After six days of doing less than very little, it was time to remind ourselves today we’re actually here for a surfing contest, and surf today we did.

Round four of the Globe Pro Fiji finally got a start at two-to-three foot Cloudbreak today, but not before a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. When we shut this thing down almost a week a go, we did so on the promise of a squirt of long-range SSW swell arriving today, the kind of swell Cloudbreak loves. When, for reasons known only to themselves, the charts swung the swell direction around to the ESE yesterday, there were more than a few raised eyebrows. East-south-east swell here is the equivalent of east-south-east swell in California, and not generally regarded as good news. Contest director Steve Robertson, who’d been selling the southerly swell to the remaining 16 guys in the field all week, was still spouting his catchphrase line, “It’s a good viiiiiibe” this morning, despite Cloudbreak being only two-to-three feet.

The crew were pretty keen to run. There’s not a lot of swell headed this way, and after six days of Laker games, tuna kills, extreme catamaranning and general tropical malaise, the last 16 guys left in the contest were petty keen on the novelty of actually surfing a heat. “It was difficult,” said Mick Fanning after winning his heat against fellow Aussie Dayyan Neve. “It was the kind of day where it looks easier during the other guys heats until you get out there yourself. Pretty well all the guys who should have won today did, but they were workmanlike wins more than exhibitions of their patended brilliance. Winning ugly is still, however, winning, and we go into the final day with most of the big names still there. Bede Durbidge beat Luke Stedman, Bobby beat Adrian Buchan, Parko beat Pancho, CJ beat Wardo, and Taj celebrated his 30th birthday with one of the performances of the day against Timmy Reyes. The Kelly/Damo Hobgood heat was a final on paper, but suffered in the water as a cross-shore wind crumbled the few waves that came their way. With barrels hard to come by, the goofy bias that so often comes into play here in Fiji wasn’t here today, and it won’t be here tomorrow. That’s gotta give hope to the backside contingent.

After some vigourous debate both ways, the call was made late this afternoon to save the quarters until tomorrow, with a final scheduled to hit the water around lunchtime Fijian. Half the surfers wanted to go, half didn’t, but in the end it was the learned opinion of Jon Roseman that saw the hurry up and wait crew win out. He reckons there’s gonna be waves tomorrow, and we’re happy to take his word on it.

Today’s Globe Pro Fiji Round 4 Results: Heat 1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.07 def. Luke Stedman (AUS) 7.93
Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.50 def. Tim Reyes (USA) 3.83
Heat 3: Bobby Martinez (USA) 14.50 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 13.56
Heat 4: Kelly Slater (USA) 12.73 def. Damien Hobgood (USA) 8.06
Heat 5: Mick Fanning (AUS) 12.34 def. Dayyan Neve (AUS) 5.00
Heat 6: C.J. Hobgood (USA) 13.67 def. Chris Ward (USA) 13.00
Heat 7: Joel Parkinson (AUS)12.33 def. Pancho Sullivan (HAW) 10.50
Heat 8: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 13.83 def. Frederick Patacchia (HAW) 13.50

Upcoming Quarterfinal Matchups:
QF1: Bede Durbidge (AUS) vs. Taj Burrow (AUS)
QF2: Bobby Martinez (USA) vs. Kelly Slater (USA)
QF3: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. CJ Hobgood (USA)
QF4: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Adriano de Souza (BRA)