South Swelling
Friday - July 28, 2006
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Pancho Sullivan was defeated by Australian Taj
Burrow in their highly anticipated round-four
match-up at the Billabong Pro July 22. Touted
as the next Sunny Garcia, the burly Hawaiian
earned $5,500 for his efforts
Aloha, surfers!
After a gentle July are you ready to rumble (and tumble)? Things have changed in the southern surf scene. We will have plenty of waves to go around from now well into August. In fact, we may get the biggest south swell we’ve seen in quite awhile during the week of July 31. I’ve got all the juicy details on SURFNEWSNETWORK.COM.
If you’ve been out of the water for a spell, be sure to prep a little. When south swells get 6-plus they pack some punch. We tend to disregard caution in town because typically it’s not too powerful relative to the North Shore. But just ask anyone who’s been hammered out at BIG Bowls, China’s, Browns, Rice Bowls, etc. ... you feel it. Just respect it, and yourself, and you’ll be fine.
The other dude is X-Hurricane Daniel. He’s much harder to predict, but he definitely could change our weather, winds and waves. The east shores will be his main target ... watch out for stormy, choppy, lumpy bumpy and grumpy 2-4-footers Friday and Saturday ... careful here, too, as currents can be unpredictable.
Bowls is about to get much bigger than this 3-foot
set
So, the ASP World Tour gets a break until Sept. 12 when they head over to California at Trestles for the seventh event. The top surfers just finished in South Africa, where Aussie Mick Fanning just won his first event of the year. Fanning is considered one of the world’s “most likely” to win a title, but has yet to fulfill his potential. The guy is definitely one of - if not the - fastest surfers on the planet. He has a ton of quick-twitch muscle built into his lean and mean 5-foot-10-inch frame. Fanning flies, and that’s why they call him “White Lightning.” He’s worked real hard on the WCT (World Championship Tour) for six years and deserved this win.
Currently, the ratings still have Kelly Slater on top with Aussie Taj Burrow at No. 2, Hawaii’s Andy Irons at No. 3 ... Out of the top 10, there are four Australians and six Americans. So we are doing quite well up there, but the scary thing is the next top 10 (11-20) - we only have two in there: C.J. Hobgood in 11th and Bruce Irons in 12th. The USA has its competition for the long haul. When you’ve been King of the Hill for awhile, it’s a hard spot to hold. Other countries want it - and want it bad.
Hey, the Tiger Woods/Michael Jordon/Lance Armstrong of paddle boarding, Jamie Mitchell, just won the inaugural Maui International Paddle Board race last Sunday (July 23). The Aussie legend went nine miles in an hour and 12 minutes! Just a minute behind was Maui’s master waterman and big wave tow master Dave Kalama ... WOW! Congrats to all these men who are so in shape it’s disgusting. And by the way, there was one girl who cranked out a 48th place with her time of 1:36 - Kanesa Duncan! I had the honor of interviewing Kanesa last year. She’s amazing. Watch out, guys, she’s right behind you!
Well, that’s going to do it for me this week. I’m feeling a bit anxious about the upcoming swells and my paddle power. I’ll catch you (hopefully) in the line up and back here in the next weekend issue of MidWeek - stoked!
GQ, dropping in 4 U!
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