Yep, Ace found the little rip bowl at Newcastle’s Merewether Beach to his liking alright. PIc: ASP/Robertson
It’s no coincidence that Adrian ‘Ace’ Buchan was the last goofy-footer standing come the end of the first ASP World Tour event of the year, the Quiksilver Pro. Ace has a habit of being The Lone Ranger in that department. In fact, all right-foot-forward surfers should celebrate his thorny ability to defy the natural footers dominance of pro surfing. At the Billabong Pro Jeffery’s Bay last year for example, Ace finished third – yep, you guessed it the best finish of any goofy in the field. Ace deserves his super hero like nickname that’s for damn sure. But not every wave on tour is a right goofies like Ace have to literally surf with their backs to the wall. Today for example, Ace had the pleasure of surfing a little left rip-bowl in the Burton Toyota Pro, a six star W.Q.S event in Newcastle. Not one to pass on a window of opportunity, no matter how small, the stylish power-hound notched up a whooping 18.50 total heat score out of 20 – the highest of the event so far. With Fiji back on the menu, thanks to Volcom, Tracks grabbed Ace for a quick chat about scoring big without airs and life in the goofy lane.
18.50 out of a possibly 20 in your round of 24 heat in the Burton Toyota Pro, normally there’s at least one move, one miss timed turn that you’d like to do over after a heat but not then?
Yeah stoked, I have felt pretty solid in all my heats, but I hadn’t put together a really good one, I knew it was coming and that’s sort of the round you want to do it and get through. Once you’re through that round you’re into the man-on-man and I’m really comfortable surfing man-on-man heats. I’m here this week to win, I wouldn’t come if I wasn’t… the points aren’t like a CT obviously, the CT’s are my focus but this is a prestigious event and I’d really love to win it. I’ve had a second here to Kelly (Slater) back about five years ago and I’d really love to get that trophy in MR’s name.
An earlier heat’s end of wave jam. Pic: Redmonkey.com
A bit of a statement for powerful-rail-surfing, neither of your two nines had airs in them, perhaps a reminder to young guys like Matt Banting that you can’t win a world title without it?
Look kids like Matty Banting they know that. They know they’ve gotta have it all in their bag – and he does. He’s got everything, and he’s going to have a great career. That was our second heat in this event – he beat me in the other round and that was our second match up and I got him there – I’m looking forward to watching him progress through the juniors and the QS and I’ll probably get to surf against him on the (World) tour sooner rather than later if he keeps competing like he has been.
Does locking in heat scores like 18.50 make surfing these events worth the trip alone – getting that groove on so to speak before Bells etc?
This events always fun cause it’s just an hour up the road from me and I know a lot of people here and I’ve stayed with Reece and Warren Smith [contest director] and their family every year since I was a kid. Warren puts the event on and it feels like a special event to me. I was here for a couple of weeks every year as a kid do the pro juniors and hang around to do the QS and try make some heats… I always look forward to it. And even though the waves have been small it’s been fun.
Snapper, Margaret’s, J-Bay, Bells and Teahupoo – Ace ‘s been everywhere, man. Pics: ASP/various
Music to your ears this week must have been the announcement by the ASP and Volcom that the Fiji World Tour event is on at Cloudbreak?
Really stoked. I might have to call Sam McIntosh (Stab writer) as he was trying to get a quote out of me saying the event was off, and I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t think so it may still be on…’ They all want the exclusive. The surfers too, we got involved and spoke with Volcom and voiced that we really wanted the event to be on and I think it’s a special spot to have a CT vent. I think it’s pretty much every surfers dream to go and do a trip to Fiji and to have an event there is cool and all the boys stay together so it’s unique in that way too.
And for the goofy footers on tour they…?
Yep, and it’s a left!
Rip Curl Pro at Bells next, looking forward to it?
Yeah, Bells is the spot where I feel I’ve under achieved over the years and it really suits my surfing. So I’m looking forward to getting down there and getting a bit of practice in. I feel like everything’s going pretty well for me at the moment so as long as I keep doing what I’ve been doing I think I can do something pretty big there.
Video: Ace and friends in Indo pit-fest.
Ace Deserts. from Jacob Wooden on Vimeo.