The brook also babbles . . .
SO there he was, The Offsider, with the storm that is his local winter sports beat unleashing in all its hell driven fury. Gigs on last weekend included dog trials at Broadwood (one of his favourite events), a fight night in Kaitaia, offshore powerboats racing at Taipa and a major kids’ triathlon at Waitangi, never mind the 10 league sides, 12 rugby teams, and 14 football teams whose progress in local competition he regularly monitored every year.
It was hard to know which direction to turn and what to cover. This and the lack of space in recent editions had forced him to savagely cut or delay stories left over from the summer scene and left several regular contributors baying for blood.
Disappointed people weighed heavily on his mind as he headed to cover the dog trials in a place which felt like the land time forgot. He watched beside the bush bar as a dog and three sheep cascaded down a steep hill while smoke from the wood fire for the hangi drifted past. A brook babbling away nearby completed the pastoral scene. He could have happily spent the entire day there but the town football side needed a goalkeeper for a 3rd Div derby that afternoon. He ended up keeping a clean sheet too, remarkable considering how many times he’d had to pick the ball out of the net as his team went about relegating itself from the 2nd Div the previous season without a single win to its name.
Naturally, the roving sportsbuster also invested vast amounts of time into following the second leg of 11 on the world surfing championship tour, the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach.
The contest kicked off on day three of the window on Good Friday, and ran until last Thursday, enjoying for the most part clean pumping conditions at the famed righthand walls of Bells and, to a lesser extent, her speedier neighbour, Winkipop. Despite its enviable length, the deceptively sluggish Bells line-up offered two or three big moves on the outside section followed by a series of bunnyhops across a flat section to link up to the inside shorebreak for the all important closeout reo. The men’s event was taken out by Italo Ferreira G Brazil with judges awarding him 9 points for what essentially was one move, the coup de gras on the end of a long, 8’ righthand point break wall. Old Mate described it as the “re-entry of the century”.
Other highlights included the criminally overlooked trans-Tasman rivalry between Paige Hareb G New Zealand and 6x world champ Steph Gilmore N Australia in round 2 of the women’s CT on Saturday morning (Gilmore cleaned up although Hareb put in a relatively respectable showing in the clean 3-5’ waves on offer); the “massacre” of the top 10 on the men’s CT leading into the quarters; Ezekial Lau’s N Hawaii unbelievable paddle-hassling of 2x world champ John John Florence N Hawaii; and the round 3 heat between Ferriera and Toledo N Brazil last Tuesday. The next leg at Margaret River started yesterday.
Of course, good waves at Bells and Margarets also bodes well for the local break and showed autumn was definitely in the house. You could actually get the washing to dry during the day (those late afternoon downpours of previous weeks clearly a thing of the past) as daylight saving ended while nights became longer than days and chill mornings blossomed into balmy afternoons. The first storm of winter arrived yesterday bringing with it thunder, lightning, rain and the coldest wind of the year swirling along the eaves. It whispered, surf. ■ The Offsider is Age Malley. Respond at sports@northlandage.co.nz
sportsbuster Francis