Snapper Rocks Recap

Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast has got to be one of the best rights in the world when the coast of Queensland is blessed with waves. Unfortunately, no such blessing was on offer this year for the Quiky Pro and the competitors were left surfing mediocre chest high waves. There were definitely some upsets and scores that had me scratching my head but before I get into it let's talk about Fantasy Surfer!!!

Thanks to everyone who signed up for the Pioneers Club on the Fantasy Surfer website. Our club house is 75 members strong and it's only fitting that Jon Mackin, the guy who rallied me to get the Pioneers Club started, is our club leader after the first event with 852 points. Make sure to log on and check out how you did as well as check the message board in the clubhouse. Feel free to post some thoughts or to talk some smack up there. The next event coming up is Bells Beach which has fired the past few years, hopefully it fires again this year. That contest starts at the beginning of April so adjust your team as necessary. As for you Jon you now have a target on you back as the man to beat, good luck...

In the end the two people who are always favorites at this event claimed victories with Steph Gilmore returning to her former self and surfing Snapper better than anyone and Taj starting strong and looking like a title contender for the 14th year in a row. Could this finally be the year that Taj does it??? (Side note; Taj rode Mayhem shaped boards for the entire event. Maybe if he had a Lost under his feet for the past 14 years he'd have a couple of world title too)

There were a couple of upsets that made me take notice. Gabriel Medina, the talk and hopes of many goes down early defeated by Yadin Nicole. Maybe the hype was all hype and maybe we'll have to wait to see Gabriel back on some lefts. The other major upset was local boy Mick Fanning falling to the goofy footed Pupo in round three. Mick had an off year last year and it looks like his streak may continue. I'm willing to bet that Mick losing hurt many of your fantasy team's, it sure hurt mine.

The other thing I will say is that watching Adriano de Souza surf gets harder and harder for me with each passing event. It could be that he takes what should be smooth, clean moves and turns them into choppy, ugly maneuvers. None of his waves seem to have any flow to them and every air reverse he did it seemed like he was bouncing out of them rather than ride out of them. I will say his mid wave claim in the quarters made my stomach turn, I can't stand the de Souza claim!!! I couldn't believe he made it to the finals and I was so happy to see Taj beat him.

Slaters post heat LOSS interview was kind of a let down also. He seemed pretty uninterested in the surf as well as the remaining event on the tour this year. Slater made it sound like if the conditions at Bells are poor he'll be somewhere else chasing better surf. All and all I was stoked to see Josh Kerr get the win over Slater, he earned that!

I thought Jordy was ripping the whole event and I think maybe this is the year Jordy really gets after it. If Bells fires Jordy will be on the podium...

Tons of highlights and heats on demand on Quiksilverlive. If you missed anything it's all there and if you never got a chance to get your Fantasy Team together you can still join the fun. All the info is on the blog below.

I hope everyone found a way to get some waves this past weekend, I've been sorting through the photos from Brazil and it looked like it was damn good up there. I'll be back in the shop and in the water at the end of the weeks.

Thanks for reading and I'll be seeing you soon.