 4: Megan Abubo (HAW) vs. Silvana Lima (BRA)

Pheno-o-grom Carissa Moore who won the first leg of the Triple Crown, The Reef Hawaiian Pro was a late inclusion to the trials and in typical Moore style won the trials and then caused a huge upset in eliminating current world no 2 Sofia Mulanovich in round 3. Even if Carissa wins this event she would not have enough points to take out the Triple Crown. Carissa eliminated Stephanie Gilmore from the Rip Curl Pro at the start of the year and it would be great to see them match- up again. That match-up could only happen if they both make the final.
Of the current WCT chasing re-qualification the 10th and last spot is between Megan Abubo and Jacualine Silva.
Here’s some Photos courtesy of the ASP:

Thursday 11th December Surf
PIPELINE MASTERS - FINAL ROUND OF THE MEN’S WCT AND THE TRIPLE CROWN
The Pipeline Masters has commenced with the second day about to begin. This is the results from Day 1 and what’s about to go down in Day 2.
The final womens WCT and Triple Crown event the Billabong Pro Maui is also on today. Will post an update tomorrow.

Command Centre	Pipeline is contestable both left and right

Billabong Pipeline Masters Round 1 Results:
Heat 1: Kamalei Alexander (HAW) 15.66 def. Daniel Ross (AUS) 11.16
Heat 2: Jesse Merle-Jones (HAW) 10.00 def. T.J Barron (HAW) 8.33
Heat 3: Ezra Sitt (HAW) 11.33 def. Daniel Jones (HAW) 8.50
Heat 4: Tory Barron (HAW) 13.84 def. Royden Bryson (ZAF) 10.84
Heat 5: Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 15.00 def. Kalani Chapman (HAW) 11.60
Heat 6: David Wassel (HAW) 13.34 def. Ricky Basnett (ZAF) 9.17
Heat 7: Evan Valiere (HAW) 12.57 def. Ola Eleogram (HAW) 12.34
Heat 8: John John Florence (HAW) 17.90 def. Jay Thompson (AUS) 14.40
Heat 9: Torrey Meister (HAW) 16.34 def. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) 8.50
Heat 10: Jamie O'Brien (HAW) 14.50 def. Dustin Barca (HAW) 11.50
Heat 11: Mark Healey (HAW) 11.17 def. Jihad Khodr (BRA) 7.73
Heat 12: Dusty Payne (HAW) 17.60 def. Manoa Drollet (PYF) 11.00
Heat 13: Daniel Wills (AUS) 15.60 def. Laurie Towner (AUS) 12.67
Heat 14: Makuakai Rothman (HAW) 16.56 def. Nathan Carroll (HAW) 12.94
Heat 15: Shane Dorian (HAW) 16.43 def. Luke Munro (AUS) 9.16
Heat 16: Marcus Hickman (HAW) 12.36 def. Mark Occhilupo (AUS) 11.44

Billabong Pipeline Masters Round 2 Results:
Heat 1: Kamalei Alexander (HAW) 11.90 def.† Mikael Picon (FRA) 11.67
Heat 2: Evan Valiere (HAW) 14.57 def. Mick Campbell (AUS) 14.34
Heat 3: Jamie O'Brien (HAW) 15.00 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 10.84
Heat 4: Chris Ward (USA) 19.90 def. Tory Barron (HAW) 11.73
Heat 5: Damien Hobgood (USA) 15.23 def. David Wassel (HAW) 9.90
Heat 6: Dusty Payne (HAW) 17.16 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 11.87
Heat 7: Daniel Wills (AUS) 16.26 def. Leonardo Neves (BRA) 12.10
Heat 8: Ezra Sitt (HAW) 13.00 Dayyan Neve (AUS) 10.84

Hector Alves	Damien Hobgood

These are the round 2 match-ups. Round 3 will also be run today but I can’t post round 3 match-ups as they will depend on the results from round 2.

Upcoming Billabong Pipeline Masters Round 2 Heats:
Heat 9: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. John John Florence (HAW)
Heat 10: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) vs. Aritz Aranburu (EUK)
Heat 11: Tim Reyes (USA) vs. Mark Healey (HAW)
Heat 12: Ben Dunn (AUS) vs. Marcus Hickman (HAW)
Heat 13: Bruce Irons (HAW) vs. Torrey Meister (HAW)
Heat 14: Tiago Pires (PRT) vs. Makuakai Rothman (HAW)
Heat 15: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Shane Dorian (HAW)
Heat 16: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Jesse Merle-Jones (HAW)

Tuesday 9th December Skate
KREW Kashgrab by Nathan Ho - photos by Josh Caple
This is the fifth year of the Krew Kashgrab event held at the Slam Factory indoor skatepark on the Central Coast of NSW and came with a whole new format, that was clearly designed by a mad scientist hell-bent on confusing the spectators and competitors alike. On an excessively hot day this new format created a type of chaos that only the most experienced and battle hardened park rat could endure. It was clear that the cream would rise to the top while the rest of us hunted for various forms of relief from the elements. The battlefield was running HOT.

Unsponsored section
As usual the ams kicked off the action and there was some solid performances being thrown down by small and large skaters equally, amongst the chaos the stand out for me was a young fella named Rider, who has developed an extremely mature and well rounded style all at the age of 11 (I was told). However I was missing the real action until my good mate Leffy from the RBW store, who I was hanging out with in the hope of cool amber liquid flow, pointed out the guy in the red hat and the fact that he just would not fall. Leefy was on point, Jason Vandershay is clearly in line for landlord of the Slam factory in the absence of Kizza, who was M.I.A, and he took out the unsponsored division in all areas.

Sponsored
Bowl
The bowl was the first of the “mini comps” and was really fun to watch with Azar absolutely on fire bringing the ruckus - hooting, hollering and smashing his board on the coping, reminiscent of the Baulko boys back in the day. Azar’s fun creation was contagious and he had great back up by Dane Burman who was having more fun that anyone, seemingly surprising himself with his own shredability, drawing fast smooth lines with all the tricks Du Jour and then popping out saying “I can’t skate this” with a huge smile on his dial. The winner of this event and scoring $1,500 was a young guy named Jack Kirk who’s asleep at the wheel style whilst performing difficult tricks in the tighest sections of the bowl won over the judges, Wade Burkitt and Darren Kaene.

Street Tech
Held on the smaller street section that contains 2 rails and stairs (5 stair height) as well as some ledges and a wedge to wedge, the street tech section got frothy in the final minutes with Marty Griotto bashing out a huge BS kicky from one of the wedges, all the way to the flat and then backing that up with a stylish massive BS 360 in the same spot. Boyd followed Marty’s line with a well caught tre flip but it was Kiwi Bjorn Johnson who’s multitude of stomped tricks including down the five stair swith tre, bs nollie heel and various ledge tricks who took out this section and winning himself $1,500.

Hammers/Air Pig
This section has 2 Euros, several handrail options and a new box jump with a 6 foot quarter at the other end which was utilized for this division with big street tricks on the handrail and up the euros but if anyone wanted to get their launch on, the box jump tricks were included too. Skunkos has been at the forefront of Australian skateboarding for an obscene amount of time now and showed no signs of slowing down all day but particularly in this section as it was getting late and most competitors energy levels were severely waning. The old dog powered on with styled out japans and method airs over the box jump and a variety of difficult maneuvers up the euro as well as onto the flat rail section. Not to be outdone, an attack was mounted on the large rail by Geoff Cook, who was renamed Snappy by MC Sparkes for the fact that he broke his own board and a borrowed one during this section, but he achieved a fakie ollie 50-50, a back 5-0 and a front lipslide, much to the diminishing crowds delight. When Bjorn pulled a switch frontside feeble everyone erupted and it was clear he had again taken out this section with another $1,500 prize money and the $2,000 for best overall, it was a good day for this great skater and Kashgrab remains the benchmark street event for the greater Sydney area.

Monday 8th December Surf
O’NEILL WORLD CUP - 2ND EVENT OF THE MENS TRIPLE CROWN
Finals day

CJ Hobgood (1st) Tom Whitaker (2nd)	C.J.

The conditions were absolutely perfect for the final day of one of the great pro surfing contests of the year. The sets pumping through at a massive 10ft -15ft, clean wave faces with the occasional barrel opportunity.
C.J. Hobgood won the four man final with a two-wave combined score of 15.00 taking the lead late in the final with a 8.50. That 8.50 ride was definitely the wave of the final - a late takeoff on a 10 -12 footer, a huge vertical drop and the massive arcing bottom turn, just magic to watch. Tom Whittaker was the runner up with a 12.67, after leading for much of the final before CJ’s 8.50. Sunset local Marcus Hickman was third with South African Jordy Smith 4th.
Jordy was actually the form surfer leading up to the final, ripping in all his heats including scoring the only perfect 10 of the event in the round of 32, but in the final everything just when wrong for Jordy, First broke his board and then later in the heat sustained a leg injury, only being able to accumulate a 2.86 wave score.
This event was the second leg of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.† Dusty Payne (who placed 5th here at Sunset) leads the rankings for the Triple Crown, followed by C.J. Hobgood and Joel Parkinson.† Current Triple Crown Champion Bede Durbridge is in 7th.
All these surfers will be competing at the Billabong Pipeline Masters where the holding period starting Dec. 8. The forecasts are indicating Pipe could turn on gnarly conditions this year.

C.J.	Marcus Hickman

Jordy getting barrelled in a 10 point ride (round of 32)	Jordy Semi finals

Major Results
1. C.J. Hobgood
2. Tom Whitaker
3. Marcus Hickman
4. Jordy Smith
5. Dusty Payne, Joel Parkinson
7. Ian Walsh, Mick Fanning

Heat by heat quarters through to the final;

QUARTERFINALS:
H1: CJ Hobgood (US), Dusty Payne (HI), Yadin Nicol (Aus), Rhys Bombaci (Aus)
H2: Mick Fanning (Aus), Marcus Hickman (HI), David Weare (SAf), Torrey Meister (HI)
H3: Jordy Smith (SAf), Joel Parkinson (Aus), Kamalei Alexander (HI), Bede Durbidge (Aus)
H4: Tom Whitaker (Aus), Ian Walsh (HI), Greg Emslie (SAf), Dion Atkinson (Aus)

SEMIFINALS:
H1: CJ Hobgood (US), Marcus Hickman (HI), Dusty Payne (HI), Mick Fanning (Aus)
H2: Jordy Smith (Zaf), Tom Whitaker (Aus), Joel Parkinson (Aus), Ian Walsh (HI)

FINAL:
1st- CJ Hobgood (US) 15.00 (8.5 and 6.5) $15, 000
2nd- Tom Whitaker (Aus) 12.67 (7.67 and 5.00) $7,500
3rd- Marcus Hickman (HI) 8.33 (6.33 and 2.00) $4,500
4th- Jordy Smith (Zaf) 2.86 (1.73 and 1.13) $4,400

December 4 Surf
O’NEILL WORLD CUP - 2ND EVENT OF THE MENS TRIPLE CROWN



The O’Neill World Cup is a WQS with heaps of competitors - 196 all up, so several days of competition are needed before it gets down to those surfers in with a real chance of taking out the event. Those early rounds have been contested and when competition resumes Round 5 will hit the water.
Below are the 8 heats of round 5 or as it is better known the round of 32. The top 2 of each heat move through to the quarters while the bottom 2 are eliminated. It won’t give a run down of the early rounds as it would take a book, but there has been heaps of upsets: defending champion Makuakai Rothman out, Sunny Garcia out (he won’t now qualify for the WCT next year), Occy’s out, Bruce Irons out, just to name a few.
Conditions are forecast for clean 15 –20ft and it this forecast proves correct some unbelievable big wave surfing will go down. Check it to www.triplecrown.com to see the comp live. The comp has to finish over the next couple of days. 8am Hawaiian time (when the comp starts) is 5am on the East Coast of Australia.

Tanner Gudauskas

December 3rd Surf
ROXY PRO - ROUND 7 OF THE WOMENS WCT + 2ND EVENT OF THE WOMENS TRIPLE CROWN

Finals Day

Stephanie Gilmore wins the Roxy Pro and in the process scores her second consecutive world title.



Stephanie chance at clinching the world title at this event and not having to wait to the next event, the Billabong Pro Maui, became possible when Sofia Mulanovich (2nd the ratings) was eliminated in the quarters and Layne Beachley (3rd in the ratings) went down in the semi’s. For Stephanie to take the world title she still needed to win the event and for much of the final that didn’t look like it was going to happen. Silvana Lima had the lead for most of the heat having wave scores a 6.33 and a 7.83. Stephanie though pulled out a killer ride in the last minute of the final scoring her a 8.50 giving her the Roxy Pro win and also the world title. Silvana came so close but had to settle for second yet again. This result was the third consecutive time Silvana has been the runner up in a WCT event, as she also finishing 2nd in The Movistar Classic Peru and the Beachley Classic Sydney.
Stephanie was the standout surfer of the women’s 2008 WCT and totally deserved her 2nd world title. If you disregard Stephanie two losses to wildcards during the 2008 tour, being Carissa Moore at the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast (round 1) and Tyer Wright, The Beachley Classic (round 5), the only WCT surfer to eliminate Stephanie all year was Melanie Bartels in their semi final match- up at the Rip Curl pro France (round 4).
Lastly, 2008 WCT rookie Nicola Atherton was the surprise surfer of the event. Nicola had her best result of the year making the final and finishing in 4th place, defeating Sofia Mulanovich and Layne Beachley as her progressed to the final. Nicola’s previous best result this year has been 9th. Another big result at the next stop at Maui and Nicola has a chance of making the WCT again next year.
This is heat by heat of the final day of the Roxy Pro;

QUARTERFINAL RESULTS:
QF 1: Silvana Lima (BRA) 10.80, Serena Brooke (AUS) 10.67, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 10.67, Samantha Cornish (AUS) 10.20
QF 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 14.33, Megan Abubo (HAW) 10.94, Melanie Bartels (HAW) 7.30, Coco Ho (HAW) 7.07
QF 3: Nicola Atherton (AUS) 13.43, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 12.40, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 12.00, Sofia Mulanovich (PER)
QF 4: Layne Beachley (AUS) 15.57, Lee Ann Curren (FRA) 11.43, Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 10.33, Rebecca Woods

SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Silvana Lima (BRA) 16.17, Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 12.40, Megan Abubo (HAW) 10.90, Serena Brooke (AUS) 8.96
SF 2: Nicola Atherton (AUS) 13.17, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 12.03, Layne Beachley (AUS) 8.70, Lee Ann Curren (FRA) 7.74

Defending Triple Crown champion Megan Abubo	Jessi Miley-Dyer

Rebecca Woods	Silvana Lima

ROXY PRO SUNSET FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 15.83
2 – Silvana Lima (PER) 14.16
3 – Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 9.00
4 – Nicola Atherton (AUS) 6.46

The next event is the Billabong pro Maui December 8th – 20th.
Even though the world title has been wrapped up the race for the Triple Crown is still alive with Silvana Lima, Layne Beachley and Stephanie Gilmore being the main contenders. This event is the final leg of the women’s Triple Crown.

Ratings after this event:
1 – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 6348 points
2 – Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 5233 points
3 – Silvana Lima (BRA) 5138 points
4 – Layne Beachley (AUS) 5006 points
5 – Samantha Cornish (AUS) 3882 points
6 – Amee Donohoe (AUS) 3871 points
7 – Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 3384 points
8 – Rebecca Woods (AUS) 3320 points
9 – Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 3218 points
10 – Melanie Bartels (HAW) 2904 points
11 – Julia De La Rosa (PER) 2654 points
12 – Megan Abubo (HAW) 2616 points
13 – Nicola Atherton (AUS) 2490 points
14 – Karina Petroni (USA) 2424 points
15 – Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 2412 points
16 – Serena Brooke (AUS) 2094 points
17 – Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 2052 points
18 – Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 1272 points*

The next update will be the men’s O’Niell World Cup of Surfing also being held at Sunset beach. At the moment it’s up to the round of 64.

1st December Surf
ROXY PRO – ROUND 7 OF THE WOMENS WCT + 2ND EVENT OF THE WOMENS TRIPLE CROWN
Day 1
Firstly the trials. The results of the trials in women’s pro surfing can have a big impact on the main event. In the last Hawaiian event for example, the Reef Hawaiian Pro the trials winner, Carissa Moore went on to win the event and just recently Tyer Wright the trials winner of the Beachley Classic also went on to win that event.
The trials comprised of 1 heat of six surfers with the top three progressing to the main event. The six trialists were;
Laura Enever (AUST) Sally Fitzgibbons (AUST)
Bruna Schmitz (BRAZIL) Coco Ho (HAW)
Carissa Moore (HAW) Lee Annn Curren (FRANCE)

The is how it ended up:
1) Sally Fitzgibbons (AUST) 15.67
2) Lee Annn Curren (FRANCE) 8.23
3) Coco Ho (HAW) 8.23
4) Carissa Moore (HAW) 7.27
5) Bruna Schmitz (BRAZIL) 6.70
6) Laura Enever (AUST 6.17
So Sally, Lee Ann and Coco moved through to round 1 of the main event.

One of the complaints of the women’s WCT is that too often it is contested in really small conditions. Well that didn’t apply here. The conditions at Sunset were a challenging 8 – 10 ft, absolute classic conditions for an elite surf contest.
Round 1 and 2 were contested on this first day of competition.
The standout surfer of the day was Hawaiian Melanie Bartels who won her heat with a two wave score of 18.40 easily the highest score of the round. Australian Nicola Atherton who is currently sitting 15th in the ratings and facing relegation in 09 also putting in a impressive round 1 heat. Nicole combo’ed every other surfer in her heat, although it helped that Silvana Lima was deducted points for an interference. If Nicola can obtain a good result here at the Roxy Pro she would move up to near top 10 in the ratings with one event still to go. (The top 10 surfers re-qualify for the WCT in 09).
This is the heat by heat of round 1;

Heat 1: Nicola Atherton (AUS) 13.00, Silvana Lima (BRA) 5.95, Rebecca Woods (AUS) 4.23, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 0.93
Heat 2: Samantha Cornish (AUS) 7.30, Serena Brooke (AUS) 6.47, Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 5.83, Amee Donohoe (AUS) 3.44
Heat 3: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 18.40, Coco Ho (HAW) 11.40, Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 11.17, Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 8.33
Heat 4: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 11.33, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 10.44, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 3.33, Karina Petroni (USA) 0.00
Heat 5: Lee Ann Curren (HAW) 14.50, Layne Beachley (AUS) 6.64, Megan Abubo (HAW) 3.17, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 0.00

The first two highest point scorers in each round 1 heat move directly to the quarter finals while the surfers placed 3rd and 4th in round 1 have to contest round 2. Those surfers in round 2 have to finish in the top three of their heat to stay in the competition. Current World champion Stephanie Gilmore was relegated to round 2 after finishing in third in her heat to Melanie Bartels 1st (18.40) and Coco Ho 2nd (11.40), but killed her round 2 heat and progressed to the quarters,
I mentioned above the conditions at Sunset were challenging. Notice above that both Karina Petroni and Jacqueline Silva finished their round 1 heats without registering a score. They were unable to find even one scoring wave in the whole of their heats.
This is how round 2 went down. The last two surfers in each heat are eliminated.

Heat 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 12.84, Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 9.47, Rebecca Woods (AUS) 6.23, Amee Donohoe (AUS) 3.07, Karina Petroni (USA) 1.97
Heat 2: Megan Abubo (HAW) 9.37, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 8.10, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS), Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 5.10, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 0.00

So, Amee Donohoe, Karina Petroni, Rosy Hodge and Jacqueline Silva are all out of the comp. I was really surprised with Amee’s elimination. Amee has been in form all year and she had a good result at this event last year finishing 2nd o Sofia Mulanovich, showing she can handle the bigger Sunset waves. Still this year she deserved to be eliminated, Amee surfed crap in both her heats.
This is the Quarter Final Field when competition resumes;

QF 1: Silvana Lima (BRA), Samantha Cornish (AUS), Serena Brooke (AUS), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
QF 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Melanie Bartels (HAW), Megan Abubo (HAW), Coco Ho (HAW)
QF 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), Nicola Atherton (AUS), Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
QF 4: Layne Beachley (AUS), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS), Lee Ann Curren (FRA)
The top two in each heat move to the semi’s. The other two surfers are eliminated finishing in either 9th (3rd) or 13th (4th) place.

Remember I mentioned at the start of the article that the trialists can have an impact in the women’s WCT events. Note that all three surfers who progressed from the trials have all moved through to the quarters. Of the trialists, I don’t think Sally Fitzgibbons will win but I reckon she will go very very close.
Also, apart from being a WCT event The Roxy Pro is also a Triple Crown event. If Layne Beachley reaches the final of this event she will be hard to beat for the race for the 2008 Triple Crown, after her second at the first leg of the Triple Crown, the Reef Hawaiian Pro. Then again if Layne has killer results in this event, The Roxy Pro and the next event The Billabong Pro Maui then a 8th world title could be still possible.

Melanie bartels	Layne

Silvana Lima	Karina Petroni Wonder why this photo was included - Karina’s not doing much on the wave?

The next update will be the men’s O’Niell World Cup of Surfing also being held at Sunset beach. At the moment its up to the round 0f 96.

26th November Skate
Dropping Hammers
Here are a couple of photos from the Dropping Hammers event. Photos by Josh Caple

26th November Skate
Monster Skatepark 3rd Birthday.
The guys at Monster threw a skate comp (park and vert) to celebrate being around for three years. I’m in Hawaii so I don’t have many details but Kerien Rielly won park and Trevor Ward won vert. (Jimmi Beck 2nd) Here’s some photos to check out thanks to Bill Fonseca.

26th November Surf
ROXY PRO 2ND EVENT OF THE WOMENS TRIPLE CROWN.
The Roxy Pro is still on hold but these are the round one match-up’s when competition gets underway. The TBA’s will be the surfers who qualified from the trials that will be held before the main event.

ROXY PRO SUNSET ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Silvana Lima (BRA), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Nicola Atherton (AUS), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 2: Samantha Cornish (AUS), Amee Donohoe (AUS), Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS), Serena Brooke (AUS)
Heat 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Melanie Bartels (HAW), Rosanne Hodge (ZAF), TBA
Heat 4: Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), Karina Petroni (USA), TBA
Heat 5: Layne Beachley (AUS), Jacqueline Silva (BRA), Megan Abubo (HAW), TBA

25th November Surf
REEF HAWAIIAN PRO - 1ST EVENT OF THE VANS TRIPLE CROWN - HALEIWA HAWAII



Khodr (2nd), Bacalso (3rd), Bourez (1st) Payne (4th)

The Reef Hawaiian Pro is a WQS contest but as it is also a Triple Crown event all the top male and female WCT were there with the exception of Kelly Slater. That said the only highly ranked WCT surfer to make the four man final in either the men’s or women’s was Layne Beachley.
In the men’s, Tahitian Michel Bourez won, defeating Brazil’s Jihad Khodr, Kekoa Bacalso and Dusty Payne (both of Hawaii) in a four man final. If you have never heard of Michel Bourez, that understandable, this is the first major event he has ever won. The Reef Hawaiian Pro is 6 star and the points Bourez earned from winning the event moved him to second in the WQS rating, but more importantly it has assured him a place in the WCT in 09.
The best performances from Australian’s were Bede Durbidge, Joel Parkinson and Nic Muscroft made the semis while Kieren Perrow and Dayyan Neve made the quarters.
Hawaiian legend Sunny Garcia was eliminated in the quarters so he how needs a killer result at the next event the O’Niell World Cup at Sunset if he is to make the WCT in 09.
In the women’s division, that finished several days ago, 16 year old Hawaiian Carissa Moore won, Australian Layne Beachley was second with two more groms Laura Enever (Aust) and Coco Ho (HI) taking out third and fourth. On her way to the final, Carissa eliminated Stephanie Gilmore, the second time this year Carissa has defeated Stephanie in a major contest. The other was the first WCT event of the year, the Roxy Pro on the Gold Coast were Carissa knocked out Stephanie in round 3.
Here’s some photos of the final day of the men’s division. As you can see Ali’i Park turned on some excellent clean barrels.

Click on the action shots for larger version

Bourez	Parko

Neve	Payne

Bacalso	Bourez

The next event is the O’Niell World Cup (men’s) and the Roxy Pro (women’s) at Sunset beach (round 2 of the Triple Crown). The event is already in the waiting period with competition forecast to start tomorrow.

