BEHIND THE SCENES: A Day At The 2008 Quiksilver Pro

Jeremy Flores (France)pulled moves like this to open the day with a solid win over local Gold Coast surfer Jay Thompson.

Jordy Smith, shadowing Dane in the draw, never gave Bobby Martinez a chance. The Teutonic ruthlessness we expected from Jordy was all there. No wave was spared, and neither was Bobby. In fact, Jordy did to Bobby what Bobby has done to the more established guys over the past couple of years. Everything from beyond vertical whips to playful shuv-its. No one will wanna surf against this guy this season, let alone Dingo who will meet him in the next round.

Mick Fanning’s freesurfing this week has been pretty loose… loose for Mick, anyway. He’s been keeping the machine moving – mainly over the hill at D-Bah – just enough to prevent it from seizing up, without really pushing it to dizzy heights. He’s got two distinctive gears with his surfing these days, and he can switch between them at will. Today we saw top gear. When he slips the oversized headphones on in the competitor’s area, he transforms, and there was no ounce of sloppy in what he produced today. “Clinical” would be a fair description Mick’s dispatching of wildcard Julian Wilson, who was expected to push the champ but didn’t get in the same zipcode.

But the star of the day undoubtedly was Taj Burrow. Finishing second in last year’s world title race, you were always wondering how TB would deal with it. Almost a decade after his previous second-place world title finish, would the dark clouds gather above him, or would it be a kick up the ass he needed to take it the one step beyond? From what we saw today his second place in 2007 might be the catalyst for something great. TB opened up with a 9.87 that was as fast and committed as anything Mick produced last year. It ran so far down the point that Taj had to stop halfway down the line, suck in a few breaths and grab his thighs, before launching another blistering half-dozen fin-wafts to finish. Within three minutes he had a 9.33 to back it up for the highest tally of the contest. It was a real statement amongst a whole day of them.

Still lurking in the bottom of the draw and yet to surf their round three heats are Kelly and Andy, and with the swell expected to be hang around we’ll see these guys take on Heitor Alves and Benny Bourgeois respectively. Competitive to the point of gnarliness, and even with CVs that would point to them having nothing to prove, after what they witnessed today you can bet they’ll both paddle out tomorrow morning keen to be part of the New World Order we’re seeing unfold.