Day 2 Highlights from The Billabong Pro

Whilst not as spectacular as Mondays competition, there was still plenty to get excited about yesterday at The Billabong Pro and the good news is there’s a new pulse of swell coming through today! Here’s the official highlights package:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9NW8-CLB4Y

Sadly they missed two of our favourite moments from the webcast out, so we’ve decided to put them here instead for your viewing pleasure:
The first comes courtesy of Julian Wilson who, only needing only a 1.78 in the last minute of his heat, took off on a pretty promising looking wave, but straightened out to avoid a crumbling section and ended up surfing all the way to the channel sat on his arse. Unfortunately comedy value does not follow speed, power and flow in the judging criteria and the unimpressed judges gave Julian a measly .70 for his effort and sent him packing. You can see his innovative buzzer beater attempt here.

The second came as Jordy was being interviewed about what the commentary team had decided was his near death experience the previous day. I’m not sure who’s idea it was to have the post heat interviews take place floating in the channel this year, instead of on the comfort of the boat as before, but as well as posing various logistical difficulties, I imagine they leave Peter Mel looking distinctly prune-like by the end of the day. After having the cut the interview short initially, so as to paddle over an oncoming set, when the boys resumed Pete insisted on gripping awkwardly onto Jordy’s arm for the remaining 3 and a half minutes of their floating discussion. And whilst the actual content of the interview was fairly interesting, I did spend most of it hoping Jordy was about to erupt and shout ‘Can you just get off me Bru?!’ Watch it here.