Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Beachley at Dee Why


And back to Australia for us again! I think it is quite good for us Aussie’s to have three events of the first four in our country… Well it has definitely been to Stephanie Gilmore’s advantage!
This is me on finals day enjoying the sun with the crowd.

The Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic held at Dee Why beach on Sydney’s Northern Beaches this year fell on a national holiday long weekend. This weekend being Anzac Day long weekend and is generally spent going to a dawn service to pay respect to those digger’s who committed their life to protecting our fine democratic country which I for one and very thankful for. Then most Aussie’s head to the pub to drink a huge amount of alcohol and stand around a circle and yell heads or tails at each other (with 3 coins you call whether you think there will be more heads or tails in the 3) in a game known as Two Up and exchange bets, this is what the digger’s did in the trenches.
For me this year it was only Two Up and no alcohol because though we had run through round one and two in the comp the ocean went flat for four days and we were left with one lucky last day to run through the rest of the contest. Sally Fitz is in the photo here with her 2 buck bet for 2 Up.

So on the last day of the waiting period the swell picked up and after four big events in a row over six weeks this was the completion.
Again we found ourselves on a right hander. When I first started the tour we had such a large variety of events from Snapper to Teahupoo, from Fiji to France and Sydney to Hawaii. Now we seem to have a lot of right handers well really pretty much all small right handers and a whole bunch of young whipper snappers on tour. It has forced me to work even harder on my small wave surfing and especially my forehand skills as I grew up on a left point.
I lost my round three heat in what can be described as disappointing high tide waves where all I could manage was two round house carves per wave. Carissa Moore managed a little better but in the end it was a very low scoring heat I had a three point ride and a four. Carissa had a four and a five and that was the end of the contest for me. I was pretty disappointed to go out like that because I felt though the waves were tough everyone has to surf in the same conditions and my mind really let me down. Well I really let myself down so I need to work harder to not let the conditions get to me again like they did in New Zealand and Sydney.  Next week it is Peru and time to roll again.

This photo is Dee Why beach the calm before the storm. Such a beautiful autumn beach day!

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