Win a Surf Holiday in India + New Quiver Board

ENTER COMPETITION

Win A Free Soul&Surf Holiday in India PLUS A Quiver Shortboard.  To celebrate the opening of our winter season Soul & Surf / India have teamed up with Quiver Surfboards to offer an incredible prize: - A 1 week stay for 2 at Soul & Surf in Kerala India plus a custom Quiver shortboard made especially for the winner. (See terms & conditions for more detail)

Fans of our Facebook Pages can enter the competition and to spread the love you can post the competition to your timeline and on October 13th 2012 we'll randomly select a winner from the entries.

We will contact the winner via the email address provided. Good luck people, see you in India!

www.soulandsurf.com
www.quiversurfboards.co.uk
Terms & conditions

Max. entries: No limit
Current entries: 60
Promo valid until: 10/13/2012 01:30pm

Choose your weapon...

Check out the range of Phil Hodge, Stuart D'Arcy, Felix Dickson, and Alain Minvielle shapes on the Quiver website http://www.quiversurfboards.co.uk

J-Bay: Nick's Adriano De Souza Interview

An interview with Adriano De Souza @ J-Bay 2012

Nick Williams Diary : J-Bay back to UK

Leaving Durban behind, with friends and family, is never easy, but coming in to land in Port Elizabeth everything to be sliding into the right places. The wind was definitely offshore and the ocean swell lines were solid. The drive out to Jeffreys Bay flew by and from 15kms away we could count the lines winding around the point! It was just perfect and 6' on the small sets. Every surfer and his entourage  filled the lineup from Boneyards on the outside all the way through to the Point and Albatross onto the beach. Phenomenal waves and great to see a whole bunch of different styles on the winding walls of Supers. One of those backhand styles belonged to Royden Bryson, no stranger to the Newquay Boardmasters event. He was looking on-form during the free surf but on one big tube ride, down towards the end of the car park section at Supers he just got clipped and ended up breaking his leg very badly . . . both tibia and fibula! For Bryce, the 2012 season is pretty much over.

The opening function was the usual of speeches and shmoozing before work was to begin and although there was still work going on at the contest site we were aware that it was to be a start in the dark for us all. There were very few rides surfed before it was time to start trying to clear the line-up and by the time we were finally able to get the first heat going we had issued a number of $1000 fines for competitors in the line-up It was a heavy situation to get the event going on but that is what it is and the surfers know the rules. But at J Bay, how much would you be prepared to pay for a wave or two in those incredible conditions with only a handful more alongside you?

Blazing sunshine, solid 6'-8' perfection and rapturous applause all day long was the order of the day with the most amazing vibe amongst everyone – competitors and organisers alike. I shot over 100 photos from the top of the tower on my first day and had trouble convincing myself that I was not looking like a tourist in my own country. We surfed all 24 heats on the first day, finishing just upon dark.

 And day two was exactly the same. Who were the stand outs? Well call a few names? In waves like this who would you have liked to see? There were 144 of the world's top Star Series surfers here to compete and most impressed. I have to say though that over the course of this year's Billabong Pro it was truly shocking to see how some surfers of this calibre were unable to read a pointbreak, in these perfect conditions with only three others in the water, and end up with counting rides of 1.30 or a heat total for their best two rides, of 3.27. I mean come on . . . . I feel confident that I could've scored more than that!? Nic Muscroft surfed really well down here in proper waves but despite his opening wave score of 7.33 he was unable to find another high score and was eliminated along with Tom Whittaker in this heat in the round of 96.

Thursday, day 3, was supposed to be a dodgy one but the expected swell increase overnight proved correct and we awoke in the dark again to get set for our best line-up so far. 8' walls of delight from far up off the end of Boneyards, reeling down the line into Supers and beyond with the surfers needing around 4 minutes to paddle back up to the take-off spot. We continued to plough on thru as much as we could and eventually came to a stop in the dark again with just the quarters, semis and final to run. We were expecting Friday to be bad and had severe weather warnings for the arrival of a storm front, the likes of which had not been seen since the 1940's!!!

