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KELLY WHO?
East Coast Wins Third Consecutive X Game -- without Slater
Pre Event Coverage
Day One Coverage
Day Two Coverage
Special Bonus slideshow
Taylor Knox's 9.5 barrel -- special sequence
Special thanks to the fine photographic skills of Dick Messeroll and Tom Dugan of ESM, who provided all the stellar surf images for this story. Without them, this would be nothing but a bunch of words.--Ed
*****
It's 7:15am, and before most folks have downed their first sip of coffee, East Coast team member Todd Morcom finds himself in familiar territory -- hucking himself over the ledge and into a giant right tube at Puerto Escondido. It spits before shutting him down and sand blasts ten feet out the back of the wave. Cheers. He comes up unscathed and paddles his 6'4" roundtail straight into another one, which he makes. The crowd goes even wilder and the East Coast Dugout snaps to attention.
Tom Chaney, Game liaison and longtime Puerto surfer isn't surprised. "These East Coast guys come down here all year, so they know exactly where to sit and which waves to go on," he says after Morcom's wave. "They're hungry 'cause they don't get much surf at home."
Morcom comes in stoked. "You see that first one?" he asks. "I was going so fast" -- he lifts his elbows and drops his hands, assuming tubestance for effect -- "but the thing was so hollow it just flipped me over inside it."
Regardless, the wave he made is scored a 7.75 (to the dismay of the East Coast Team) and the judging criterion gets set for the day. "Remember Morcom's wave," assistant coach Todd Kline keeps yelling to the judges. This is how the heckling begins in earnest.
Despite a closeout left tube that Pat O'Connell sneaks out of and a stylish barrel by Machado, the first quarter is all quiet on the western front.
Next quarter, six-foot bomb sets seem to come in every 15 minutes or so, and the East Coast is serious. Coach Kechele is barking to Kline who's roaming the lineup on a ski, and it pays off: Pete Mendia gets a 9.0 on a high line left tube across the whole sandbar. CJ Hobgood pulls into one left that's dismissed as a closeout before he somehow squeaks out the front. "Don't write us off yet," coach Kechele tells the judges. "Keep your eyes on the guys."
CJ is as surprised as anyone. "I don't know why that thing let me out," he blurts. At halftime, the East leads the West by almost 10 points, and at the top of the third quarter, they're winning by 30 points. It's smelling a little like a skunk.
But things start to look up for the West in the bottom of the third quarter. Kalani Robb gets ahold of Pat's video camera and starts doing some home footage of his own, getting everyone to say, "Happy Birthday Pat!" -- among other things -- into the lens. It is not Pat's birthday, but that's why the West Coast bench keeps cracking up. Who said surfing's not all fun and games?
And somehow, the fun kinda steps things up in the water, too: Kieran Horn pulls into a ruled-edged right, comes out and finishes off with a giant floater -- much to the delight of everyone except the East Coast Bench. Machado answers with another smooth tube, while both Wardo and Pat O get solid scores, putting the West Coast within two points leading into the last quarter. "This is great TV," everyone murmurs and nods, and the ESPN camera crew knows this, stepping up and getting in everyone's face for reaction shots.
It's still barely 11am, but the final quarter is well underway when Jamie O'Brien gets a perfect, bulbous right tube, board completely gone for multiple seconds. "He thinks he's at Backdoor," Damien Hobgood exclaims from the bench.
Jamie agrees, "I was in it, it sucked in and almost knocked me off, I started pumping again and I snuck out of it
, doggy door -- that's what you have to do at Backdoor, so I was ready." This wave gets Jamie MVP.
CJ gets a smoker as well, and Pat O'Connell asks, "How do they find those things? It looks like all closeouts when you're out there."
Meanwhile, the East still needs a solid score, and Kech is back on the walkie-talkie. "Everyone pull together for Peter," he yells, rallying the troops around the guy who needs the score. Randazzo is subbed in and gets a decent enough score. Teamwork, in surfing -- who knew it actually . . . works? The East Coast have their highest quarter.
Going into the bottom of the final, the West Coast has some spark. Taylor Knox steps up to the plate with a perfect right barrel for a 9.5 -- the highest score of the event -- while Beschen adds a 7.25 to the cause. Alas, though, even though they only need a seven point something, time ticks down -- very loudly, from the East Coast Bench -- and the West are left hanging out to dry.
All this while Kelly Slater is still probably in South Africa. Kechele, one of Slater's longtime friends, makes a call: "I'm sure when he sees this thing he's going to be pulling his hair out and wishing he was here. But honestly, I knew we didn't need him, our team knew we didn't need him, and I think deep down, Kelly knew we didn't need him. It's that much sweeter to do it without him." --Marcus Sanders
For the FULL X Games experience, ABC is picking up the Surfing X Game and will run the Game nationally on Saturday, August 6th along with other X Games events that are happening live in LA. Check it out.
RESULTS:
Most Valuable Player: Jamie O'Brien
Best Barrel: Taylor Knox
Most Radical Maneuver: Keiran Horn
EAST COAST TEAM
Baron Knowlton
Todd Morcom
Damien Hobgood
CJ Hobgood
Shea Lopez
Cory Lopez
Jamie O'Brien
Pete Mendia
Dean Randazzo
Coach:
Matt Kechele
Assitant Coach:
Todd Kline
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Surfline
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