Shock and awe in the Azores

Phil Jarratt picture
Phil Jarratt (Phil Jarratt)
Swellnet Dispatch

“Holy shit!” said Gary Elkerton, as we watched an overhead set push sideways around the point and turn the Praia de Santa Barbara lineup into a washing machine.

“It’s a shemozzle”, said Simon Anderson, but he wasn’t referring to the surf. Former Masters champion Terry Richardson paced up and down in the terraced competitors’ area on the clifftop chewing the end of his beach towel and looking a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. Even the unflappable Layne Beachley looked ruffled.

Thus began my experience of the first Masters event held in seven years, the Azores Airlines World Masters Championships. Seven years is a long time between drinks for the old soldiers of pro surfing – even longer for some of those who were too young to compete in 2011 but had been off the tour for years – and understandably there were some pre-event nerves.

Part of that was down to the location. Although the Azores has hosted a WQS event since 2010, I couldn’t find anyone in the Masters camp who had been there before, or even knew anything about the place. (Which, for the record, is an unbelievably beautiful volcanic archipelago in the mid-Atlantic, two hours from Lisbon, four hours from Boston, Portuguese-owned and therefore full of vibrant culture, great fish restaurants and cheap wine.) And even those who had built in some prep time were still trying to get used to the wedgy weirdness of the Santa Barbara line-up, which could go from hero to zero and back again three or four times an hour.

For a bunch of competition-starved middle-agers, just working out where to sit was a major challenge.

And then there was the format fiasco! God love the World Surf League for bringing back the Masters – a wonderful celebration of the roots of pro surfing that I had the great good fortune to be involved with as event director alongside Rod Brooks for four years at the turn of the century – but this time they really needed to think through how they presented the three divisions before the event began. The Masters division (45-54) was fixed before we started, but the Grand Masters (55 plus) went through three sets of changes by day two of competition, resulting in a brief but bitter confrontation between senior members of the Australian and Hawaiian camps, that left Simon Anderson grinding his teeth on one side of the clifftop lawn and Michael Ho sobbing tears of rage on the other.

It reminded me of nothing more than the North Shore 1976 season, which I suppose was entirely appropriate, and it was heartening to see that the fire remains in the belly. But it was so good when it was over, and we could all get back to the beers and the backslapping and the man-hugging.

Meanwhile, the surf cleaned up somewhat and the contests proceeded. The women made their Masters debut with a field of only six – Beachley, Burridge, Menczer, Cooper, Ballard and Zamba. They were all impressive but it soon became apparent that Layne’s greatest threat would come from Frieda Zamba, the loose-limbed Floridian who won four world titles in the 1980s, and at 52 was six years Layne’s senior. But smashing her way through the prelims, the goofy-footer showed she still had it.

The Masters prelims were filled with shock and awe. Let’s deal with shock first. A couple of equipment choices were just baffling. Always the bridesmaid (and don’t dwell on that image for too long) during his storied pro career, Gary Elkerton, now 54, won three Masters world championships back to back in the early 2000s, showing that a few years and a few pounds had taken nothing away from his power attack. In the difficult shifting peaks of the Azores, however, he struggled to catch a wave on a board that barely floated him. The strange genius Tom Curren, with three world titles under his belt and a WSL “legacy” heat at J-Bay a while back that proved he’s still the man, chose to ride a board that was immediately dubbed the “skim board” by his overjoyed rivals. It was an alaia with fins but no speed, and not even Curren could make it bounce off foam or land it.

When he was inevitably eliminated, Tom was asked for photos of the thing. “Sure,” he said, “before I chuck it off the cliff or burn it.”

Above and below, Curren's board. What looks like a regulation surfboard from below flips over to reveal a disfigured beast. Why the foam and not, say, deck grip? As it's a skim board the attached foam is for both grip and floatation.

Awe came in the form of the surfers who looked like they were top-tenners taking a week off between tour events. Shane Beschen was on fire, but so too were Luke Egan and Jake Paterson. And, after a shaky start against Sunny Garcia, WA’s Dave Macaulay went on the rampage, finding long-running lefts and smashing the lip repeatedly and smoothly.

