Archive for October 2009

What it’s like to be a butcher

Solid read from Esquire.

This looks promising.

The Rip Curl Pro Search is done for, and Mick Fan­ning won. Not before Super­tu­bos threw some of the gnarli­est waves on tour up to now, chew­ing up half a dozen boards and rup­tur­ing Owen Wright’s eardrum, who was on a roll until then. It also cleared the title race down to Mick and Joel, with Bede being the last man stand­ing. Joel needs to be two places up from Mick on the Pipe Mas­ters, so it’s not going to be a walk in the park for either.

xkcd’s Ran­dall Munroe homage to Geoc­i­ties, on the day it shut down. Accu­rate to the small­est details.

Do you secretly brag to your friends “I crushed Kelly’s 10^th title hopes”? Owen Wright, after nar­rowly defeat­ing Kelly Slater in Round 2 at the Rip Curl Search in Peniche and end­ing Slater’s (a bit far-​​fetched at the time) title race (photo via Rui Moura)

Heavy.

Greet the day with a smile and get it over with.

~ W.C. Fields

Steve Sherman’s pho­tos of the Mundaka (more like Sopelana) WCT event. There’s a feel­ing of “behind the scenes” in these I like a lot.

We might’ve spot­ted this sucker on the way home yes­ter­day. The time frame cer­tainly fits. We thought it was a shoot­ing star but it’s trail was much thicker so it was prob­a­bly it.

ASP WCT sce­nar­ios going into the penul­ti­mate stop of the tour (Peniche)

If Mick Fan­ning were to win the upcom­ing Rip Curl Pro Search Portugal:

Joel Parkin­son (AUS), 28, would need a 9^th or bet­ter and Adri­ano de Souza (BRA), 22, would need a 3^rd or bet­ter to pre­vent him from clinch­ing the 2009 ASP World Title in Portugal.

If Mick Fan­ning fin­ishes Runner-​​Up at the upcom­ing Rip Curl Pro Search Portugal:

Joel Parkin­son (AUS), 28, would need a 17^th or bet­ter, Adri­ano de Souza (BRA), 22, a 5^th or bet­ter, Kelly Slater (USA), 37, and Bede Dur­bidge (AUS), 26, a win to pre­vent him from clinch­ing the 2009 ASP World Title in Portugal.

If Mick Fan­ning (AUS), 28, fin­ishes 3^rd at the upcom­ing Rip Curl Pro Search Portugal:

Joel Parkin­son (AUS), 28, would need a 33^rd, Adri­ano de Souza (BRA), 22, a 9^th, Kelly Slater (USA), 37, and Bede Dur­bidge (AUS), 26, will need a Runner-​​Up fin­ish, and C.J. Hob­good (USA), 30, and Taj Bur­row (AUS), 31, will need to win to pre­vent Fan­ning from clinch­ing the 2009 ASP World Title in Portugal.

(via)

Given that a 10^th title is noth­ing but a math­e­mat­i­cal shot for Kelly (not that it looks he’s even car­ing), I’m root­ing for Joel. Mick’s surfs like a aer­o­bics class, Bede just surfs plain ugly (and has been aver­age at the most all year) and the rest is plain unlikely. But, as the author states, sil­lier things have happened.