ON THE CHARGE

SURFERS BACK IN THE GROOVE

I’M happy to be proved wrong if I don’t get it right.

Our Gold Coast chargers’ ears must have been burning when I queried their passion and maybe lack of drive when overshadowed by the rampaging Brazilian storm in this year’s WSL title race.

Just when our fortunes look like going down the gurgler, the Aussies struck back at Huntington Beach in the US. Once referred to as the graveyard for any aspiring young Aussies, the Huntington event is the carnivale of surfing.

These days as a 10,000 World Qualifying Series event it’s worth hitting the pilings or grovelling to the last drop with a Huntington bunny hop to the sand.

Burleigh’s Liam O’Brien, who has been steadily building momentum with his cool and courteous manner, cut through all the hype with a solid rail-to-rail power game to finish second.

Called the dark horse of the event, his long-time coach Mark Richardson never doubted that sooner or later O’Brien would eventually pull off a great result.

He has rocked up the ratings from 45th to 10th and a real chance to qualify for next year’s tour. O’Brien is a versatile surfer from two feet to towering double overhead and is calculating and confident.

Last year he cracked the top 100 with a good finish in Hawaii.

If he can do the same in November, he will be our new GC face on the 2020 world tour.

Jack Freestone has been struggling on the Championship Tour and needed to accumulate some WQS points.

By finishing ninth at Huntington, Freestone jumped from 14th to ninth on the QS and a decent crack of requalifying in 2020. The other dark horse who sneaked under the radar of the best women in the world was Tweed’s Zahli Kelly.

After a slightly average South African tour, Kelly placed a credible ninth at Huntington, beaten by Courtney Conlogue.

Kelly is in seventh, within the top 10 cut-off position on the WQS to qualify for the 2020 World Tour.

So come on Aussies, come on – we want to see Zahli, Liam and Jack make the world tour cut in 2020 and take down some internationals on the way.

Pictures: GETTY IMAGES Zahli Kelly and Liam O’Brien (inset) have impressed in recent weeks after Surf Scene questioned where the Tweed and Gold Coast talent are.

Surf Scene on July 24.