Thanks guys - I put the video up.
http://www.sixty40.co.za/videogallery.php?i=86
Most waves are from a free surf the day before - look for the red rash vest. I watched the webcast of the heat - pretty uneventful apart from a pretty sweet spin in the tube from Damian King and a drop in by Red on White at Backdoor during the opening exchanges of the heat. It seems the only one who called it was Ben Player who was commentating - something along the lines of 'that's him out of the contest'.
I can't guess why it was not called - the drop-in was forced by white (he made as if he was going left and then went right) but that is contest riding. It seemed a bit of a downer considering all the hype and the fact that everyone wanted to see a fair contest with no interferences but that is no reason to not call it.
I was a bit surprised that Jamie got 3rd and after checking the heat scores it appears that local guy Leroy Kaiwi who was White was even unluckier to have one of his scoring waves scored as follows: Judge 1 = 4.3, Judge 2 = 1.5, Judge 3 = 1.3, Average = 2.37. So for those guys who ride the SABA Circuit - be thankful that SABA enforces a 5 man judging panel. Either it was the 4.3 or the 1.5 & 1.3 which were totally out of scale but if a 5 man judging panel was in place then the highest and lowest would have been dropped to ensure the 'right' average was awarded.
In the end it made little difference and the 2 guys who should have progressed did. Just would like to see a 5 man judging panel - this is after all a Grand Slam event.
Results:
1. Damian King (AUS) Yellow - 11.94 points
2. Josh Garner (AUS) Blue - 7.37 points
3. Jamie O'Brien (HAW) Red - 4.27 points
4. Leroy Kaiwi (HAW) White - 3.87 points