And so we moved into Friday morning as early as we had become used to. And by 12 noon the Billabong Pro was over. The waves were terrible  - onshore, small and the unreal weather had become rainy with skies blackening all the while.  We had had too many good performances to pick a possible Champ and it was always going to be whoever managed to put it together in exhausting conditions for 4 consecutive days, with the most equipment surviving. Jeffreys delivers a harsh lesson to equipment here and many boards and legropes were broken.

In the 35 minute final Joan Duru surfed smooth and stylishly. He was up against – no surprises – Adriano de Souza. This guy is truly a machine of a sportsman and is quite possibly the most determined and focussed surfer I have ever known. On one of his waves in the final he put everything he had into it and rode the wave onto the rocks – like, ONTO the rocks, squashing two of his fins flat, crushing the FCS plugs into the foam! He carefully hobbled in over the rocks, wetsuit  leg torn apart and leg scratched open, bleeding and ran up to the keyhole paddle out channel alongside of his caddy with a fresh board. With 4 minutes remaining he made it into the line-up, paddling deep, deep into the ocean before swinging around and sprint paddling back almost onto the reef to pick up a wave that stood up and ran itself off the shelf, allowing him to jam a few hard off the tops, a little air and finally a strong radical finish on a ride that had easily won him the title. For 10 years Adriano has been coming here and finally he was the one holding the trophy high. The number 4 ranked surfer on the World Tour  is undoubtedly the greatest to come out of Brazil and while many have their eyes on Gabriel Medina to become a future World Champion, the smart money is still on de Souza to become Brazil's first! He is totally contained in his determined focus for perfect performance and it seems that very little can distract him. He is a worthy Champion and a credit to his Nation. The Brazilians once again showed themselves to be a solid and tight crew and  this season has been theirs.

Jeffreys Bay is a strange mix : disgusting architecture of all styles right alongside each other, Afrikaans/English/Malay cultures intermingling with the blend of international cultures in town for the surfing and not a whole lot of places to let off all the understandable steam that comes with this. While the housing is largely B&B spread around the break of Jeffreys Bay, evenings usually get moving a couple of miles down the road and so everything is quite disjointed. Days can go by without seeing anyone of your crew after the long days were over. Instead of just the top 44, this year was the top 144 surfers plus all the extras. Jeffreys Bay has never been so packed. Getting a table for breakfast, once the event was over, and especially suppers each night would entail a wait for a table at Nina's of up to an hour and the same again once your order was in! 

It has been the craziest 5 days of my life on tour pretty much and an impossibility to get online to even speak to my family in Newquay, let alone get a daily blog in! The two storms we have had here on the night of the final and the night after, destroyed the VIP area, the food and retail area as well as the grandstands and in a race against the clock everything possible was removed from those areas before we left it to the mercy of the elements. Homes, shops, restaurants all flooded and the town was plunged into darkness in the power failure and the 5FM Music Festival aborted the first night and did it's best to salvage the millions invested to bring in 30 bands and 20 DJ's. The bridge to Cape St Francis (Bruce's Beauties) washed away again and Supers pumped once again once the storm broke. The airports once again resumed flights and those delayed began to scramble for the first seats available to move on to the US Open, coming up next.

You'll have to check the www.billabongpro.com website to try unscramble everything that went down in these few crazy days we survived. With all our heads still spinning the only excuse I can offer for this one-piece summary on the Billabong Pro is “only in Africa!” This place is not for sissies and what we went through down here will be forever etched into our memories as one of the most extreme and unique Billabong Pro's EVER! Whether there will be an event here next year and who the sponsor will be, remains to be seen. Billabong's status as a trading company is uncertain and only time will tell whether the company will survive. 

 But so be it, and if it is the end, then what a note to end on. Christian Surfers SA were amazing when the storm hit and we went into disaster-mode. I think God looked upon us in many areas of this testing week down in the Eastern Cape – protecting surfers and residents alike.And so to all who made this trip possible a huge thank you. Who knows where the Pro Tour and South Africa will stand next year.

I'm back now, so come get your orders in so I can do some glassing  - I need some summer weather and some surf for myself!

MADEAconcept project - small boards with an attitude

A side project for sure, but nevertheless an interesting one, was our 2nd round of MADEAconcept boards for a large event in France.