In the old farts, Michael Ho, who had looked a threat from the get-go, won a surf-off for the minor placings against Hans Hedemann and Glen Winton, who produced some flashes of the old brilliance despite carrying injuries. But it was the Aussie trio of Horan, Bain and Anderson who proceeded to a bizarre round robin final round, with Bainy the form surfer of the division.

And so to the finals, and a confession: I wasn’t there. I had to catch a bunch of planes but made it back to Bali in time to watch it on my laptop over a bottle of Plaga.

In yet another weird format twist, Saturday was called a layday because the broadcast crew was apparently double-booked – go figure – and by Sunday we were down to two-foot wonkiness, which isn’t ideal for aging bodies. But Layne shredded, defeating not Zamba (who had a shocker in her semi) but Rochelle Ballard, who fell off a decent wave after colliding with a filmer, but was never really in the race.

On his 56th birthday, Bainy took on the 1999 Masters champion Cheyne Horan in the Grand Masters final, and was never in doubt for his first world title. In the Masters, cool, calm, collected Shane Beschen had no answers for Macaulay’s speed runs and smooth lip bashes. So it was Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy.

In summary, the Azores Masters had its flashes of weirdness, but I loved seeing all the old stagers again, and hopefully so did the viewers. So good on you, WSL. Keep ‘em coming.

// PHIL JARRATT

Comments

billie's picture
billie's picture
billie Monday, 24 Sep 2018 at 8:40pm

Tom Curren left us "Uhhhmin'?!"

I really want to watch the footage, is it on WSL?

amb's picture
amb's picture
amb Tuesday, 25 Sep 2018 at 9:22am

nice read Phil, although not sure how you can drink Plaga, Two Islands is my go to Bali red.

bill-poster's picture
bill-poster's picture
bill-poster Tuesday, 25 Sep 2018 at 10:19am

Good concept, probably heaps of fun for the contestants, but a hard event to watch. Maybe it's just me, living in a bubble of denial or whatever, but all it did was remind me how old I'm getting. I can do without those reminders.

wallpaper's picture
wallpaper's picture
wallpaper Tuesday, 25 Sep 2018 at 1:41pm

at least you're not dead like some people.

bill-poster's picture
bill-poster's picture
bill-poster Tuesday, 25 Sep 2018 at 2:30pm

Yeah, good point, I spose.

At least I'm not dead.

Spuddups's picture
Spuddups's picture
Spuddups Wednesday, 26 Sep 2018 at 5:10am

Fark, gotta love Tom Curren. Always up to something.

lost's picture
lost's picture
lost Wednesday, 26 Sep 2018 at 3:34pm

Very odd event. I do wonder if they are still the world's best surfers or are there others who never made it to fame and fortune but due to their ongoing commitment to surfing and staying in shape (and riding appropriate boards) could give this gang a nudge. This is really a invitational of celebrity names so not much to the world title "title". If they run again they really will need to put them in good waves where age has less of a impact.

Phil Jarratt's picture
Phil Jarratt's picture
Phil Jarratt Wednesday, 26 Sep 2018 at 4:15pm

Not that odd, lost. There have always been great surfers under the radar, but to make it to the top of the pro pile you've got to have talent and commitment in spades. Apart from the Portuguese wildcard, Joao Alexandre (one of that country's best free surfers) every competitor in the Azores earned his or her spot through a career rankings system, which may have had its critics, but resulted in the best surfers of their generations attending.

memlasurf's picture
memlasurf's picture
memlasurf Wednesday, 26 Sep 2018 at 8:11pm

Where were the terrible trio of MR, Shaun and Bugs? Or even our local Martin Potter? From what I saw I thought it was a hoot.

Phil Jarratt's picture
Phil Jarratt's picture
Phil Jarratt Thursday, 27 Sep 2018 at 11:26am

MR has pretty much closed the curtains on competition, Mem. The others were invited but declined or pulled out later. Pity, but the competition was still strong across all divisions, and yeah, it was a hoot!

dangerouskook2000's picture
dangerouskook2000's picture
dangerouskook2000 Thursday, 27 Sep 2018 at 6:32pm

I fucken love Tom Curren's abomination. I couldn't stop laughing. Is that liquid nails? Oh stop it, there I go again. Haven't laughed like that for a while...

julioadler's picture
julioadler's picture
julioadler Thursday, 27 Sep 2018 at 11:04pm

The format... The format!