Day 6 Cold Water Classic Canada: Round 4
Thursday October 14 North Chesterman Beach - Surfing Galore!

North Chesterman Beach was again the surf beach of choice for the Cold Water Classic Canada today. Organizers checked out other beaches (Cox Bay and Long Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park) for surf but the best conditions proved to be right here in our neighbourhood of Chesterman Beach.

Peter Devries, the only local boy left in the international surf competition, was up first in the start of the two surfer heats with Australian Josh Kerr. The beach was packed with locals and visitors who were on hand to see if Devries could keep his momentum going. With only two surfers in a heat priority comes into play. Based on several factors, priority is given to one surfer - meaning that one surfer has first right to catch a wave. Of course there is much more to it and quite interesting tactics involved and we'll go into that another time.

Three minutes into the heat Kerr jumped on a wave giving him a score of 7.17 Six minutes later Devries caught a wave posting a 4.00. Priority to Kerr and two minutes after that Josh Kerr scored a 6.43. There followed some see-sawing as both surfers caught waves with small scores until Devries clocked in a 8.67 fifteen minutes into the heat. We all smiled and cheered in the crowd hoping this was the start of the bigger scores for Pete. Kerr came back with a 5.50 but that score would not factor into his two best. We waited for the ocean to offer up some clean sweet waves for the boys, but it was taking a breath. Then Kerr came back and scored a 6.97 on his fourth wave. Devries needed a 5.47 to take over first place. Time was counting down and the ocean was stalling. Devries grabbed a 4.50 on his fifth wave and that was going to be the final good wave of the heat. Kerr had taken the heat 14.14 to Devries' 13.17.

“I’m disappointed, but still happy I made it through a few heats,” said Peter “I was hoping to make it to the quarters. That was one of those little goals I had in my own mind. But losing against Josh – there’s nothing wrong with that!”

 


Eric Geiselman shows us how it's done at North Chesterman Beach in the Semi-Finals - oh yeah!   Fnd Video of Finals here


Of course there were many other heats in Round 4:
Heat 2: Richard Christie (1st) Hank Gaskell (2nd)
Heat 3: Julian Wilson (1st) and Rudy Palmboom (2nd)
Heat 4: Glenn Hall (1st) and Cory Lopez (2nd)
Heat 5: Tanner Gudauskas (1st) and Sebastien Zietz (2nd)
Heat 6: Eric Geiselman (1st) and Mitchel Coleborn (2nd)
Heat 7: Nathaniel Curran (1st) and Cory Arrambide (2nd)
Heat 8: Shaun Cansdell (1st) and Ben Dunn (2nd)

All winners of Round 4 got ready for the Quarter Finals and we looked forward to more amazing surfing. The ocean was proving to be a factor with big sets roling in and then big calm stretches between. It seemed to be a good strategy to get out as aoon as possible on a wave because who knew what the ocean would do next. That was certainly the case with Hall and Lopez with Lopez just not finding the waves and Hall posting big good scores in the first half of the heat.

Quarter Finals
With the Contest Director deciding to keep the competition going for as long as possible, perhaps even finishing today, we all got comfortable on the beach, because we were going nowhere. Even though the live streaming was entertaining, showed great closeups and replays: it still couldn't match the excitement on the beach watching the action live. The four heats were run, the sun looked like it might shine through and the potential winner of the Cold Water Classic Canada got closer to the podium. It was hard to choose who to cheer on because all the surfers were so good and well liked, so we cheered for everyone.

Heat 1: Josh Kerr (1st) and Richard Christie (2nd)
Heat 2: Julian Wilson (1st) and Glenn Hall (2nd)
Heat 3: Eric Geiselman (1st) and Tanner Gudauskas (2nd)
Heat 4: Shaun Cansdell (1st) and Nathaniel Curran (2nd)

Semi Finals
Only four surfers left and the tension was palpable. The crowd was figeting, dogs were restless and the surfers were focused on one goal. Josh Kerr, Australian surfer and looking to get on the World Tour, Julian Wilson, amazing young Australian surfer, Eric Geiselman, Floridian surfer who like air, and Shaun Cansdell, looking to cement a lead in the Cold Water Classic Series.

Kerr bested Wilson and the first boy was selected for the final. Geiselman and Cansdell started their heat and things were looking sweet for the new leader of the Cold Water Classic Series Cansdell, whose top two wave scores amounted to 10.96 to Eric Geiselman's 6.76 and needed a 6.63 wave to take over first. Some more waves went down but the placement didn't change. The sun came out and bot warmed up the crowd and put a bit of a glare on the water. There goes Geiselman on a right heading off to Frank Island and OH MY DOG what was that? Geiselman just went upside down. The beach commentators and live video feeds missed it (another reason to get out to the beach): The crowd caught it and cheered massively and of course the judges saw it and here comes the score - a 9.10, the highest of the competittion! That put the heat to bed for Geiselman (although he must have been pumped because he just kept watching waves) and Eric Geiselman was into the finals.

Listen to Eric Geiselman describing his big air move.

Next we waited for the Kerr matchup with Geiselman in the finals, after Eric was given a bit of time to get his breath back and finish with media who all wanted to interview him on his heat.

Heat 1: Josh Kerr (1st) and Julian Wilson(2nd)
Heat 2: Eric Geiselman (1st) and Shaun Cansdell (2nd)

Day 6 Wednesday October 13, 2010, Tofino for the Cold Water Classic Canada
Eric Geiselman with the highest scored move of the competition.

And now on to the finals...