the ancient riot | ⚓ Surf Travel Blog ⚓
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cam told me to put “a birds” and i provided
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Waterman305, Maui, Hi 2013
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United by FATE !
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Le petit minou by stark56 on Flickr.
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Bruce charging Cloudbreak
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John John Florence not backing down on a solid wave at Cloudbreak. He was one of a few ASP Top 34 surfers who joined the free surfers and charged Cloudbreak when the Volcom Fiji Pro was called off.
Photo: Joli
Best.Wave.Ever.
Dave Wassels on what many called the wave of the day, Fiji mega swell 2012, Cloudbreak. Photo by Brent
Reef Macintosh. One of the real winners at this years Volcom Fiji Pro. The event organisers decided not to run the competition in big but perfect waves and the free-surfers took full advantage of the epic waves at Cloudbreak.
Danny Fuller, hands in the air at Cloudbreak, Fiji.
Photo: ASP/Kirstin
Ramon Navarro; the Cloudbreak Conquistador.
Photo: Bielmann/SPL
The ASP has been getting a lot of hate recently. A lot of hate. New media has given surfers the chance to vent their real feelings about the ASP. It was getting a bit old. The Volcom Fiji Pro has changed all that. Volcom and the ASP got massive credit for bringing a dream wave back to the dream tour after the ASP and the surf industry received criticism for holding WCT contests in fun but average beachbreaks for a number of events. This year is no exception with Jeffrey’s Bay getting dropped as a venue for the dream tour and Rio and Santa Cruz getting the nod. The bottom line is, the best surfers in the world are not surfing the best waves in the world.
Reef MacIntosh free surfing Cloudbreak 2012 during the Volcom Fiji Pro.[/caption]
Enter Cloudbreak 2012. When the Globe WCT Fiji 2008 event was moved from Cloudbreak to Restaurants, free-surfers and those competitors already knocked out took to Cloudbreak. The footage from Cloudbreak that day eclipsed the contest itself. Even the final between Kelly Slater and CJ Hobgood looked lame in comparison to the massively perfect barrels that went down at Cloudbreak. The thing is they were towing in at Cloudbreak.
Since then the size of surfers’ balls have grown exponentially. Surfers charge so much harder now then they did then. So what is stopping Volcom and the ASP from running the event in massive, difficult and mind-blowing perfect waves at Cloudbreak? Why won’t they give us a spectacle? I want to see the some pros caught inside by a set while being comboed by their colleague and then clawing their way into the lead with pure grit, determination and a 10 point barrel as the heat-end siren sounds.
It seems once again that the ASP don’t give a stuff about what the people want. With epic conditions at Cloudbreak they chose not to run the contest and to leave it to the free-surfers to get all they glory. The swell of the year coincides with the event and they choose to call it off after two heats. It seems as if, after last years debacles, the ASP is taking Oscar Wilde’s words to heart, “the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about” which could be paraphrased as “there is no such thing as bad press”. Because bad press is what they’re getting. Disappointing the people who like to watch surfers surfing the best waves isn’t going to help their cause.
“That is a 9foot board… How big is the wave?” - Matt Wilko during the Volcom Fiji Pro
How could you not want to see the “best surfers” in the world take on this. Reef Macintosh on a BEAST while free-surfing during the Volcom Fiji Pro waiting period. Who are the best surfers now ASP?
Cloudbreak at 20 feet. Photo by Tom Servais
The Volcom Fiji Pro 2012 is the 4th event on the ASP World Championship Tour. Here’s a little teaser of what we may expect of the waves and surfing at Cloudbreak and Restaurants this year. Will Joel Parkinson keep his number one ranking or will someone knock him off.
Cloudbreak, Tavarua, Fiji. Choice venue for the Volcom Fiji Pro 2012.
Restaurants, Tavarua, Fiji. Photo by Tom Servais.
If in the event of the waves being to big or wild to paddle into, the contest directors of the Volcom Fiji Pro 2012 will most likely move around to Restaurants. Restaurants is just as good as Cloudbreak and the surfers will be spending most of their time in the barrel.
