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18 May 2008
Wildcards Rule the Billabong Pro
Teahupoo is on the must-surf list of every enthusiastic surfer out there. But it’s a treacherous place. The waves are big, powerful and heavy, forming in a deep trough out to sea but quickly coming into a very shallow shoreline and breaking over a jagged coral reef. Only the most experienced surfers in the best physical shape should take Teahupoo on, and that’s the reason Billabong holds its Pro competition there.
The Billabong Pro is a real jewel in the crown of Billabong’s line up of surf events, awards and competitions. The surfers themselves tend to have a great time, and they’re unanimously grateful to Billabong for organising the event and for supporting the tour.
But it was an unusual competition this year, and the final came down to two wildcards; Brazilian Bruno Santos and the Teahupoo local Manoa Drollet, fresh from winning Billabong’s Monster Tube award at the Billabong XXL Big Wave competition a couple of weeks earlier.
Consistency & Patience
The big sets refused to roll in, and there was a decent wave only once every half an hour or less. The lack of big hitters was catching many of the big-name surfers out, and there was a huge degree of luck involved in the timing of the surfer’s paddling. The announcers at Billabong Pro’s are banned from announcing an incoming set – that’s actually in the ASP’s (Association of Surfing Professionals) rules – so the right timing was critical, and it played right into the hands of the two wildcard riders.
The event was finally won by the consistent Brazilian Bruno Santos, who lucked out on good waves during his run and managed to make it count when he needed to. On waves rarely reaching more than a metre high Santos became only the second Brazilian in five years to win the event. He beat some of the greatest surfers in the world to claim Billabong’s competition, including Mick Fanning, Taj Burrow and C. J Hobgood.
‘Dream Come True’
Santos beat his co-finalist Drollet by almost 2.4 points, with a score of 9.16 to 6.83, a really terrific score on such reluctant waves. He was also on a board borrowed ‘from some French guy’, claiming that his own 6’3” board was too big for the diminutive waves. The board clearly worked for Santos, and he said afterwards that he wanted to keep it. Santos earned his wildcard by finishing 2nd in another Billabong event, the Air Tahiti Nui Von Zipper Trials, which meant that in total Santos had competed in more than 10 full heats to earn his 1st place – that’s a lot, especially when you consider that he had to sit out 15 days of surfing after injuring himself in one of the earlier trials, requiring 15 stitches.
“It’s the best day of my life”, said the emotional Brazilian Santos, who has never won a major surf tour event before. “I’m really happy, my dreams just came true”.