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McCarthy places 2nd to Stewart in the Ledges Pro

posted by Kelly Footit on 5th January 2007

A semi-final result at the recent 2006 SA Champs may not have been the result Mark McCarthy was aiming for but he left the event with the coveted Factory 7 Rider of the Contest Award – a unanimous decision, recognising McCarthy’s consistent stand-out performances through-out the event.

Today, 5th January 2007, the level of competition may have stepped up a notch at the final day of the Water Channel Ledges Pro World Tour event in Maui, Hawaii but McCarthy continued with this recent good form to progress from the trials, through 6 heats (5 of them today), taking out big name riders David Hubbard, David Perez, Guilherme Tamega and other equally good but lesser known riders to secure his place in the final. For those that have seen Mark ride, his result will come as no surprise - on his day, the guy can mix it with the best and today the best were all there. A few new names in the final 8 means that in the grand scheme of the World Title race the few early exits by some of the top contenders now leaves the title wide open and come the Pipe contest there will be some interesting number crunching going on.

The introduction of webcasts to the World Tour this year has meant spongers from around the world have been able to follow this event. For me - it was great to sit back, stick the coverage on full screen and pull a bit of a late night following the event from Round 4 onwards. With Darrel Nelson commentating it felt a little surreal and with Sean Tickner, Suzie Husselmann and Kamala Botha dropping Darrel a few lines I knew at least I had some Saffa company.

Come Round 4, Wesley Fischer and McCarthy were the only South African's remaining with Jonathan Oliff (Rnd 1), Rob Gray (Rnd 1) and Vijay Maharaj (Rnd 2) having exited in earlier rounds. Wesley blitzed his Round 4 heat to set-up a Quarter Final encounter with McCarthy, David Perez (ESP) and Uri Valadao (BRA), however, this Quarter Final is probably a heat which Wesley will best forget as he was literally starved of waves. Valadao won with McCarthy a solid second. The Brazilians were ripping and McCarthy progressed into the second semi, facing 3 of them who were all on form – Valadao, Tamega and Magno Oliveira.

The live scores definitely add to the spectator's experience and the first semi ended as hot as it started. Two Aussies Dave Winchester and trialist Michael Honeybone faced up against two Hawaiians Mike Stewart and the recently crowned USBA champ Jeff Hubbard. Winchester started early with a perfect 10 with a deep, dredging barrel ride which set him up to win and left the others fighting for second. Honeybone wasn't really in it and Hubb looked to be going through with two decent waves and may have secured it if he had landed one of his trademark inverts which he busted out. In Round 4 and in his Quarter Final heat, Stewart left his charge till the dying minute to come from behind and his semi-final proved to be no different - with 30 seconds left on the clock, Stewart stroked into a set wave, powered off the bottom and launched a sick invert to send Hubb into third and secure a place in the final.

Could the second semi live up to the first? McCarthy started strong with one of his big inverts which earned him a 7.5 and set him up pretty securely to progress but as the heat drew on, McCarthy was having difficulty finding a second wave and the Brazilians were starting to bust out. Tamega led for most of the heat with two solid rides including a sweet backflip. Valadao was ripping but was just falling short of the scores required and Oliveira seemed out of sorts but picked up a sweet barrel on his second last wave for a 6.83 which still left him in 4th. McCarthy then got a solid ride for a 4.67 to move into first but Oliviera snagged his best wave of the heat in the dying minutes to propel him from 4th to eventually win the heat.

For those in the second semi it was a quick turn around of about 15/20 minutes till the final and for McCarthy a small reprieve to deal with some cramping which was starting to plague him, having spent much of the day in the water.

The 30 minute final saw much of the first five minutes wasted to a lull with Stewart & Oliviera picking up a string of 1 point rides and again it was Winchester who made the early running. However, this time it was Mike who snagged a deep barrel earning a near perfect 9.83 and invited the others to chase. McCarthy appeared a little quiet in the 30 minute final, catching only 5 waves but it is only 2 to count which he notched up with a big invert and another with two big rolls which moved him up into second behind his sponsor Stewart requiring a 9 to take the lead. Winchester came back with an invert of his own which did not score high enough to improve his position. Stewart then extended his lead further with a solid wave and Oliviera finally came to the party with a solid 7.17 ride in the closing stages but too late to better his second scoring wave. In the end the last two minutes wound down and Stewart rode in on the siren on a solid, non-counting wave to be greeted on the beach by the crowds who included Keith Sasaki who helped chair the champ up to the contest tower amongst groms, photographers and peers.

For the 9 x World Champ it is an excellent result which will be seen as a bit of a comeback and one which he was clearly stoked to win if his celebrations were anything to go by. For Mark McCarthy - it is an excellent result which all South African bodyboarders will be proud of and will no doubt show keen interest in following his progress in the upcoming Pipe contest. If you were to come second to anyone - you'd probably chose Mike.

If there was a statement in any of this - There is life after Taylor & Botha!

Results:

1. Mike Stewart (Hawaii)
2. Mark McCarthy (South Africa, Richards Bay)
3. Dave Winchester (Australia)
4. Magno Oliveira (Brazil)

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