Even though the  MADEAconcept boards are smaller than conventional surfboards they take just as much time to produce as a regular surfboards.  The boards seem bullet proof whilst still giving the correct flex/stiffness patterns that are required for this sport.  We used our own in house expertise in composites to give the correct mix of foam density, epoxy resin, and carbon fibre cloth.  The fact they don't actually fit on any of our equipment is the most annoying aspect of making these boards when most of the work is done by hand!

We manufactured a custom rocker bed to maintain accuracy as the small board tried to flex as the resins cured; it was like creating a living creature that required all hands on deck (literally) to make sure things were perfect - all thanks to the expertise of Phil Hodge and Nick Williams, and several other old hands kicking around this place who totally know what they are doing, and of course let's not forget our very accurate CNC cutting machine - but it has no feelings anyway (but don't tell Phil that).

A fun but time consuming project, with plenty of more orders to come from these MADEAconcept boards!

For more info on this project please just give us a call.

E

Mini-Bugs Contest Results

MINI-BUGS

Pre Teen Surf Event

HUGE TURNOUT FOR MINI-BUGS PRE TEEN SURF EVENT

July 7th saw the annual MINI-BUGS pre teen surf event take place at Sennen Cove, Cornwall.

This years’ event attracted an amazing 71 entrants. As well as the 3 main divisions –

BEETLES (12 and under) ANTS (10 and under) and FLEAS (8 and under), there was also an

expression session involving a number of British Junior Squad under 16’s. The contestants

were all in it for the fun but also gunning for the prizes on offer donated by key players in the

UK surf industry.

“The idea of the event is to bring together all of the stoked and enthusiastic pre teens from

around the country and essentially give them a platform to have fun, make friends and

learn. There’s also the element of introducing them to competition formats and of course the

amazing prize fund is a real bonus.” Contest Organiser Joel Gray from Surf Solutions

Competitors surf 2 qualifying heats with their best scoring wave counting from each. The

top 4 surfers from each division then make the final and battle it out for top BEETLE, ANT

and FLEA. Head Judge Sam Wakerly “The standard this year has again really jumped up,

especially in the ANTS (10 and under) division where we were really able to award some high

scores for some proper surfing moves. It was impressive!”

The day also saw the World Cockroach Championships in which the mini surfers take on the

Swell boards and give their best ‘dying cockroach’ impression whilst surfing the wave.

Although conditions were more like Autumn than summer with strong winds, rain and an

increasing swell, the young surfers still filled the beach at Sennen Cove with stoke and

enthusiasm. With entrants coming from as far afield as Newcastle upon Tyne, Jersey, Wales,

London, North Devon, South Devon and all over Cornwall they were hungry for a day in the

waves.

“ I had an amazing day & great experience surfing alongside some great surfers.” Rhys

Northcott (Saltash) said after competing in the ANTS division. Last years’ ANTS Winner

Gabriel Ley travelled down from North Devon. “I loved the comp and I'm pumped for the

MINI-BUGS next year. It was really fun to surf with all my mates in a friendly comp again.”

This year Gabe moved up a division and had to settle for 2nd place in the BEETLES after

Cieran Hughes from Wales took the top spot with a convincing display of wave choice and

power turns. His prize included a custom 4th (Luke Hart) Surfboard as well as an all expenses

surf-coaching trip to Portugal in December courtesy of Surf Solutions (www.surfsolutions.tv)

and The Surf Experience (www.surfexperience.com) The stoked winner said “It’s the most

groms I've ever seen at a contest. It was like a grom army. Everyone got a goodie bag for

entry which had more stuff in it than most other comps' final prizes. I was blown away by the

prizes, all the winners got a custom surfboard! No other comp I've been to has prizes like that.

I got a bag full of clothes and surf bits, a custom 4th Surfboard and the main prize, AN ALL

EXPENSES COACHING TRIP TO PORTUGAL IN DECEMBER WITH THE U16S CREW!

SUPER STOKED!! Roll on December, it’s going to be the ONE.”