November 17 MX
SUPER X ROUND 5 WIN STADIUM WOLLONGONG
Another round of Super X as the series went down to Wollongong to contest round 5.
In the opens Chad Reed took out his 5th consecutive victory with Jay Marmont in second and Cheyne Boyd in third. If there was going to be an upset in the series with one of the riders breaking Reed’s winning streak I thought it might have been here. Jay Marmont is a Wollongong local and I thought the local support might have helped him to take out his first win. That didn’t happen as Chad Reed was in a class of his own again, For example, in the top ten shoot out to determine barrier selection for the final Reed was over one second faster than the other riders. In the final, Reed won the holeshot, lead the from start to finish and won the final by 22 seconds, lapping every other rider except for Jay Marmont. That’s impressive!
Here is the Open placing for Round 5 and the current ratings:

Super X Top Ten Results

1 Chad Reed,25
2 Jay Marmont, 22
3 Cheyne Boyd, 20
4 Cameron Taylor, 18
5 Craig Anderson, 16
6 Gianni Dalle Molle, 15
7 Brent Landman, 14
8 Troy Carroll, 13
9 Daniel MCoy, 12
10 Nathan Crawford, 11

Super X Top Five Championship Standings

1 Chad Reed, 125
2 Jay Marmont, 106
3 Cheyne Boyd, 87
4 Daniel McCoy, 77
5 Troy Carroll, 74

The next event is Townsville’s Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday 22 November and another dimension will be added to the series with Jeremy McGrath coming over from America to compete in the final two rounds. Will McGrath be able to end Reed’s total domination of the event?
If you can’t make it to Townsville and have Foxtel, the Super X is on at 7.30 pm (Fox Sport) on the night of the event with repeats later that night and on Sunday.
Here’s some photo’s courtesy of Bill Fonseca and Sarah Glasser.

action on the night included an FMX comp.

12th November Skate
STEPPING STONE SKATE COMP.
Stepping Stone was on at Thornleigh at the weekend. Got there to check out the Opens and they totally shredded.
The best skating I have seen at a SSA Asn comp. Kieran Rielly totally blitzed it and took out the Open Division.
Here’s some photos. SSA Asn next comp is not to next year, but check out the events section for what else is going down.

Kieran Rielly

Jeff WIlliams

11th November MX
SUPER X ROUND 4 PARRAMATTA STADIUM SYDNEY
Haven’t reported on Super X before but 2008 has seen new promoters on the scene and a re-vamp of the Super X Championships.
Chad Reed has returned from the US to be the star attraction of the series and he hasn’t disappointed. Leading up to this round in Sydney, Chad had won all of the first three rounds of the Open division.
Before the rundown of what went down in this round in Sydney here’s some quick details of the Australian Super X Championship.
The Australian Super X has two divisions Open (450cc) and Light (250cc) and there are 7 rounds in the series around Australia. These are the 2008 Super X events:
Round 1 October 4th Kwinara Motorplex Perth
Round 2 October 18th Showgrounds Adelaide
Round 3 October 25th Skilled Stadium Geelong
Round 4 November 9th Parramatta Stadium Sydney

and the remaining events still to be contested:

Round 5 November 15th WIN Stadium Wollongong
Round 6 November 22nd Dairy Farmers Stadium Townsville
Round 7 November 29th QSAC Stadium Brisbane

One of the new innovations the new promoters have brought to Australian Super X is that each round has a different format. The formats apart from the traditional 20 lap final are super sprint, triple challenge, survival, and man on man. I wont go into the details of each format here but the main thing is that it makes for varied and exciting competition. If you want to check out the formats in detail go to the Super X website, www.superx.com.au

The format for Parramatta Stadium in Sydney was the survival format where the final will be split across 4 x 5 lap races. After 5 laps the last 5 competitors will be eliminated until 5 riders are left to do battle in one decisive 5 lap sprint.
In the Opens Chad Reed showed his class yet again and won the Open division keeping his unbeaten record in the series intact. The minor places went to Daniel Reardon, and Jay Marmont 3rd.
These are the top five in the Championship standings after round 4:
1 Chad Reed, 100
2 Jay Marmont, 84
3 Daniel Reardon, 70
4 Cheyne Boyd, 67
5 Daniel McCoy, 62

The next round of the series is at WIN Stadium in Wollongong on Saturday night 15th.
We will have a complete rundown of the Australian Super X Championships in the next issue of the mag.
Photos are courtesy of Bill Fonseca.

14th October Surf
BEACHLEY CLASSIC – WRAP-UP



“Holy crap, I’ve just won 20 thousand US dollars.”

For the second time in its 3-year history the event wildcard has won the Beachley Classic.
In her first WCT event, 14 year old Tyler Wright beat the best women surfers in the world to win the Beachley Classic,
the richest and most important (rating wise) event in women’s surfing.
Unfortunately the conditions didn’t co-operate, (really small swell) but as there was only one day of the competition period left and the swell forecast predicted deteriorating conditions so it was now or never. What the surfers extracted out of the nothing waves was amazing.
The final day started with the quarters. With the waves continually shifting throughout the competition area being in the right position was the key. In her quarter final Tyler Wright has two high scores in the first 5 minutes of her heat against Jacqueline Silva while Rebecca Woods couldn’t find a wave in her whole heat going down to Sofia Mulanovich. The crowd favourite Layne Beachley was also eliminated in the quarters in a close contest against Sofia Mulanovich.
In the semis Tyler then added Amee Donohoe to her list of surfers she had eliminated from the event and Sofia retired from her heat against Silvana Lima with an angle injury. Silvana was leading the heat when Sofia retired.
In the final Tyler got the upper hand with a second high score with 11 minutes to go and Silvana just couldn’t find the waves to catch her.
Tyler made history by being the youngest surfer to win a WCT event.

Click on the action shots below for a larger image

Tyler Wright	Silvana Lima

Sofia Mulanovich	Layne Beachley

BEACHLEY CLASSIC Final:
1 – Tyler Wright (AUS) 13.64
2 – Silvana Lima (BRA) 12.84

BEACHLEY CLASSIC Semi final Results:
SF 1: Tyler Wright (AUS) 14.17 def. Amee Donohoe (AUS) 10.00
SF 2: Silvana Lima (BRA) 15.10 def. Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 14.00

BEACHLEY CLASSIC Quarterfinal Results:
QF 1: Amee Donohoe (AUS) 10.83 def. Julia de La Rosa Toro (PER) 9.60
QF 2: Tyler Wright (AUS) 14.17 def. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 12.83
QF 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 9.00 def. Rebecca Woods (AUS) 2.00
QF 4: Silvana Lima (BRA) 13.93 def. Layne Beachley (AUS) 12.07

ASP WOMEN’S WORLD TOUR RATINGS: After Event No. 5
1 – Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 4411 points
2 – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 3948 points
3 – Layne Beachley (AUS) 3698 points
4 – Amee Donohoe (AUS) 3331 points
5 – Silvana Lima (BRA) 3194 points
6 – Samantha Cornish (AUS) 3060 points
7 – Melanie Bartels (HAW) 2544 points
8 – Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 2486 points
9 – Rebecca Woods (AUS) 2294 points
10 – Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 2268 points
11 – Julia De La Rosa Toro (PER) 2114 points
12 – Megan Abubo (HAW) 1884 points
13 – Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 1872 points
14 – Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 1692 points
14 – Karina Petroni (USA) 1692 points
16 – Nicola Atherton (AUS) 1476 points
17 – Serena Brooke (AUS) 1296 points
18 – Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 912 points*
*First replacement on the ASP Women’s World Tour

13th October Surf
THE BEACHLEY CLASSIC - DAY 2
EVENT NO. 5 OF THE 2008 ASP WOMEN’S WORLD TOUR

The Pheno-o-grom Tyler Wright

The competition returned to Manly today (Saturday) after rounds 1, 2 and 2 heats of rounds 3 were contested at nearby Freshwater on Friday.
The big upset of the day was the 14 old wildcard, Tyler Wright defeating Stephanie Gilmore in heat 4. Apart from being the current world champion Stephanie has never been eliminated from the Beachley Classic before, having won the event in both years it has run - 2006 and 2007. The pheno-o-grom will now match-up against Jacqueline Silva in the first heat of the quarters.
Layne Beachley is still in contention in her own event after winning a close encounter against Melanie Redman-Carr in the last heat of round 3.
My standout surfer of the day was Silvana Lima. She totally ripped in the small conditions. Silvana’s opponent in the quarters is Layne Beachley - should be an incredible match-up.
With Stephanie Gilmore’s defeat in round 3, the world rating leader after this event will probably be Sofia Mulanovich with a slim chance of it being Layne Beachley.
The event has one more day to run and will be either Monday or possibly Tuesday.

Click on the action shots for a larger version

Sofia Mulanovich day 1 Freshwater

Tyer Wright in her round 3 win over Stephanie Gilmore

Melanie Bartels

Layne

BEACHLEY CLASSIC Round 3 Results:
Heat 1: Julia De La Rosa Toro (PER) 14.35 def. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 12.90
Heat 2: Amee Donohoe (AUS) 12.15 def. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 7.30
Heat 3: Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 16.25 def. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 11.15
Heat 4: Tyler Wright (AUS) 11.85 def. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 11.00
Heat 5: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 14.00 def. Karina Petroni (AUS) 6.70
Heat 6: Rebecca Woods (AUS) 12.75 def. Melanie Bartels (AUS) 12.00
Heat 7: Silvana Lima (BRA) 15.50 def. Megan Abubo (HAW) 10.75
Heat 8: Layne Beachley (AUS) 12.15 def. Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 11.45

BEACHLEY CLASSIC Round 4 Match-Ups:
QF 1: Julia de La Rosa Toro (PER) vs. Amee Donohoe (AUS)
QF 2: Jacqueline Silva (BRA) vs. Tyler Wright (AUS)
QF 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) vs. Rebecca Woods (AUS)
QF 4: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Layne Beachley (AUS)

10th October Surf
LAYNE BEACHLEY RETIRES FROM PRO SURFING.

Seven times World champion, Layne Beachley announced her retirement today at a media conference at the Beachley Classic’s contest site in Manly. Layne is not just Australia’s but the world’s most success female pro surfer ever. Layne will complete the rest of the WCT tour this year, where she is currently in 3rd place in the rating.
Further details in the next Beachley Classic update.

9th October Surf
THE BEACHLEY CLASSIC
EVENT NO. 5 OF THE 2008 ASP WOMEN’S WORLD TOUR

Trials winner Tyler Wright

World No 2 Sofia Mulanovich, Layne and World No 1 Stephanie Gilmore.

Sydney’s own major surf comp, The Beachley Classic got underway today, with the trials been decided in 1 - 2 ft waves. Tyler Wright defeated Arini Mason in the trials final with the win progressing her to the main event. Tyler will come up against Stephanie Gilmore and Roseanne Hodge in round 1. Chelsea Hedges used the trails to make her return to pro surfing after having a baby but was eliminated in the early rounds.
The surf conditions are forecast to be really small over the next couple of days so the event could well move from its base at Manly to another Northern Beaches location.

Here are some photos and the heat draw for round 1.

Click on action shots for a larger version

Arini Mason	Tyler Wright

Heat 1: Amee Donohoe (AUS), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS)
Heat 2: Samantha Cornish (AUS), Jacqueline Silva (BRA), Karina Petroni (USA)
Heat 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Rosanne Hodge (ZAF), Tyler Wright (AUS)
Heat 4: Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Megan Abubo (HAW), Serena Brooke (AUS)
Heat 5: Layne Beachley (AUS), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Nicola Atherton (AUS)
Heat 6: Silvana Lima (BRA), Melanie Bartels (HAW), Julia De La Rosa Toro (PER)

3rd October Surf
BILLABONG PRO MUDAKA MENS WCT – UPDATE

If you are keen on seeing Kelly Slater win his 9th world title tonight should be the night. 3/10/08 The Billabong Pro Mudaka is up to the third round and the forecast looks good for competition to continue. The Mudaka day starts at about 4pm East Coast Australian time and if things go as planned Kelly should have wrapped up his 9th title by 6pm. In what is seen as a smart move, the organizers are using the dual heat format that was first used at Pipeline last year.
Mark Occhilupo had a wildcard for the event but he has already been eliminated in round 2.
This is the rundown of round three, the heat that have been contested and the match-ups when competition resumes.
Webcast details are in the events section.

Round 3 Billabong Pro Mudaka Results:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.00 def. Jihad Khodr (BRA) 11.33
Heat 2: Mick Campbell (AUS) 13.17 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 12.03
Heat 3: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 13.60 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 12.34
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 13.17 def. Daniel Ross (AUS) 9.60

Upcoming Round 3 Billabong Pro Mudaka Match-Ups:
Heat 5: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Daniel Wills (AUS)
Heat 6: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 7: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Eneko Acero (EUK)
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Nic Muscroft (AUS)
Heat 10: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
Heat 11: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Royden Bryson (ZAF)
Heat 12: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Mikael Picon (FRA)
Heat 13: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Aritz Aranburu (EUK)
Heat 14: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 15: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Leonardo Neves (BRA)
Heat 16: Luke Stedman (AUS) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)

25th September Surf
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE - ROUND 8 MENS WCT

Australian Adrian “Ace” Buchan won the Quiksilver Pro France defeating Kelly Slater in the final 15.73 to 15.16.
The win delayed Kelly claiming the 09 world championship title till a later event, which will probably be the next one
(Billabong Pro) as he only have to win a couple of heats to take the title.
I don’t know what was more surprising, Ace Buchan making the final of the Quiksilver Pro France or beating Kelly Slater in that final.
Which ever you look at it though, this was Ace’s best ever WCT result since he joined the tour in 07.
Ace was winning the final for most of the heat but in true Kelly style, Kelly took off on a wave in the final minute only needing a 7.51 to take the lead.
If history is anything to go by Kelly usually blitzes these pressure waves when it is his last chance to snatch a win. Lucky for Ace,
this didn’t happen on this occasion. Kelly attempted some high risk/high score maneuvers that didn’t come off, his 2.23 score nowhere near by he needed to steal the victory from Ace.
Ace didn’t have an easy run to the final on this last day of competition. He overcame Rodrigo Dornelles in round 4, Dane Reynolds in the quarters and Damien Hobgood in the semis. The win moved him to 9th in the ratings, which should be enough to ensure he is back on the WCT next year.
Another surfer that I thought ripped in the event was Adriano de Souza. He progressed to the semis where he went very close to knocking out Kelly Slater. I don’t think it will be too long before he wins a WCT event. Next year, if I had to bet on who will be the main threat to Kelly’s 10th in 09, I’d put my money on Adriano.

Ace Buchan



Kelly Slater

Below are the heat-by-heat results of the final day and the current ratings.

The next event men’s WCT event is the Billabong Pro Mundaka in the Basque Country of Spain. September 29th – October 12th

Final Quiksilver Pro France Results:
Final: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.74 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 15.16

Semifinal Quiksilver Pro France Results:
Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 14.90 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.97
Heat 2: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15.17 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 8.83

Quarterfinal Quiksilver Pro France Results:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.93 def. Bobby Martinez (USA) 12.40
Heat 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 17.50 def. Mick Campbell (AUS) 12.33
Heat 3: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 17.00 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 13.34
Heat 4: Damien Hobgood (USA) 13.34 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 13.00

Round 4 Quiksilver Pro France Results:
Heat 1: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 9.50 def. Dayyan Neve (AUS) 9.33
Heat 2: Bobby Martinez (USA) 14.66 def. Ben Dunn (AUS) 12.00
Heat 3: Mick Campbell (AUS) 14.00 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 11.17
Heat 4: Kelly Slater (USA) 18.27 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 14.77
Heat 5: Dane Reynolds (USA) 16.50 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 10.33
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.50 def. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) 10.66
Heat 7: Michel Bourez (PYF) 13.50 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 11.57
Heat 8: Damien Hobgood (USA) 8.67 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 8.50

Top 10 ASP World Tour Ratings after the Quiksilver Pro France:
1. Kelly Slater (USA) - 7852 points
2. Taj Burrow (AUS) - 6002 points
3. Bede Durbidge (AUS) – 5668 points
4. Adriano De Souza (BRA) – 5426 points
5. Joel Parkinson (AUS) - 5373 points
6. Mick Fanning (AUS) - 5310 points
7. Bobby Martinez (USA) - 5092 points
8. CJ Hobgood (USA) - 4880 points
9. Adrian Buchan (AUS) - 4719 points
10. Jeremy Flores (FRA) - 4407 points

19th September Surf
BILLABONG GIRLS PRO RIO - ROUND 4 WOMENS WCT

Click on the action pics below for a larger version

Melanie Bartels

Waiting Waiting - It took five lay-days waiting for the conclusion of the Billabong Pro Rio but when it did arrive the final day (quarters - final) was unreal.
Melanie Bartels totally ripped in her three heats to take out the Billabong Pro. Melanie defeated Sofia Mulanovich in the final,
with a two wave score of 14.34 (6.67 + 7.67) with Sofia scoring a 10.60 (5.00 +5.60).
This was Melanie first WCT win of the year and moved her to 6th place in the ratings, up from 16th.
Melanie started her day with defeating Sam Cornish in the quarters.
Then in the semis her match–up against current world champion Stephanie Gilmore was the highlight of the event.
Melanie was able to combo Stephanie with two late take-off, insane barrel rides scoring her a 9.67 and a 9.33.
Its not often that a surfers is able to combo Stephanie but those two rides of Melanie left Stephanie needing a massive 19.01 combination score.
Stephanie hit back with a perfect 10 which meant she was no longer trailing by a combination score,
but still needing a 9 point ride with less than two minutes on the clock. That was a feat even Stephanie couldn’t achieve.

Melanie Bartels	Sofia Mulanovich

Below are the heat-by-heat results of the final day and the current ratings.

The next event is my favourite of the WCT year, The Beachley Classic in Sydney - October 9th – 14th.

Final Results:
1 – Melanie Bartels (HAW) 14.34
2 – Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 10.60

Semifinal Results:
Semifinal 1: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 19.00 def. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 18.50
Semifinal 2: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 11.67 def Layne Beachley (AUS) 9.46

Quarterfinal Results:
Quarterfinal 1: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 8.84 def. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 5.23
Quarterfinal 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.47 def. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 8.50
Quarterfinal 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 11.74 def. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 8.60
Quarterfinal 4: Layne Beachley (AUS) 14.83 def. Silvana Lima (BRA) 10.33

Current ASP Women's World Tour Ratings: After Event No. 4 of 8
1 – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 3516 points
2 – Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 3504 points
3 – Layne Beachley (AUS) 3036 points
4 – Samantha Cornish (AUS) 2628 points
5 – Amee Donohoe (AUS) 2424 points
6 – Melanie Bartels (HAW) 2112 points
7 – Silvana Lima (BRA) 2028 points
8 – Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 1836 points
9 – Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 1824 points
10 – Rebecca Woods (AUS) 1632 points
11 – Megan Abubo (HAW) 1452 points
11 – Julia De La Rosa (PER) 1452 points
13 – Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 1440 points
14 – Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 1260 points
14 – Karina Petroni (USA) 1260 points
14 – Nicola Atherton (AUS) 1260 points
17 – Serena Brooke (AUS) 1080 points
18 – Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 912 points*

16th September Surf
BILLABONG GIRLS PRO RIO - ROUND 4 WOMENS WCT

Round 4 of The women’s WCT in Brazil has completed three rounds but has had crap conditions over the last couple of days and so has called lay days.
These are the quarter-final match-ups when competition resumes:

Billabong Girls Pro Rio Quarterfinal Match-Ups:
Quarterfinal 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS) vs. Melanie Bartels (HAW)
Quarterfinal 2: Jacqueline Silva (BRA) vs. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
Quarterfinal 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) vs. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS)
Quarterfinal 4: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Layne Beachley (AUS)

Webcast details are in our events section.

16th September Skate BMX FMX
4TH EVENT OF THE DEW TOUR - THE TOYOTA CHALLENGE SALT LAKE CITY.
Haven’t received the photos from the Dew Tour yet but here are the main placings. Will post a full wrap-up of the event ASAP.

15th September Surf
BOOST MOBILE PRO TRESTLES - ROUND 7 MENS WCT

The men’s WCT tour is known as “The Dream Tour” but this year a more appropriate name is “Kelly’s Dream Tour With 44 Other Hangers-on”.
Kelly won the Boost Mobile Pro defeating Taj Burrow in very close final. This was Kelly’s 5th event win of the year and odds of him not going
on to win his 9th world title are next to none.
The final was amazing to watch. It was the only time in the whole event that Kelly looked like he was going to go down.
Taj Burrow had Kelly combo’ed in the first half of the match-up with an impressive 9.00 and a 9.93,
but in true Kelly style he surfed his way out of a combo score situation to take the final in the last minutes of the event.
In what is very surfers worst nightmare, Taj Burrow was leading and also had priority in the last minutes of the final but didn’t think it was necessary
to block Kelly from taking the wave that ended up giving him the win. Ouch! Kelly won with a score of 18.97 compared to Taj’s 18.63.

Below are the heat by heat results of the quarters through to the final and the current tour rating.
The next men’s WCT event is the Quiksilver Pro France 19th - 28th September.

Final Results:
Kelly Slater (USA) 18.97 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 18.63

Semifinal Results:
Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.67 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.10
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 17.33 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 16.50

Quarterfinal Results:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.90 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 14.10
Heat 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 17.16 def. Bobby Martinez (USA) 15.16
Heat 3: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 17.57 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 15.67
Heat 4: Taj Burrow (AUS) 18.50 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 6.34

ASP World Tour Ratings after event No. 7 of 11 – the Boost Mobile Pro.
1. Kelly Slater (USA) 6820 points
2. Taj Burrow (AUS) 5402 points
3. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 5258 points
4. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 5148 points
5. Mick Fanning (AUS) 5085 points
6. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 4550 points
7. Bobby Martinez (USA) 4360 points
8. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 4280 points
9. Andy Irons (HAW) 4163 points
10. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 3997 points

1st September Surf
RIP CURL PRO MADAMOISMELLE
Round 3 of the women’s WCT. The elite girls are back after a long delay.
The last women’s WCT event was the Rip Curl Pro at Bell’s back in March.

Stephanie Gilmore scored her 2nd win of the season in taking out the Rip Curl Pro Mademoiselle held at Hossegor France.
The win also gave her back the world title rating lead from Sofia Mulanovich. The final was all-Australian, with Stephanie’s opponent being Layne Beachley.
I have been hanging out for Layne to have another WCT win but that was not to be. Stephanie was the deserved winner of the event,
she was the standout in the final (Stephanie scored a 16.66 compared to Layne’s 11.00) and the form surfer of the event.
Stephanie scored a massive 19.50 in her third round match-up against Karina Petroni, which included a perfect 10.
Stephanie is looking on track to take out a consecutive world title.
Wildcards tend to have more impact in the women’s WCT than the men and this event was no exception.
Local surfer Lee Ann Curren won the Rip Curl Pro Juniors to win a wild card into the event and progressed all the way to the semi’s before being eliminated by Layne Beachley.
Lee Ann progressed through the event by defeating Sofia Mulanovich (round 3) and Jessi Miley-Dyer (quarters).
Lee Ann shared equal third place with Silvana Lima.
The contest was concluded on the 2nd day of the 5-day event, no lay days were taken.
The surf on the final day was average to say the least, they even delayed the final in the hope the conditions would improve.
I know that surf forecasting is very sophisticated these days but unless there was something I was unaware of I think a lay day should have been called
in the hope of the swell improving over the rest of the waiting period.
Anyway apart from that it was great to see the WCT girls back in the surf.
The heat-by-heat details of the quarters through to the final, and the current ratings are below.

The next event is the Mancora Peru Classic September 10th – 18th.

Rip Curl Pro Mademoiselle Final Results:
1 – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.66
2 – Layne Beachley (AUS) 11.00

Rip Curl Pro Mademoiselle Semifinals Results:
Semifinal 1: Layne Beachley (AUS) 14.33 def. Lee Ann Curren (FRA) 5.84
Semifinal 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 13.33 def. Silvana Lima (BRA) 2.20

Rip Curl Pro Mademoiselle Quarterfinals Results:
Quarterfinal 1: Layne Beachley (AUS) 15.50 def. Amee Donohoe (AUS) 11.87
Quarterfinal 2: Lee Ann Curren (FRA) 13.50 def. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 8.00
Quarterfinal 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 18.40 def. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 5.33
Quarterfinal 4: Silvana Lima (BRA) 14.20 def. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 13.17

Current ASP Women’s World Tour Ratings After Event No. 3:
1 – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 2760 points
2 – Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 2532 points
3 – Layne Beachley (AUS) 2280 points
4 – Samantha Cornish (AUS) 2076 points
5 – Amee Donohoe (AUS) 2064 points
6 – Silvana Lima (BRA) 1272 points
7 – Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 1284 points
8 – Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 1272 points
8Ü– Megan Abubo (HAW) 1092 points
10 – Julia De La Rosa Toro (PER) 1092 points
12 – Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 1080 points
12 – Nicola Atherton (AUS) 1080 points
14 – Melanie Bartels (HAW) 912 points
14 – Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 912 points
16 – Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 900 points
16 – Karina Petroni (USA) 900 points
16 – Serena Brooke (AUS) 900 points

18th August Skate
Day At the Ray - Cammeray Skatepark’s First Skate Comp
Here’s some photos from the first skate comp at the new Cammeray Skatepark (Sydney) held last Saturday (16th August).
The park opened in July and has attracted heaps of local skaters. It’s design is the plaza type layout with rails ledges and banks, a bit like Waterloo.
The park is in Ernest St Cammeray if you want to try it out.
The comp was put on by Balmoral Boards with ES the other main sponsor. Aek from ES even skated in the comp.

