X Games 10 Surf Results
A coastal rivalry came to a head on Huntington Beach Friday, and once again the East Coast surf team beat the West in the X Games X surf event. The West was favored, particularly by the nearly 30,000 fans packing the sand, but the East surfers caught the best waves early in The Game and held on for a 97.03 to 90.02 win.
Of course, surf drama is the norm for the beach of Surf City USA. It was 45 years ago that the first U.S. Open was held in here, when 20 California riders rode 30-pound logs in an unwieldy beachbreak. The event was documented by crude (if not charming) handheld home movie cameras and grainy black-and-white photos. Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that surfing has come very far. For the X Games contest, the best surfers in the world lit up Huntington Beach pier. The event featured state-of-the-art zip-line cameras, multiple on-beach camera stations, a blimp, an on-site big-screen, a live crowd of tens of thousands and a live national TV audience.
But some elements of competitive surfing remain the same. In 1959 and 2004, the competitors wanted to win, and they wanted to score quality waves. Unfortunately for the X Games, Mother Nature supplied only two- to three-foot southwest swells and onshore winds -clearly not the best conditions to showcase the talent of the surfers. The result was that the best surfers in the world showed why they’ve earned that title. Each put on a display of on-rail and aerial surfing in waves that would have sent most surfers chop-hopping to the beach.
Despite the lack of waves, there was no shortage of drama. In The Game format, each team surfs four heats, or quarters, with four surfers in the water at a time. The East Coast hit the water first. A series of boosts from CJ Hobgood and Aaron Cormican made it appear that the East would run away with the event again. But the West got into a rhythm, and Andy Irons, Dane Reynolds, Timmy Curran and Pat O’Connell, caught three sets and made up ground lost in the first quarter.
Reynolds landed a frontside 180 and Curran released his tail on every turn. Did the West Coast taste revenge? No. The East surfers turned in solid—but not spectacular—third and fourth quarters, leaving the door open for Irons, the reigning world champion, in the West Team’s final round. Uncharacteristically, Irons faltered. Going into the final quarter, the West needed to score just 28 points to win. Trailing by just seven points with time slipping away, Irons missed chances to score big on three waves, bogging and digging a rail on every turn.
The East Coasters couldn’t contain themselves. Six-time world champion (and current world number two) Kelly Slater, who is without a victory this year on the WCT, wanted to win and send a shot across the bow to Irons. And he did.
Slater blew up in his quarters, and he, along with Australian wild card Taj Burrow, provided the biggest boost to the East. Each utilized his prowess for freeform surfing to launch big airs, full turns and 180 reverses in the sloppy shorebreak. And both Burrow and Slater were the loudest East Coasters as the team counted down the seconds while the West Coasters sat in the lineup waiting for waves. When the clock struck zero, the East Coasters exploded, the crowd went silent, and the West Coasters kicked the sand, wondering what next year could possibly bring.
Notes
# West Coast manager Mike Parsons never sat down during the event, pacing fanatically on the sidelines throughout The Game.
# 18-year-old Ventura surfer Dane Reynolds followed up last year’s impressive performance by posting an 8.25 in the fourth quarter, when his team needed it the most.
# West Coast team member Rob Machado gorged himself between quarters, eating bowls of fruit and organic foods to keep the karma and energy flowing.
# This was the first time that a surfing event has been broadcast live on television.
# East Coast captain Kelly Slater received his gold medal from Bethany Hamilton, the young woman that lost her arm to a shark in Hawaii last year.
Quotes
# "If we decide that we want to win this thing, we’ll just go out there and win it."—East Coaster CJ Hobgood before the competition.
# "This is the biggest party on earth right now."—An overzealous Brad Gerlach, who invented The Game.
# "Who’s got some love for the East Coast?"—Event emcee and pro surfer Ryan Simmons, trying to even out the crowd reaction. The crowd’s response? Silence.
# "It’s all just going to come down to waves."—Taj Burrow, before the West Coasters hit the water in the bottom half of the fourth.
By Brad Melekian
EXPN.com
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