Chris Cote: Peak Surf

Last night I stayed up late watching the Quiksilver Pro on the Internet. My friend Dane Reynolds lost to Taj Burrow, but my personal pick for the winner of the event and the whole shebang, Joel Parkinson, advanced to the semi-finals where he goes up against his friend, rival, and in-form Mick Fanning. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll explain.

The ASP World Tour is the peak of surf competition—basically, the NFL or NBA of surfing. This month, the contest is on the Gold Coast of Australia at a break called Snapper Rocks. I just got back from there. I only got to watch the beginning of the contest because the waves were lame. In surf competition, there have a thing called "waiting period"—they set aside about two weeks of competition time, but they only need four or five days. This way, they can ensure they get the best possible waves for the event.

Anyway, while I was there I interviewed a guy named Joel Parkinson (read the first paragraph to see who he is) for the next issue of Transworld SURF—hopefully he'll win the event and make us look like we know what we're talking about.

What else...

Oh yeah, we're on deadline so I'm not sure why I picked this week to blog. I could probably be a lot more interesting if I had more time to write these things. Today I have to leave work early to go to a film premiere up in Hollywood. I know, sounds really cool, but it's a surf film, so everybody will be wearing corduroy pants and hippie t-shirts—not exactly Hollywood Babylon, but there will most likely be an open bar, so that's cool.