Under 12”s winner – Murray

Under 15”s winner – Nick Stipanovic

Open’s winner – Alex Powell

Click on the following shots for a larger version

6th August Skate
WILD IN THE PARK SKATE COMP – MANLY
I’ve been over at the US Open Of Surfing/X Games in L.A. and missed the W.I.T.P. skate comp at Manly last weekend.
Dr Chakota was there though and sent these photos.

4th August Surf
RIP CURL SEARCH - BALI ROUND 6 OF THE MENS WCT



THE Rip Curl Search has concluded in Padang Padang Bali with Bruce Irons taking out the win.
His opponent in the final was Fred Patacchia making it an all Hawaiian showdown.
Although not ranked as one of the world title contenders Bruce was impressive in the event and
although he had some incredibly close heats he was the deserved winner. Bruce eliminated
Mick Fanning in round 4 by a mere .01 (10.84 to 10.83) plus Ben Dunn (quarters) and Chris Ward (semis)
His heats scores included 9.92 in the semis, along with a 9.77 in the quarters.
Patacchia was the hero of those surfers who still have 08 world title aspirations by defeating Kelly Slater in round 3.
Patacchia then eliminated Joel Parkinson in round 4.
This was Bruce Irons first ever WCT win and it hasn’t changed his plans to retire from competing full time on the WCT tour at the end of the year.

This is the heat by heat rundown of round 4 – the Final:

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH FINAL RESULTS
1 – Bruce Irons (HAW) 17.66
2 – Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 11.16

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH SEMIFINAL RESULTS
SF 1: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 10.16 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 8.50
SF 2: Bruce Irons (HAW) 13.70 def. Chris Ward (USA) 13.50

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
QF 1: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 16.50 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 14.17
QF 2: Tiago Pires (PRT) 12.00 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 11.34
QF 3: Bruce Irons (HAW) 19.40 def. Ben Dunn (AUS) 9.67
QF 4: Chris Ward (USA) 16.34 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.90

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 4 RESULTS
Heat 1: Kai Otton (AUS) 11.67 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 10.67
Heat 2: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 19.50 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 18.40
Heat 3: Kieren Perrow (AUS) 10.00 def. Bobby Martinez (USA) 6.30
Heat 4: Tiago Pires (PRT) 13.77 def. Dayyan Neve (AUS) 5.06
Heat 5: Bruce Irons (HAW) 10.84 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 10.83
Heat 6: Ben Dunn (AUS) 15.97 def. Mikael Picon (FRA) 12.37
Heat 7: Taj Burrow (AUS) 12.43 def. Dean Morrison (AUS) 11.83
Heat 8: Chris Ward (USA) 18.17 def. Andy Irons (HAW) 11.33

Even with his round 3 loss Slater is still in the dominant position to take out the world title,
as none of his opponents for the world title scored maximum ratings points in this event.
Secondly, the two worst results are dropped at years end in determining surfer’s final world title ratings.

CURRENT ASP WORLD TOUR TOP 10 AFTER STOP NO. 6
1 – Kelly Slater (USA) 5620 points
2 – Joel Parkinson (AUS) 4548 points
3 – Bede Durbidge (AUS) 4382 points
4 – Taj Burrow (AUS) 4370 points
5 – Mick Fanning (AUS) 4353 points
6 – Adriano de Souza (BRA) 3950 points
7 – Andy Irons (HAW) 3938 points
8 – C.J. Hobgood (USA) 3870 points
9 – Bobby Martinez (USA) 3628 points
10 – Bruce Irons (HAW) 3392 points

The next WCT event is at Lower Trestles in September.

31st July Skate BMX Snowboard
THE SOUL BOWL + S3 SUPERGIRL - OTHER STUFF AT THE
U.S. OPEN OF SURFING
Apart from the surfing there were several other things happening at the US Open.

SOUL BOWL
This is the 10th year of the Soul Bowl at the US Open and it was definitely a highlight of the US Open satellite events.
It was mainly skating but BMX also made an appearance.
Here’s some photo’s:

Click on images for a larger version

Sandro Dias	Steve Alba

These were the Soul Bowl winners:
SKATE BMX
Pros - Sandro Dias Pro’s - Chad Kagy (Steve McCann 2nd)

Legends - Tony Magnusson

High Air - Steve MCCann

Women - Mimi Knoop

Hardest Trick Award - Austin Coleman - alleyoop, downside, double tailwhip air

S3 SUPERGIRL

Here at Neutraliser Mag we are always going on about how female athletes in action sport get treated like second-class citizens in the majority of contests.
The S3 Supergirl has been designed to address this imbalance.
At the US Open they had skate - park, Vert and bowl, a snowboard rail jam S3 Supergirl also sponsored the junior surf competition.

Lea Taylor	Lyn Z Adams Hawkins

RIP CURL SEARCH - BALI ROUND 6 OF THE MENS WCT

THE Rip Curl Search has commenced In Padang Padang Bali although it’s still at the boring part of the event -
(only midway though round 2) so if you haven’t logged on to the webcast yet you haven’t missed too much.
The waves have been great, 6 ft barreling left handers- Slater scored a perfect 10 in round 1,
no upset eliminations in round 2 so far, Bruno Santos and Jordy Smith being the biggest casualties.
This is the heat by heat rundown of round 2:

RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 2 RESULTS
Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.34 def. Komang “Gogo” Suijaya (IDN) 5.53
Heat 2: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 18.46 def. Owen Wright (AUS) 15.73
Heat 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.17 def. I Made Garut Widiart (IDN) 7.40
Heat 4: Bobby Martinez (USA) 18.16 def. Bruno Santos (BRA) 10.57
Heat 5: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 9.67 def. Ricky Basnett (ZAF) 4.63
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 17.90 def. Dan Ross (AUS) 9.80
Heat 7: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 9.27 def. Jihad Khodr (BRA) 7.50
Heat 8: Tim Reyes (USA) 10.17 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 5.77
Heat 9: Ben Bourgeois (USA) 12.50 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 9.66
Heat 10: Royden Bryson (ZAF) 10.27 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 6.67

REMAINING RIP CURL PRO SEARCH ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS
Heat 11: Dane Reynolds (USA) vs. Daniel Wills (AUS)
Heat 12: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Leonardo Neves (BRA)
Heat 13: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) vs. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 14: Jay Thompson (AUS) vs. Mikael Picon (FRA)
Heat 15: Ben Dunn (AUS) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 16: Luke Munro (AUS) vs. Mick Campbell (AUS)

29th July Surfing
US OPEN OF SURFING - HUNTINGTON BEACH CALIFORNIA - MENS STUFF

The last day of The U.S. Open of Surfing and the day both the men’s US Open champion and the junior’s champion are decided.
There was nowhere near the number of WCT surfers in the men’s event compared to the women’s due to it being so close to the next WCT men’s event,
The Rip Curl Search in Bali starting on Wednesday 30th.
American surfer Nathaniel Curran defeated Frenchie Tim Boal in the final to take out the event and is the 2008 US Open of Surfing Champion.
The win also moved Curran to the top of the WQS ratings greatly improving his chances of qualifying for the WCT next year.

Brett Simpson

Equal third in the event went to Brett Simpson (USA) and Gabe Kling (USA). Nothing against Curran and Boal but to me Simpson was the stand out surfer of the event
but lost in a close encounter in the semis to Tim Boal. In that semi with Boal, Simpson made the mistake professional surfers have nightmares about.
He had priority in the final seconds but didn’t block Boal from taking a wave that ended up giving Boal just enough points to snatch the win.
The scores were Boal (12.00) to Simpson (11.93). Simpson is well placed in the WQS and it will be interesting if he make the WCT next year.
From what I saw of his surfing in this event he has the form to take it up to the established surfers in the WCT.
The best placed Australian surfer was Shaun Cansdell who made it to the round of 16 before being eliminated by Gabe Kling.
Full rundown of the day’s heats below.

Nathaniel Curran	Tim Boal

JUNIORS
The final of the juniors was a 4 man heat with Tanner Gudaukas (USA) winning the juniors title with Australian Julian Wilson runner up another Australian Chris Salisbury 3rd third and Nat Young 4th.
I don’t know how many times I heard the name Gudaukas throughout the event Tanner had two other brothers in the event and the whole three of them ripped; Dane made it to the round of 16 and Patrick the round of 48.

Final
1 – Nathaniel Curran (USA)
2 – Tim Boal (FRA)

Semifinals (1st advances)
Semifinal 1: Tim Boal (FRA) 12.00 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 11.93
Semifinal 2: Nathaniel Curran (USA) 14.00 def. Gabe Kling (USA) 11.27

Quarterfinals (1st advances)
Quarterfinal 1: Tim Boal (FRA) 15.93 def. Dusty Payne (HAW) 13.34
Quarterfinal 2: Brett Simpson (USA) 14.00 def. Eric Geiselman (USA) 11.76
Quarterfinal 3: Nathaniel Curran (USA) 15.66 def. Chris Waring (USA) 10.53
Quarterfinal 4: Gabe Kling (USA) 12.17 def. Joan Duru (FRA) 12.16

Round of 16 (1st advances)
Heat 1: Dusty Payne (HAW) 14.13 def. Tim Reyes (USA) 8.16
Heat 2: Tim Boal (FRA) 12.84 def. Damien Fahrenfort (ZAF) 6.10
Heat 3: Brett Simpson (USA) 16.17 def. Cory Lopez (USA) 14.34
Heat 4: Eric Geiselman (USA) 15.17 def. Dane Gudauskas (USA) 9.67
Heat 5: Nathaniel Curran (USA) 17.57 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 9.83
Heat 6: Chris Waring (USA) 15.17 def. Torrey Meister (HAW) 9.97
Heat 7: Gabe Kling (USA) 15.94 def. Shaun Cansdell (AUS) 13.17
Heat 8: Joan Duru (USA) 14.66 def. Marlon Lipke (DEU) 12.50

28th July Surfing
U.S. OPEN OF SURFING - HUNTINGTON BEACH CALIFORNIA - WOMENS STUFF

Malia Manuel

Saturday at the US Open of Surfing included completion of the men’s round of 48 but the day belonged to the girls -
The US open Of Surfing Champion was decided as well as the women’s junior champion. For the women,
even though the US Open is a WQS and not a WCT event it is still the most important women’s surfing event on the U.S. mainland
and the caliber of the surfers competing justified its importance. The current worlds’ top three surfers, Mulanovich,
Gilmore and Cornish plus three other WCT surfers are competing just for a start.
The day started (7.30am) with the women’s quarter finals – Yes, I was there, I didn’t sleep in.
As you’ll see from the photos the surf was average to say the least but the finest female surfers in the world served up an excellent day of surfing,
the highlight being the event uncovering a new future star - Hawaiian surfer Malia Manuel.
This is how the quarters went;

Heat 1: Malia Manuel (HAW) 15.83 def. Sofia Mulanovich (USA) 13.10
Heat 2: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 11.00 def. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 1.60
Heat 3: Coco Ho (HAW) 12.00 def. Melanie Bartels (HAW) 8.23
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 14.67 def. Bethany Hamilton (HAW) 9.17

Yeah, Malia started her day by eliminating the current no. 1 surfer in the world, Sofia Mulanovich. In the next heat Sally Fitzgibbons surfed well but she didn’t need to,
Sam Cornish eliminated herself, scoring a 1.60 - no misprint, Sam just couldn’t find a wave to save herself.
In another upset Coco Ho made it clear it was going to be the day of the Hawaiian groms by defeating another inform WCT surfer Melanie Bartels.
Then Stephanie Gilmore took out the crowd favourite Bethany Hamilton. Even time I saw Bethany at the event she was surrounded by a massive crowd,
obviously a true inspiration to everybody at the event.

The semis
Heat 1: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) V Malia Manuel (HAW)
Heat 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) V Coco Ho (HAW)
The semis match-ups strongly hinted at an all Australian final but instead the reverse, the Hawaiian groms eliminating both Australians
and setting up an all Hawaiian final by two of the youngest surfers to ever contest the US Open final.

The Final
Coco Ho (HAW) V Malia Manuel (HAW)
In the final Malia did exactly what you need to do in a heat when the conditions are patchy, get some early scores on the board and make your opponent catch up to you.
It worked for Malia, Coco couldn’t find the waves to take it up to Malia. Malia’s final score 14.34, with Coco at 7.90.
MALIA MANUEL - this may the first time you heard her name but it won’t be the last, Malia has a huge future in professional surfing.
One interesting point; In a couple of weeks time the women’s U.S. Open Of Surfing champion will be back at school doing her year 10!

P.S. The winner purse was $4500 and a Honda jet ski. At 14, Malia is nether in the pro ranks or old enough to legally drive a jet ski,
so Malia ended up with a set of custom wheels for the family Honda (amateurs can’t accept prize money) and her mum scored the keys to the jet ski.

Malia Manuel	Runner Up Coco Ho

Equal Third Sally Fitzgibbons

JUNIORS

Nikita Robb, Coco Ho, Sage Erikson and Courtney Conlogue

The Women’s Junior final was also decided with Malia Manuel’s opponent in the Open final, Coco Ho taking out the junior’s title.
This was the result of the juniors final:

1 – Coco Ho (HAW) 14.07
2 – Nikita Robb (ZAF) 14.00
3 – Sage Erickson (USA) 12.26
4 – Courtney Conlogue (USA) 9.60

There are heaps more photos we will post them in the gallery as soon as I can get them back to Australia.

24th July Surfing
US OPEN OF SURFING - HUNTINGTON BEACH CALIFORNIA

After leaving the second stop The Dew Tour in Cleveland Ohio, the next reports will be from the US Open of Surfing,
a men’s and women’s WQS event at the famous Huntington Pier in L.A. California. Heaps of Australian surfers are in the event
and apart from the surfing, the Soul Bowl (BMX and skate, park and vert) is also on at the same location over the weekend.
The men’s have got heaps too go they are only at the round of 96 but the women are down to the last 12.
Below are the heats when competition resumes. It’s on at 2.10pm Friday L.A. time.
WQS events don’t have lay days like the WCT, the schedule goes on no matter the conditions.
There’s a live webcast –usopenofsurfing.com.
Check in over the weekend for updates of the surfing and the Soul Bowl.

Women’s - Round of 12 Friday afternoon L.A. time. (1st and 2nd progress)
Heat 1
Lee Ann Curren (FRA)
Sofia Mulanovich (PER)
Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
Heat 2
Malia Manuel (HAW)
Megan Abubo (HAW)
Samantha Cornish (AUS)
Heat 3
Bethany Hamilton (HAW)
Melanie Bartels (HAW)
Kim Mayer (USA)
Heat 4
Coco Ho (HAW)
Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
Nikita Robb (ZAF)

This what when down when I arrived at Huntington Beach yesterday:

Stephanie Gilmore	Melanie Bartels

Round of 24 (1st and 2nd advance)
Heat 1: Lee Ann Curren (FRA) 13.67, Malia Manuel (HAW) 13.20, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 10.60, Pauline Ado (FRA) 8.27
Heat 2: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 15.66, Megan Abubo (HAW) 9.50, Nicola Atherton (AUS) 8.30, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 6.57
Heat 3: Samantha Cornish (AUS) 13.90, Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 13.07, Amee Donohoe (AUS) 10.93, Jacqueline Silva (BRA)
Heat 4: Bethany Hamilton (HAW) 13.26, Coco Ho (HAW) 12.34, Leilani Gryde (HAW) 10.83, Suelen Naraisa (BRA) 8.40
Heat 5: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 14.37, Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 12.43, Laurina McGrath (AUS) 9.34, Rosanne Hodge (ZAF)
Heat 6: Nikita Robb (ZAF) 12.10, Kim Mayer (USA) 9.00, Paige Hareb (NZL) 8.93, Karina Petroni (USA) 8.33

Sunny Garcia is doing great in the WQS this year, (currently in 8th position) and is surfing in this event. If you’re from Sydney and liked the Neutraliser interview with Sunny in the last issue,
then here’s another one courtesy of The L.A. Times. HERE

If you want to read our interview with Sunny online it’s in the current edition on our home page.

24th July BMX
2ND EVENT OF THE DEW TOUR - THE RIGHT GUARD OPEN CLEVELAND - OTHER STUFF THAT HAPPENED

TJ LAVIN GIG
The support from the BMX community for fellow rider Stephen Murray who was paralysed after a serious injury at the 1st stop of the Dew tour just over 12 months ago has been massive.
If you’re into BMX you probably know that pro rider TJ Lavin has release a song “Soldier” as part of that ongoing support effort.
Lavin performed the song live at the music stage of the Right Guard Open last Saturday night.
The special guest of the night turned out to be Stephen Murray himself. I was great to see him out with his friends. Here’s a couple of photo’s from this special event.

FMX
FMX was only a demo event at the Right Guard Open. Here’s a photo of Australian rider Bilko. (Blake Williams)

At the same demo Greg Hartman crashed after a backflip and had to be taken to hospital.
It seemed really bad at the time, he didn’t move at all and you tell from the reaction of the medical staff that things weren’t good.
Although info has been slow to filter through it seems Greg has bleeding on the brain and a collapsed lung.
There are no paralysis concerns though.

23rd July Skate
2ND EVENT OF THE DEW TOUR - THE RIGHT GUARD OPEN CLEVELAND – SKATE UPDATE
Here’s a skate (park and vert) rundown and photo’s from the 2nd stop of the American Dew Tour, The Right Guard Open Cleveland Ohio.

SKATE PARK

The park final ended up being more about who lost than who won. Ryan Sheckler found himself in unfamiliar territory after heat 1, sitting in 5th place and the park final only went downhill for him from there.
When it was time for his second run he was in 7th place below the cut off for the jam session, (The top 6 skaters), which you have to make to stay in the competition.
Whether his second run was going to good enough to make the jam session become irrelevant as he crashed in the latter part of the run and re- injured his elbow that he originally hurt several weeks ago.
He had to withdraw and with it went Sheckler’s dream of a clean sweep of The Dew Tour for 2008 also.
The Brazilians lead by Rodolfo Ramos and Rodil Araujo are becoming a force in skate park but it was still the American riders that were dominating this event.
The phenom-o-grom Chad Ortiz and P Rodd (Paul Rodriguez) were the stand out skaters even before Sheckler withdrew and it was between these two skaters who was going to take out the win.
Ortiz came out on top in the heats scoring 89.50 with P Rodd in second place but in the jam session it was P Rodd who the judges considered pulled the gnarlyest and most consistant tricks
and he came away with the Dew win. (How the judges are able to score the jam session is beyond me with all six skaters shredding the entire park at the same time).
This win for P Rodd came only a week after his $100,000 Maloof Cup victory so I would imagine P Rodd is one very camper at the moment,
and at only 14 years old who knows what the phenom-o-grom Chad Ortiz will achieve in skateboarding over the next couple of years.
Although he wasn’t a threat to the top order it was sick to see Australian skater Chad Bartie make his second Dew final in a row. Bartie finished in 10th.

P Rodd	Chad Oritz

Ryan Sheckler	Rodolfo Ramos

The AST rundown of the Skate park final is HERE

Video highlights are HERE

Skate park placings after heats and jam session:
1. P Rodd (Paul Rodriguez) 90.75
2. Chaz Ortiz 90.70
3. Rodolfo Ramos 88.50
4. Greg Lutzka 85.85
5. Rodil Araujo Jr. 83.60
6. Carlos De Andrade 77.45

Placings for other finalists who missed the jam:
7. Austen Seaholm 82.25
8. Ryan Sheckler 79.5
9. Fabrizio Santos 73.5
10. Chad Bartie, 67.5
11. Dayne Brummet 66.25
12. Mathieu Therres 62.25

SKATE VERT

Shaun White is back dominating his second adopted sport after snowboarding, winning the skate vert final after missing the 1st stop of the Dew tour, The Panasonic Open last month.
As White missed the previous event he had to pre-qualify for the final, which he did in typical Shaun White style by winning the prelim’s.
In the final he had a sketchy 1st run where he fell, was clean in his 2nd run improving his score to 90.25, then sealed the win with a 92.00 in his 3rd run.
This is the blow by blow of his 3rd run, - an alley-oop caballaerial heelflip, a frontside gay twist revert, a 720, and back-to-back 540 variations
including a frontside stalefish 540 and finishing with a frontside rodeo 540.
Bucky Lasek who was obviously pissed off with coming in second to White, made it hard for himself by had only one clean run which was his first,
scoring a 88.25. Lasek’s run consisted of an indy grab 360, a nollie flip mute grab, an off-axis backside 540, a gay twist, and a new trick he unveiled last month,
the frontside boneless 540, planting his foot on the coping before spinning.
In 3rd was veteran Andy McDonald who had 3 consistent runs throwing down 540 varial McTwist, 720, kickflip Indy grab, lein frontside rodeo 540, nollie heelflip indy grab.
PLG (Pierre-Luc Gagnon) won the Maloof Cup last weekend in California but wasn’t on form at this event falling in all three runs and finishing in 8th.
In his 1st year competing on the Dew Tour, Australian Renton Millar again made the finals as he did at the last event The Panasonic Open and finished 6th overall.

Shaun White	Bucky Lasek

Andy McDonald	Renton Millar

The AST rundown of the skate vert final is HERE

Video highlights are HERE

Skate Vert final placings:
1st Shaun White 92.00
2nd Bucky Lasek 88.25
3rd Andy Macdonald 87.25
4th Bob Burnquist 83.00
5th Adam Taylor 78.25
6th Renton Millar 75.75
7th Josh Stafford 74.75
8th Pierre-Luc Gagnon 62.75
9th Rodrigo Menezes 51.50
10th Buster Halterman 50.75

23rd July BMX
2ND EVENT OF THE DEW TOUR - THE RIGHT GUARD OPEN CLEVELAND
Here’s a BMX (park, dirt and vert) rundown and photo’s from the 2nd stop of the American Dew Tour, The Right Guard Open Cleveland Ohio.

BMX PARK


Daniel Dhers won the Park BMX event, his second Dew park final win in a row after taking out the Panasonic Open last month.
Dhers only needed his first run to take out the event, sticking to the centre of the course and firing off 4 clean 720’s each one technically perfect,
scoring him a 92.67, a score none of the other rider could reach over their two runs.
Mike Spinner came in second, going so close to taking out the event. In his first run he pulled off the trick of the event, a quad tailwhip,
the first ever in competition and after a 1080 it seemed like he had pulled off a run none of the other riders would be able to touch.
Unfortunately Spinner crashed in the latter part of his run resulting in the judges marking down what would have been a phenomenal score.
In his second run Spinner played it safe to make sure he made the podium and kept up his points in the Dew Cup race. He didn’t attempt
another quad whip leaving it to couple of triple tailwhips, a 1080 and 720 to move in second spot.
I had Ryan Guettler down for a big showing in this event but unfortunately he crashed hard on the landing on his very first trick (a 1080) of his first run.
The heavy knock to his head from the crash was too severe to continue and Guetter didn’t attempt his second run.
Crashes kept The triple threat Steve McCann down in eight place but he must have been wrapped with his overall performance in the Right Guard Open
with a finals spot in all the BMX events and placing third in vert and fourth in dirt.
Just some of the other notable rides were Rob Darden a huge backflip straight into a flair, Garrett Reynolds an insane 900 and
Alessandro Barbero throwing down windshield wipers in both runs.

Mike Spinner	Daniel Dhers

The AST rundown of the BMX park final is HERE
Video highlights are HERE

BMX Park final placings:
1. Daniel Dhers 92.67
2. Mike Spinner 91.17
3. Rob Darden 91.17
4. Garrett Reynolds 90.67
5. Ryan Nyquist 90.67
6. Drew Bezanson 90.33
7. Craig Mast 90.33
8. Steve McCann 90.00
9. Marcus Tooker 89.83
10. Alessandro Barbero 87.83
11. James Foster 86.83
12. Ryan Guettler 80.50
*When riders have the same score (as you can see from the above scores happened twice in this event) the rider with the highest second run receives the higher placing.

BMX DIRT

Cam White
The final was a 1-2 finish for Australian riders with Cam White taking out the event win with Ryan Guettler finishing second. Last year’s Dew Cup winner Ryan Nyquist was third.
White in only his second Dew dirt win in his career was super consistent in his three runs with his backflip variations place him in a league of his own.
He even pulled off a clean barspin to tailwhip backflip, White being the only one of the dirt riders who can dial this trick.
In their third and final run both Guettler and Nyquist came after White so they knew they had to pull out all stops to overtake White’s final score of 93.92.
In their quest to take the win, both riders tried to pull near impossible tricks and unfortunately both riders crashed in their final run. Guettler actually made an insane 1020
over the 2nd jump but couldn’t reset for the next jump and had to bail out.
So, after two of the five events of the Dew Tour, White and Nyquist are now tied in first place in overall Tour points (175).
The two closely matched riders who traded jabs on the 2007 Tour look to be going head-to-head once again in 2008 in the race for the Dew Cup.



