Bede Durbidge - The calm before the competitive storm!
With the 2011 World Tour kick off at the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks this Saturday, March 26th,
Bede Durbidge has penned his thoughts and predictions for the coming season. Here’s a post from Bede’s Blog for insights into what to expect in next week’s event.
“It’s going to take an even greater effort than we saw from Kelly Slater in 2010 for whoever ultimately stands top of the rankings at the end of this year. If there’s not at least a 10 per cent boost in the performance level it will take to capture this year’s world title, I’ll be surprised.
I believe we could be on the verge of a breakthrough year in high performance competition surfing.
There’s a bunch of reasons for holding that view.
The guys have got their heads around the ASP’s tweaking of the tour for starters. Personally, I like the changes, and I know a lot of the others do too.
It was pretty stressful for a lot of guys with the mid-year cut-off but it did add to the excitement of the tour for the media and fans.
In the second year, and with the changes bedded in, you’re going to see more guys looking to surf on the edge and really going for it.
Equipment is better too. Guys are training harder. But, most of all, there will be a further boost in performance this year simply because there’s just so much awesome talent on the tour right now.
Just think about the pure ability of so many of the guys on the tour.
Dane and Jordy really stepped things up last year. They made quite a statement and really put it on the established guard to match their performance.
But it wasn’t like Jordy and Dane were the only guys you had to be worried about last year.
I thought Owen Wright had an outstanding first season, and Jadson Andre also really made an impact.
When it comes to 2011, I think Dane will lead the charge this year.
In my eyes, he’s definitely doing the most radical surfing among the tour guys.
The usual suspects will be there again.
Taj is off to a flyer by winning the Burleigh Breaka Pro (again!), Parko is seriously motivated after last year and Mick is looking sharper than ever (he has to be favourite for that Fastest Surfer award via those GPS tracking devices).
Every year there’s always at least two Aussies seriously contesting for the title all season, and 2011 won’t be any different.
I hope to be there or thereabouts with the likes of Taj, Mick and Parko and I reckon you can expect to see Owen go up another level this year too. He’s very mature for his age and his surfing just keeps getting better and better.
And then there’s Kelly.
What will he do?
Who knows with Kelly?
That’s part of his mystique and he plays on it beautifully.
Personally, I think he’ll see how he goes at Snapper and then play it event-by-event. He can afford to take an attitude of ‘I’ll just see what happens’. One thing I do know for sure. If he’s winning events, he won’t walk away. Nobody does. But especially Kelly; When he puts that contest singlet on, he just goes into “smash ‘em” mode.
Personally, I considered last season a great year for me. I made two
finals and a semi. I really wanted to make the top five again but unfortunately
missed out by one spot. But considering I missed the event in Portugal to be at home for the birth of my daughter, it was definitely worth it.
The Quikky at Snapper will lay down the marker for what to expect from the tour’s best this year, and I’m predicting that’s where you’ll see the first evidence of the bar being raised.
We’ve had some great waves already this summer at Snapper and Kirra, so I’m sure the run of swell will continue and we will score. The bank kind of disappeared for a couple of weeks but it’s coming back now just in time for the start of the event.
I’ve had a great break since Pipe. I went up to Straddie for Christmas and saw my family and then had a few days down at Byron just relaxing with Tarryn and Willow. I swung into training straight after New Year’s with Gary (‘Kong’ Elkerton) and my shaper Wayne (McKewen).
Gary has just hammered me for seven weeks to get my fitness right I’ve had some really quality time working with Wayne on my boards and technique.
I also managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the Great Barrier Reef to chase a cyclone swell. We absolutely scored! I was expecting pretty mellow waves around the four to six foot range but it was solid eight foot with some bigger ones. The power of the waves was just crazy. I felt like I was surfing in Tahiti. They were definitely the heaviest waves I’ve ever surfed in Queensland.
Bede
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