9 Memorable Moments From The Quiksilver Pro, Gold Coast

The Quiksilver Pro is less than a week away.

It’s the first event of the year, fit with overzealous rookies, and the established crew who looking to keep their position as Apex predators. 

But the Quiky Pro is not about the surfing. It’s about the people; it’s about personality; it’s about drama!

Let’s dive into Stab‘s nine most memorable moments of the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast.

Kelly Slater Telling A Journalist His Recent Article Was A “Piece Of Shit”

This was fun. We were gathered after the heat, all wanting to get a sound bite or two from Slater in 2013 when he asked the question, “Who is Will, by the way?”

Many journalists froze, furiously searching the failing memory banks to see if their names were Will, or if they had ever used Will as a pseudonym.

Luckily for us, a quiet voice at the back acknowledged that he was, indeed, Will.

“What was that piece of shit you wrote about me this morning?” slammed an aggrieved Kelly. The writer’s piece had to do with drug abuse and steroids. But we know now, the real secret was Purps, chia seeds and social media rants. 

Freddy’s Rock Stomp

In 2015, Fred Pattachia couldn’t buy a wave in his round 3 heat.

After failing to string together a worthy combo on his backhand in gutless conditions. The Hawaiian hooked into a tiny right, straightened out, and started bouncing over the flats. He made it all the way to the inside before stomping his board as hard as he could onto the rocks.

What made the moment gold, however, was Ronnie Blakey’s deadpan commentating: “Just a little rail slide on the inside…”

Carissa Moore’s 9.9 At Roxy Pro 2015

This ride made every person watching want to surf like Carissa from that moment on. Fast and tight, on edge with full commitment, it was at that particular point that surfing collectively realized how Good the girls were.

It was also an honorable move by the brand new ZoSea/WSL management to put the girls out in cooking conditions – something very out of the ordinary (and highly scrutinized) at the time.

The Most Crowded Day Ever

The day of excellent surfing that was handed over to the Roxy Pro saw the full gamut of pro surfers, amateur surfers, surf journalists, photographers, spectators, gardeners, bar and restaurant staff and every other person in the county who could float, paddle out following the final siren and what went down has been described as the most crowded, frothed-out session at Snapper—and possibly the world—ever.

The crowd, counted at close to 600, moved like a giant baitball over the swells. Slater got the bomb of the evening by burning some poor dude whose fuel propelled him through to Greenmount and beyond.

To be in the midst of that madness, in world-class conditions, was an experience in itself, even if everyone’s wave count was at an all-time low.

Kelly will go…on you.

Medina Swears At Micro On Air

Still trying to cover the impossible-to-bury Bobby Martinez live-on-air meltdown in 2011, the WSL were jumpy indeed during live broadcasts. What they weren’t expecting though, was the quietly spoken Gabriel Medina to drop an F-bomb, aimed at Glenn ‘Micro’ Hall. The ever-professional Peter Mel managed to diffuse the situation, but at the end of the day, Gabriel just wanted to teach Micro how to say fuck in Portuguese. 

Gabby and Micro shared some beers that afternoon, and only one fake punch was thrown.

Kelly Slater Attacked By Spectator

Heading back to the tower in 2014, all eyes were on Kelly,  the security blocking him from the mob, when a girl grabbed his arm and slowed him down—nothing out of the ordinary to Kelly Wonka.

Kelly pulled his arm away and started trotting again, but the lady grabbed his arm again and this time she held on.

Kelly stopped in his tracks, clearly aggrieved, staring intently at the visibly unstable fan until the WSL security pulled the lady off. The police arrived shortly afterwards and escorted her from the beach.

“Shame,” said a compassionate Kelly in the tower moments later when I asked him about it. “She has some sort of mental illness, and it’s really not her fault. I feel sorry for her.”

Owen’s Wright’s Miraculous 2017 Comeback

Back to some surfing, Owen’s win at the start of 2017 was for the storybooks.

After an incident at Pipeline in 2015, Owen sat 2016 out, with a critical brain injury. With a whole lot of rehab, training, faith, hope, love and so on, Owen climbed straight back onto the horse, and came out swinging on his backhand after a year’s downtime, blasting his way all the final where he took down Wilko in an emotional return to the big leagues. He celebrated with a triumphant embrace of his beloved baby mama and new son.

Slater’s Kirra Revenge And Triumph In 2013

Kirra came alive for a classic finish to the 2013 event. 

Slater, in congested Coolangatta traffic and took heed, used patience and won the final against Joel Parkinson.

In the process he also exacted revenge for the 2003 Pipe final, where Joel held Kelly off a set wave, thus giving the world title to Billabong stable-mate AI.

Kelly snagged Joel’s perfect tube right from under him, with priority, as Joel flipped him the bird from deep in the tunnel.

The photograph of Parko’s gesture adorned the front page of the local Gold Coast newspapers the following morning. Most people, however, thought that Slater was cheating by taking Joel’s wave.

Either way, for many in the know it was a classic case of revenge, much like the video below.

Mick Lowe Beats Andy Irons

In 2004 ASP professional surfer Mick Lowe from Australia became the first goofy-footer to win a premier tour event at Snapper, and he did it in fine style as well, defeating Taylor Knox, Kelly Slater and the reigning world champion at the time Andy Irons along the way to his backhand victory.

“I think my cupboard was a bit bare, so the trophy´s going to look good,” said Lowe of his victory trophy, adding, “to finally win in Australia is sensational.”

The extremely popular and likeable Lowe celebrated with a couple of beers that night, and the celebrations seemed to carry on and on, with a subtle but gradual weight gain eventually resulting in him being called the “Keg On Legs,” who used his extra girth to apply more power to his surfing up until his retirement three years later.