The AST rundown of BMX the vert final is HERE
Video highlights are HERE

This was the final placing s in the Dirt Final;
1. Cameron White 93.92
2. Ryan Guettler 92.50
3. Ryan Nyquist 91.59
4. Steve McCann 89.58
5. Dennis Enarson 89.34
6. Luke Parslow 89.43
7. Rob Darden 89.25
8. Corey Bohan 88.75
9. James Foster 88.58
10. Brandon Dosch 88.08
11. Nate Berkheimer 86.92
12. Anthony Napolitan 86.00

BMX VERT

BMX Vert, which was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, was rain delayed so the event didn’t get going to well into the night. In BMX Vert there are two heats with each rider getting a 60 second run.
Australian Steve McCann who the commentators nicknamed “The Triple Threat” at this event due to the fact he was the only rider to make the finals in all three BMX disciplines,
was the top qualifier from the prelim’s. Although McCann made 10 Dew finals last year, a podium finish eluded him all tour so as he was the top qualifier this was an excellent chance to break that drought.
Between him and a podium finish though were the three pre-qualifiers, and the true current champions of BMX halfpipe, Jamie Bestwick Chad Kagy and Simon Tabron.
(The pre-qualifiers are the riders that finished in the top 3 places in the previous event.)
The event showed that BMX Vert is progressing big time. Some of my highlights were, K Robb’s (Kevin Robertson) huge 540 tailwhip transfer,
Simon Tabron’s no handed 540 and a 900 and my favourite trick the windshield wiper (Zac Warden).
Bestwick and Kagy were the stand out riders, they finished tied on top of the leader board with 94.50 after there first runs so it was going to be their second run that would decide the vert winner.
In their second runs Kagy fell while attempting a double whip flair and Bestwick came through with a clean run that included a downside tailwhip X up.
Although their second run scores were lower than their first run, Bestwick scored higher than Kagy and therefore giving Bestwick the win.
Steve McCann did make the podium, helped by several new tricks he has added to his vert repertoire such as the barspin to tailwhip and 540 tailwhips. Simon Tabron finished in fourth.

Jamie Bestwick	Steve McCann

The AST rundown of the BMX vert final is [HERE]
Video highlights are [HERE]

Vert Final Results:
1. Jamie Bestwick 94.5
2. Chad Kagy 94.5
3. Steve McCann 93.33
4. Simon Tabron 91.83
5. Dennis McCoy 91.33
6. Kevin Robinson 91.17
7. Zack Warden 90.17
8. Jimmy Walker 90
9. Jay Eggleston 86.17ride)

4th July Skate
NORTH SYDNEY SKATE PLAZA
The new North Sydney Skate Plaza will be open this Saturday (5th July).
The address is Cammeray Park/Golf Course Ernest St Cammeray – near the Warringah Expressway.
We don’t have any details about an official opening, when we do we will let you know.
Here’s some photos.

23rd June Skate
RAMPFEST INDOOR PARK MELBOURNE
These are some photo’s of the building work going on at a new BMX/skate indoor-park in Melbourne (Braybrook).
This is going to be one impressive park when it finished. The opening is scheduled for late July. It will be open to skate and BMX but the layout definitely
favours BMX. As you can see there's a foam pit. There will also be a resi area. We will keep you posted on progress.

23rd June Skate
ES GAME OF SKATE FINAL
Here are some photos from the Australian Final of The ES Game of Skate held on Go Skatepark Day (21st June) at Riverside Melbourne.
Jack Crook won again, (I think this must be his third or fourth time), so he’s off to the States for the International Game of Skate in California.
The Game of Skate is part of the huge Maloof Cup on the 11th – 13th July in Orange County. There are heaps of other skate events, check out maloofmoneycup.com.
The two other finalists were George Newsholme and Harry Clark. George clocked up S.K.A.T.E. first, then Harry, leaving Jack with the win. Jack was only on S.K.

Jack

Jack

Harry

George

16th June Skate BMX and FMX
1ST STOP OF THE AMERICAN AST DEW TOUR ON THIS WEEKEND.
The American action sport competition season starts this week with the 1st stop of the AST Dew Tour, The Panasonic Open in Baltimore Maryland. (Thursday 19th -22nd June)
As can be seen from the qualifiers, (listed below) the Dew tour attracts the best riders in skate, BMX and FMX.

Australian riders are in blue

The schedule for the Panasonic Open is;
Thursday 19th - Skate, BMX and FMX finals qualifying.
Friday 20th - BMX vert and dirt finals
Saturday 21st - Skate park and vert finals
Sunday 22nd - FMX and BMX park Finals

If you get pay TV, Fuel has some live coverage from 4am – 5.30am on Sunday morning (22nd) and
3am – 5am Monday morning (23rd), plus regular updates during more user friendly hours throughout the day.
We will have wrap up the event early next week.
Check out the events section for web details etc.

10th June Skate
ES GAME OF SKATE
Here‘s some photo’s from the Sydney qualifier of the International ES Game Of Skate held at Fernside Skatepark Waterloo 7/6/08.

The winner was Moises Wilhelm and he won the right to compete in the Australian Final.
The winner of the Australian Final will in turn win an all expenses paid trip to skate in the international final in California in July. - Sick prize.
For those that that know - what is “The Game Of Skate”;
The first skater tries a trick, makes it, and everyone else has to make it. Whoever doesn't make it gets a letter.
The first letter is "S," the second letter is "K", and so on, until "S-K-A-T-E" is spelled out, and that person is out of the game.
When it's the first skater's turn again, he tries another trick. If he makes it, the whole process repeats.
If the first person misses the trick he tries, the second player tries his own trick. If he makes it, everyone else has to make that trick, in order.
If anyone misses, they get another letter, and so on.
See, clear as mud.

Arron from 99 Degrees

Leo, who won the event last year.

4th June Surf
MEN’S WCT ROUND 4 - THE GLOBE PRO
The one man domination of the WCT continued with Kelly Slater winning yet another event, The Globe Pro making it his third win of the tour and being
the only surfer in the ranked 45 to win an event this year. (Manoa Drollet won Tahiti but he was a wildcard).
On the last day of competition (quarters through to the final) none of his fellow competitors was even in the same league, Kelly just totally dominated.
The men’s event is not even half way the tour yet it’s a situation where as far as the World Championship title is concerned it’s Kelly first and daylight second,
but I’m getting ahead of myself; firstly, what went down at the Globe Pro.
CJ Hopgood was Kelly’s opponent in the final. CJ’s record at Fiji is impressive (he won the event in 05) and had been ripping in this event,
so if anybody was going to stop Slater at Fiji it was probably going to be CJ.
The final though went in similar fashion to Kelly’s previous heats, he totally dominated. Kelly had CJ combo’ed by the 8th minute and
although CJ surfed his way out of needing a combination score he was still way behind Kelly when the final wound down,
he needed a massive 9.07 in the final minutes and that just didn’t happen.
In other matchups Taj Burrow scored he second 3rd place for the year going down to Kelly in the semis. Joel Parkinson was incredibly unlucky
in his quarter final against Adriano DeSouza. Adriano was trailing Joel by 6.14 late in their matchup. On Adriano’s last wave in the final minute
two of the judges gave Adriano a score less than 6.14 while the other two gave scores above 6.14, the combined score 6.50 just enough to eliminate Joel.
Adriano ended up in third place eliminated by CJ Hopgood in the semis.
The current world champion Mick Fanning, did much better than his last place at Tahiti, finishing 5th, he was eliminated by CJ Hopgood in the quarters.
Bede Durbidge was also eliminated in the quarters going down to Taj Burrow.

Here are the heats from last day and the current top ten in the ratings:

Globe Pro Fiji Final Results:

Final: Kelly Slater (USA) 16.67 def. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.27

Globe Pro Fiji Semifinal Results:

Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 18.70 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 12.84
Heat 2: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 17.64 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.87

Globe Pro Fiji Quarterfinal Results:

Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 14.60 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.73
Heat 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 14.27 def. Bobby Martinez (USA) 13.67  
Heat 3: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 17.50 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 6.84
Heat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.00 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 12.66

Top 10 ASP World Tour Rated Surfers after the Globe Pro Fiji:

1. Kelly Slater (USA) 4010 points
2. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 3072 points
3. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 3050 points
4. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 2808 points
5. Taj Burrow (AUS) 2762 points
6. C.J. Hobgood (USA) 2728 points
7. Mick Fanning (AUS) 2721 points
8. Andy Irons (HAW 2606 points
9. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 2474 points
10. Bobby Martinez (USA) 2428 points

28th May Surf
THE GLOBE PRO UPDATE
The Globe Pro is well underway (3 rounds completed) and only one more day of competition could be all that is needed to crown the Globe Pro champion.
Unless the forecasts change there will be several lay-days till later in the week.
Mark Occhilupo is sponsored by Globe, which scored him a wildcard to the event.
Occy won his 2nd round matchup against Kai Otten earning him a round 3 berth against Kelly Slater.
I was so hoping for an upset but that was not to be, Kelly won the encounter and moved through to round 4.
The top Australians, Fanning, Parko, Durbridge and Burrow are all through to round 4 while fellow Aussies,
Dean Morrison and Tom Whitaker had disappointing results, both being eliminated in round 2.
Luke Munro and Dane Reynolds both withdrew from the event for medical reasons.
Keep an eye on the webcast later this week, with the right conditions Fiji goes off and it can be one of the highlights of the WCT tour.

Here are the round 3 results.

Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.33 def. Royden Bryson (ZAF) 7.20
Heat 2: Luke Stedman (AUS) 12.50 def. Miky Picon (FRA) 7.00
Heat 3: Tim Reyes (USA) 16.67 def. Roy Powers (HAW) 13.16
Heat 4: Taj Burrow (AUS) 17.00 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 15.07
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) 14. 50 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 12.50
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 15. 33 def. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) 10.63
Heat 7: Damien Hobgood (USA) 15.67def. Ben Dunn (AUS) 7.40
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.66 def. Mark Occhilupo (AUS) 9.44
Heat 9: Mick Fanning (AUS) 16.90 def. Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 10.33
Heat 10: Dayyan Neve (AUS) 15.26 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 12.50
Heat 11: Chris Ward (USA) 10.50 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 8.93
Heat 12: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 16.73 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 10.10
Heat 13: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 13.67 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 7.10
Heat 14: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 14.83 vs. Jay Thompson (AUS) 6.17
Heat 15: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 16.34 def. Andy Irons (HAW) 5.38
Heat 16: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.33 def. Michael Campbell (AUS) 8.50

This is what will go down in round 4 when competition resumes:

Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) V Luke Stedman (AUS)
Heat 2: Tim Reyes (USA) V Taj Burrow (AUS)
Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA) V Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Heat 4: Damien Hobgood (USA) V Kelly Slater (USA)
Heat 5: Mick Fanning (AUS) V Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Heat 6: Chris Ward (USA) V : C.J. Hobgood (USA)
Heat 7: Joel Parkinson (AUS) V Pancho Sullivan (HAW)
Heat 8: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) V Adriano de Souza (BRA)

Here’s a photo of Occy, courtesy of the ASP.

27th May Skate
ELANORA BOWLRIDERS
The first competition at the new Elanora Skatepark (it only opened last weekend) was the Quiksilver Bowlriders.
It is a qualifying event for the international Bowlriders Finals at Malmo Sweden June 12th – 15th, which attracts the best bowlriders in the world.
Rune Gilfberg won Malmo last year.
Corbin Harris won, which scored him a trip to Malmo to compete against 48 of the world’s best.
Here are the other place getters:
2nd Jackson Pitz
3rd John Dickenson
4th Trevor Ward
5th Andrew Currie
Renton Millar was taken to hospital after a collision late in the final’s jam but unfortunately we don’t have any updates.

Elanora is a sick park (two bowls connected by a full pipe) and all the skaters (Pro’s, juniors and locals) shredded their arses off all day, making it a magic day.
Here’s some photo’s;

The Elanora full pipe

Jackson + Corbin

Corbin Harris

Cuzza again getting some groupie attention

NEWS STUFF FOR WEEK ENDED 25/5/08
SKATE
Elanora Bowlriders
The Quiksilver Bowlriders comp was held at the weekend (24th May) at the new Elanora Skatepark on the Gold Coast. The event was won by Corbin Harris whose prize was a trip to
compete in the Bowlriders Finals at Malmo Sweden June 12th – 15th. See the separate news posting for a rundown and photos.

Dulwich Hill
The rescheduled Dulwich Hill Skate comp organized by the SSA.ASN guys was held on Sunday (25th May). I was in Elanora but we are hoping to post some photos of the action soon.

SURF
Men’s WCT Round 4 - The Globe Pro
The Globe Pro Fiji commenced on Sunday 25th May, (the first day of the official competition period) at Restaurants and then on the next two days the competition moved to Cloudbreak.
The first three rounds of the event have been completed. Again the full rundown and photos are in a separate news posting.

Dripping Wet Pro
The Dripping Wet Pro (2nd round of the Hurley Championship Circuit) was held at Freshwater at the weekend and these were the division winners:
Opens Chris Davidson
Under 21 Ty Watson
Under 17 Oscar Scanes
Under 15 Cooper Chapman

Bruce Irons
Bruce Irons is leaving the WCT at the end of the year to do free surfing stuff.

STUFF 2 LOOK 4WARD 2 THIS WEEK
Playground Premiere
Warren Miller, one of the best action sport directors in the business has the premiere of his new snow flick Playgrounds at the State Theatre in the city on Thursday 29th.
Screenings continue though to Sunday.

Triple Bull Pro
There is another round of the Hurley Championship Circuit around the Cronulla area at the weekend.

18th May
NEWS UPDATE
Surf
The completion of round 3 of the men’s WCT the Billabong Pro Teahupoo was the major surfing event of the week.
The event was won by won by Brazilian wildcard Bruno Santos who defeated local surfer Manoa Drollet in the final. Manoa was also a wildcard,
- I know of instances of wildcards reaching a WCT final but a final fought out by two wildcards, is this a first? I’m not sure.
Unfortunately the final was contested in crappy conditions (3ft rubbish) which was a shame because when Teahupoo fires it is one of the highlights of the WCT tour.
The main action was in the early rounds when the conditions were much better (6 – 8ft barrels) and the contest featured heaps of upsets. Fanning was the first favourite knocked out,
eliminated in round two by Bruno Santos. Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow followed in round 3, so the top 3 contenders for the world title were to have little influence on the event.
So what’s the situation with the ratings?
With the top names all eliminated early, the event didn’t have a significant effect on the ratings. Kelly Slater still leads with Joel Parkinson making the most significant move,
his third place moved him to 2nd. Fanning’s 33rd place, or in other words he finished last, resulting in him slipping to 5th. This is the current top ten:
1. Kelly Slater (USA) 2810 points
2. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 2340 points
3. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 2318 points
4. Andy Irons (HAW) 2196 points
5. Mick Fanning (AUS) 1989 points
6. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 1932 points
7. Taj Burrow (AUS) 1886 points
8. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 1874 points
9. Kai Otton (AUS) 1800 points
10. Dane Reynolds (USA) 1742 points

WA was the location of a Pro Junior event – The Sun Smart Pro Trigg Beach.
Stuart Kennedy, who is in interviewed in the next edition of Neutraliser, defeated Jayke Sharp to win the men’s division
and 14y.o Tyler Wright won the women’s draw which included all the big guns such as Sally Fitzgibbons Laura Enever and Airini Mason. Airini was Tyler’s opponent in the final.
Kennedy’s win adds to his massive lead in the ratings, 4466 points ahead of Lincoln Taylor with Jayke sharp third.
In the women’s Sally Fitzgibbons third place was enough to secure her the overall 2008 Pro Junior Title even though there are still 3 events still to be contested.
Laura is in 2nd (10,495) and the Sunsmart Pro win moved Tyler Wright to third (10,405).

The July issue of Surfing Life is out. Why a mag that’s out in May is called the July issue beats me. The feature story is Taj Burrow.

Wakeboarding
The snowboarding season has finished in the USA, but the warmer weather means the start of the 2008 wakeboarding action.
The first stop of the five event Pro WakeBoard Tour was held in Acworth GA USA during the week.
The Pro Wakeboard Tour defending champion Philip Soven (USA) took out the Pro men’s, UK rider Nicola Butler won her first Pro Wakeboard Tour event
defeating Australian Amber Wing in the Pro women’s. Another Australian Hayley Smith came in 6th place. 15y.o. Australian ripper Harley Clifford
who recently won the Australian Open Title won the junior men’s. Harley has a huge future in Pro wakeboarding.
Here’s the results:
Pro Men Finals
1 Soven, Phillip USA 92.50
2 Webb, JD USA 84.00
3 Malinoski, Rusty CAN 83.50
4 Errington, Adam SCT 80.50

Pro Women Finals
1 Butler, Nicola UK 95.00
2 Wing, Amber AUS 89.50
3 Copeland Durham, Emily USA 82.50
4 Friday, Dallas USA 65.50

Junior Men (14-18) Finals
1 Clifford, Harley AUS 68.33
2 LaRiche, Jimmy USA 58.33
3 Soven, Robert USA 48.33
4 King, Ryan USA 33.33

What’s coming up in the week ahead?
Skate - The rescheduled SSA.ASN skate comp at Dulwich Hill is on Sunday (25th)
Surf - The Globe Pro Fiji (round 4 of the men’s WCT) starts on Friday (23rd)
Surf - The Dripping Wet Pro is on at Freshwater Saturday and Sunday 24th + 25th)
Skate - I’m off to Queensland to check out the Quicksilver Bowlriders comp at the new Elanora Skatepark which features a full pipe.
There is a diagram of the park in the current issue of Neutraliser. We’ll post some photos of the action on Monday.

16th March Surf
ROUND 3 OF THE MEN'S WCT - THE BILLABONG PRO TEAHUPOO WRAP-UP
I'm in Indo at the moment so the best we can do is give you the rundown of the event as per the ASP feed.
If you don't have time to read it the main news is that two wildcards Bruno Santo (Brazil) and Manoa Drollet (Tahiti)
fought out the final with Bruno coming out on top and winning the event, The best placed Australians were Joel Parkinson (3rd)
and Adrian Buchan 5th. There were some big upsets in the early rounds. Current world Champion Mick Fanning was eliminated in round 2,
while Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow were gone in round 3.
The next event is the Globe Pro Fiji May 25th – June 6th. See the events section for webcast details

Tahitian wildcard and event runner up Manoa Drollet in an early round when the waves were classic Teahupoo  Here's the Press release

7th May Skate
VOLCOMS’ WILD IN THE PARK SKATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Some handy sequence shots from the Volcom comp thanks to Dr Chakota.
Click the images for larger version

6th May Skate
VOLCOMS’ WILD IN THE PARK SKATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Volcom’s national skate finals were held at the weekend (3rd May) at Fernside Skatepark Waterloo, with the winners of the opens and junior divisions scoring free airfares and accom to the USA to compete in Volcoms international final. The final will be at Arizona in October this year, with 30 grand up for grabs.
The event was invitation only with the competitors having qualified by winning one of the previous Volcom’s skate comp’s held all around the country last year.

Reece Warren won the Opens and Ray Macken won the Juniors so both skaters are off to Arizona.

Here’s the full results and some photos: (photos courtesy of Bill Fonseca)
We’ll post more photos in the gallery over the next couple of days.

OPEN
1. Reece Warren - Eden, NSW
2. Jake Smyth -Sydney, NSW
3. Chris Wood - Melbourne, VIC
4. Zac Davis - Mountain Creek, QLD

JUNIOR
1. Raymond Macken - Gerroa, NSW
2. Lachlan Ross - Bayswater, VIC
3. Jesse Schurkins - Brisbane. QLD
4. Harry Mol - Brisbane, QLD

GIRLS
1. Jennifer Oakes - Adelaide, SA
2. Aim'ee Harris - Bondi, NSW
3. Lu Ringuet - Brisbane, QLD

Seniors 1st place 1158 CAPTION Reece Warren
Juniors first place 1140 CAPTION Ray Macken
Girls 1st place1131 CAPTION Womens winners. Like all skate comp’s the womens prize was crap compared to the mens. No O/S trip for Jennifer.

5th May Skate/BMX  
Asia X Games roundup 
 A good weekend for Andy Macdonald  Teasing us in preparation for the main event in the Northern Hemisphere's summer, the Asia X Games went down this weekend and found Andy Macdonald in rare form and and even rarer appearance in the Park competition.    Day two of the event saw defending champion Macdonald beat out his nearest rival, 16-year-old Josh Stafford, by nearly 10 full points as he tore up the Vert ramp scoring a straight 95.00 and scooping the gold medal spot. Renton Millar grabbed third place and walked away with $2,000.    In what much a much tighter competition Garrett Reynolds came top of the BMX Park riders, finished just ahead of Sergio Layos. Australia's own Chris O'Donnell rode his way onto the podium, taking home the bronze medal. The previous day saw Chad Kagy steal the gold medal from Koji Kraft by one point in the BMX Vert comp while Aussie Tim Wood finished third.    Day three proved Dayne Brummet's as he topped his third place finish of 2007 with the gold medal in this year's Skate Park event. Tyler Hendley and Ben Bodnar were second and third respectively while Macdonald finished off a nice weekend's work with fourth place in the Park, just missing out on his second podium.    For the full reports and results check out the X Games official site: www.kiaxgamesasia.com

29th April Surf
BILLABONG PRO TEAHUPOO
Of all the WCT events the Billabong Pro Tahiti is without the most spectacular. Even though the main event doesn't start for another week (May 8th),
here are some photos from the trials, which are currently being decided in massive 15- 20ft barrels.Web cast details are in our events section.
Being an improvised magazine we haven't sent our own photographer to cover the event so these photos are courtesy of the ASP.
Click on images for a larger version

Australian Dylan Longbottom in a tow in session

And Teahupoo isn’t Teahupoo without the radical wipeouts:

16th April Skate
SBA SUMMER SERIES SKATE FINAL
SBA held their Australian skate final at Monster on Saturday 12th April. In the open sponsored it came down to a close call between two of our finest riders,
Ray Macken and Kieran Rielly with Ray coming out the winner.
The winners of the other divisions were;
Under 16 Boys – Josh Morell
Under 16 Girls – Ellie Summerhaze
Under 14 Boys – Ryder lawson

CLICK ON PICS FOR LARGER VERSION

Full report of the comp in the next issue of the magazine, due out soon.
Following photos courtesy of Bill Fonseca.


Ray Macken

Kieran Rielly

14th April skate BMX
X GAMES REINSTATES VERT
As a follow up to the story we ran on the7th April regarding the X Games dropping skate and BMX vert from the X Games, the organisers have done a complete 360
and reinstated vert back into the 08 games. This is their blurb;
"The X Games has always had a commitment to the athletes and our consistent communication with them has allowed us to collectively grow this event to where it is today, "
said Chris Stiepock, General Manager, X Games. "In this particular case the communication took many turns but a consensus by the athletes has emerged that has lead us to reinstate Vert as an X Games discipline this year. We will continue to work with the athletes to make the X Games relevant and successful."
The X Games happens in August 08. Our events section will paste webcast details closer to the event.

8th April skate
KIAMA SKATE COMP
Photos from the day have been posted in the gallery

RESULTS
Under 10’s
1) Leighton Maver

under 13’s
1) Steve Adam
2) Danny Campbell
3) Ryder Lawson

Under 16’s
1) Cameron Ford
2) Ryan Bowen
3) Dylan Muldoon

Girls
1) Ellie Summerhaze
2) Beth Whitaker
3) Tracy Strachen

Open
1) Jai Overton
2) Jamie Fletcher
3) Cameron Mullin

Sponsored
1) Ray Macken
2) Daniel Rayner
3) Michael Burly

7th April Skate/BMX
The death of vert? X Games abandons Skate and BMX Vert competitions
Details of this year's summer X Games competition has been trickling onto our desks for the the last couple of weeks, but nothing could have prepared us for the latest news.
EXPN has announced that there will be no standalone Vert ramp this year, or next year for that matter. This means no Skate or BMX Vert competitions.
Replacing the Vert ramp will be two new events: Skate and BMX SuperPark. BMX Street makes up a third new discpline as BMX Park is also effectively replaced by the SuperPark.
The intentions for the SuperPark are to create a 100 per cent transition-focused design – blending a variety of terrain and obstacles into one seamless course.
Those behind the decision made argue that the SuperPark will highlight the all-around abilities of the world's best transition skaters and BMX riders.
“We are constantly striving to present new sports and disciplines at the X Games that accurately reflect the state of action sports and participants,
”said Chris Stiepock, X Games General Manager. “Skateboarders and BMX riders still enjoy vert features, but most are doing so at skateparks rather than on stand-alone vert halfpipes.
The proliferation of public skateparks has fostered new athletes who excel on large park features, leading us to develop the SuperPark discipline.”
The decision is certainly one that is dividing the skateboarding and BMX communities, especially when such a decision is made with just a matter of months before the games begin.
Mat Hoffman, who is now an organizer for X Games BMX events, trew his support behind the decision, saying: “The very core of BMX is to explore and be creative.
This new format will promote this progression, providing the opportunity for the best riders to expand Park and Vert to new dimensions.”
There is also the general complaint that the same riders turn up for the event every year and with more and more of the competitors in their 30s,
the depth of talent is simply not seen as being there anymore. Stiepock also points out that unless you live in Southern California it is highly unlikely that you have access to a vert ramp.
But vert is one of the constants in skating since the sports inception and it seems hard to imagine an X Games without the event that has provided some of the most memorable moments in event's history.
Legendary vert skater Andy Macdonald points out on EXPN: “There are tricks you can do on a vert ramp that you can't do anywhere else.
I can promise you there will be no 900s going on on the Superpark course – guaranteed. The solution is a format change.
Change it to a jam format so there are guys skating for a half hour straight and it's not like a golf match. The execs at ESPN
want to do away with the one discipline in all the sports that's been there since day one, stood the test of time and contained every big moment in X Games history.
The 900, Mat Hoffman's no-handed 900 and Kevin Robinson's double flair were all on the vert ramp. They're blowing it, and we're going to miss out on those moments.”
Of course, change isn't usual something that is greated by all, but progression is the lifeforce of sports like BMX and skateboarding.
If it really is time to move on from vert riding for something different like SuperPark then so be it. But with the Dew Tour maintaining a Vert competition as well as other comps around the world,
it seems unlikely we've seen the last of vert-riding.