The ANTS was decided on a count back after a tie between Stanley Norman from Bude and

Joseph Morriss from Wales. In the end Joseph was victorious due to a superior single highest

wave and the prize of a custom FLUID JUICE surfboard (www.fluidjuice.co.uk) also headed

back to Wales along with his beaming grin. “I couldn't believe I won the ANTS section. It was

a tie between me and my Surf Solutions team mate, one of my best friends and awesome

surfer Stanley. It came down to a single wave score and I was super stoked!!! The prizes are

awesome with goodies from the surf companies. I can't wait to get my custom surfboard from

Fluid Juice...what a prize. The MINI-BUGS competition is the best comp for groms out there

with loads of different fun activities as well as the main events.” (Joseph Morriss)

The FLEAS again saw a Welsh victory with young Ejay Cogger stealing a win with some

critical rides just ahead of Bude’s Bertie Norman. As well as his backpack full of goodies

he also will be ordering a custom surfboard courtesy of NT Surfboards. “As it was my first

surf competition to even get to the final was amazing for me. But when Joel was reading out

the results and announced that I had come first in the FLEAS I was so stoked. And to have

won a new custom surfboard and receive so many gifts in my prize bag I am still lost for

words. I cannot get this smile off my face. This is one day I will never forget” Ejay Cogger

Imogen Jones from Newquay took the TOP GIRL award after her Round 1 performance and

Bertie Norman from Bude clinched the coveted World Cockroach Championship award. A full

list of results is below.

The EXPRESSION SESSION took place in two parts with a heat just before the finals as well

as a session the previous Thursday that had been videoed in great waves. The invited surfers

represented the best Under 16’s in the country.

“I found it a real privilege to be invited to compete in the expression session and it felt really

cool to have the groms looking up to us as I remember being in their shoes and hopefully we

can give them an insight as to where they would like to go! I thought the prizes were super

generous and it definitely worked and gave the groms some incentive to give it their best

shot!” Ed Smith (GB Junior Squad member and Expression Session Saturday winner).

The other prizes were reserved for the video’s session. After reviewing the video footage and

taking into account comments from Pro Surfers Nicco Von Rupp and Reubyn Ash the Power

Move award (and crate of MONSTER ENERGY) went to Angus Scotney. The main prize of

a QUIVER (www.quiversurfboards.co.uk) surfboard went to the Raddest Move, which was

awarded to St Ives’ 13-year-old Harry De Roth for a stylish slob air.

“Overall this event was a massive success and it could not have happened without the

generous support of those that supplied the prizes as well as the staff on the day – namely

Sam Wakerly, Paddy Daniel and Holly Donnelly. From a coaching point of view I’m genuinely

excited at the prospect of such a strong movement of pre-teens in the UK. There’s no reason

why one of these MINI-BUGS will not be competing on the WCT one day in the future” Joel

Gray

A special thanks must go to the following: Surf Experience, Quiver, 4th Surfboards, Fluid

Juice Surfboards, NT Surfboards, VANS, DC, RIP CURL, FCS, GORRILLA, XCEL, O&E,

NORHTCORE, CARVE / SURFGIRL, WAVELENGTH, SURFERS SKIN AND XPOSE as well

as Sennen Surf Centre and Surf Solutions.

BEETLES (12 and under)

1. Cieran Hughes (Wales)

2. Gabriel Ley (N Devon)

3. Garin Clay (N Devon)

4. Jordan Zervas (Newquay)

ANTS (10 and under)

1. Joseph Morriss (Wales)

2. Stanley Norman (Bude)

3. Jack Codd (Wales)

4. Finn Collins (Newquay)

FLEAS (8 and under)

1. Ejay Cogger (Wales)

2. Bertie Norman (Bude)

3. Jake Arrowsmith (N Devon)

4. Harvey Barkey (St Ives)

TOP GIRL PERFORMER

Imogen Jones (Newquay)

WORLD COCKROACH CHAMPION

Bertie Norman (Bude)

EXPRESSION SESSION

SATURDAY

Ed Smith (Liskeard)

POWER MOVE

Angus Scotney (ST Mawgan)

RADDEST MOVE

Harry De Roth (St Ives)

Day 5 at the Ballito Pro

After another 7am start with the remaining two heats of the Round of 48 we finally began to feel as if the tide was turning in what has been a pretty testing event. Tough conditions in the form of onshores and spring tides have chipped away at any time credits we had in hand initially and everyone has had to stay focussed and look to the positives of life on tour.

