Jamie O'Brien

Confesso que já estava a estranhar. A nação boogie tardou em reagir à entrada do Jamie O'Brien directamente no quadro principal do Pipeline Masters. A mim, até me parece saudável a ideia de um surfista local de Pipe querer entrar numa prova de Bodyboard. Por outro lado, não é ideia que me agrade por completo. E os bodyboarders locais havaianos, não mereciam? E o clássico Kainoa McGee que aparentemente perdeu o lugar para o Quilhas Saltitante? E isto não passará uma imagem submissa do Bodyboard perante o Surf? Pensem assim: Acham que o Mitch Rawlins podia entrar no Pipe Masters do WCT?

in Stab

“It’s not like I’ve been out there practising. Last year I paddled out at Pipe and got a few sick ones. And the year before I got a sick right. I was like, ‘Well fuck; I’m getting sick ones on the boog, why not? I don’t see why I can’t make a few heats. Next year I think I will make the final.”

Such confidence from any other person would be nauseating. But as Stewart says “Jamie rides Pipe, in my opinion, as well as anyone ever has.” Recently, Jamie was on the receiving end of a tutorial from the master, in the line-up, engaging with Stewart in “technical dialogue about how to take drops on a bodyboard.”

He also says however, that his confidence in part stems from the ineptitude of many past competitors in the contest. “They don’t get that barrelled. Some are really good, they get really barrelled. But some that I have seen in the comp - I’ve been kinda shaking my head for the past five years.”

If Jamie does succeed, it won’t be to a tickertape parade down the Kam Highway. In 2005, that same man, Kainoa McGee, bettered Dane Reynolds, Rob Machado and Dustin Barca on his way to a semi-final birth in the four-star Pipeline WQS. Jamie’s success will do little more than even the ledger. So does he have a chance?

Professional bodyboarder and a veteran of numerous Pipeline contests Jose Marquina believes so. “At the end of the day a pit is a pit, and you get ten pointers out pipe for getting barrelled. If it’s 6 to 8 foot he’s as good a chance as anybody.” Jamie’s only move is an el rollo. And he concedes his strategy consists simply of picking the right waves, "dragging dick and getting deep". Though when it comes to pickin’ ‘em, Jamie is the John West of pipe.

Player agrees. “He knows Pipe better than most. He will pick the best waves he can. It’s gonna be pretty exciting.”




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