31st March Snowboarding
2008 US OPEN HALFPIPE FINALS
Torah Bright and Shaun White Win US Open Halfpipe
The 2008 US Open men's and women's halfpipe finals wrapped up last week with Torah Bright and Shaun White each claiming the title and $20,000.
The contest also marked the final stop of the Burton Global Open Series, where $100,000 would be awarded to the top overall male and female riders.
With sun blazing and a stacked field of the world's halfpipe elite, the sea of fans got a show to remember as riders literally threw it all on the line in the perfectly sculpted 500+ foot long, 22-foot tall superpipe.
In the best-of-three run finals Torah Bright took the lead early with a run that featured a backside 3 indy, switch backside 7 mute (Winner of Zune Best Trick and $5,000),
backside 5, melon-to-fakie with a Cab 7 at the end. Local Olympian Kelly Clark snagged second with a lofty frontside air to backside 5 mute, frontside 5, method,
frontside 9 into a big backside air. Gretchen Bleiler rounded out the podium with a first-hit frontside 9, lofty backside air into a crippler, with an indy to frontside 7 and Cab 3 to cap things off.
In the men's finals Finland's Peetu Piiroinen had huge front 10s and alley-oop backside rodeos. Scotty Lago clocked Zune Best Trick and $5,000 with a double cork front 10.
Mason Aguirre stuck a backside 5 indy to frontside 10 tail, corked Cab 10, frontside 9, alley oop to frontside 7 for second. VT's own Kevin Pearce rode strong all day with
a third place run that featured a big backside crail into a frontside 10 tail, Cab 10, frontside 9 stale finished with a biggie-sized McTwist.
However nothing short of perfection could topple the Shaun White. Coming off a win at Friday's Slopestyle, the reigning US Open Halfpipe Champion would once again destroy the competition
and end his day with a victory lap. Shaun's winning run consisted of a first-hit frontside 10 stale to cab 10 into his signature frontside 5 stale, McTwist, frontside 9 with a backside 9 enderÑall huge and flawless.
Torah Bright's win secured her the BGOS title and $100,000 for the second year straight; while 20-year old Peetu Piiroinen's fourth place would score him the BGOS title for the men.

2008 US Open Slopestyle Final Results:

Men
1.Shaun White, USA, 88.33
2.Tim Humphreys, USA, 80.17
3.Charles Reid, CAN, 74.67
4.Ville Uotila, FIN, 73.50
5.Peetu Piiroinen, FIN, 71.83

Women
1.Kjersti Oestgaard Buass, NOR, 73.17
2.Jamie Anderson, USA, 67.33
3.Jenny Jones, GBR, 61.83
4.Sina Candrian, SUI, 53.33
5.Cheryl Maas, NED, 53.00

Read more at www.opensnowboarding.com

25th March Surf
KELLY SLATER WINS RIP CURL PRO



Kelly Slater won the Rip Curl Pro Bell’s Beach defeating Bede Durbidge in a closely fought final. Kelly’s two wave score was 15.63 to Bede’s 15.16. Kelly was trailing
Bede until he moved out of the normal take off zone, going much deeper than both surfers had been taking off in the heat. This paid off for Kelly, he found an unreal wave,
scoring an 8.83 that was enough to overtake Bede. His ride included a massive double grab aerial (see photo below), one of the best of the event. I hate to say it but Kelly
was definitely the form surfer of the event. If he wants a 9th world title it looks like he’ll get it. Kelly record is now 2 out of 2 WCT wins this year (Gold Coast and Bell’s)
and his third win at The Rip Curl Pro, equalling the record of Mark Richards and Michael Peterson. Not a bad result for a guy who only decided to turn up at the last minute.
Here the day’s results, and photos. We had left the Rip Curl Pro so most of the photos are courtesy of Steve Robertson and Kirstin Scholtz.

Click on these 2 images for larger versions





Wherever Kelly is there is also a line of autograph hunters.

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Quarterfinal Results:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 13.00 def. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 12.33
Heat 2: Bobby Martinez (USA) 17.33 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 10.67
Heat 3: Taj Burrow (AUS) 17.33 def. Dane Reynolds (USA) 10.67
Heat 4: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.34 def. Andy Irons (HAW) 2.80

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Semifinal Results:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 14.50 def. Bobby Martinez (USA) 4.50
Heat 2: Kelly Slater (USA) 12.33 def. Taj Burrow (BRA) 7.96

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Final Results:
Heat 1: Kelly Slater (USA) 15.63 def. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.16

The next men’s WCT event is the Billabong Pro Tahiti May 8th – 18th.

25th March Surf
RIP CURL PRO BELL’S WOMENS
Stephanie Gilmore wins the Rip Curl Pro Bell’s Beach



The current world champion Stephanie Gilmore scored nine point rides late in both her semi against Layne Beachley and the final against Sofia Mulanovich to claim back to back wins in the Rip Curl Pro Bell’s Beach.
Especially in the final Stephanie showed why she is the finest female surfer in the world. With only five minutes in the final and trailing Sofia 16.17 to 12.00 Stephanie produced the ride of the event constantly linking her trademark power turns with floaters and cut backs all the way to the shore break. Stephanie couldn’t have squeezed any more scoring opportunity out of the wave, her 9.33 the highest score of the day.

Click on action shots for a larger version

Stephanie Gilmore

Sofia Mulanovich

In the heats leading to the final, (The final day commenced with the quarter finals), Layne Beachley was ultra impressive in her quarter final against Samantha Cornish and I thought this may be Layne’s event.
That wasn’t to be, in her semi against Stephanie Gilmore, Layne made two “unlike Layne” errors. Firstly, she let Stephanie take a wave against priority, which resulted in
Stephanie taking the heat lead and then late in the heat with her last chance to regain the lead Layne fell coming down the face of the wave. Still Layne will be back on the winner’s podium soon.
Although going down to Sofia Mulanovich, Amee Donohue was very competitive in their semi match up and looks to continue her impressive 2007 form.

The results from the final day of competition:

Rip Curl Women’s Pro pres. by Ford Fiesta Quarterfinals Results:
QF 1: Layne Beachley (AUS) 16.33 def. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 11.00
QF 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 11.83 def. Megan Abubo (HAW) 8.83
QF 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 16.17 def. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 12.16
QF 4: Amee Donohoe (AUS) 10.50 def. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 10.33

Semifinals Results:
SF 1: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 14.50 def. Layne Beachley (AUS) 10.17
SF 2: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 13.67 def. Amee Donohoe (AUS) 7.34

Final Results:
1 – Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.50
2 – Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 16.17

24th March Surf
RIP CURL PRO BELL’S UPDATE - MENS SURF



Bell’s beach



The “Bell”

Round 1 and round 2 have completed so round 3 will be on when competition resumes.
All the top rated surfers have made it to round 3, although Mick Fanning came last in his round 1 match-up against Adrian Buchan and trials winner Stuart Kennedy, relegating him to the sudden death round 2.
Fanning was rematched with Stuart Kennedy but this time totally ripped, eliminating Kennedy and moving though to round 3.
The standout surfers so far in this competition have been Kelly Slater and super rookie Dane Reynolds. Wildcard Danny Wills was also impressive in eliminating the other super rookie Jordy Smith in round 2.
Photos, round two results and round 3 match ups are below.

Click Images for larger version



Dane Reynolds



Adriano de Souza



Heitor Alves

Round 2 Results:
Heat 5: Luke Stedman (AUS) 13.67 def. Chris Ward (USA) 13.33
Heat 6: Jihad Khodr (BRA) 11.30 def. Leonardo Neves (BRA) 10.33
Heat 7: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 14.66 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 9.66
Heat 8: Ben Dunn (AUS) 13.00 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 11.14
Heat 9: Tim Reyes (USA) 13.33 def. Royden Bryson (ZAF) 6.80
Heat 10: Daniel Wills (AUS) 13.50 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 11.57
Heat 11: Neco Padaratz (BRA) 12.77 def. Ricky Basnett (ZAF) 10.50
Heat 12: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 12.50 def. Bruce Irons (HAW) 11.67
Heat 13: Luke Munro (AUS) 11.27 def. Mikael Picon (FRA) 9.33
Heat 14: Dane Reynolds (USA) 18.73 def. Heitor Alves (BRA) 11.64 -
Heat 15: Roy Powers (HAW) 13.33 def. Ben Bourgeois (USA) 9.53
Heat 16: Kieren Perrow (AUS) 11.33 def. Michael Campbell (AUS) 7.06

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach Round 3 Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 2: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Heat 3: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Daniel Wills (AUS)
Heat†5: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs.Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 6: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Jay Thompson (AUS)
Heat 7: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Adriano de Souza (BRA)
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Troy Brooks (AUS)
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Daniel Ross (AUS)
Heat 10: Luke Stedman (AUS) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 11: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 12: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Dane Reynolds (USA)
Heat 13: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Jihad Khodr (BRA)
Heat 14: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 15: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA)
Heat 16: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Luke Munro (AUS)

RIP CURL PRO BELL’S UPDATE - WOMENS SURF



Good friends Karina Petroni and Stephanie Gilmore

The women’s event is up to the quarters with the event definitely wrapping up on Monday 24th March, with the champion due to be decided by lunch time.
Wildcard Alana Blanchard and Julia De La Rosa (Christian) were eliminated in round 2 with Silvana Lima being the highest rated surfer to be knocked out so far.
Silvana was defeated by Claire Bevilacqua in round 3. Silvana has apparently been sick for several weeks and has hightailed it back to Brazil to see her doctor.
Jessi Miley-Dyer is back from injury and won her way to the quarters by defeating Rebecca Woods in round 3.
Photos, round 3 results and quarter final match ups are below.

Click on images for larger version

Stephanie Gilmore



Megan Abubo



Samantha Cornish

Round 3 Results
Heat 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS) 12.76 def. Nicola Atherton (AUS) 8.83
Heat 2: Layne Beachley (AUS) 16.96 def. Serena Brooke (AUS) 6.83
Heat 3: Megan Abubo (HAW) 12.33 vs. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 12.00
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 13.84 def. Karina Petroni (USA) 7.26
Heat 5: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 13.33 def. Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 7.83
Heat 6: Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 14.67 def. Rebecca Woods (AUS) 12.27
Heat 7: Amee Donohoe (AUS) 10.97 def. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 10.33
Heat 8: Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 10.00 def. Silvana Lima (BRA) 7.03

Quarterfinals Match-Ups
QF 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS) vs. Layne Beachley (AUS)
QF 2: Megan Abubo (HAW) vs. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
QF 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) vs. Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS)
QF 4: Amee Donohoe (AUS) vs. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)

March 20 Surf
WCT Round 2 - THE RIP CURL PRO BELL’S BEACH

Rip Curl Pro 2007

The 2nd event of the men and women’s WCT, The Rip Curl Pro has entered its waiting period with the forecast of a decent swell to hit on Friday. (21st march).
Here are the men’s and women’s round 1 match-ups when competition commences;

MENS
Heat 1: Bobby Martinez (USA), Luke Munro (AUS), Royden Bryson (ZAF)
Heat 2: Dean Morrison (AUS), Dayyan Neve (AUS), Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 3: Jeremy Flores (FRA), Bruce Irons (HAW), Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 4: Pancho Sullivan (HAW), Neco Padaratz (BRA), Jihad Khodr (BRA)
Heat 5: Andy Irons (HAW), Jordy Smith (ZAF), Chris Ward (USA)
Heat 6: Bede Durbidge (AUS), Tim Reyes (USA), Daniel Ross (AUS)
Heat 7: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Ben Dunn (AUS), Nic Muscroft (AUS)
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Stuart Kennedy (AUS)
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS), Leonardo Neves (BRA), Nathan Hedge (AUS)
Heat 10: Kelly Slater (USA), Adriano de Souza (BRA), Troy Brooks (AUS)
Heat 11: C.J. Hobgood (USA), Dane Reynolds (USA), Daniel Wills (AUS)
Heat 12: Kai Otton (AUS), Jay Thompson (AUS), Ricky Basnett (ZAF)
Heat 13: Tom Whitaker (AUS), Ben Bourgeois (USA), Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 14: Taylor Knox (USA), Michael Campbell (AUS), Mikael Picon (FRA)
Heat 15: Damien Hobgood (USA), Kieren Perrow (AUS), Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 16: Luke Stedman (AUS), Roy Powers (HAW), Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA)

WOMENS
Heat 1: Layne Beachley (AUS), Julia De La Rosa (PER), Nicola Atherton (AUS)
Heat 2: Samantha Cornish (AUS), Megan Abubo (HAW), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Jacqueline Silva (BRA), Alana Blanchard (HAW)
Heat 4: Sofia Mulanovich (AUS), Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), Karina Petroni (USA)
Heat 5: Silvana Lima (BRA), Rosanne Hodge (ZAF), Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS)
Heat 6: Amee Donohoe (AUS), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Serena Brooke (AUS)

Stuart Kennedy (AUST) and Alana Blanchard (HAW) won the trials, which earned them a start in the main event.
Melanie Redman-Carr is back from baby making duties.
After earlier withdrawing from the event Kelly Slater has now decided to grace the event with his presence. Slater is quickly becoming the most boring person on earth.
He has dragged out the “I’m over the WCT and this will probably be my last event “ for the last eighteen months and everybody is just sick of constantly hearing it.
Kelly is undoubtedly the best competitive surfer of our time but he needs to stop being a prima donna and decide to either compete or retire.

March 19 Wakeboarding
Pro Tour of Wakeboarding roundup
The fourth and final stop of Air Nautiques Australian Pro Tour of Wakeboaring (APTW) took place this past weekend at Caribbean Gardens, Melbourne.
What has been an exciting tour that started back in November at South Bank, Brisbane ended the way it began with defending champion Dean Smith on top of the podium.
Of the four APTW stops Smith, a rider for Ronix, took first place three out of four times in a season that has seen him dominate convincingly despite some closely fought rounds.
Instead of 14-year old Harley Clifford challenging though, it was Philip Soven you gave Smith a run for his money. Third place on the podium was shared by Jeff Weatherall and Brad Smelle.
In the women's final it was a surprising victory for Dean's sister Hayley Smith, who finally beat Amber Wing into second.
Having won the previous three duels Wing might be disappointed to have not completed the clean sweep, but will not begrudge Smith a derserving first place.
No doubt sealing the overall woman's crown will be a satisfactory runners up prize!

Pro Men's category:

1st - Dean Smith
2nd - Philip Soven
3rd= Jeff Weatherall and Brad Smelle

Pro Women's category:

1st Hayley Smith
2nd Amber Wing
3rd Katlin Blauuw

March 18 skate/BMX/freestyle Moto/webcast
AST Dew Tour and X Games confirm dates
If your idea of heaven is sitting on your backside watching skaters, BMXers and the rest mix it up in the action sports equivilent of Wrestlemania then you'll be glad to hear
that dates have been announced for the Action Sports Tour Dew Tour (AST) and X Games XIV.
Both events promise the usual big tricks, glamour, obscene cash prizes, and more corporate sponsors than you can shake a broken bone at.
That said, there's no arguing with the spectacular fanfare that accompanies the AST and X Games, hosted in the US by network stations NBC Universal and ESPN respectively.
With all the usual suspects in attendence, the battle for world dominance in skateboarding, BMX and FMX will see the likes of Shaun White,
Ryan Sheckler, Jamie Bestwick and Ryan Nyquist all duking it out on the big stage.
The AST has kept its five event format in all the same cities as lasat year, whilst X Games remains at its spiritual home in California.
So get out your diary and pencil the following dates in your calendar:

Tony Hawk rips backside air in Legends of Vert, 2007  
Credit: Bryce Kanights/ESPN Images/Shazamm
Click on image for a larger version

AST DEW TOUR Skate/BMX/FMX

Panasonic Open: June 19-22, Baltimore, MD.
Right Guard Open: July 19-20, Cleveland, OH.
Wendy's Invitational: Aug 21-24, Portland, OR.
Toyota Challenge: Sept 11-14, Salt Lake City, UT.
Playstation® Pro: Oct 16-19, Orlando, FL

ESPN Summer X Games XIV Skate/BMX/FMX/Surfing/Rallying

July 31-Aug 3, 2008: The Home Depot Center and Staples Center; Los Angeles, CA.

For more information visit:
www.astdewtour.com
www.expn.go.com

However, if you can't wait until July for your X Games fix, the powers that be are launching two new affliated events in the form of X Games Brazil from April 25-27
(replacing the old Latin X Games), and the Moto X World Championships, running from April 12-13. Check out EXPN for more details.
As new events we're not sure how much coverage they will get outside Brazil and the US, but if these X Games extensions prove popular
with fans and atheletes alike then there's little doubt we'll be seeing them on Australian television soon.

March 4 Skate
SLAUGHTER AT THE OPERA – RESULTS AND PHOTOS
Globe do a full on skate event every year and this year it was Sydney’s turn to host the event with Slaughter At The Opera.
Slaughter is a rail jam using recreations of two famous American rail locations, Outback (El Segundo) and UCI (University of California)

Globe attracted the sickest bunch of skaters to the event that this city has ever seen and a huge crowd turned out to watch the guys do battle against Outback and UCI.
Slaughter was won by American Greg Lutzka who pocketed $25,000 for his afternoon of skating. Here are the minor places;
2nd Adam Dyet
3rd Ryan Decenzo
4th Gailea Momolu
5th Sean Malto
More importantly here are some photos of Slaughter by our gun photographer Bill Fonseca.

Globe were tight-arse with media passes so we couldn’t send a video guy. The next best thing is a link to some video footage on the Thrasher website [HERE]

March 4 Surf
QUIKSILVER PRO (GOLD COAST) UPDATE
Over the last two days round 3 and 2 heats of round 4 have been completed so when competition resumes the event will move into the “must watch”
stage as the quarter’s semi’s and final will probably be contested on the next day of competition. The event’s holding period finishes on Wednesday
so they will finalise the event either Tuesday or Wednesday. All the top names are still in - Fanning , Burrow, Slater. Parkinson,
Morrison Burbrige to name a few plus the million-dollar rookie Jordy Smith. (Jordy recently signed a million dollar plus sponsorship deal with O’Niell)
Should be an amazing finish to the first WCT event of the year. Let’s hope the surf picks up.
The conditions over the least couple of days have been average to say the least, so we didn’t take any photos. This photo of Kelly Slater is from Steve Robertson (ASP)



Here’s a rundown of the results of the two heats of round 4 completed and upcoming round 4 match-up’s when competition resumes. Then the finals rounds get underway;

Today’s Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast pres. by LG Round 4 Results:

Heat 1 Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.73 def. Ben Dunn (AUS) 10.17
Heat 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 11.50 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 11.17

Remaining Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast pres. by LG Round 4 Match-Ups:

Heat 3: Dean Morison (AUS) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
Heat 4: Leonardo Neves (BRA) vs. Mick Fanning (AUS)
Heat 5: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
Heat 6: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Adriano de Souza (BRA)
Heat 8: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)

March 3 Surf
ROXY PRO WRAP-UP
CARISSA TOTALLY RIPPED AGAIN AND SOFIA WON THE EVENT

The 2008 Roxy Pro Champion Sofia Mulanovich

The Women’s WCT has commenced for 2008 with Sofia Mulanovich (Peru) defeating, no smashing ,
Samantha Cornish (Aust) in the final of the Roxy Pro on the Gold Coast today,
but just like last year, 15 Y.O. Hawaiian Carissa Moore stole the show. Carissa defeated world no. 1 Stephanie Gilmore at Steph’s home break in the third round,
then progressing as far as the semis where she was eliminated by Samantha Cornish in a close contest.
Samantha was impressive in her match-up with Carissa. She put down out a amazing 9.23 point ride on her way to knocking out the phenoma-grom,
her combined score was 16.90 to Carissa’s 15.53. Unfortunately Samantha couldn’t maintain this form in the final against Sofia.
Third place honours went to Amee Donohoe (Aust) and Carissa Moore (Hawaii)
We will post a video of one of Sofia’s scoring rides in the final against Samantha tomorrow.

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR A LARGER VERSION

Sofia Mulanovich

In other event news, Jessi Miley- Dyer didn’t compete due to injury but is scheduled to be back for Bell’s. Jessi’s place was taken by Laurina McGrath (Aust)
who was eliminated in round 2. Julia Christian who replaced a pregnant Chelsea Hedges for 2008 is now Julia De La Rosa Toro (Peru), after recently being married.
Julia married well-known Peruvian shaper Magoo but obviously wasn’t keen on being Julia Magoo.

Carissa Moore didn’t win the event, but a third place in a WCT event and defeating the current world champion Stephanie Gilmore is something to smile about.

Fellow Hawaiian future star Coco Ho travelled over with Carissa.



Definitely the way to travel around the Roxy Pro. Wish this guy was around last night when I left the pub.

Here the day’s full results;

Final
1 – Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 17.34
2 – Samantha Cornish (AUS) 7.83

Semifinals: 1st advances to Final; 2nd finishes Equal 3rd
SF 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS) 16.90 def. Carissa Moore (HAW) 15.53
SF 2: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 13.50 def. Amee Donohoe (AUS) 10.33

Quarterfinals: 1st advances to Semifinals; 2nd finishes Equal 5th
QF 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS) 15.60 def. Layne Beachley (AUS) 12.00
QF 2: Carissa Moore (HAW) 17.57 def. Melanie Bartels (HAW) 9.07
QF 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 13.16 def. Rebecca Woods (AUS) 7.10
QF 4: Amee Donohoe (AUS) 10.73 def. Julia De La Rosa Toro (PER) 10.33

Round 3: 1st advances to Quarterfinals; 2nd finishes Equal 9th †
Heat 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS) 14.50 def. Nicola Atherton (AUS) 8.30
Heat 2: Layne Beachley (AUS) 12.67 def. Serena Brooke (AUS) 11.66
Heat 3: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 14.40 def. Megan Abubo (HAW) 12.23
Heat 4: Carissa Moore (HAW) 15.33, def. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 14.50
Heat 5: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 15.50 def. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 12.16
Heat 6: Rebecca Woods (AUS) 11.50 def. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 9.83
Heat 7: Amee Donohoe (AUS) 14.90 def. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 10.80
Heat 8: Julia De La Rosa Toro (PER) 12.33 def. Silvana Lima (BRA) 7.83

The next women’s WCT event is the Rip Curl Pro At Bell’s Beach Victoria !8th – 29th march

28 February Surf
QUIKSILVER PRO - GOLD COAST
Round 2 of the Quicksilver Pro was run yesterday (27th Feb ). Below are the results and then following is the round 3 match ups when competition resumes.
Don’t have any photos to post of round 2. (spent the day surfing.)