Warm early morning sunrises greet us each day

And so we moved into the No Loser Round of 24 where three-man heats gave some respite to our surfers.  This round is a kind of two part phase which works like this : The winners move straight thru' to to half-fill eight man-on-man heats (round of 16), while 2nd and 3rd placed surfers are reshuffled into man-on-man sudden death heats.The winners of these heats filling the round of 16 match ups.

Moving straight thru with their wins were, Tomas Hermes (BRA), Travis Logie (ZAF), Torrey Meister (HAW), Adriano de Souza (BRA), Jordy Smith (ZAF), Nat Young (USA), Glenn Hall (IRL) and Alejo Muniz (BRA).  Conditions were probably the best we've seen as instead of the early morning offshores swinging round to become onshores we were blessed by a gentle “scout cell” of offshore south westerly wind coming through a good 30 hours ahead of the expected next storm front which is set to spoil Sunday, the final day of the Mr Price Pro. So the continuing 4'-5' swell was cleaned up nicely and heats ran smoothly in the hot sunshine much to the delight of big crowds. We eventually eneded two heats shy of the round of 16 as hoped and so Glenn Hall (IRL) and Alejo Muniz(BRA) are the only surfers without heat matchups yet for this stage of competition.

Lunchtime commentary view

Stopping short allowed for spectators to slip off the beach without missing any surf action and make their way a couple miles up the coast to Salt Rock beach where Mr Price puts on a massive  two day music extravaganza, FREE! South Africa's top bands and DJ's perform on a huge stage, on the beach from 4pm until midnight on both nights and last year we had daily crowds of 20 000 people hanging out in groovy beach party mood. There is a very small police presence in this affluent coastal town and no incidents have ever sullied the vibe making it a major drawcard for those not especially into the biggest surfing event in South Africa.

Nine hours lie ahead to complete the event and so one more early start is needed in an effort to lave just semis and final for Sunday. With two man heats for the remainder of competition it is visually easier understanding for those people not familiar with competitive surfing and we have exciting match-ups to come:

Tomas Hermes vs Nathaniel Curran

Travis Logie vs Nathan Hedge

Torrey Meister vs Brian Toth

Adriano de Souza vs Pat Gadauskas

Jordy Smith vs Nate Yeomans

Nat Young vs Alex Ribeiro

Glenn Hall vs     ???

Alejo Muniz vs  ???

Day 4 @ Ballito Pro - Quiver glasser Nick Williams gives his daily commentary on the comp

Day 4

After the blast from the evening before when the south-westerly came through, we woke super early to have brekko and head across to get the remainder of the round of 96 completed and smash on through the next round of 48 as we have a lot of time to make up.

Adriano de Souza & Brazilian support crew

7am and the first heat of the day was underway and we ploughed through each heat turnover as quickly as possible , nailing 19 halfhour heats in choppy fulltide conditions only made contestable due to the increase in swell from yeaterday's weatherfront. All of the morning heats had seen clean 4'-5' faces although not many rideable tubes but an abundance of excellent scores were award throuhgout the day. There are a few faces that are now looking like possibilities as finalist, although of course it is always a guessing game in trying to predict what kinda curve-ball Mother Nature will throw, but aside form the obvious, there are new faces that are definitely in with a shot.

Mobbed:  Jordy Smith

Number 1 seed Adriano de Souza seems to be a half man-half board mutation that sees him surfing flawlessly no matter what kind of wave he has under him. Jordy Smith stole the show in the afternoon, first by beginning his heat 300m across the rocks at Willard Beach to the right of the contest area in front of the tower and then casually paddling through the turbulent divider of rocks, despite the heavy swell. His timing couldn't have been better as he casually stroked into a perfect set and rode to the beach pulling an air 360 just off the sand to earn an 8.30. By the end of the heat he had a couple of upper 7's and even a 9.14, in a show of greatest ease. There is another Brazilian though who has awoken a lot of interest with his crazy surfing, who goes by the name of Peterson Crisanto. A betting man would stake a lot on this youngster who I feel is a certainty to make the World Tour in the near future. Beyrick de Vries and Travis Logie are the only Saffas moving through with Jordy but other notable performances came from the likes of Torrey Meister (Haw), Nat Young (USA), Jack Freestone (Aus), Tiago Pires (Prt), Tomas Hermes (Bra) and Brian Toth(Pri), to name just a few.

