Bonjour
The Quiksilver Pro France starts with a bang
By Sean Doherty

The early morning surf check revealed little. With the French summer fading, the Quiksilver Pro contest bank at Les Bourdaines was still blanketed in darkness at 7am this morning, and it was only the crack of the high tide shorebreak that hinted the swell had filled in overnight and the contest was going to go.

Joel Parkinson was first down the beach this morning to check it out, but could barely see his hand in front of his face, let alone what the bank was doing. He was soon joined by Jordy Smith and Damien Hobgood, and the trio paddled out into the inky lineup not quite sure what they were paddling into. As is par for the course here on the French beachbreaks, the change in the tide saw the surf today become a heat-to-heat proposition, with wash throughs, lulls, lefts, rights, pits, burgers and everything in between. It meant most heats were more wave-catching contests than shootouts.

CJ Hobgood’s world title challenge took a turn for the worse yesterday when he had nine boards stolen from his rented pad in Hossegor. The brazen thief might have had a thing for dayglo rails, cause while he cleaned out nine of Ceej’s boards, he only took one of Nathaniel Curran’s whose were sitting alongside. CJ only moved in the day before, so it was clear someone had the place lined up as a target, and despite the best efforts of the local surf community to track them down, the boards have disappeared into the ether. To surf his heat today CJ was forced to reclaim a board he’d signed for a bunch of local kids here last year. He paddled out on the board, still with “U kids rule, ‘08” scribbled across the nose and surfed well, only to lose in the dying seconds by French wildcard, Joan Duru.

Along with a strong heat win from Taj, the most electrifying surfing of the morning came from occasional Frenchman, Michel Bourez. The Tahitian is an interesting surfer. He’s like one of those chicks who looks haggard under one light, only to look sensational under another light seconds later. On one long left this morning he boogied his way through three flat backhand turns only to unleash an incredible upside-down backhand blast in the shorebreak. Ever since beating Mick Fanning at J-Bay, a big result has looked just around the corner for the Tahitian and France may well be it.

Joel Parkinson can’t win the world title here in France, and would need to win both here in France and in Mundaka to do so, but his heat today to confirming that it’s going to happen at some stage. Following a sluggish 17th at Trestles on the back of a sprained ankle, he bounced back today with a convincing first round shellacking of Kai Otton and replacement surfer, Gabriel Villearan. The judges, who apart from Tahiti have hardly seen the Parkinson backhand all year, immediately took a shine to it. A critical closeout reo in the dry shorebreak and a sprint back up the beach to paddle out signalled the ankle is back pretty close to full strength.

Round two is almost certain to run tomorrow back at Les Bourdaines, with the swell set to decay later in the week.

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE ROUND 1 RESULTS:

Heat 1: Taylor Knox (USA) 12.67, David Weare (ZAF) 9.10, Chris Ward (USA) N/S
Heat 2: Nic Muscroft (AUS) 11.67, Ben Dunn (AUS) 11.00, Bobby Martinez (USA) 10.60
Heat 3: Damien Hobgood (USA) 13.50, Timmy Reyes (USA) 6.10, Drew Courtney (AUS) 5.83
Heat 4: Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.67, Phillip MacDonald (AUS) 10.16, Heitor Alves (BRA) 7.80
Heat 5: Michel Bourez (PYF) 15.20, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.10, Marlon Lipke (DEU) 7.14
Heat 6: Julian Wilson (AUS) 13.33, Bede Durbidge (AUS) 8.67, Dean Morrison (AUS) 8.53
Heat 7: Joan Duru (FRA) 11.37, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.10, C.J. Hobgood (USA) 11.03
Heat 8: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.44, Kai Otton (AUS) 10.40, Gabriel Villaran (PER) 7.33
Heat 9: Kelly Slater (USA) 14.53, Alain Riou (PYF) 11.67, Mick Campbell (AUS) 7.26
Heat 10: Patrick Beven (FRA) 11.83, Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.54, Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) 10.97
Heat 11: Tom Whitaker (AUS) 12.74, Roy Powers (HAW) 9.00, Jihad Khodr (BRA) 7.50
Heat 12: Chris Davidson (AUS) 13.74, Aritz Aranburu (EUK) 11.17, Kieren Perrow (AUS) 7.17
Heat 13: Dane Reynolds (USA) 17.33, Nathaniel Curran (USA) 15.60, Jay Thompson (AUS) 6.56
Heat 14: Tim Boal (FRA) 11.30, Michael Picon (FRA) 10.66, Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 9.60
Heat 15: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.17, Dayyan Neve (AUS) 11.87, Tiago Pires (PRT) 7.00
Heat 16: Dustin Barca (HAW) 10.77, Jeremy Flores (FRA) 9.34, Greg Emslie (ZAF) 4.63

QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Mick Fanning (AUS) 13.83 def. Gabriel Villaran (PER) 6.30
Heat 2: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 15.17 def. Alain Riou (PYF) 14.83
Heat 3: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 15.33 def. Marlon Lipke (DEU) 10.17
Heat 4: Phillip MacDonald (AUS) 16.90 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.13

QUIKSILVER PRO TRESTLES REMAINING ROUND 2 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 5: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Drew Courtney (AUS)
Heat 6: Kieren Perrow (AUS) vs. David Weare (ZAF)
Heat 7: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Jihad Khodr (BRA)
Heat 8: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Aritz Aranburu (EUK)
Heat 9: Kai Otton (AUS) vs. Nathaniel Curran (USA)
Heat 10: Mick Campbell (AUS) vs. Michael Picon (FRA)
Heat 11: Kekoa Bacalso (HAW) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 12: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Greg Emslie (ZAF)
Heat 13: Dean Morrison (AUS) vs. Dayyan Neve (AUS)
Heat 14: Heitor Alves (BRA) vs. Jay Thompson (AUS)
Heat 15: Tim Reyes (USA) vs. Roy Powers (USA)
Heat 16: Ben Dunn (AUS) vs. Chris Ward (USA)

Best Moment:
Taj’s backhand pit, the only one of the morning, chalked him up an 8.5, the day’s highest score.

Most controversial moment:
Kelly Slater’s heat almost started without Kelly Slater, the countdown beginning only to be halted. The champ emerged two minutes later, jogging down to paddle out, and the heat was started. A few of his fellow competitors grizzled it was unlikely they would be afforded the same privilege.

Biggest disappointment:
Across the board, scoring was way down with only a handful of scores over eight dished out. Watching from the beach – where it’s always easy – there seemed to be waves all over the place, but the guys had trouble finding them amongst a confused and constantly reinventing lineup.