Gallery: Snapper Rocks Super Session, March 4, 2014
A Divine Comedy
On the afternoon of Tuesday March 4, the Roxy Pro ran the four heats of Round Four in what will rival only last year's day at Bells as the greatest day in the history of women's surfing. To put it bluntly, it was pumping. Courtney Conlogue scored what's probably the best barrel any female has ridden at a World Tour event. Carissa Moore put on a show that commentator Ronnie Blakey described as, "The best ever performance in a heat from a female." And as the heats ticked by, and perfect wave after perfect wave drained down the superbank (many unridden), the shoreline and jump rock began to dot with surfers at the ready. Then, with ten seconds still remaining in the final heat of the day, the horde could wait no longer and a crowd enveloped the line-up before the heat buzzer had made its sound.
“Oh my god… That’s absurd…” said Ross Williams over the commentary at the sight of it. "Insta-crowd," exclaimed Pat Parnell. What followed was one of the most ridiculously, crowded and talented line-ups in the history of the superbank.
In his column yesterday, Sean Doherty wrote of the session:
But this thing of great beauty was immediately supplanted by a shitfight of colossal scale once the last hooter sounded. The dolphins quickly turned into sharks. The closing hour of light at Snapper Rocks yesterday, when the gates were opened and the freesurfers of every denomination, colour and creed poured into the lineup, became a feeding frenzy. If you had a door clicker you wouldn’t have counted all the heads bobbing up and down the bank between Snapper and Greenmount, as most door clickers stop at 999. The surf was smoking and the fadings merciless. Kelly got faded, Mick got faded and almost had his head liberated from his shoulders. The guys being faded then faded back. People had to come and dig Rabbit Bartholomew out of the sandbank later at low tide after one collision. The smitings were biblically awful, a collective madness drifted across the lineup like a red fog, and the wounded hobbled up the beach to awaiting meat wagons. The sun mercifully set, but even in the dark three white trails could be seen following each other across a wave like comets on a black wave face."
Forecaster's note: An active monsoon trough and a large high pressure system over the Tasman Sea set up a consistent run of short range ESE tradewind swell that maintained good size this week; culminating in epic conditions for the Roxy Pro on Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Video: Before The Webcast, Quiksilver Pro Free-surfs – Snapper Rocks, March 3-4, 2014
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