It was consistency and strong fundamentals which saw Dion Atkinson handed a $12k winner's cheque at the Burton Toyota Surfest on Sunday. While flare in the heats of an in-form Ace Buchan, as well as young hot-shots Thomas Woods and Mitch Crews were crowd-pleasers, it was the consistency and competitive know-how of the Bede Durbidge and Lincoln Taylor mould that advanced to the semis. However, the unlikely element of priority played a crucial role in the event's outcome, stopping Taj Burrow in the quarters and causing an interference ruling against Tom Whitaker in the final.
The conditions at Merewether's right-hand point were sub-par for the opening four days of the week-long event, but come Saturday the murky sky cleared and the mist lifted to reveal a shaky but punchy south-east groundswell, which continued through to Sunday.
Taj's first heat against Dede Suryana had the sidewalk crawling with excitement as he clocked half a dozen waves before the Indonesian had secured his first. He then walked back up the beach, having snapped his board with four minutes still remaining till closing buzzer. "I wanna keep the ball rolling from the Gold Coast," said Taj afterwards, while signing the t-shirts of his adoring public, "Snapper was really fun!"
It was during Taj's quarterfinal heat against Lincoln Taylor that a technicality stopped the current world number two's campaign. Taj, who was holding priority, paddled for a wave and didn't take it, causing priority to shift to Lincoln. The large coloured disk next to the judging stand flipped from white to red, indicating the change. The commentator was halfway through announcing the priority change when the next lump came through. Both competitors turned and paddled. Lincoln had seen the priority change, Taj hadn't. In a man-on-man heat in which a surfer interferes with a competitor who possesses priority, that surfer is only judged on his highest scoring wave. This meant that Taj was unable to reach the 12.67 required and was combo'd. "He was on the inside and thought it was his wave," Lincoln said afterwards. "I didn't want to win like that."
It was Tom Whitaker and Dion Atkinson who found themselves in the final, both of whom had flown under the radar throughout the event, scoring enough to progress but rarely eliciting more than mild interest from the crowd. Or at least, until the final. Just as the hooter sounded a mound rolled through. They both paddled, neither with priority. Both took off, Dion on the inside, Tom on the sectioning shoulder. Narrowly missing a collision, an interference was called against Tom. During a man-on-man heat in which a surfer drops in on a competitor and there is mutual priority, that surfer is penalised and has his second best score halved. With this handicap, Tom was unable to amount enough to reach Dion's score of 12.03. On the podium, Tom said he thought he was on a separate peak and didn't realise he'd been penalised until he'd walked up the beach afterwards. "He just didn’t look back," Dion retorted in awkward response. "Maybe he should turn his head up next time."
-Simon Nicholas
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