At the Oakley  “One Wave Wonder” affair Grant “Twiggy” Baker walked away with the win for the second consecutive year for his fearless surfing at Cloudbreak on Fiji during the recent World Tour event. He is a fantastic ambassador, not only for all things South African, but also for the Big Wave movement and some of us made it out by the skin of our teeth as the tequila began to flow freely.

It's an exhausted crew of Officials who dragged down to supper tonight and then wilted off to bed thereafter, as it's another early start in the morning. Alejo Muniz (Bra) will surf in the second heat and along with Peterson Crisanto are my two dark horses in with a shot for the title this year – on presentform, that is.

For the remainder of the Mr Price Pro I see early fulltide starts with offshore changing to lowtide onshores – kinda opposites for what would be preferred, really. So there is nothing certain on the cards . The www.mrpricepro.co.za site will give you the live link to tune in wherever you are and give you the chance to try predict  a winner.

MINI-BUGS 2012 Expression Session

MINI-BUGS 2012 Expression Session from surfsolutions on Vimeo.

Expression Session vid from last night. The winner will be announced tomorrow at event held down in Sennen Cove.

There's a small prioze for best POWER MOVE (crate of Monster) and then we (Quiver Surfboards) is donating a top prize of a custom board for single RADDEST MOVE (Must be completed);

Day 3 at the Ballito Pro

Day 3 . . . . . . hmmmmm!

Muscroft trying to figure it from the competitors area

A shocker of a start to the day with 2' max on multi-angular mini peaks, still unsettled from yesterday's strong onshore. Strange for the overnight offshores to not tidy up yesterday's mess but I guess all I can say is that it was the same for all four competitors in the heats, but for us it was disapointing to see Nic have a bad heat and be one of the first casualties of the day. There isn't much consolation in knowing just how bad the surf was but the two who managed to get the most out of the heat were defending Champ Pat Gadauskas and Eric Geiselman. And so it continued for the next two heats before the heats began to deliver some higher score availability.

Granger Larsen, Adriano deSouza (#1 seed for this event), Jordy Smith and Hodei Collazo were all heat winners as well as, with an incrible performance, Peterson Chrisanto from Brazil took the win in what turned out to be the last heat of the day, with an 8.90 and a 9.00. That heat went so dead that  it was a very quick and easy call to make and tomorrow wil be another early on with us on standby for another 07:00 start(local time).

We still have 28hrs of surfing ahead of us to complete the Mr Price Pro over 4 days so there is still a heavy schedule to keep. The light winds have dropped off altogether and the spectators on the beach have been watching some crazy free-surfing with loads of sick airs of every description being thrown. Cape Town is at present being blasted by a heavy storm and we expext the SW wind to come humping through here later this arvo bringing with it by morning hopefully, a chunk of swell. We don't expect anything near last year's heavy conditions but we could be in the 4' – 5' range.  But for those out of this event already there is a mad scramble to get down to J Bay as there are cooking waves at the moment and with the storm already hitting Supers there are predictions for 6.5m of swell for the first half of next week to get the Billabong Pro moving. The guys are amping!

Ain't life great Nick? (the view from his room where he relaxes
after a day commentating at the Ballito Pro in South Africa)

So all of us are making the most of our stop-start-stop days and today we have all scored a few waves. I'm tapping this in after my 3rd session and need a siesta in the muggy calm-before-the-storm. Tonite is the Oakley One Wave Wonder awards evening at Zimbithi Golf Club with the winner getting £4000 for the wave voted best in an online poll, while the videographer will walk away with an all expenses paid trip for two to Indo! Ain't life sweet?

That's it for today


Nick

Day 2 summary from Nick Williams at the Ballito Pro

Day two saw us get thru nine heats before both onshore winds and a filling tide closed us down early. We had hoped for at least 12 heats  - the halfway point of the round of 96 but competitors and surfers alike were struggling in their respective jobs. Today was however a fun day on the tower for the contest to get moving for real and altho' the waves were head-high, their were plenty of excellent category scores coming from the judges.

