Quiksilver Pro, Day Two: Started From The Bottom, Still Here

Since I so enjoyed delivering a terrible attempt at gonzo (?) yesterday, we decided to come back with a day two report. Besides, the chances of finding out what’s really going on on the Gold Coast are so remote, the only thing to do is hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied. So, below, today’s field notes.

Specifically, this steaming yank spent another several hours duking it out at Snapper Rocks with the top 34 men and 17 women, again, with similar results. There were moments when I accidentally appeared to be a mildly competent surfer. That’s more of a moral victory, though, and not important to the narrative. With that: Here’s who was standing out in the lineup, was camouflaged, got the most waves, or was just an aquatic speed bump.

Men.
Snapper was properly packed from first light. Mick Fanning, John Florence, Jeremy Flores, Jordy Smith, Conner Coffin, Stu Kennedy (seriously), and Gabriel Medina were by and far the biggest standouts.

Mick surfing well during a freesurf at Snapper? Yes, and did you know the Pope is also Catholic? But, he looked particularly hungry, and completely dialled in when he hit the water. He hardly spoke to acquaintances, instead staring deeply at the horizon, or down the line. Same goes for Jordy, Jeremy, Conner, and the lone goofyfooter Medina.

Stu is a particularly interesting case study. We all remember what he did at the Quik Pro last year, and shit, could he repeat history? The speed at which Stu surfs perfectly suits Snapper. He’s back on the Sci-Fi as well, which is doing some serious favours for him when it comes to staying tight in Snapper’s pocket. There’s definitely a mutual agreement amongst beach audience that he will take down more well-paid surfers than him when the gents commence.

Photo: WSL / Ed Sloane

Women.
Nikki Van Dijk and Courtney Conlogue looked the strongest sans-jersey this morning, and while both won their round one heats today, the former of the two particularly shone. 

In fact, I spoke to Nikki’s “coach” (he’s just helping her out with pointers for this contest specifically), who will remain anonymous, on the sand after a surf. And he believes Ms Van Dijk can easily win – originally, I wrote this off because a coach’s opinion is bias, and I predicted Tyler Wright to win it all yesterday. But after seeing Nikki take down both Tyler Wright and Alyssa Lock in her round one matchup… I agreed.

The water, and what’s in it.
If you watched the webcast today, you know the waves were trying. Popular opinion still believes that the contest will go into full swing tomorrow, with everything wrapping up Sunday (old news).

Weirdly compelling, however, is that the water is swarmed with blue bottles right now. Seriously, the whole lineup teems with nature’s little mistakes! I even collected three good whips in my two-hour stint.

One of them even managed to wrap around Laura Enever’s neck during her round one matchup against Carissa Moore and Coco Ho. If you’ve ever experienced a blue bottle sting, you’ll know that this is actually quite serious. Laura ran onto the sand, clutching her throat in clear pain. She’s reportedly fine now, and we certainly hope she’s back quickly. The only question that remains: Will they re-run her heat?