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Twisting a Cold Nipple By Luke Kennedy | 06 August 2009 |
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YOU CAN SAY WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT BELLS; CALL IT chubby, ugly, lazy and uncooperative but at some point it’s going to re-invent itself like an aging rock-star and pull off a gig that blows you away. That’s exactly what happened at this year’s Rip Curl Pro. There were classic waves for the entire event and one happy surfer went one solid step closer to bringing the world title back to Australian shores. This year the Tracks crew teamed up with the Swellnet team to cover everything that happened in and around the contest. If the juicy pics and tit-bits in the following feature leave you craving more insightful and entertaining content then go to the video section and check out the Fingers in The Bowl podcasts.
 TAKE A SIP FROM THE BELLS CAULDRON ON A MORNING LIKE THIS AND YOU’LL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. SMITHYSWELLSTEIN MAPSON AND THE HUNT FOR THE PYGMY BLUE WHALE! KAI OTTON ADDING NEW MEANING TO WHAT IS MEANT BY SURFING ON RAIL. SMITHYStaying with Australia’s foremost swell forecaster, Swellnet’s Ben Matson, has its obvious advantages. Nine times out of ten Ben can give you a bullseye accurate prediction of what is going on at any beach in Australia. If you were to take a cat-scan of his disproportionately large brain it would probably look like one of those time lapse graphics which feature the development of pressure systems and weather patterns – an impossibly accurate organ that is constantly making adjustments and calculations based on one of the most volatile elements of nature – the weather. But yes, because Ben is so tuned in to the planet, somewhere inside that head it is always six foot and offshore. These days we all fancy ourselves as forecasters but having Ben with us while trying to work out where to go when Bells went flat was akin to having Einstein around for tea to explain the theory of relativity.  IT WAS INTRIGUING TO E SO CLOSE YET DIFFICULT TO SEE SUCH A NOTBLE AND DIGNIFIED CREATURE RENDERED LIFELESS. PHOTO: SMITHYAfter round one had wrapped up things went a little quiet on the Torquay coast. Gollywog goofy footer, Kai Otton and his cherubic natural footed accomplice, Dayyan Neve let us know that they were keen to chase waves anywhere that Matson thought they might be breaking. Former top forty-five surfer and born again golfer Toby Martin was also in toe. Swellstein peered into his laptop crystal ball, made a couple of calls and pointed us in the direction of the ferry to Portsea. But his enquiries had extended beyond the meteorological and into the realm of marine science. His sources told him that a 22 metre pygmy blue whale had washed up dead on the beach at Rye, a short drive from where we intended to surf. With contest director Dooma Hardman on Matson’s case for regular forecast updates relating to the event, Ben couldn’t join us but he convinced us that getting a look at the giant ill-fated leviathan would be an experience we would never forget. |