Kohl Head Wins Out

WHILST Kelly Slater was busy winning 10 world titles and dominating everything going -- including all the media coverage -- a short hop over the continental United States saw Kohl Christensen equally engaged... winning the third stop of the Big Wave World Tour in 40ft plus seas at Nelscott Reef. The 6th Nelscott Reef Big Wave Classic again saw a day of perfectly brutal surf. You'd expect to catch it 'on' during a long holding period but up there in Oregon everything seems to always fall into place right on cue. New to the Big Wave World Tour for 2010, this was the first time that Nelscott had been a pure paddle affair. In catching the biggest swell of the season competitors charged the largest waves ever paddled here. Word at one point was that it might be 'too' big and on first inspection all you could say was 'big' and 'that's a hell load of whitewater'. Open ocean swells averaging out a 22ft 18 seconds meant the day started out with pretty raw conditions producing waves of 40ft plus. After a slight cooling period in the morning, organizers decided to start the contest at ten o'clock. Faced with a gigantic beachbreak with no channel it took almost an hour for the first heat to make it into the water. When finally made it out they were greeted with perfect conditions and nare a breath of wind ruffling the face. It was on. © 2013 Bella Hunt

After an amazing day of dropping into bombs on the reef, six men made it to the finals. Battling it out during the hour long heat were: Kohl Christensen, Chris Bertish, Kealii Mamala, Rusty Long, Peter Mel, and Jamie Sterling. Kohl Christensen emerged victorious, taking second place in the rankings overall, marginally closing-down the runaway leader Jamie Sterling who's made the final of every event this year and hits atop the rankings with 2509 points to Kohl's 1300. Unlike 'normal' pro surfing, results are not shouted a mile out to sea so there is a genuine air of expectancy and outpouring of emotion when the winners are announced. © 2013 Bella Hunt

It is not like this every day in Oregon. One of the richest coastlines in the world for swell is plagued by onshore winds. "I'm ecstatic right now" Said Jamie Sterling, current Big Wave World Tour Leader and third place finisher. "We were blessed with really neat swell and epic conditions here in Oregon, this doesn't happen too often in the Pacific Northwest. Paddle surfing is still raising the bar with so much camaraderie." "Danilo Couto performed 50 rescues and I took 20. It was sick, everyone gave an helping hand. It will be to nice to see this evolve and become a really high profile event with prize money in excess of $100,000." "For me a really good event, the hat-trick, three events three finals."

"This is one of the most difficult places to do what we just did." Said Gary Linden, Big Wave World Tour Director. "The semis finals heats were real mayhem with extremely high levels of intensity. Just staying in the lineup was tough with sets taking out boards at the buoy. "We really didn't know what we would get, we just timed it right on the nub. It was just amazing out there, so clean, the guys kept charging and Kohl Christensen was just an animal out here. I told him at one point to surf safe, he just said 'I'm having a blast'. © 2013 Bella Hunt

NEXT stop on the tour is the big one at Mavericks (just look at last year) the inaugural "The Jay at Maverick's Big Wave Invitational." Kelly Slater has confirmed his intention to compete and the holding period opens on December 1st 2010. The 24 inviteees are: Carlos Burle (Brazil) Mark Healey (Hawaii) Chris Bertish (South Africa) Grant Baker (South Africa) Peter Mel (Santa Cruz) Shane Desmond (Santa Cruz) Greg Long (San Clemente) Shane Dorian (Hawaii) Anthony Tashnick (Santa Cruz) Dave Wassel (Hawaii) Jamie Sterling (Hawaii) Kenny Collins (Santa Cruz) Alex Martins (San Francisco) Grant Washburn (San Francisco) Ryan Seelbach (San Francisco) Darryl Virostko (Santa Cruz) Zack Wormhoudt (Santa Cruz) Shawn Dollar (Santa Cruz) Ryan Augenstein (Santa Cruz) Rusty Long (San Clemente) Tyler Smith (Santa Cruz) Nathan Fletcher (San Clemente) Matt Ambrose (Pacifica) Kelly Slater (Florida) © 2013 Bella Hunt