Defending Champ Pat Gadauskas, Royden Bryson, Nic Muscroft with Contest Director Colin Fitch

Standout performance of the day was Bernado Miranda from Brazil  winning in the same heat as the shock destuction and subsequent elimination of Brett Simpson. It coincided with the continued deterioration of conditions and the event only continued for one more heat, finishing with one more stellar performance of advancies, Torrey Meister from Hawaii ahead of an on-fire Jadson Andre from Brazil, in heat 9. 


So with the defending Mr Price Pro Champion Pat Gadauskus coming up next the courtesy of getting agreement from all surfers was extended and altho Pat was okay to get out there, it waas otherwise agreed that with the possibility of running maybe only one or two more heats before it was certain to be called off, it was no loss to stop a couple heats early.

What that means for us guys is that we now have a 7am local time call for start of the next heat featuring alongside of Pat Gadauskas, we have Quiver rider Nic Muscroft, South Africa's Royden Bryson and Eric Geiselman from the USA. It's an early one (06:00 UK time) for the factory crew to tune in and it is so because of Wednesday being the worst of the week's prediction surf-wise.

Tonite is braai night for the officials at local judge and surfboard manufacturer Jonno Hutchinson's porzie, just up the lane from the contest site and it is an annual look-forward-to evening of mellow hospitality of the highest degree in their beautiful garden around the pool. As it's for the ASP crew it won't be a late one but dynamite comes in small packages, so it's bound to be a good one.Catch up tomorrowNick

x

First day at the 'office'

First day at the office

Tiago Pires talking to Head Judge Richie Porter and Contest Director Colin Fitch 

The trip out of Newquay started simply enough  - train up to Paddington and then out to Heathrow and check-in was straightforward, but then, with a Turban clearly too tight and, therefore constricting brain function, the gentleman at zone Y for oversize baggage tried to feed Nic Muscroft's two new contest boards through the conveyor scanner SIDEWAYS! Not a great idea in my mind and so he got a piece of it for free. Then, slightly rattled after the attempt to try fold them in half, I forgot to take a couple yoghurts out of my Laptop bag when going thru' security and was pulled aside. 

This allowed the staff further opportunity and a swab of my bag set off alarms and I was taken aside for anti-terrorist police to quietly come over to perform further swab tests and again the alarm was awakened. “We  have established extensive chemical traces in your bag Sir!”, so off we walked for a little chat to establish exactly who I was and what I do. It didn't take long for them to be satisfied that I had taken my computer in to work for Pani to have a look at and that in the laminating bay at Quiver my bag had absorbed a large dose of resin, epoxy, acetone, catalyst, styrene, xylene and accelerator W and so the machine thought it had hit the jackpot and had been trying to pay me out. At last I was through and onto the flight.

Arriving in Ballito, Nic came over and we talked shop for a while. He was really stoked to be back in South Africa, taking hold of his new boards and I headed off into the country to catch up with family for the rest of the weekend before returning to the Boathouse – the ASP base for the Mr Price Pro.

Monday morning we were up at 5:30 to get our brekko down and headed across the little beachfront town to the contest location to run three trials heats to find 2 wildcards to get into the opening round of the main event. Those two were Michael February aka”M-Feb”, the SA Pro Junior #1 and former WCT surfer Davey Weare. The surf was only 3' - 4' with a light crosshore wind blowing but it was eventually decided that although the conditions are looking a little sketchy for later in the week, we would still call the contest off for the day as the judges were struggling to find scores above 7's. 

The call is a three-way affair of agreement between the surfer's rep, the Contest Director and the Head Judge. So it was a quick first day for us to get the contest going, but here we are, ready to start the Round of 96 tomorrow morning at 07:15 local time – one hour ahead of UK time. There is a live webcast available on www.mrpricepro.com as well as loads of other info you may like to see but I will try to give you a bit of an inside angle each day – no promises though as Africa is a wild place where anything can, and does happen.

To Nick M from Nick W

Our master laminator, Nick Williams handed over our 2 boards for Nic Muscroft back in S.A this weekend.  Nick W's packing did the treat with no dings or damage in sight.  Nice work Nick!!  Now, we just can't wait to watch them in action in the comps.