Check out this pretty slick clip of the hard-charging Vans surf team as they slay some of the best waves to hit the famed reef at Pipeline all year. Featuring Reef McIntosh, Kalani Chapman, and the Gudauskas brothers…
Since Dane has been eliminated in the very first round of the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, we won’t be seeing him surf until the beginning of May when the Tour implants itself on the tranquil island of Tahiti for the Billabong Pro at Teahupoo. Seeing as how Dane is undeniably one of the most exciting surfers to watch, you could say there’s a lot of people bummed out about not seeing him push through to later rounds at Bells. But that’s that, the new format is what it is. He lost a heat and he got eliminated, the contest goes on.
That being said, here’s some of the most recent Dane footage out there to tide you (and us) over till Tahiti.
Dane’s GO Moment At Pipe
Hawaii Feb ‘08
Self-shaped ‘Otter Pop’
Let’s be honest, Kelly Slater shaping his own boards has gotten more banter and buzz than Alana Blanchard’s bikinis. Well, maybe not that much, but it seems like people are making a pretty big deal about it. And rightfully so, to a certain extent.
In this day and age of the shaping machine, most young pros have never even touched a planer or a sanding block. So, to see the world’s greatest surfer doing things for himself is a bit shocking, I can undestand that. But self-shaping-pros have always been the ones who made the drastic changes in board design: Mark Richards, Simon Anderson, et. al. Hopefully self-shaping won’t become a hollow, insincere fad for self-promotion, but serve the rightful purpose of pros being able to put their theories and needs of a board into reality. Spot on ya Dane for ripping that ugly thing apart.
Nobody is going to present Rusty’s Kalani Chapman with a public speaking award, but he is hands down one of the best Pipeline surfers at the moment…Check out his first barrel in this clip—it’s one of those “Oh My God!” moments as he nearly loses it at the bottom of a second reef bomb.
Jamie O’Brien shows some impressive switch skills, Kamalei gets a bomb, John John gets shacked, and more from a late season pulse at Pipeline and Backdoor.
Episode #3 of Nelly’s Magic Moments takes us to the North Shore where Nelly takes us to Archy’s house for dawn patrol (wake up Ford!), out to Pipe and Off The Wall on an macking eight-foot day, then over to Gavin Beschen’s pad for some post-surf irie vibrations.
O’Brien took some seriously big sets (as expected) and did well to hold his rail in and drive through some big tubes only to be pinched on the end sections. In the end O’Brien finished a credible third, but was unable to qualify for the next round of competition.
Tomorrow will see the history books re-written when one of the most exciting professional surfers in the world takes on the best bodyboarders in the world at his home break.
In one of the most extraordinary twists in modern Pro surfing, Pipeline local Jamie O’Brien has been granted a start in the seeded rounds of the Turbo Bodyboards Pipeline Pro.
There was more bloodshed and hold-downs at Pipeline than a UFC match today, as 56 of Hawaii’s best Pipeline surfers put it all on the line at the HIC Pipeline Pro in a bid to secure a place in December’s prestigious Pipeline Masters.
»
