Thorne tames awesome Goodwave sets
24 April 2008
After an absorbing day of outstanding surfing in excellent conditions, Durban's Shane Thorne won the Quiksilver Goodwave on Wednesday to pocket the winner's cheque of R75 000.
The carefully selected day for the event dawned with some six-foot-plus sets pouring through at New Pier, and some incredible rides in the earlier rounds resulted, including a mind-blowing perfect 10-point ride from Rudy Palmboom Jnr from The Bluff.
Palmboom took off deep, then pulled in on the first barrelling section, as his wave took on one of the most intense rides of his life. "When I took off on that wave I didn't think it was going to be that good," said a very stoked Palmboom afterwards. "Then it sort of got more intense while I was inside. I was in the barrel for so long I thought that there was no way I was going to come out."
Disappeared
He completely disappeared from the view of the spectators on the beach and was in the tube for so long that most people had turned their eyes away from the wave, before he punched through the whitewater in the mouth of the barrel for a clean 10-point ride from all five judges.
Barrel rides and high scores were the order of the day in the earlier rounds, with Sean Holmes from Cape Town scoring an excellent 9.5 ride for two barrels in his heat, while New Pier locals Shane Thorne and Simon Nicholson also picked up some great tubes in their heats.
Then the conditions changed slightly and a light southerly wind crumbled the lip, meaning barrels became few and far between.
The surfers that remained in the contest changed their attack in accordance with the changing conditions and shifted the hunt for barrels to full-rail gouges and turns. Simon Nicholson and Shane Thorne were two surfers who flourished, impressing the judges with their power rail surfing to join the big guns and advance through to the semi-finals.
Semi-finals
The first semi was a mix of backhand smashes and a few forehand barrels, with the goofy-footers emerging unscathed.
Paul Canning, who has been out the water with a tendon injury for a few weeks, went ballistic on his backhand to smash the grinding walls to pieces, scoring a 7.60 and an 8-point ride to win a heat from fellow goofy-footer Dan Redman. Frankie Oberholzer and Dane Logie were eliminated.
The second semi-final was a mix of massive hits and huge floaters, as powerhouse surfers Shane Thorne and Sean Holmes found their stride and went to town on the six-foot grinding waves. It was Cape Town resident Holmes who emerged victorious, while Simon Nicholson was eliminated.
"I was up against some of the best surfers in that semi so I took it like a final and pushed hard on all my turns," said Holmes. "It worked for me, and I am amped for the final."
Final
In conditions that continued to grind through, the final was the battle of the natural-footers against the goofy-footers. Canning and Redman represented the goofy surfers and Holmes and Thorne the naturals.
Holmes went for broke but fell on a few of his big turns, while Redman clawed his way into the lead early on in the heat, and hung on to it, despite one huge wipe-out. However, in the dying seconds, it was Shane Thorne who scratched into a final wave, executed giant turns all the way to the Dairy Bowl, and landed a big of 8.75 to claim the honours.
"I prayed for a wave towards the end," said Thorne of the final wave. "And a wave was sent to me. I decided if I got another good wave I was going to surf it as best I possibly could, which I did and managed to get the score.
"I am so stoked. This is the one event that I look forward to the whole year, and this year was my year."
An event like no other
The Quiksilver Goodwave is an event like no other.
A 32-strong field was selected for the competition after one month of online entries. Then, at the end of January, an 11-month waiting period began, waiting for the best possible conditions to appear, with the field of surfers on a 24-hour standby call.
Once the decision was made that the day - 23 April – had arrived, the contest was on. Using jet-skis to tow competitors out after each wave, the format allowed for fifteen 30-minute heats to be contest.
RESULTS
Semi-final one
- 1. Paul Canning
- 2. Dan Redman
- 3. Frankie Oberholzer
- 4. Dane Logie
Semi-final two
- 1. Sean Holmes
- 2. Shane Thorne
- 3. Simon Nicholson
- 4. Rudy Palmboom
Final
- 1. Shane Thorne
- 2. Dan Redman
- 3. Sean Holmes
- 4. Paul Canning
Source: Quiksilver Goodwave
