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Quiksilver Pro time again, and the hordes descend on Snapper Rocks.  Every Somebody, Nobody, Hottie, Nottie, fashion Leader , fashion Victim,  clean skin, tattoo monster, dreadlocked, shaven-headed, slim, round, young grom, old dribbler and every description inbetween, descends on this tiny little corner tucked in at the very edge Queensland, where you can lose or gain an hour just by crossing Griffith Street.  The Time-travel atmosphere tends to feed the psychotic freneticality of the place, everyone missioning on something, and as usual, into this Vortex, one would find the Madpirate lurking with intent, observing and taking random pics of the proceedings.

Sunday comp start day, and ever mindful of the possibly insane pack of humanity trying to claw out a toehold with a view, Madpirate and the PirateQueen head off early, mouthing incantations to Ghodfree, ( the God of Rock Star Parking Spots).  We arrive at Ground Zero, and already Snapper is a seething mass of humanity, roads are packed, the water is packed, chaos has found its place in the natural order of things.  Humanity rushing about like an ant hive on speed does not deter Ghodfree from weaving his magic, and a parking spot appears right in the designated area, and bonus, it’s also under a huge shade-giving tree.   Madpirate and PirateQueen, High-5 yet another succesful manifestation. A while later the  Madpirate and PirateQueen, having negotiated the purposeful rushers and indolent lurkers, make it to the beach and are staked-out at their 2-metre by .5 meter patch of clearview beachfront turf, fighting off the encroaching penguinesque invaders and ignorant front standers who are given the OI!!…. followed by fierce Pirate Visage, and downward motion finger.  All comply, so fortunately, Madpirate’s cutlass remains sheathed.


Surfing gets going and the Men’s Round One is an exhibition of modern surf styles, with silky smooth-on-rail carving turns, full on raw power hacks, and skate/snowboard inspired aerial moves that get the crowds cheering whooping and wowing, this is the stuff madpirate and the Piratequeen left home for.  A break for the womens round and the entertainment continues, Madpirate recalls a time when womens surfing was a sort of break from the frenetic pace, maybe wander off ad grab a bite kind of thing,  this is no more, womens surfing has quantum leaped the performance bar, and is now a thing of wonder, powercarves with feminine grace, gouts of spray unleashed to the heavens and the age, mainly teenage chicks taking it to the ocean ripping it up and generally going nuts out there WOW !!!

We stay on the beach till just after Jordy’s heat, whereupon, having being beaten into submission by the anvil like heat we retire to Gee’s place to cool down have a beer and watch the contest from the lofty heights of Rainbow Place and Webcast…..  Around 4 ish contest is ending and G-Force and the MadPirate decide to go for a surf, along with 10 gazillion others…..  Afternoon lurk into the seething madness of a multitude of frothing wave chasers at Snapper Rocks, MadPirate  had a fun lil session just off lil Marley with G-Force, we had some  fun waves while watching the crazed mosh pit at the point, pros working on getting dialled for their heats surrounded by hordes of wannebeseens, not one wave to small to have someone getting fins into it, strangely enough in that crowded ocean, the only person who said howdy with a big grommet-worthy smile was Parko, everyone else was way deep into the dark arts of cannabilism, chasing each other ever deeper up the point, clawing and scratching at every lump that resembled a wave. MaPirate drifted down the beach toward Greenmount point  and scored fun rides with a handful of people surfed till dark and came in happy —–

and Indeed it was good