Heat 1: Andy Irons (HAW) 16.37 def. Tamaroa McComb (PYF) 5.90
Heat 2: Julian Wilson (AUS) 14.00 def. Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 13.23
Heat 3: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 10.83 def. Michel Bourez (PYF) 8.00
Heat 4: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 12.16 def. Nic Muscroft (AUS) 12.00
Heat 5: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 12.33 def. Daniel Ross (AUS) 10.83
Heat 6: Roy Powers (HAW) 13.74 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 9.60
Heat 7: Kieren Perrow (AUS) 14.84 def. Michael Campbell (AUS) 12.66
Heat 8: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 17.17 def. Jihad Khodr (BRA) 12.50
Heat 9: Ben Bourgeois (USA) 12.34 def. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) 11.70
Heat 10: *Neco Padaratz (BRA) advances Aritz Aranburu (EUK) injured
Heat 11: Leonardo Neves (BRA) 13.67 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 7.33
Heat 12: * Jay Thompson (AUS) advances Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) injured
Heat 13: Dane Reynolds (USA) 14.20 def. Ricky Basnett (ZAF) 10.06
Heat 14: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.34 def. Daniel Wills (AUS) 11.50
Heat 15: Tim Reyes (USA) 16.16 def. Royden Bryson (ZAF) 5.97
Heat 16: Ben Dunn (AUS) 12.07 def. Travis Logie (ZAF) 8.50

Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast pres. by LG Round 3 Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 2: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
Heat 3: Taylor Knox (USA) vs. Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Heat 4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 5: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Dane Reynolds (AUS)
Heat 6: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
Heat 7: Neco Padaratz (BRA) vs. Leonardo Neves (BRA)
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Julian Wilson (AUS)
Heat 9: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Mikael Picon (FRA)
Heat 10: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Bruce Irons (HAW)
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (AUS) vs. Jay Thompson (AUS)
Heat 12: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 13: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Heitor Alves (BRA)
Heat 14: Luke Stedman (AUS) vs. Adriano de Souza (BRA)
Heat 15: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Ben Bourgeois (USA)
Heat 16: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Luke Munro (AUS)

27 February Surf
QUIKSILVER/ ROXY PRO
The Quiksilver (men’s) and Roxy (women’s) Pro’s on the Gold Coast signal the start of the elite surfing comp, The WCT (World Championship Tournament) for 2008.
The trials and the minor rounds of the Roxy Pro have been surfed and round 2 of the Quiksilver is being contested as this report is being posted.
A win in the trials means entry into the main competition and that went to Tamaroa McComb (Tahiti) in the men’s and Carissa Moore (Hawaii) in the women’s, (AGAIN).
Carissa at 14y.o won the trials last year and ended up progressing right though to the finals, defeating the then current world champion Layne Beachley twice in the process.
One of my sporting highlights of 2007. In this event Carissa has progressed to round 3 where she matched against Stephanie Gilmore when the contest resumes.
Round 2 of the women’s saw Larina McGrath (Australia) and Karina Petroni (USA) eliminated. Larina who just missed entry to the 2008 WCT
scored a wildcard to the event due to Jessi Miley- Dyer being injured. (Jessi is due back at the next event at Bell’s)
These is the Match up’s when Round 3 commences.

Heat 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS) vs. Nicola Atherton (AUS)
Heat 2: Layne Beachley (AUS) vs. Serena Brooke (AUS)
Heat 3: Melanie Bartels (HAW) vs. Megan Abubo (HAW)
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Carissa Moore (HAW)
Heat 5:Sofia Mulanovich (PER) vs. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 6: Rebecca Woods (AUS) vs. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF
Heat 7: Amee Donohoe (AUS) vs. Jacqueline Silva (BRA)
Heat 8: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Julia De La Rosa Toro (PER)

We will update the Quiksilver Pro tomorrow.

Click on images above for larger versions

27 February Skate
BONDI BOWLARAMA PART 2
Cool Bondi Bowlarama photos from Bill Fonseca. Click on the Pics for a larger version

Steve Caballero

25 February Skate
BONDI BOWL-A-RAMA WAS INSANE
Australia’s biggest bowl jam, The Bondi Bowl-a-rama was held on Saturday (23rd February) at the Bondi Beach skatepark.
It was definitely one of the highlights of the skate year, the huge crowd witnessing world class bowl skating from start to finish.

Watch the following movies of Lester Kasai, Steve Caballero and Bucky Lasek



The event is Round 2 of the World Cup Skateboarding Bowl Tour, the premier international tour for bowl riders and attracts the world’s best riders vying for $35,000 in prizemoney.
There is a Masters division and a Pro division with skate legend Steve Caberello winning the Masters and skate superstar Bucky Lasek winning the Pro’s.
This year for the first time there was also a women’s comp with Izzy Muta coming out on top. [Full results below.]

Below are some of photos of the day’s action with more professional photos from Bill Fonseca still to come. (We will post them the next 24 hrs)

The Australian contingent ripped with Mick Mulhall placed 2nd in the Masters, and Renton Millar the best placed Aussie in the Pro’s with a 4th.
Videos of Steve Caballero and Bucky Lasek dropping in will also be posted ASAP.

Click on the action shots below to see a larger version (the first one is courtesy of Bill "fonzie" Fonseca)

Adam Luxford

Bondi Bowlarama Results

BEST TRICK
Jeff ‘Skunk’ Williams – Popshov-it Nose Slide to Fakie around Corner

20th February Skate
BOWL-A-RAMA + SLAUGHTER AT THE OPERA SKATE
A remainder that there are some huge skate stuff coming up. On Saturday 23rd Jan there is the annual Bowlarama (details in events) and the following
Saturday 1st March is Slaughter at The Opera (details in events). We have also just posted at the last minute an instore at SDS Bondi Junction on Thursday night 21st Jan.
It featuring some of the skate legends competing at the Bowlarama.
We weren’t there but from what I have heard the Bowlarama at Wellington last week totally went off. This is the first time the Bowlarama has been held in Wellington,
and although it was rained out on Saturday, they were able to run it on the Sunday. Rune Glifberg won the Pro’s with Lance Mountain winning the Masters.
The Slaughter at the Opera event details has been updated to include the confirmed riders (massive) and also the webcast details if you can’t make it to the Opera House.

18th February Skate
BELCO BOWL JAM + BBQ
The annual Belco Bowl was on Saturday 16th at the Belconnen Skatepark Canberra. Here’s some photos and we will post some more in the gallery. TOP DAY.

Click on the shots for a larger version

4th February Skate + BMX
CAMPBELLTOWN SUMMER COMP
Here’s some photos from the Campbelltown Summer Comp (Skate + BMX) at Campbelltown Skatepark 2/2/08. We’ll post more photos in the gallery soon.

Click on the images for a larger version

4th February Skate
The Blast at the Burg set down for Sunday 3rd at Helensburg was washed out. Don’t have the rescheduled date yet.

30th January BMX
2008 BMX GAMES
The 2008 BMX Games was held at the weekend, from 26th – 28th January. Here’s the main results, plus some photos and videos. Props to the organisers (especially Dinny),
and sponsors for an exciting event. There will be a full rundown of the 2008 BMX Games including details of the new divisions for next year’s games in the next issue of the mag.

PARK Sponsored by Unit Riders

Result

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR A LARGER VERSION

Photos of Jai and Mike courtesy of Bill Fonseca - WJF Image

Here’s a rough unedited video of Mike Spinners second run in the final

The girl’s park jam was won by Peta Shepherd (pictured grey T-shirt). We unfortunately missed getting a photo of her insane backflip.

Crystal Shepherd

DIRT Sponsored by Back Bone BMX

Results

Dirt photos courtesy of Sarah Moore – This is the first time Sarah has submitted photos to Neutraliser. Thanks and welcome aboard.

Unedited video of Ryan Guettler

MINI - Sponsored by Colony

Results

VERT
Results

Thursday 24th January - BMX
First if you are in Sydney there’s the 2008 BMX Games and the Pro Wakeboarding Tour.

BMX Games
This is the premiere event in Australian freestyle BMX. It’s on at Olympic Park Homebush on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Here’s the rundown;

Saturday 26th January - Vert & Mini
10.30am - 11.00pm Vert jam - Am and Pro
4.00pm - 5.00pm Am Mini Final
5.00pm - 6.00pm Pro Mini Final
7.30pm - 9.00pm Backbonebmx.com.au best trick comp

Sunday 27th January - Flatland & Park/Ramp
1.30pm – 2.00pm Girls open jam
5.00pm - 6.00pm Am Park Final
6.00pm - 7.00pm Pro Park Final
8.00pm - 9.00pm Flat jam - Am and Pro
9.00pm - 2020 Rail jam party

Monday 28th January - Dirt
4.00pm - 5.00pm Am Final
5.00pm - 6.00pm Pro Final
6.00pm - 6.30pm Presentation of winners

Saturday 26th wakeboard
Wakeboarding Pro Tour
Round 2 of the Australian Pro Tour is happening at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith. The finals of the juniors, women’s and men’s start at 3pm Saturday 26th. Entry is free.

Then there’s the web:
Winter X Games 12 - www.espn.go.com
This is on at Aspen Colorado. The website doesn’t stream the events live but there are regular updates, photos, videos etc. Due to the time difference their day starts about 1am if you are on the east coast of Australia.

Quiksilver Revolution 2 - www.quiksilver.com/revolution2
This is a surf and skate exhibition at the Sunway Lagoon Theme Park in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The surfing is at an artificial wave pool and the vert is on a 15ft high vert ramp.
Didn’t check it out last year so I have no idea if it will be any good but the surfers and skaters involved are hot. Ry Craike, Troy Brookes and Josh Kerr are some of the surfers and the skaters include Renton Millar, Trevor Ward and Jocke Olsen.
It on Saturday 26th at 3pm Malaysian time which is 6pm on the east coast of Australia.

Lastly, these surf contests are on over the weekend

Roxy Surf Festival Phillip Island Victoria. - www.roxywqs.roxy.com
An all female surf comp with the majority of all the elite surfers competing.

Hurley Junior Pro Burleigh Heads Gold Coast - www.aspworldtour.com/hurley
It always surprises me that junior events don’t have a bigger following. The surfers always rip in these events.

24th January BMX
RYAN GUETTLER / MIKE SPINNER PARK DEMO.
In town for the BMX games, Mirraco BMX riders Ryan Guettler and Mike Spinner laid on a demo at Fivedock skatepark on Thursday 24th. Thanks to Bill Fonseca here’s some photo’s.

Click on the Photos for a larger version

Heaps more pics in the gallery

17th January BMX
BMX GAMES UPDATE
The biggest event coming up in Sydney in the action sports arena is the BMX Games - 26th _ 28th January. Some huge news that has been confirmed is that 19y.o. American, Mike Spinner will be competing. Last year, while competing in his rookie year, Mike pulled the first ever 1080 to be landed in competition. Mike landed the 1080 at stop 3 of the American AST Action Sports Tour, the premier action sport tour in the US, and you can check it out HERE
Another rider to make his BMX debut is Aussie rider Steve McCann. Steve had a huge year in the States last year being ultra competitive in vert, park and dirt and his presence at the BMX Games will definitely raise the standard. See the events section for BMX Games details.

9th January Surf
SALLY FITZGIBBONS WINS THE 2007 WOMENS WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

World Junior Champion Sally Fitzgibbons

Runner Up Paige Hareb

Not that it needed any more proof but Australian Sally Fitzgibbons again confirmed she is the best female junior surfer in the world by winning the Billabong World Junior Championships at North Narrabeen Beach, the premiere event in international junior surfing.
Sally’s opponent in the final was New Zealand wildcard Paige Hareb. Paige produced the best result of her career to reach the final, but couldn’t overcome Fitzgibbons the form surfer of the event. Paige’s two wave score of 7.84 was no match for Sally’s 16.77 which included a 9.27 that left Paige combo’ed with 8 minutes of the heat left. Even so, I’m sure Paige would have been totally stoked with being the runner up in an event full of world class competitors.
Sally biggest threat to a world title came in her semi final clash with 15y.o. Narrabeen local Laura Enever. Laura had ripped in her previous two heats of the day (which included a win over Hawaiian Coco Ho) so it came as no surprise when Laura took it to Sally and hit the lead with a 9.17 score with 11 minutes to go. Sally showed what a magnificent surfing talent she is by responding with a perfect 10 point ride at the 5 minute mark which gave her back the lead and sealed the heat win.
Sally is just so incredibly hard to beat. She scored either a 9 or a 10 point ride in each of the 4 heats she surfed on this final day of competition. Australian surfing has a bright future.

Here are some shots from the beach before we hit the surf shots:

Sally with her No1 supporter



Paige Hareb + Laura Enever

Laura with the Enever entourage

Equal third placegetter American Courtney Conlogue

Here’s the complete rundown of the day’s heats:

Final:
Heat: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 16.77 def Paige Hareb (NZL) 7.84

Semifinals
Heat 1: Paige Hareb (NZL) 14.17 def Courtney Conlogue (USA) 11.74
Heat 2: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 15.83 def Laura Enever (AUS) 14.00

Quarterfinals:
Heat 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 12.50 def Kirby Wright (AUS) 10.74
Heat 2: Paige Hareb (NZL) 13.53 def Nikita Robb (ZAF) 12.67
Heat 3: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 18.60 def Sage Erickson (USA) 13.34
Heat 4: Laura Enever (AUS) 15.50 def Coco Ho (HAW) 12.66

Round 3:
Heat 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA) 10.50 def Leila Hurst (HAW) 5.67
Heat 2: Kirby Wright (AUS) 11.07 def Pauline Ado (FRA) 9.16
Heat 3: Paige Hareb (NZL) 11.00 def Marina Werneck 6.77
Heat 4: Nikita Robb (ZAF) 13.84 def Alessa Cuizon (HAW) 13.34
Heat 5: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) 15.60 def Nao Oumaro (JPN) 8.00
Heat 6: Sage Erickson (USA) 14.83 def Lee Ann Curren (FRA) 6.23
Heat 7: Laura Enever (AUS) 15.40 def Airini Mason (NZL) 10.16
Heat 8: Coco Ho (HAW) 16.23 def Bruna Schmitz (BRA) 13.50

Click these action shots for a large version

How did that get in there – must be a hacker

7th January Surf
BRAZILIAN PABLO PAULINO WINS THE 2007 WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS



Office for the day - North Narrabeen

2007 Junior World Champion Pablo Paulino

The Brazilians are always on hand to support their surfers.
(no we don't have x-ray vision)

Pablo Paulino overcame the best junior surfers in the world to win the 2007 World Junior Championships. This is the second time he has won this prestigious title, Pablo first won the title back in 2004. Runner up was Hawaiian Tonino Benson who earlier in the day scored a well deserved perfect 10 in his round 4 match up against Roman Cloitre.
Competition for the last day of the men’s event got underway with round 4, with the earlier rounds giving the impression that Australian surfers would dominate the event. On Saturday, Julian Wilson, Jayke Sharp, Mitch Coleborn and Beau Atchison all had impressive round 3 wins, with trials wildcard Owen Wright defeating previous Junior World Champion and current WCT surfer Adriano De Souza in the highlight heat of round 3. An Australian Junior World champion was not to be though, all the Australian were eliminated in either round 4 or the quarters with the last of the Australians, Owen Wright and Mitch Coleborn being defeated in close quarter finals against the eventual finalists Pablo Paulino and Tonino Benson. Australia hasn’t won a Junior World title in the men’s event since Joel Parkinson in 2001.
In the final, Pablo Paulino always looked the winner and took out the final 15.00 to Tonino Benson’s 9.93. In keeping with the importance of the event Pablo kept his high risk manoeuvres and aerials out of the final and concentrated more on power carves to achieve scores of 8.50 and 6.50 for his best two waves.

Click the action shots for a larger version

Here are the full results for the last day of competition of the men’s World Junior Championships:

Final:
Pablo Paulino (BRA) 15.00 def Tonino Benson (HAW) 9.93

Semifinal:
Heat 1: Tonino Benson (HAW) 14.50 def Tanner Gudauskas (USA) 13.66
Heat 2: Pablo Paulino (BRA) 16.67 def Charles Martin (GLP) 8.67

Quarterfinals:
Heat 1:Tanner Gudauskas (USA) 14.44 def Nicolau Van Rupp (DEU) 8.17
Heat 2: Tonino Benson (HAW) 14.17 def Owen Wright (AUS) 13.06
Heat 3: Pablo Paulino (BRA) 13.17 def Mitchell Coleborn (AUS) 13.00
Heat 4: Charles Martin (GLP) 15.83 def Beau Atchison (AUS) 6.54

Round 4:
Heat 1: Tanner Gudauskas (USA) 12.50 def Rudy Palmboom (ZAF) 8.00
Heat 2: Nicolau Von Rupp (DEU) 15.17 def Tatsuya Fukagawa (JPN) 5.00
Heat 3: Tonino Benson (HAW) 17.67 def Romain Cloitre (FRA) 7.37
Heat 4: Owen Wright (AUS) 12.57 def Brandon Jackson (ZAF) 9.00
Heat 5: Pablo Paulino (BRA) 12.24 def Julian Wilson (AUS) 11.67
Heat 6: Mitchel Coleborn (AUS) 11.60 def Jayke Sharpe (AUS) 11.16
Heat 7: Beau Atchison (AUS) 8.66 def Josh Redman (ZAF) 6.90
Heat 8: Charles Martin (GLP) 15.77 def Chris Waring (USA) 9.17

2007 news

19th December Skate
We reviewed the Freebord in the first issue of Neutraliser HERE The Freebord is best described as a street board with the characteristics and performance of a snowboard. We’re big fans of the Freebord.
Kent from Freebord in the States sent us this video of Burton skater Chris Rotax riding on a Freebord. Check it out
VIDEO

19th December Surf
THE HAWAIIAN SURF COMPETITION SEASON ENDED WITH BEDE DURBIDGE WINNING THE PIPELINE MASTERS AND THE VANS TRIPLE CROWN.



Dean Morrison (2) Bede Durbidge (1), Joel Parkinson (4) Pancho Sullivan (3)

The final day of the Pipeline Masters was a let down conditions wise, the event even moved from the Banzia Pipeline to nearby Off The Wall in search of half decent waves.
The day saw round 4 to the final contested, and one by one the top names started to fall, starting with Andy Irons, world champ Mick Fanning, Kelly Slater, CJ Hobgood and Taj Burrow. Complete results below.
Then in the four man final, Australian Bede Durbidge won the event defeating Dean Morrison, sole Hawaiian Pancho Sullivan and Joel Parkinson. Right from the start it looked like a Durbidge win, and the 9.5 on his second wave was going to be hard to top considering the conditions. When Bede locked in a second scoring wave of 7.17 it became a race for second for the other finalists.



Bede Durbidge (click image for larger version)

The Pipeline Masters was also the third leg of the Vans Triple Crown and the win confirmed Bede as the Triple Crown winner. So payday for Bede was $30,000 prize money, a $25,000 Chevy Colorado truck and a custom $10,000 Nixon watch and trophies. The trophy for the Triple Crown was a custom-shaped board from Gerry Lopez using an original Clark foam blank and inlaid with Abalone.
The “WE STUFFED UP BIG TIME” award must go to Billabong who decided to terminate Bede’s sponsorship at the start of this year.

NOTE: THERE WAS NO SEMI, THE QUARTER FINAL WINNERS WENT STRAIGHT TO THE 4 MAN FINAL.

Billabong Pipeline Masters Final Results:
Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.67, Dean Morrison (AUS) 13.00, Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 9.60, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 7.43

Billabong Pipeline Masters Quarterfinal Results:
Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.50 def. CJ Hobgood (USA) 13.73
Heat 2: Dean Morrison (AUS) 11.00 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 10.50
Heat 3: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 9.10 def. Chris Ward (USA) 8.70
Heat 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.90 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 12.34

Billabong Pipeline Masters Round 5 Results:
Heat 1: CJ Hobgood (USA) 12.26 def. TJ Barron (HAW) 10.50
Heat 2: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 16.00 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 9.00
Heat 3: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 10.83 Ian Walsh (HAW) 7.40
Heat 4: Dean Morrison (AUS) 13.10 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 11.44
Heat 5: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 14.93 def. Dayyan Neve (AUS) 6.26
Heat 6: Chris Ward (USA) 12.33 def. Kelly Slater (USA) 11.50
Heat 7: Taj Burrow (AUS) 12.90 def. Neco Padaratz (BRA) 12.17
Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) def. Fred Patacchia (HAW)

Billabong Pipeline Masters Round 4 Results:
Heat 1: TJ Barron (HAW) 10.87 def. Andy Irons (HAW) 9.67
Heat 2: CJ Hobgood (USA) 13.00 def. Greg Emslie (ZAF) 11.17
Heat 3: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.40 def. Laurie Towner (AUS) 1.33
Heat 4: Luke Stedman (AUS) 13.00 def. Cory Lopez (USA) 9.43
Heat 5: Ian Walsh (HAW) 11.67 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.30
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.50 def. Phillip MacDonald (AUS) 8.87
Heat 7: Dean Morrison (AUS) 12.10 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 9.00
Heat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA) 12.34 def. Troy Brooks (AUS) 6.46
Heat 9: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 12.67 def. Bernardo Miranda (BRA) 11.17
Heat 10: Dayyan Neve (AUS) 10.73 def. Tom Whitaker (AUS) 10.17
Heat 11: Chris Ward (USA) 12.90 def. Bruce Irons (HAW) 9.67
Heat 12: Kelly Slater (USA) 10.50 def. Mikala Jones (HAW) 5.80
Heat 13: Neco Padaratz (BRA) 11.33 def. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) 10.20
Heat 14: Taj Burrow (AUS) 12.00 def. Gavin Beschen (USA) 4.70
Heat 15: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 12.50 def. Gabe Kling (USA) 8.27
Heat 16: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 12.67 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 11.16

Being the last event of the year the ratings for the year were also finalised. See the next article for The 2008 WCT men’s roster. The next event will be Quiksilver Pro (mens and womens) late February 2008 at the Gold Coast.

2008 MENS WCT QUALIFIERS FINALISED.
With all WCT and WQS events finished this is the elite WCT men’s roster for 2008.

The list is tentative as there may be further retirements from the WCT. Kelly Slater for one has been telling anybody who will listen that he “probably” wont contest the WCT next year. The ASP has not announced its wildcard. Tim Reyes (USA) would be my pick.

1. Mick Fanning (AUS)
2. Taj Burrow (AUS)
3. Kelly Slater (USA)
4. Joel Parkinson (AUS)
5. Bede Durbidge (AUS)
6. Andy Irons (HAW)
7. Pancho Sullivan (HAW)
8. Jeremy Flores (FRA)
9. Dean Morrison (AUS)
10.Bobby Martinez (USA)
11. C.J. Hobgood (USA)
12. Kai Otton (AUS)
13. Tom Whitaker (AUS)
14. Taylor Knox (USA)
15. Damien Hobgood (USA)
16. Luke Stedman (AUS)
17. Michael Campbell (AUS)
17. Chris Ward (USA)
19. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
19. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA)
21. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
22. Leonardo Neves (BRA)
23. Frederick Patacchia (HAW)
24. Bruce Irons (HAW)
24. Ricky Basnett (ZAF)
26. Daniel Wills (AUS)
27. Royden Bryson (ZAF)
28. Jordy Smith, (ZAF)
29. Dane Reynolds (USA)
30. Jay Thompson (AUS)
31. Tiago Pires (PRT)
32. Artitz Aranburu (EUK)
33. Ben Bourgeois (USA)
34. Jihad Khodr (BRA)
35. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
36. Roy Powers (HAW)
37. Hector Alves (BRA)
38. Mikael Picon (FRA)
39. Adriano De Souza (BRA)
40. Daniel Ross (AUS)
41. Dayyan Neve (AUS)
42. Luke Munro (AUS)

18th December Surf
2008 WOMENS WCT QUALIFIERS FINALISED.

With all WCT and WQS events finished this is the elite WCT women’s roster for 2008;

1) Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
2) Sofia Mulanovich (PER)
3) Silvana Lima (BRA)
4) Samantha Cornish (AUS)
5) Layne Beachley (AUS)
6) Amee Donohoe (AUS)
7) Chelsea Hedges (AUS)
8) Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS)
9) Rebecca Woods (AUS)
10) Melanie Bartels (HAW)
11) Jacqueline Silva (BRA)
12) Megan Abubo (HAW)
13) Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS)
14) Karina Petroni (USA)
15) Serena Brooke (AUS)
16) Nicola Atherton (AUS)
17) Wildcard chosen by ASP

- Melanie Redman Car will contest the 2008 season but will miss the first few events due to the birth of her first baby.
- The ASP has not announced its wildcard for 2008. Julia Christian (USA) would be the favorite for the spot.

Monday 17th December Surf
A HUGE WEEKEND IN HAWAII – PART 1
STEPHANIE GILMORE WINS THE BILLABONG PRO MAUI TO ADD TO HER 2007 WORLD TITLE.
Round 8 and the final event of the women’s WCT was won by Stephanie Gilmore in an all-Australian final defeating Jessi Miley-Dyer. This was Stephanie’s 4th WCT win this year.

The last day of the Billabong Pro saw the quarter finals through to the final contested.
Even though the world title had been won by Stephanie earlier in the contest, there was still much on the line for the quarter finalists. Layne Beachley, Melanie Bartels and Megan Abubo were in contention for the prestigious Triple Crown and if Rosy Hodge kept winning and made it to the final she would re-qualify for the 2008 WCT.
In the first quarter Melanie’s loss to Layne meant the race for the Triple Crown had come down to Layne and Megan Abubo. Even though Megan also lost her quarter final she was still ahead of Layne in Triple Crown points and Layne needed to win her semi to overtake Megan for the Triple Crown. Megan’s quarter final loss left her 11th in the WCT ratings, missing automatic re-qualification. Megan will be back though to contest the 2008 WCT, courtesy of her 4th place in the WQS.

This is how the quarters went:
QF 1: Layne Beachley (AUS) 14.70 def. Melanie Bartels (HAW) 13.40
QF 2: Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 11.50 def. Keala Kennelly (HAW) 6.75
QF 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 13.00 def. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 8.50
QF 4: Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 12.75 def. Megan Abubo (HAW) 7.60

In the first semi, Layne lost to Jessi Miley-Dyer, ended Layne’s Triple Crown aspirations. Layne’s loss now meant The Triple Crown had been won by Megan Abubo.

Click the action shots for a large version

In the other semi, in a very close contest, Rosy Hodge lost to Stephanie Gilmore. This gave Rosy 12th place in the final WCT ratings, not high enough to re-qualify for the 2008 WCT.

