The aftermath

The celebration is over, I think. At least until tonight.

Yesterday was one for the record books. A day for the memory banks, a day to be remembered and recorded, a day that will live forever in celluloid and print – or at least until the next swell…

My mouth is furry and my head is dull, the surf is empty today and the streets feel deserted. The scaffolding is being torn down at Sunset, the World Cup of Surfing T-shirts are on discount sale, and the ASP World Qualifying Series has finished for 2008. The ocean is angry, and the clouds are galleons, sailing sluggishly over the Oahu mountains, rain their only cargo, the sticky humidity feeding them fuller, feeding them fatter.

Even Ted's is closed.

We are in the aftermath of one of the best early season days of the past 10 years - one that had veteran photographers calling Pipeline as perfect as it gets.

We are in the wake of one of the best contest days that Sunset has ever seen, and up and down the North Shore surfers are resting, repairing and regrouping. Journalists are dispatching their tales of drama and courage, and photographers are teasing editors with watermarked slide shows.

Whoever you are, if you surf, your year was defined yesterday. You will see yesterday for the whole year as brands feature their riders in their ad campaigns. You will gasp and froth at the video footage. You will watch your heroes who made it onto the WCT duel in Tahiti, J-Bay, Mundaka, Cloudbreak and everywhere else that the dream tour takes them. You too will bear witness.

The highlights reel looks like this:

At the O Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset, Dave Weare and Greg Emslie both requalified for the WCT at Sunset, confirming their status as South African surfing legends.

The top 15 of the WQS was decided yesterday and the 2009 WCT will be blessed with exceptional talent and a new guard of pro’s.

Jordy Smith cemented his reputation as the most exciting surfer in the world by ripping and tearing Sunset beach to reach the final of the contest with ease, throwing away 8 point rides on the way there and scoring the only 10 point ride of the day, and the highest heat score too. In the final he opened with a massive wave, an angry chunk of the Pacific Ocean bent on destruction. He made the drop but couldn’t get around the white water, was twisted underwater and hurt his right hip. He bailed the next set and his leash broke. His luck had run out.

The injury requires an MRI scan, happening today, and we wait patiently and hope that nothing serious has happened to South Africa’s boy wonder.

And of course CJ Hobgood won the contest.

At the day of the year at Pipeline, Liam McNamara caught the biggest wave of the day, backdooring a second reef bomb at Pipeline that you could easily have parked a double decker bus inside of. He stood tall, proud, arrogant, as the barrel vortex spun around him, a building in a tumble dryer.

Shane Dorian continued to amaze with his impeccable positioning and composure in the jaws of the beast, and after 2 days of incredible Pipeline emerged with the best barrels of the swell. On his last wave of the morning session yesterday, Dorian took off on a right, and drove hard with his back leg to get his line. His back fin and side fin snapped straight off with the combined force of Backdoor and back foot, sending him careening over the falls onto barely submerged reef.

Myself, Rudy Pamboom and about 70 other surfers had the bad luck of getting caught under a 15 foot second reef bomb. Underwater, above the roar of the massive white water, all you could hear was the snap and crack of leashes and surfboards. 12 boards in total were broken by the 2 wave set, and about 30 leashes.

Damien Fahrenfort landed on the reef straight onto his injured right ankle, and will be getting x-rayed for fractures today. He will not be surfing for a minimum of a few weeks, and we wish him a speedy recovery.

And of course countless surfers got the barrels of their lives.

The drama, anxiety and hype set with the sun yesterday, and up and down the North Shore, bass boomed and beer flowed. For the WQS surfers, and followers of the WQS, the year is over, and at last we can start having some fun.