Posted by Rick Civelli | 03.01.2011 | WB Surf Camp News

Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast waits in anticipation…

For those who follow professional surfing, the past 6 months have been a whirlwind of emotion, celebration, triumph , defeat, loss, and anticipation of what will happen next.

Back in November I had the opportunity to fly down to Puerto Rico for the Rip Curl Pro Search “Somewhere in Puerto Rico” to witness surfing history being made, flipped on its head, and then shot out of a cannon. Immediately after watching fellow Rip Curl team rider Steph Gilmore win her 4th World Title in a row (the first of which was in her rookie year as the youngest female pro to win a title), we lost one of the kings of our sport, Andy Irons, to illness. The heaviness of that time was indescribable. The contest was put on hold for a few days in observance and then for lack of swell.

After I flew home during the waiting period, Kelly Slater went on to clinch his 10th World Title by achieving enough points to make it impossible to catch him in ranking, making him arguably the greatest athlete in all of sports history. After a somber run of the final Triple Crown on the North Shore of Oahu, things continued their bizarre path. At the end of December Steph Gilmore was attacked outside of her home on the Gold Coast by a random guy with a lead pipe wounding her head and breaking her wrist. Slater went into hiding in California (most likely to work on and experiment in his secret wave pool facility), and a few weeks later a the Surf Expo in Orlando, Steph announced her joining ranks with Slater on the Quicksilver team.

So here we are at the beginning of a new season, with 2 dominant World Champions, both in attendance, both on the Quicksilver team, waiting for the Quicksilver Pro to begin. There is talk of Slater bowing out after this first competition, but don’t count on it. Even he’s not sure what he’s going to do, or so he says. Steph will most likely come out strong with guns blazing, healed and unfazed by her incident back in December. But, who knows, maybe a wildcard will slip through some heats and come out on top or frogs will start falling out of the sky…stranger things have happened!