Australia wins world surf event
What many hoped would be a celebration of red, white and blue turned out to be a gala for green and gold.
However, the jubilation among the Americans on Sunday afternoon was real and warranted.
A team that, on paper, appeared strong enough to reclaim the gold medal it last won 10 years ago was able to capture only the bronze.
“But that’s no reason to hang our heads,” said Peter Townend, its coach.
To be sure, while Australia emerged as the best of 33 nations competing in the Olympic-style ISA World Surfing Games at Huntington Beach Pier by edging Brazil, the United States at least stated that it is once again taking this team-surfing concept seriously.
Competing in the biennial event for the first time under Townend, a former world champion, and backed by Surfing America, Team USA improved markedly from its 19th placing two years ago in Ecuador.
Since winning the gold in 1996 at Huntington Beach, its best finish had been a sixth in Portugal in 1998.
“Plain and simple, we’ve been taking some heat for not fielding the best team, and I think there’s some merit to that,” said Pat O’Connell, a longtime pro who won the individual bronze in Sunday’s men’s open-division final.
“So that’s the reason C.J. and Damien Hobgood and [Chris Ward] came on. We needed to put our crew, America, up to a level where we’re back in the hunt.”
The Hobgood twins and Ward are stalwarts on pro surfing’s elite World Championship Tour. But outlasting the international hordes fueled by national pride, over eight grueling days in fickle beach-break conditions, is not easy for anyone.
Although the three helped what began as a 10-member team move into third place with two days left, neither made it through Saturday’s qualifying rounds, severely diminishing its gold-medal chances.
Australia carried seven surfers into the final day. “You don’t get to put on the green and gold of Australia very often, so I’m having the time of my life,” said Sydney’s Tom Whitaker, ranked No. 8 in the world.
Brazil carried six into the final day, and the U.S. only four: O’Connell in the open men’s division, Julia Christian and Courtney Conlogue in open women’s and Colin McPhilips in longboarding.
McPhilips put the team at a further disadvantage Sunday when he failed to advance past the morning rounds.
But Australia and Brazil were also losing competitors in repercharge heats, so there seemed hope for a silver.
O’Connell and Christian made their finals via the repercharge rounds. Conlogue, 14, was beaming through the morning fog after advancing straight into the afternoon final.
In the final, held in three- to five-foot, wind-blown waves, she and Christian were pitted against South Africa’s Rosanne Hodge and Brazil’s Jacqueline Silva, a longtime WCT star.
Christian, 24, who is ranked 12th on the WCT, opened with a score of 6.33 out of a possible 10. Silva overtook her by slicing a left to the inside section to score an 8.0.
Christian regained the lead in the best-two-waves heat with a 7.10, scored on a hollow left-hander, and was declared the gold medalist when Silva’s last wave scored a 5.33 to fall one-tenth of a point short.
In the men’s final, Australia’s Luke Stedman opened with a 7.33, but South Africa’s Jordy Smith took control, his winning score of 15.43 buoyed by an 8.50.
It helped South Africa to a fourth-place overall finish.