Alex Dive Blog 2

Trigg Point. Perth, Pro Junior 4^th - 6^th June, 2010

This was my first trip to Perth and after the long flight it was great to see such a nice city and cool beaches. However I must admit the waves were as bad as everyone had warned. The right hard reef where the comp is held can get good on a big swell and the right sand bank but on the day before the comp it was clear we wouldn’t be surfing there as there wasn’t enough swell or sand. The beachie out front was the only option! The lineup was packed but I wasn’t really concerned about that. The backwash is the thing you have to watch out for when surfing Tigg and it was so bad that if you misjudged it, it would send you flying into the air. With the forecast predicting the surf to get smaller the trip wasn’t off to the best of starts!

alext

Day one of competition:

It was pretty small for the first day off competition and really testing conditions,. Bucky was first up from the Kiwi contingent and got knocked out in his first heat. The conditions were shocking and there wasn’t really a lot he could have done about it. Matty was up next and managed to get some better waves, winning his heat easily with 2 decent-scorers near the end . Even though the conditions were shocking, some of the Ausi boys were surfing sick, getting big scores for progressive surfing. The likes of Jack Freeston Davey Cathals and Ty Watson were definitely the stand outs. I was a little nervous going into my heat with the surf the way it was, but I settled into a good rhythm from the start and manage to get the best waves in my heat that I had, had since being here. I ended up beating Chris Friend and Mitch James. This was a good confidence boost for me as Chris is rated pretty highly on the curcuit so it was a good start.

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Day two:

We rock up to the beach the next morning and the Surf is even smaller but theres still the odd set every now and again and the shape of the waves is a bit better. Matt and I both progress through our round of 32 heat. Jack Freestone once again surfs well and is blowing everyone away with his progressive surfing. In one heat he gets a 7 for one turn by doing one of those crazy under the lip Josh Kerr reverses. Matt has a heat before me against Mitch Crews and there's tons of sets coming through. It becomes one of the most progressive heats I've seen. Mitch stomps a massive backside air reverse and Jack is putting together some crazy combos. Oscar Scanes then gets an excellent score late in the heat , unfortunately leaving matt in 4^th ( 12^th overall) still a solid result. I'm in the next heat and its stacked. Davey Cathels, David Vlug, and Brent Savage. Nothing to loose. Everyone gets away to a good start and I've got nothing, apart from a low four. I need a mid range six and get a good right 6.7. to go into 2^nd and then there’s another massive lull (which seemed to be the theme of the event). There's 2minutes remaining so I'm stitting on Davey who only needs a small score. It’s a pretty intense hassle battle but I really want to make it and il do anything it takes. While im focused on trying to not let Davey get a wave, David Vlug sneaks under both of us and goes right. The score comes in 7.75 and I need a 5. He sits on me and I get a small left but its not enough.... 9^th place. Not too bad but disappointing in the way it ended. I guess with surf like that you can have good luck and bad luck.

It was good to see Jack Freestone winning the final against Brent Savage. He was definitely the comp stand -out from day 1.

Unfortunately Sarah and Airini Mason were knocked out early in the girls round.

On the final day I managed to get down the coast to Margaret River and Yallingup for a surf. We had some fun waves in the 4-5 foot range with a good offshore, so it was a valuable experience! We have to travel back to Perth on the same day to catch the plane, where there’s a bit of drama but we make it back on time in the end.

Now its 2 weeks of study then exams. The reward is I get 5 weeks of holiday to surf, with a couple of comps in between. Amping!

Next stop Adelaide!!

Thanks again to my sponos for all the support:

RPM.Reef, Dragon,Jordan surfshapes, Xcel wetties and creatures