SEMIFINALS:
SF 1: Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 12.85 def. Layne Beachley (AUS) 12.50
SF 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 7.50 def. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF) 6.85

In the all-Australian final, good friends Stephanie Gilmore and Jessi Miley-Dyer had to contend with a distinct lack of waves. Stephanie made the most of the conditions and won the final, defeating the defending champion with a 2 wave score of 10.33 to Jessi’s 8.36. Stephanie’s top wave score was a meagre 5.50, giving an indication of the lack of waves with high scoring potential in the final.

For Stephanie, the win capped off what was the most success year by a rookie in the history of professional surfing. No surfer has ever won the world title in their maiden year. What Stephanie will achieve in the coming years the will be anybody’s guess.

A HUGE WEEKEND IN HAWAII – PART 2
MARK OCCHILUPO RETIRES FROM FULL PROFESSIONAL SURFING

Even though it came as no surprise, Mark Occhilupo announced his retirement from professional surfing after his round 3 loss to Troy Brookes at The Pipeline Masters. Without a doubt the most popular surfer among his fellow competitors, the announcement caused havoc on the beach of Pipeline, everybody wanted a piece of Occy.

Occy’s surfing career spanned 24 years, a career in two parts as he retired from pro surfing in 1987 to make a successful return in 1997. In 1999 Occy won the World Title, the last Australian to win before Mick Fanning recently took the title this year.
We will probably still see Occy pop up as a wildcard in WCT events presented by Billabong, such as Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa and Mundaka Spain.

Click on Image of Occy at the Pipe for a large version

Another Australian WCT surfer to announce his retirement at Pipeline was Mick Lowe.

A HUGE WEEKEND IN HAWAII – PART 3
MEGAN ABUBO WINS THE VANS TRIPLE CROWN.



Hawaiian Megan Abubo won the prestigious Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, with a win at Reef Pro Haleiwa, a 7th at the Roxy Pro, Sunset and a 5th at the Billabong Pro Maui. Runner up was Layne Beachley and third Melanie Bartels.
Megan was able to win the Triple Crown even though she had a massive wipeout in her semi final at Sunset and was carted off to hospital in an Ambulance with severe rib injuries. In the final event, the Billabong Pro, Megan progressed to the quarters even though she was still in intense pain from those rib injuries.

Megan Abubo at Honolua Bay

Click image for large version

Megan won $10,000 plus a Chevy truck but more importantly, now has the honor of being among the select few of local Hawaiians who have won this coveted event.

11th December Surf
VANS TRIPLE CROWN - THIRD AND FINAL EVENTS
The competition periods for both the Pipeline Masters (round 10 and final round of the men’s WCT, and third and final leg vans Triple crown) and the Billabong Pro (round 8 and final round of the women’s WCT, and third and final leg vans Triple crown) entered their competition periods on Saturday 8th December.
The Pipeline Masters has had lay-days since then (storm conditions), and the Billabong Pro has had one day of competition – details below.

Billabong Pro Maui
Trials - The trials are cool as you get to see a small glimpse of the future of competition surfing.
Caroline Sarran was an injury withdrawal from the main event, and the ASP gave Caroline’s spot to trialist, Keala Kennelly. K.K’s trial spot was then given to Australian, Nicola Atherton.
Niclola then went on to win the trials defeating five up and coming Hawaiian surfers.

Click on the images for a larger version

No surprises or upsets in Round 1. The only news was that Megan Abubo was still troubled by her rib injury sustained at a huge wipeout at the Roxy Pro Sunset last week. The Vans Triple Crown contender lost her round 1 heat to Stephanie Gilmore and Keala Kennelly, and it was obvious after the heat the injury was causing her distress. In what was my highlight of the day, Megan came back from that loss and totally ripped in her Round 2 elimination heat, winning the heat and in the process obtaining the highest single wave score of the day (9.25). Megan now meets Samantha Cornish in round 3. They built them tough in Hawaii.

The two surfers eliminated from round 2 were trials winner Nicola Atherton and WCT work experience girl Leilani Gryde.
Round 1 gave absolutely no indication who will win this event. The contenders for the World title Gilmore, Mulanovich and Lima were all hot, and Layne Beachley, Chelsea Hedges and Megan Abubo are just several of the surfers that could end up winning the event.
Here’s the full rundown of the heats and some photo’s;

ROUND 1: (1st and 2nd to Round 3; 3rd to Round 2)
Heat 1: Chelsea Hedges (AUS) 16.50, Rosanna Hodge (ZAF) 8.25, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 6.25
Heat 2: Layne Beachley (AUS) 15.75, Rebecca Woods (AUS) 9.75, Rochelle Ballard (HAW) 8.70
Heat 3: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 12.75, Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 12.35, Nicola Atherton (AUS) 6.50
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.25, Keala Kennelly (HAW) 13.75, Megan Abubo (HAW) 9.80
Heat 5: Silvana Lima (BRA) 17.20, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 12.10, Leilani Gryde (HAW) 10.25
Heat 6: Samantha Cornish (AUS) 14.75, Amee Donohoe (AUS) 13.40, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 9.75

ROUND 2: (1st and 2nd to Round 3)
Heat 1: Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 15.75, Rochelle Ballard (HAW) 11.70, Nicola Atherton (AUS) 7.40
Heat 2: Megan Abubo (HAW) 15.05, Jacqueline Silva (BRA), Leilani Gryde (HAW) 6.50

When competition resumes this is the round 3 match up’s:

Heat 1: Layne Beachley (AUS) vs. Jacqueline Silva (BRA)
Heat 2: Chelsea Hedges (AUS) vs. Melanie Bartels (HAW)
Heat 3: Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) vs. Rebecca Woods (AUS)
Heat 4: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) vs. Keala Kennelly (HAW)
Heat 5: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Rochelle Ballard (HAW)
Heat 6: Amee Donohoe (AUS) vs. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 7: Samantha Cornish (AUS) vs. Megan Abubo (HAW)
Heat 8: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF)

7th December Surf
HAWAIIAN MAKUA ROTHMAN WINS THE O’NIELL WORLD CUP
2ND LEG OF THE VANS TRIPLE CROWN) - SUNSET BEACH HAWAII



Makua Rothman

Winners Podium – Neves, Rothman, Fanning and Ross

Makua Rothman, who has lived at Sunset all his life is not a competition surfer but makes an exception for the Vans Triple Crown. Rothman is best known for a XXL Big Wave award several years ago for a 66ft wave he rode at Jaws on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

The final day of competition of the O’Niell World Cup started with the 8 heats of the quarter finals surfed in ideal conditions, clean 15-20ft (6 metre) Sunset waves.
The form surfers from the earlier rounds continued to dominate, Australians Daniel Ross and Mick Fanning were red hot. Vans Triple Crown and Hawaiian legend Sunny Garcia kept moving through the heats but missed a place in the final being eliminated in his semi by Daniel Ross and Leonardo Neves. Sunny is still a possibility for the Triple Crown.

Click on the action shots for a larger version



Sunny Garcia

Australian Taj Burrow was so close to making the semis, Taj needed a small 2.8 score in the final minutes of his quarter final but his board seem to just stop dead in the middle of his last wave, the strangest thing I have ever seen.
At 3pm the finalists of the O’Niell World Cup had been decided and they were;
Mick Fanning - Australia
Makua Rothman – Hawaii
Daniel Ross – Australia
Leonardo Neves – Brazil

In the final, the two Australians, although the favourites for the event, were never in the race. Both Fanning and Ross were combo’ed with 12 minutes to go by heat leader Leonardo Neves and never looked like matching Neves and Rothman.
It was a tense finish, Rothman was in second place but had the highest single wave score of 6.83. It was all going to come down what he could do on his last wave, he needed a 9.2 so it was going to have to be hot. Rothman left it to the 3rd last minute to make his move. When he did he totally ripped, going straight into a long barrel ride then finished off with several roundhouse cutbacks to score a near perfect 9.5, the best wave of the final and sealed the victory with a heat score of 16.33. Second was Leonardo Neves (15.84), third World WCT Champion Mick Fanning (11.34) and 4th Daniel Ross (7.93). Although Ross would have been disappointed with his 4th considering his form in the previous rounds, qualifying for the finals this event secured him enough points to join the elite WCT tour next year.

Sunset is not known for its barrels like its cousin down the road the Banzia Pipeline but here’s a couple from this event:

The next and final event in the Vans Triple Crown is the Pipeline Masters December 8th– December 20th.

6th December Skate
KREW KASH GRAB PHOTOS - SLAM FACTORY 1/12/07
One of the few regrets about being in Hawaii covering the Vans Triple Crown was missing the Krew Kash Grab. It was held at the Slam Factory, an indoor skate park at Tuggerah on the Central Coast, last Saturday the 1st December. Anyway by all reports it was a rad day, heaps of people turned up and the skating was insane.
RESULTS:
The top three to Grab the Kash were;
1 st Kieran Reilly (photo below)
2 nd Brendan Easy
3rd Skunk Williams ((photo below)

Here’s some photos courtesy of Bill Fonseca to keep you going till we finish a complete rundown of the day.

Click on the images for a larger version

5th December Surf
THE O’NEILL WORLD CUP - DAY 4 SUNSET BEACH HAWAII
Day 4 of the O’Niell World Cup, (2nd leg of the vans Triple Crown) saw the surfers having to contend with massive surf, 20 – 25 ft. The surf was so big competition had to be called off at midday.
Keep an eye on the webcast as there is only one day of competition left.
Australian Daniel Ross is one surfer to watch. He has been the standout surfer of the event and if he wins a few more heats will have enough WQS point to make it to the WCT next year. Joel Parkinson the defending champion was eliminated in round 4.
Here’s some photos of day 4. Click the action shots for a larger version

Daniel Ross

TJ Barron

3rd December Surf
ROXY PRO SUNSET BEACH WRAP UP
Sofia Mulanovich won the Roxy Pro Sunset Beach Hawaii, round 7 of the women’s WCT and the 2nd leg of the Vans Triple Crown. Her first major win in Hawaii.


One of Sofia’s many fans.


Sofia Mulanovich


Amee Donohoe


Winners Podium - Sam Cornish Amee Donohoe, Sofia Mulanovich and Jessi Miley-Dyer

In the 4 women final, Sofia (13.73) defeated Australians Amee Donohoe (10.83) Sam Cornish (7.64) and Jessi Miley-Dyer (6.40). The final day of the contest was surfed in 8 to 10 ft waves. The Sunset wave is heavy and powerful and this was no better illustrated by Megan Abubo being taken to Hospital with a rib injury after a wipeout in her semi, [HAWAIIAN NEWS VIDEO HERE] and Stephanie Gilmore breaking her board in her quarter final. Click these images for a larger version

Stephanie Gilmore, who was knocked out in the quarters still leads the ratings but Sofia’s win means she has closed the gap considerably on Stephanie. Sofia is now only 101 points behind in 2nd place. Silvana Lima is in third place in the ratings and is the only other surfer still in world title contention.
Layne Beachley and Chelsea Hedges quarter final losses and Sam Cornish’s 3rd place means they are all no longer in the race for the world title.
Trials winner, 16 yo Hawaiian local Coco Ho made it as far as the quarters.



Coco


Coco

The next women’s event is the Billabong Pro held at Honolua Bay on the Hawaiian island of Maui Dec 8th – 20th. This is both the final event of the women’s WCT and the Vans Triple Crown. Check the events section for webcast details.

29th November Surf
HAWAIIAN SURFING SEASON IN FULL SWING
The pilgrimage to the North Shore of Hawaii for the finish of the 2007 surfing events began last week with the Reef Hawaiian Pro, a men’s and women’s WQS event and more importantly the 1st round of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. It was held at Ali’i Beach Haleiwa.
The women’s draw was completed first with Hawaiian Megan Abubo taking out the event. Megan defeated Layne Beachley, Karina Petroni, and Hawaiian Leilani Gryde in the final.
Roy Powers won the men’s event in a four man final. Roy totally blitzed the final defeating fellow Hawaiian Sean Moody and Australians Joel Parkinson and Bede Durbidge in demanding and dangerous 15 –20ft waves.
Click action shots for a larger version


Joel Parkinson Sean Moody Roy Powers and Bede Durbidge

The focus is now on legendary Sunset Beach for the Roxy Pro (women’s – 7th round of the WCT and 2nd round of the Vans triple crown.) and the O’Neill World Cup (men’s - 2nd round of the Vans triple crown.)

In the men’s the early rounds of the O’Neill World Cup are currently underway while in the women’s, the Roxy Pro has completed the trials and 1st and 2nd rounds.

Rebecca Woods won her round two heat to progress to the quarters.

These are the quarter final matchups for the Roxy Pro when competition resumes;

Heat 1: Sofia Mulanovich (PER), Caroline Sarran (FRA), Chelsea Hedges (AUS), Melanie Bartels (HAW)
Heat 2: Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Coco Ho (HAW)
Heat 3: Silvana Lima (BRA), Leilani Gryde (HAW), Amee Donohoe (AUS), Megan Abubo (HAW)
Heat 4: Samantha Cornish (AUS), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS), Layne Beachley (AUS), Rochelle Ballard (HAW)

20th November Skate
MONSTER 2ND BIRTHDAY SKATE COMPS
Monster Skatepark at Olympic Park had its 2nd birthday at the weekend and to celebrate threw park and vert comps. Heres some of the action and the comp winners.

STREET UNDER 15's WINNERS

STREET OPENS WINNERS

11th November BMX
Some BMX photos from the Fishers Ghost Skate/BMX Comp held at Leumeah Skatepark Saturday 10th November.
Click on Photos for a larger version

CALL FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE - MANLY BEACH 2/12/07
There is a climate change rally being held on Manly Beach which looks like heaps of fun and more importantly will be an effective tool in highlighting the threats posed by climate change.
The Manly Chapter of Clean Energy For Eternity need you to come and be part of Australia's largest ever 'human sign'.
This will be an awesome experience as thousands of people gather to form the words 'LifeSaving Energy' as part of a national campaign on climate change. The event will be filmed/photographed by a helicopter.
Climate change is threatening our planet, our lives and our future. Help make a difference.
Here’s the details;
Life Saving Energy Human Sign
Date: Sunday 2 December
Time: 9.30am sharp
Where: North Steyne Beach Manly
Register now at: lifesavingenergy@gmail.com
Download the flyer here

6th NOVEMBER Skate
THORNLEIGH SKATEPARK
The new $435,000 Convic built Thornleigh skatepark located in the northern suburbs of Sydney, (Brickpit Park Dartford Rd Thornleigh) had its official opening at the weekend. (4th Nov), with the Trashdown skate comp put on by SSA ASN guys.
Full rundown in the mag due to hit the shops in the next couple of weeks but here’s some photo’s of the open men’s final to keep you going to then.Click on photos for larger version with captions

2nd NOVEMBER Skate/BMX/Freestyle/MX
X AIR GAMES
The X Air Games (skate, BMX, freestyle MX) held each February in Wellington NZ over the last couple of years has been cancelled due to sponsorship shortfalls. Apart from being one of the best action sports events of the year in this region, the X Air Games had a flow on effect to Australia where many of the top international riders would also visit Australia before or after the games for skate tours or to compete in the BMX Games.
Lets hope they get it back up in 2009.

2nd NOVEMBER Surf
ROUND 6 OF THE WOMEN’S WCT - THE MANCORA PERU CLASSIC
The inaugural Mancora Classic is getting interesting as it has almost reached the quarter finals. It’s due to finish at the weekend. The main surprise exist has been current no 4, Australian Samantha Cornish who lost her first round heat and was then eliminated in round 2.
Live action is at www.asptour.com and the action starts mid evening Sydney time.

21st OCTOBER Skate
BAM MARGERA, TOSH TOWNSEND AND JOSH RIO, ELEMENT IN-STORE - MANLY CORSO.
This was the biggest in-store I have even been to. In-store is probably the wrong word to use as they held it outside the Element store to accommodate the crowd. It had all the trappings of a celebrity event - crowds, young screaming girls, hotties, D.J.’s, crowd barriers and heaps of security. The signing went full on from 2.30 till 4.30 and even then they couldn’t get to the end of the queue. – It was insane!
I know why they called it the “Pick Your Poison Tour”, it seemed like Bam and Tosh were intent of having a drink for every signing they did, - let’s just say they were pretty happy by the end of the event.
Anyway, definitely a top afternoon. Here’s some photo’s, there will be more in the next edition of the mag.
Photos Courtesy of Bill Fonseca
Click on the photos for larger version

15th OCTOBER Surf
STEPHANIE GILMORE WINS THE BEACHLEY CLASSIC

Office for the day. Contest headquarters for the Beachley Classic Manly Beach.

Stephanie Gilmore defeated a super hot Silvana Lima in the final to win the Beachley Classic and retain the title she won last year as the event wildcard. The result also gave her the outright lead in the ratings.
Thanks to Layne’s hard work, the Beachley Classic is the richest event of women’s surfing, with the prize money a massive $AUS110,000. Stephanie scored $AUS22,000 of that for her win while Silvana’s 2nd place purse was $AUS11,000.
Like Round 3 and the quarters held the day before, the semis and the final were contested at Curl Curl Beach on Sunday morning under excellent surf conditions.
Both Stephanie and Silvana were the standout surfers of the event and the final proved to be one of the finest contests I have witnessed in women’s competitive surfing. Stephanie scored the highest wave score of the final, a 9.0 in the 28th minute but Silvana caught more high-score waves.
The final result was just so close. Stephanie 15.43 (out of 20) was just 0.1 ahead of Silvana’s 15.33.
Stephanie’s 9.0 gave her the early lead, but like Silvana does regularly, Silvana won back the lead with two aggressively ridden waves, (7.17 and 8.1), the second while Stephanie had priority. Silvana ability to score while the other surfer has priority is something she does better than any other surfer on the WCT tour.
Stephanie hit back with a 6.43 with less than 5 minutes to go to regain the lead. Then with just two and a half minutes left on the clock Silvana totally ripped apart a small wave to score a 5.57 just 0.1 less than what she required to take the lead. Silvana made in back out to the line-up in time but Stephanie had priority and successfully blocked her from the only wave that may have given Silvana the necessary points she required before time run out.
A totally epic final.
In the lead up to the final, Silvana defeated Jessi Miley-Dyer in the first semi and Stephanie defeated Sofia Mulanovich in the second semi.
I was so hoping Layne Beachley would win this event or at least get to the final like she did last year, but Layne was eliminated by Jessi Miley-Dyer in the quarters held on Saturday afternoon. I can only speculate what would have happened if the quarters had been held over to the much better conditions on Sunday morning. Those conditions were so much more suited to Layne, while the deteriorating conditions on Saturday are what Jessie Miley-Dyer excels in, as they were similar to the conditions of many of the WQS events. Jessi is very active in the WQS competition. That said, Jessi deserved her win over Layne and it was great to see her progress as far as the semis.
1986 caption - Jessi Miley-Dyer on her way to eliminating Layne Beachley.

This is the full rundown of the elimination rounds;

Final:
Heat: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 15.43 def Silvana Lima (BRA) 15.33

Semifinals
Heat 1: Silvana Lima (BRA)14.17 def Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS)10.00
Heat 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)16.60 def Sofia Mulanovich (PER)11.67

Quarterfinals
Heat 1: Silvana Lima (BRA) 17.35; def Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 12.35
Heat 2: Jessi Miley Dyer (AUS) 11.25 def Layne Beachley (AUS) 9.15
Heat 3: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 16.00 def Amee Donohoe (AUS) 14.50
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 16.15 def Chelsea Hedges (AUS) 5.65

Round 3
Heat 1: Silvana Lima (BRA)12.15 def Rosy Hodge (ZAF)9.10
Heat 2: Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 12.25 def Samantha Cornish (AUS)4.75
Heat 3: Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 13.75 def Megan Abubo (HAW)11.10
Heat 4: Layne Beachley (AUS) 13.15 def Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)11.35
Heat 5: Sofia Mulanovich (PER)10.50 def Leilani Gryde (HAW)7.90
Heat 6: Amee Donohoe (AUS) 16.00 def Claire Bevilaqua (AUS)12.50
Heat 7: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 12.50 def Melanie Bartels (HAW)11.90
Heat 8: Chelsea Hedges (AUS) 12.25 def Caroline Sarran (FRA)9.00

This is the top ten in the women’s WCT ratings after the 5th event of the 8 event tour.
1. Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 4308
2. Silvana Lima (BRA) 4226
3. Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 3811
4. Samantha Cornish (AUS) 3504
5. Chelsea Hedges (AUS) 3326
6. Layne Beachley (AUS) 2882
6. Amee Donohoe (AUS) 2882
7. Rebecca Woods (AUS)2448
8. Jessi Miley Dyer (AUS) 2347
9. Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 2232
10. Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 2114

What other news came out of the Beachley classic:
- Melanie Redman-Carr has retired from the WCT as she is pregnant.
- After her 9th place in the event, Australian Claire Bevilacqua is in serious doubt to retain a place in next year’s WCT. The 7 surfers at the bottom of the ratings (11th to 17th) at the end of the tour are relegated. Claire is currently in 15th place.

The next event on the women’s WCT is a new event recently included on the WCT. The Mancora Peru Classic will be held at Northern Peru from the 30th October till November 4th. Like the Beachley Classic, this contest is another event instigated by a current WCT surfer. This time the credit goes to Sofia Mulanovich.

Click here for more photos

After the Beachley Classic’s presentations there was heaps of celebrity events, longboarding, dodge ball, tug-of-war etc. As is Layne’s way, there was a heavy emphasis on supporting charities, such as Reach for the Stars. Breast Cancer Awareness and Planet Ark.
Click here for some photos

The longboards used in the celebrity surf contest were signed by the participants. The boards will be auctioned at a later date with the proceeds going to charity. I don’t now the details of the auction yet but we will post them up when we know.

15th OCTOBER Party
Karina Petroni wins the Neutraliser Party Hard Award
The only blight on the event from an Australian point of view is that it took an American to show us how a Sunday should be spent when there is a free bar at your disposal. Karina's Sunday session at the bar can only be described as legendary, and being the trooper she is it didn’t even stop her participating in the celebrity events of dodge ball tug-of-war and longboarding. Karina Peroni wins my party hard award totally smashing the opposition. Apart from knowing how to have a good time, Karina is a hot surfer and is currently 7th in the WQS ratings so has a good chance to make the WCT next year.


Here’s Karina in her trials heat against Pam Burridge.

10th OCTOBER Environmental
GREENPEACE EXHIBITION
Greenpeace is having a photo exhibition highlighting its important work over the last 30 years fighting environmental vandalism. If this is something of interest to you, note that there are only a couple of days to go, it finishes on Saturday. (13th October) This is just one of the images on display. [log4.jpg]
It’s on at Carriageworks Wilson St Redfern.

10th OCTOBER Skate
BAM MARGARA, TOSH TOWNSEND AND JOSH RIO INSTORES.
No skating on the cards, but Bam, Tosh and Josh are coming to town. Check out the events section for details of their Sydney instores on the 20th and 21st October.

9th OCTOBER SURF
BEACHLEY CLASSIC STARS TODAY.
SALLY FITZGIBBONS WINS WILDCARD ENTRY.
The waiting period for the Beachley Classic starts today at Manly Beach. Below is the 1st Round Draw.
Sally Fitzgibbons continued her world-class form, which among other recent accomplishments saw her win the Australian Juniors Title, and won the Oakley Wildcard trials. This gave her the only wildcard entry to the Beachley Classic. Sally will match up against Layne Beachley and Claire Bevilacqua in round 1.

