Winners (left to right): Milo Voss, Timbo Flanagan, Pova Rustamova and Lanelle SaundersSecond Life surfers responded to the changes with good humour and commitment to the competition, which is just as well, because Monkeh Barrel continued to monkey around and even the pipeline waves were barely surfable at some points during the first round of heats. "The waves at Monkeh Barrel were the hardest I've seen in any competition," Milo Voss of the Tsunami Surfing Team told SurfWatch after about some six hours of competition. "The gaps between the three wave faces would be out of sync and you would literally fall through the crack as you surfed over it. However, kudos to the SLSA for keeping it all together and the surfers for being flexible."
"Conditions were tough today and the waves were a big challenge," said Monkeh Barrel winner Pova. "They were moving slow and you had to really work to stay in them. Wave conditions improved for the semi finals and the waves started behaving themselves. The pipes were running just fast enough to pull some nice tricks off and keep from bellying."
The tense Monkeh Barrel semi-final match-ups provided some striking competition upsets. Winner of January's SLSA event Devinna Toll was eliminated in the first heat of the semi-finals letting Milo Voss and Reaction Pro's Timbo Flanagan through to the finals, where they both were awarded 11.33 points putting them in third place overall.
Meanwhile, newcomer Lanelle Saunders outsurfed her competitors in heat two and went through to the finals together with veteran surfer Kimmy Fitzgerald, where she continued to beat off the competition ending up with the number two spot on the winners podium!
"Lanelle Saunders was amazing in the semis and then in the finals she pushed very hard, made her tricks look so easy," said Pova. "I was lucky to beat her on points, but I had some good waves in the final and tried to make the best out of them."
"It was a tough day, for everyone, I think," said Reef Rider Lanelle following her first experience on the winner's podium. "I got lucky and didn't fall through any waves or get stuck between sections. The finals had such an incredible class of surfers. I really didn't think I had a chance, so I just kind of threw caution to the wind and surfed hard on my first wave. I didn't think that it was that great, so I surfed even harder the second wave. The third wave was a bit of a disaster. At the end, everyone took a party wave in except me. I waited for another wave and had the best wave of the day! Pure fun! Honestly though, I can only attribute my second place podium position to everyone that has been there for me and helped me out, most importantly, Bobbi Laval."
The next SLSA competition event is on Saturday 22 March at Surfline.
FINALS RESULTS
1. Pova Rustamova (14.33 points)
2. Lanelle Saunders (13.50 points)
3. (tie) Milo Voss/Timbo Flanagan (11.33 points)
5. Vic Bonetto (11.16 points)
6. Bailey Dazy (10.83 points)
7. Kimmy Fitzgerald (NA)
SEMI-FINALISTS
Note: Semi-finalist scores are an addition of 1st Heat score plus Semi-final scores
8. Christine Daffodil (25.16)
9. Selina Otsuka (25.13)
10. Devinna Toll (24.83)
11. Colleen Brennan (23.49)
Abel Halderman (23.49)
13. Ashleigh Dickins (22.99
VW Sands (22.99)
15. Charlotte Fearne (22.16)
16. Jesse Compton (19.99)
17. Carlos MacAlpine (18.99)
18. Buffy Munro (18.16)
HEATS RANKINGS
19. Jaqueline Infinity (12.66)
20. Jhuriel Hax (12.5)
21. Carolin Gausman (11.83)
Desirae Beaumont (11.83)
23. Desne Aabye (11.66)
24. QUENCH Spotter (11.5)
25. Paeida Allen (11.16)
26. Bobbi Laval (11)
27. Payten Harrop (10.5)
28. Mateus Rieko (10.16)
29. Lollypop Congrejo (10.11)
30. LeahJane Cazalet (10)
Malcolm Sydney (10)
32. Mick Lunasea (9.66)
33. Whamdamnit Merryman (9.33)
34. Coz Okelly (9.16)
35. Cipriano Grut (8.66)
Competition results updated from latest SLSA information 25 February 2008
Photo credit: Sierra Sugar
SurfWatch: Surfing Calendar - February-March 2008
SLURL: Monkeh Barrel
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4 comments:
Oiy, if you are going to take a picture of my trophy that I made, at least turn your graphics up =-P. Lol. Well done to all the surfers out there, I know conditions were less than desirable but we were able to work through it all. Great surfing by all and you all better watch out, cus next contest...guess who is back!
Happy to replace the winners pic with a higher quality image if you have one.
Thanks to Abe, Milo, Craig and Sierra for helping with pics for this story. Pics were all taken at a busy time after a long day, so it was difficult to find a pic that had everything in it and had everyone showing. Apologies to Timbo for running a pic that doesn't show his face, but, in the end, it was either your face or Lanelle's hair, Timbo, and we had to make a choice! :)
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