A fénix

Toda a gente sabe que Ryan Hardy pessou por algumas "dificuldades" nos últimos anos. Acho que este post do blog do amigo e rival Damian King lança mais alguma luz sobre a gravidade da situação e realça o valor de Hardy, renascido das cinzas.


"Well, Ryan Hardy won the Pipeline pro in 3-5 foot waves yesterday. The final didn't disappoint any of the spectators as all finalists went for it big time.
Second place went to Frenchman Pierre Luis Costes, who opened up the final with an 8.50, giving Hardy a huge task to take the victory.

Hardy waited until the 18th minute of the half hour final to strike.

A long deep tube ride followed by a gigantic roll netted him a 9.43 average that left him still lingering in second position, and then within a few minutes he found another tube and this time back-flipped out of the end bowl.

That sealed the deal for Hardy, also giving him the lead for this year's world tour.

Third place went to Brazilian Guilherme Tamega and fourth place was Dave Winchester from Australia.

ABOUT OUR WINNER

After the presentation the Australians gathered like hens in a chook pen at the Pipeline park, and let's just say the party was officially started. A lot of alcohol was consumed, a lot of love in the air and it was a great night to be Australian.

Hardy himself was stoked, and I was truly happy for him. He has jumped a pretty big hurdle to get himself to where he currently is. A couple of years ago he started hallucinating and was diagnosed with bipolar
(which was made public last year).

When and I first found out I flew to West Oz to visit him in the "Nut House" (as he comically refers to it). It was a real experience for me. Without going into detail of what was he was going through, I really felt bad for his situation and couldn't believe what he was going through.

Last night in the midst of the celebrations I reflected back to the more challenging part of his life and was stunned. It's like a fairy tale, and incredibly inspiring to see him rise from where he was. Half the other people that were in the ward with Hardy back then, are probably still there now, seriously.

But it's not Hardy's ability to ride waves that got him to where he is now - it's his character. The character that got his sanity back, the character that got him back on tour, and the character that pushed his surfing to take the title yesterday. The character that has him on top of the 2009 ladder for a world title.

Congratulations Hardy, you really do deserve it!!! But you would... actually SHOULD... probably already know that."