RipCurl Search Uluwatu 3rd August 2008
What a day of surfing! Congratulations to Bruce Irons, 2008 Ripcurl search winner. It started from heat one when Bede Durbidge current world number 3, was eliminated and the names at the top of the ratings continued to fall throughout the day. World number 5 Taj Burrow was last of the top rated men to go but he too fell just short of the prize.
The action started on the main peak at 9am and there was some solid waves coming through in the 4-6ft mark. It was a little less consistent than yesterday and heats were won on a little bit of luck. Being in the right place at the right time was sometimes all that it took. Everyone was surfing awesome and there was some mind blowing rides and commited turns every heat.
In the end it was the man Mr Bruce Irons who takes home the coveted trophy and was able to have his turn of spinning the world. In his semi final I watched him pull into one pit that was so deep on the race track section that most of the crowd inlcuding myself, wrote him off. There was a hiss from the wave as it spat a ton of spray and behind that emerged Bruce. He was so deep for so long, it truely was impressive to watch first hand the skill these surfers have riding waves.
The final became an all Hawian affair with Fred Patacchia. and Bruce taking apart the racetrack. Bruce was all over it, his committment to one end section saw him landing on nearly dry reef, making the most of that wave. It was in the last minute that Fred Patacchia took the first wave of the set, leaving Bruce the second one. My eyes were on Bruce as he went balistic, upside down turns and just destroying the wave. He had it in the bag and the celebrations began. Well Done.
Till next time. Scott.
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