In windy but hollow surf at the New Pier in Durban, South Africa, Antonio Bortoletto emerged victorious in the 2007 Quiksilver Goodwave. Scoring an epic wave in the beginning of the heat, Bortoletto kept the lead all the way through the final despite being chased hard by dark horse Gavin Roberts, and finished off strongly with a massive wave near the end of the final, blasting some huge and committed off-the-tops on his way to victory.
Gavin surfed brilliantly the whole day and scored some of the best tubes of the event, and despite surfing a brilliant final with good tube rides and powerful hooks, was unable to keep the momentum going next to a rampant Bortoletto.
Warwick Wright showed his WQS experience with some massive backhand turns in the large surf, but was unable to find any of the high scoring barrels that were getting the high scores. Wok, who flew in from Brazil on contest morning and made his first heat by 12 minutes, fought a day-long battle with fatigue and jet-lag, to ultimately do well in placing third in the final.
Fourth placed Jason Ribbink, who chose to surf without a leash for the entire event, was completely out of the picture in the final after peaking in his semi with two 9-plus point tube rides. Despite holding the inside position for most of the heat he failed to find any of the high scorers in the final, which including a big over-the-falls wipeout on his first wave. Jason, who has been out of the water for 4 months, did well to surf through to the final of this event.
But the event belonged to Antonio Bortoletto. The surfer, who calls New Pier home, showed the speed, timing and innate barrel sense that comes from surfing the wave on his backdoor every day of his life. For Ant, who is a WQS campaigner, it has been a while since big wins ands this is just what he needed to get the confidence levels back to top levels.
“I want to thank all you guys at Quik for the event. It’s a really exciting event when the waves come and one that is really good for the surfers,” said Ant on the victory podium. “It’s also really good having the use of the skis to help us get back out to backline.” A very stoked Ant pocketed a R60,000 cheque for his first place prize.
Wesley O’Driscoll deserved honorary mention in the awards and won a special prize for his semi-final performance. Wes picked up the wave of the contest in the semi, scoring the only perfect 10 of the event for a long and perfect tube, and was left needing a negligible 2.2 ride to get through to the final. Unbelievably he couldn’t find the score and was eliminated from the event.
Quiksilver confirmed their commitment to the event for next year, ensuring that South Africa’s most popular surf contest will continue.
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