Beachley Classic 1st round draw
Heat 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS); Rebecca Woods (AUS); Jacqueline Silva (BRA)
Heat 2: Silvana Lima (BRA); Amee Donohoe (AUS); Roseanne Hodge (ZAF)
Heat 3: Layne Beachley (AUS); Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS); Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 4: Sofia Mulanovich (PER); Megan Abubo (HAW); Rochelle Ballard (HAW)
Heat 5: Chelsea Hedges (AUS); Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS); Caroline Sarran (FRA)
Heat 6: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS); Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS); Melanie Bartels (HAW)

2ND OCTOBER SURF
FANNING WINS QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE
After a disappointing round 3 loss in the previous event, The Boost Mobile Pro at Trestles California Mick Fanning bounced back to win round 7 of the men’s WCT, the Quiksilver Pro France, defeating Greg Emslie in the final.
The win has given Fanning a clear lead in the ratings with only Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow in a position to threaten Fanning for the world title. Even though Australia is regarded as the premier surf nation, Australia’s last men’s WCT World Champion, was Mark Occhilupo in 1999, so another one is well overdue.
This is the current rating leading into the Billabong Pro Mundaka:
1. Mick Fanning (AUS) 6470 points
2. Kelly Slater (USA) 5450 points
3. Taj Burrow (AUS) 5243 points
4. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 4905 points
5. Andy Irons (HAW) 4741 points
6. Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 4062 points
7. Damien Hobgood (USA) 4049 points
8. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 3692 points
9. Dean Morrison (AUS) 3658 points
10. Taylor Knox (USA) 3392 points

2ND OCTOBER SURF
BILLABONG PRO SPAIN COMMENCES TONIGHT
The waiting period for the Billabong Pro Mundaka starts tonight Sydney time. The two surfers that are sitting in second and third position in the ratings, Kelly Slater (No 2) and Taj Burrow (no. 3) and who need good results to remain in the race for the world title have both been previous finalists in the event.
This is the draw when the event gets underway:

Heat 1: Jeremy Flores (FRA), Troy Brooks (AUS), Michael Lowe (AUS)
Heat 2: Bede Durbidge (AUS), Raoni Monteiro (BRA), Luke Munro (AUS)
Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA), Ricky Basnett (ZAF), Mark Occhilupo (AUS)
Heat 4: Dean Morrison (AUS), Greg Emslie (ZAF), Trent Munro (AUS)
Heat 5: Pancho Sullivan (HAW), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Cory Lopez (USA), Gabe Kling (USA)
Heat 7: Andy Irons (HAW), Ben Dunn (AUS), Aritz Aranburu (ESP)
Heat 8: Mick Fanning (AUS) Kai Otton (AUS), Manoa Drollet (PYF)
Heat 9: Kelly Slater (USA), Fredrick Patacchia (HAW), Hodei Collazo (ESP)
Heat 10: Taj Burrow (AUS), Michael Campbell (AUS), Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 11: Taylor Knox (USA), Adriano de Souza (BRA), Shaun Cansdell (AUS)
Heat 12: Tom Whitaker (AUS), Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA), Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Heat 13: Daniel Wills (AUS), Luke Stedman (AUS), Victor Ribas (BRA)
Heat 14: C.J. Hobgood (USA), Josh Kerr (AUS), Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 15: Chris Ward (USA), Royden Bryson (ZAF), Leonardo Neves (BRA)
Heat 16: Bruce Irons (HAW) Phillip MacDonald (AUS), Bernardo Miranda (BRA)

Check out www.billabong.com for the action.

2ND OCTOBER SURF
NEW EVENT ADDED TO THE 2007 WOMEN’S WCT
This came as a real surprise, but the ASP has included the Mancora Peru Classic at the last minute as an additional event in this years women’s WCT schedule. Mancora is located in Northern Peru and the event will be held October 30th – 4th November.

27th September Surf
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE
After several lay days due to the small surf the Quiksilver Pro will swing back into action over the next couple of days.
Rounds 1 and 2 have been completed and below the round 3 heats when competition commences;
Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Mark Occhilupo (AUS)
Heat 2: Cory Lopez (USA) vs. Phillip Macdonald (AUS)
Heat 3: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Royden Bryson (ZAF)
Heat 4: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Trent Munro (AUS)
Heat 5: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) vs. Victor Ribas (BRA)
Heat 6: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Greg Emslie (ZAF)
Heat 7: Josh Kerr (AUS) vs. Raoni Monteiro (BRA)
Heat 8: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Michel Bourrez (PYF)
Heat 9: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Mikael Picon (FRA)
Heat 10: Ricky Bassnett (ZAF) vs. Leonardo Neves (BRA)
Heat 11: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 12: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Bernardo Miranda (BRA)
Heat 13: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Luke Munro (AUS)
Heat 14: Luke Stedman (AUS) vs. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA)
Heat 15: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Heat 16: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Troy Brooks (AUS)

26th September Surf
AUSTRALIAN SURF MOVIE FESTIVAL
Tim Bonython’s annual Australian Surf Movie Festival has announced dates for this year’s screenings. The Sydney / Newcastle / Wollongong dates are:

PREMIERE Wed 31 Oct | Nth Bondi RSL | 8pm
Thurs 1 Nov | Paddington RSL | Paddington | 8.15pm
Fri 2 Nov | Randwick Ritz | Randwick | 7.15pm
Mon 5 Nov | Manning Bar Sydney Uni | Sydney | 8pm
Wed 7 Nov | Nth Bondi RSL | Nth Bondi | 8pm
Thurs 8 Nov | Dee Why RSL |Dee Why | 8pm
Fri 9 Nov | Collaroy Cinema | Collaroy | 7pm
Sat 10 Nov | Avalon Cinema | Avalon | 4pm
Sat 10 Nov | Palm Beach RSL | Palm Beach | 8pm
Sun 11 Nov | Waves Nightclub (18+)| Wollongong | 7pm
Sun 25 Nov | City Cinema | Newcastle | 6pm

18th September Surf
BILLABONG PRO WOLLONGONG
Round 9 of the Australasian Juniors competition was held in small 1.5 ft waves at Bulli Beach from Thursday 13th to Sunday 16th September. The conditions were so small on Saturday the event had to be abandoned for the day.
In the men’s Julian Wilson dominated the final, winning over Stuart Kennedy, local Parrish Byne, and Brett Burcher. The leader of the series Mitch Coleborn was eliminated in the quarters.
The women’s final was won by event favourite Sally Fitzgibbons defeating Airini Mason, Kirby Wright and Laura Enever.

Pictured are Julian Wilson and Sally Fitzgibbons

Mens finalists Julian Wilson (1st) Stuart Kennedy (2nd) Parrish Byne (3rd) and Brett Burcher (4th)

Womens finalists Laura Enever (4th) Kirby Wright  (3rd)  Airini Mason (2nd) Sally Fitzgibbons (1st)

18th September Surf
BOOST MOBILE PRO
Kelly Slater won the Boost Mobile Pro at the weekend defeating Hawaiian Pancho Sullivan in the final. The event was almost a double bonus for Kelly as all the surfers above him in the ratings were eliminated in the early rounds of the competition, resulting in Kelly jumping to the no. 2 position in the rating, only 230 points behind the leader Mick Fanning. For the first time this year Kelly now looks like a serious contender for the world title. The next event Quiksilver Pro starts this Thursday (20th) at Hossegor France.

Kelly Slater - click image for larger version

10th September Surf
ROUND 6 OF THE MEN’S WCT, THE BOOST MOBILE PRO HAS COMMENCED AT TRESTLES CALIFORNIA.
The Boost Mobile Pro commenced at Trestles California last night with the 16 heats of round 1 being completed. When round 2 commences there will be some interesting match-ups as top seeds Andy Irons, Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson and defending champion Bede Durbidge were among the surfers relegated to the round 2 elimination heats. The event starts at about 1am in the morning Sydney time.
Here’s round 2;
BOOST MOBILE PRO ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Sunny Garcia (HAW)
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) vs. Dane Reynolds (USA)
Heat 3: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
Heat 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Luke Munro (AUS)
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Gabe Kling (USA)
Heat 6: Daniel Wills (AUS) vs. Neco Padaratz (BRA)
Heat 7: Travis Logie (ZAF) vs. Troy Brooks (AUS)
Heat 8: Chris Ward (USA) vs. Trent Munro (AUS)
Heat 9: Pancho Sullivan (HAW vs. Mark Occhilupo (AUS)
Heat 10: Cory Lopez (USA) vs. Shaun Cansdell (AUS)
Heat 11: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Heat 12: Luke Stedman (AUS) vs. Victor Ribas (BRA)
Heat 13: Phillip MacDonald (AUS) vs. Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA)
Heat 14: Raoni Monteiro (BRA) vs. Michael Lowe (AUS)
Heat 15: Bernardo Miranda (BRA) vs. Royden Bryson (ZAF)
Heat 16: Greg Emslie (ZAF) vs. Leonardo Neves (BRA)

4th September Surf
Rip Curl Girls festival due to commence in Spain
Round 4 of the women’s WCT, The Rip Curl Girls Festival, competition period starts tonight Sydney time. When the event commences this will be the round 1 heats;

Heat 1: Melanie Redman-Carr (Aus); Sofia Mulanovich (PER); Melanie Bartels (HAW)
Heat 2: Samantha Cornish (AUS; Jessi Miley Dyer (AUS); Caroline Sarran (FRA)
Heat 3: Chelsea Hedges (AUS); Jacqueline Silva (BRA); Alana Blanchard (HAW)
Heat 4: Layne Beachley (AUS); Megan Abubo (HAW); Rochelle Ballard (HAW)
Heat 5: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS); Amee Donohoe (AUS); Roseanne Hodge (AUS)
Heat 6: Silvana Lima (BRA); Rebecca Woods (AUS); Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)

17-year-old Alana Blanchard from Hawaii (pictured) won the wildcard entry courtesy of her win in the Rip Curl Pro Junior event. In her first ever WCT competition, Alana will be up against Chelsea Hedges and Jacqueline Silva.
Check the event out live at www.ripcurl.com/girlsfestival.

3rd September Skate
EA Day of Skate
A few shots from the EA Day of Skate  at Circular  Quay. Heaps of our top skaters were there with Battecat Harris winning the event  with Lewis Marnell second. A full report will be in the mag.

30th August Skate
EA Day of Skate
These are the invited riders for upcoming EA day of skate at Customs House at Circular Quay on this Saturday 1/9/07

John Rattray
Tommy Fynn
Brett Chan
Glenn Wignall
Jon Lorcan
Pat Dandy
Bernie Foo
Lewis Marnell
Russell Grundy
Jeremy Corea
George Newsholme
Joe Peace
Ben Barretto
Pedro Day
Mark Rowe
Jimmy Roche
Shane Azar
Harry Clark
Nick Boserio
Brad McDermott
Scott Standley
Will Hine
Jack Fardell
James Briody
Heath Clark
Marty Girotto
Dean Palmer
Beau Reid
Jack Crook
Ian Gray
Chris Wood
Dane Burman
Alex Campbell
Alon Sattinger
Aaron Jenkin
Ryan Wilson
Rhys Grogan

28th August Skating
Shaun Gladwell, an artist of sorts, has sold a copy of a 5 minute 37 second loop of himself skating round and round in what seems like continuous 360s with a backdrop of a stormy sky off Bondi at auction for $84,000 yep... thats eighty four thousand smackeroos which works out to be $249.26 per second of motion. Some people have too much money to waste. One previous art piece of his was him hanging upside down in a Tangarra train.???? This is art??? Well all I can say is Good luck to him. I certainly won't be buying any.

27th August Snowboarding
The Australian Open of Snowboarding
Round 2 of the Burton Global Open Series, The Australian Open of Snowboarding held at Perisher Valley wound up at the weekend.
The two main events at the Open are slopestyle and superpipe. There will be a full report and heaps of photos in the magazine that will be on the streets soon but in the meantime here are the results:

SLOPESTYLE

Click on image for larger version

SUPERPIPE

CLick on Iimage for larger version

Local favourites, Torah Bright and Holly Crawford didn’t compete in the women’s superpipe. Torah was a late withdrawal being forced to pull on Thursday due to a shoulder injury.

27th August Surfing
BILLABONG PRO BRAZIL
Four month’s after the last WCT womens event, the Billabong Pro was full of upsets with Australian Samantha Cornish taking home the win from Brazilian Silvana Lima. Stephanie
Gilmore becomes the outright ratings leader. Check out the magazine for a full report. The next womens WCT event is the Rip Curl Festival in Spain, 4th – 9th September.

27th August Surfing
RIP CURL PRO SUPER SERIES FRANCE
The Rip Curl Super series is one of the biggest W.Q.S. events of the year. The W.Q.S. events determine which surfers’ progress to the elite WCT for the next year.
Firstly, Australian WCT surfer Shaun Cansdell won the event making it the biggest win of his career.
Secondly, I don’t know how they worked this out as there are heaps of W.Q.S. events still to be completed this year, but it seems that the results achieved by Dane Reynolds (2nd) and Jordy Smith (5th) in this event is enough for them to qualify for next years W.C.T.

5th August Skate
The X Games are currently on in California are definitely living up to expectations. As this report is uploading the games are still continuing so a full report tomorrow.
This couldn’t wait though!
I knew the mega ramp would be a major attraction but as it turns out the interest on the first day was for all the wrong reasons. The TV coverage and sport websites just went ballistic showing Australian Jake Brown massive stack in the skateboard Big-Air competition. Heres the stack, (a 720 over the gap then ….. F#*k)

It’s hard to believe that Jake was able to walk away from the scene. Jake will be OK. He ended up with a broken wrist and some internal bleeding. We will post an update after we speak to Jake.

5th August Skate
Was at Waterloo skatepark (Redfern) on Saturday and Red Dawd was having one of his “ who gets the trick I just called first, gets the cash”. Here’ some photo’s; Click on images for a large version

31st July Surf
There were a couple of surf contests held on at the weekend.
First
The Dakine Pro Junior – Nth Narrabeen.
The Dakine Pro is a male juniors event (Round 8 of the Australasian Pro Junior Series). The event was won by the event favourite Mitch Coleborn. Second place went to a relatively new face in the junior circuit Curl Curl surfer, Leigh McMahon. More on this event in the next edition of Neutraliser.

Leigh McMahon (yellow)  Mitch Coleborn (red)

Then
The US Open Of Surfing.
The US Open Of Surfing is a high profile WQS (World Qualifying Series) event held at famous Huntington Beach California.
The mens was won by CJ Hopgood, but the main news was in the womens, where Australian Stephanie Gilmore took out the event. Stephanie defeated American Karina Petroni in the final, an Australian winning America’s premiere surfing event - excellent. Stephanie is presently co-leader of the WCT, and this win places her third in the WQS. The other Australian that really blitzed was Sally Fitzgibbons who made it to the semis before being defeated by Karina Petroni. This would be Sally’s best ever finish in an international competition of this standing and leaves her 18th in the WQS ratings.
Check out this model shot of runner up Karina Petroni - HOT. Unfortunately we don't have a high res pic to link to this (Bummer)

26th July 2007 Skate/ BMX/FMX
The second stop of the annual AST Dew Action Sports Tour- The Right Guard Open, was held over the weekend of the 19th - 22nd at Cleveland USA.
These are the results and some photos of the skate, BMX and FMX Competitions;

The best placed Aussie
8) Steven McCann (AUS)

More info at www.astdewtour.com

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW

Thursday 2nd August – Sunday 5th August Skate/BMX/FMX
X Games 13 Los Angeles USA
Web: www.expn.go.com (10 hours time difference between Sydney and L.A.)
The main events include:
Skate – Street, Vert and Big Air
BMX – Street, Vert and Big Air
FMX – Freestyle, step-up, moto X etc
BMX dirt has been dropped from the X Games this year which is unfortunate as several of the Aussie riders (Cam White, Corey Bohan, Luke Parslow) are ripping it up in the competition scene in the U.S. this year.
The bg Air events in skate and BMX are insane and are visually the highlight of the games. The riders roll in from a 60 or 80-foot ramp, launch over a 50 or 70-foot gap, landing and continuing into a 27-foot quarter pipe. Click on image for larger version

23rd JULY SURF
Taj Burrow wins the fifth round of the men’s WCT tour, the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay (J Bay) South Africa, Taj’s second WCT win of the year.
No one can deny Taj the victory, he had a tough draw in the event. Taj eliminated Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and Adrian Buchan on his way to the final.
Then he came up against Kelly Slater in the final. Taj didn’t just defeat Kelly, he smashed him. Taj combo’ed Kelly for the second time in the31st minute and maintained this combination advantage right to the end. [If you don’t know what being combo’ed means its when the second placed surfer needs more than one scoring wave to take the lead. Even if the second placed surfer scores a perfect 10, he will still be trailing his competitor’s score.] I don’t have any statistics in front of me but I can assure you Kelly isn’t comb’ed very often.
I really thought that this event would see the return of Kelly Slater to his most devastating best form and see him dominate this event. Well obviously I was wrong, but even though Kelly was not competitive in the final, he did blitz his quarter final match-up with Adriano De Souza in what I would consider to be the best surfing of the event. My advice, don’t right off Kelly to win the world championship this year, just yet.
Getting back to Taj Burrow, two factors seem to have elevated Taj to be one of the top contenders for the world championship this year. Firstly, starting this season Taj has started to take his fitness very, very seriously. Secondly, he is the only WCT surfer riding a revolutionary Firewire board. [If you're not familiar with Firewire boards the next print issue of Neutraliser will get you up to speed]. So what’s more important, Taj new found emphasis on his fitness or his Firewire board. Sorry, I can’t answer that question, I have no idea.
Even with Taj winning this event and being the only surfer to win two WCT events this year (Bell’s and J Bay), the experts still have Mike Fanning as favourite to win the World Championship.
Here’s the current top ten in the ratings after J Bay;
1. Mick Fanning (AUS) 4860
2. Taj Burrow (AUS) 4286
3. Andy Irons (HAW) 3921
4. Kelly Slater (USA) 3840
5. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 3804
6. Damien Hobgood (USA) 3599
7. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 3057
8. Daniel Wills (AUS) 2942
9. Dean Morrison (AUS) 2838
10. Travis Logie (ZAF) 2810

The next men’s WCT is Boost Mobile Pro, Trestles, California -USA September 9th-15th. Check our events section for more details.

20TH JULY SURF/SKATE/BMX/FMX
Just a reminder, two big overseas action sport events are on this weekend.
The second stop of the Dew Action Sports Tour, The Right Guard Open is happening in Cleveland this weekend. In a first for the Dew tour, the skate park final is being webcast live.
Also the fifth round of the Men’s WCT tour The Billabong Pro Jeffrey’s Bay has to be completed this weekend. The contest is up to the 4th round and this is the draw when competition resumes;
Heat 1: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Taylor Knox (USA)
Heat 2: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Taj Burrow (AUS)
Heat 3: Daniel Wills (AUS) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 4: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) vs. Mick Fanning (AUS)
Heat 5: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 6: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Dean Morrison (AUS)
Heat 7: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Luke Stedman (AUS)
Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Adriano de Souza (BRA)
See events section for more details.

20TH JULY FMX
Bilko Update.
Updating the Blake “Bilko” Williams story from the 11th July (2nd Place in the FMX at the first stop of the AST Dew Tour in America).
Didn’t know it at the time but Bilko broke his foot at that event (A backflip ruler gone wrong) and is definitely out of the AST Dew Tour this weekend and the Planet X Games In L.A. (August 2-5). Further Dew Tour events may also be out depending on recovery.
Bilko is currently in Australia and we will try to bring you and interview in the next issue of the mag.
In the mean time nothing like a bit of gore, so here is a photo of Bilko’s infected broken ankle. (Photo courtesy of Crust Demons)

20TH JULY SKATE
The Shane Cross Legacy continues.
Volcom’s film, Let’s Live, dedicated to the memory of Shane, starts a run of 30 dates In The U.S. premiering on the 26th July in Hollywood L.A. The Volcom skate team members that are over there supporting the film include Dustin Dollin, Chima Ferguson, Jake Duncombe, and Lewis Marnell.

16th JULY SKATE
The Essential Skate Jam at Helensburgh Skatepark on the 8th July was rained out. The rescheduled date is the 29th July. See the events section for more details.

15th JULY BMX
Still on Helensburgh, here are some photos of Clint Bensley and some hot local rippers at the Helensburgh Skatepark Opening BMX Jam held on the 15th July.
If you were thinking of going but couldn’t make it don’t worry. Even in the unorganised world of BMX this jam hit new heights in disorganisation. I hope Bike Culture knows more about BMX bikes than organising a jam. Thankfully one of the local riders’ Dad’s put on a sausage Sizzle. And Props out to the guy who turned up in a 60’s Dodge Phoenix – Hot Car. Click on pics for larger image

12th JULY SURF
Round 5 of the mens WCT Jeffreys Bay South Africa.
It’s the first day of the waiting period and J Bay is already up and running with round 1 starting last night Sydney time. Joel Parkinson was the standout surfer on day 1.
Preceding the main event 2 Australians (Wade Goodall and Laurie Towner) were in the trials but didn’t make it to the main event. Not surprising those places were won by South African locals.
Check out the action at billabongpro.com

11th JULY FMX
Freestyle motor cross (FMX) was started in the U.S. and the yanks have totally dominated the competitive side ever since. Well one Australian is trying to change that.
Just received photos of Blake Williams “Bilko” (Baxter) who took it to the best FMX riders in the world at the recent first stop of the AST Dew Action sport Tour in Baltimore Marylands and finished in second place to Nate Adams,
These are just some of the FMX legends Bilko out rode in the event; Ronnie Faisst, Mike Mason, Jeremy Lusk and Twitch Stenberg.
More of Bilko in the next issue of the mag, including the trick he has just introduced to the FMX world – the Backflip ruler.

6th July SURF
The X Games surf competition just held at Zicatela Beach Pueto Escondido in Mexico scored some excellent conditions, 6 – 8 ft. The U.S. teams defeated the Rest Of The World in both men’s and women’s.
The U.S. mens team (Shane Beschen, Rob Machado, Clay Marzo and Chris Ward) defeated the World team (Julian Wilson, Mick Campbell, Jay Quinn, Rizal Tanjung and David Rutherford) 81.75 to 81.00.
In the womens, the U.S. (Rochelle Ballard, Melanie Bartels, Keala Kennelly, and Courtney Conologue) defeated the World team ( Stephanie Gilmore, Sofia Mulanovich, Chelsea Hedges, and Clare Bevilacqua) 55 to 52
Check out these barrels from the womens competition. Click on images for large view
Thanx to ESPN for images

5th July SKATE
Here’s some photo’s from Volcom’s Wild In The Park Skate comp at Fernside Skatepark 4/7/07 - Click pics for large view

The under 16 winners look more like they’re about to face a firing squad than having just won a skate comp.


Open division winners, Anthony De Silva 3rd, Jon Lorcan 2nd, Pedro Day 1st

2ND JULY SKATE/BMX
Helensburgh skatepark is up and running
these are some upcoming events worth checking out
Sunday 8th July Essential Skate – All ages skate jam
Sunday 15th July Helensburgh Skatepark Opening Jam (BMX)
Saturday 4th August Official Opening – Skate demo by the Billabong skate team
Helensburgh Skatepark – Park St Helensburgh (next to sportsfields)
More details will be posted in events.

29th JUNE SURF
ANDY IRONS WINS THE MENS WCT RIP CURL SEARCH CHILE
Andy Irons (16.84) defeated Damien Hobgood (8.67) to win the Rip Curl Search, his second consecutive “search” event win. Aussie Mick Fanning was the best Aussie performer being knocked out by Andy Irons in a close match up in the semis. This result was enough for Mick to maintain the ratings lead.
Full report and heaps of photos in the next issue of the mag.

With 4 events completed and six more to go, this is how the WCT top 10 stands:
1. Mick Fanning (AUS) 3984 points
2. Damien Hobgood (USA) 3374 points
3. Andy Irons (HAW) 3189 points
4. Taj Burrow (AUS) 3086 points
5. Joel Parkinson (AUS) 3072 points
6. Kelly Slater (USA) 2808 points
7. Bede Durbidge (AUS) 2457 points
8. Kai Otton (AUS) 2301 points
9. Daniel Wills (AUS) 2210 points
10. Travis Logie (ZAF) 2210 points

The next mens WCT event, the Billabong Pro, takes place at Jeffrey’s Bay in South Africa from July 11-22.

29th JUNE BMX
In a tragic update to the recent 1st stop of the Dew Action Sport Tour the Panasonic Open at Baltimore Marylands, Pro BMX rider Stephen Murray sustained serious spinal injuries in the dirt competition. Doctors aren’t sure of the extent of Steve’s injuries but there is a possibility that Steve may not walk again. If you want to follow the story this link will have regular updates HERE You can also donate to his medical fund as he is in America where medecine is only for the rich.He needs all the help he can get.

27th June 2007 SURF
Round 4 of the mens WCT, The Rip Curl Search is currently being held at Arica Chile. The big news if want to see an Australian world champion at the end of the year is that Kelly Slater was eliminated in round 4 by Dean Morrison. The Age newspaper in Melbourne is actually reporting that Kelly is ready to announce his retirement. Check out the article here

The top aussies had mixed fortunes so far with our best hope of taking the world championship, Mick Fanning still in the contest, but current no 2 in the ratings Taj Burrow was eliminated in round 3 by wildcard Brazilian Bruno Santos and current no 4, Joel Parkinson was defeated by Andy Irons in the only quarter final surfed so far. The other quarter final match ups when the competition resumes are:
Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Mick Fanning (AUS)
Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. CJ Hobgood (USA)
Bruno Santos (BRA) vs. Damien Hobgood (USA)
For more details or to see the rest of the event live go to www.ripcurl.com/chile

PANASONIC OPEN
These are the results of the skate, BMX and FMX Competitions;

SKATE - PARK
1) Ryan Sheckler
2) Greg Lutzka
3) Carlos De Andrade

SKATE – VERT
1) Shaun White
2) Bob Burnquist
3) Andy Macdonald

The best placed Aussie:
7) Jake Brown

BMX – DIRT
1) Ryan Nyquist
2) Cam White (AUS)
3) Chris Doyle

BMX – VERT
1) Jamie Bestwick
2) Chad Kagy
3) Jimmy Walker

The other Aussies to place well;
4) Colin Mackay
5) Corey Bohan

The best placed Aussie
4) Steven McCann

BMX PARK
1) Daniel Dhers
2) Mike Spinner
3) Dennis Enarson

FMX
1) Nate Adams
2) Blake “Bilko” Williams (AUS)
3) Mike Mason

The best placed Aussie
10) Steven McCann

http://www.astdewtour.com