HALEIWA JOEL’S
Posted in Photos,Video,World TourJP.com: You’ve had seven months since your last heat, and a lot of time to think about what your comeback wave would feel like. Was that perfect 10 today on your first wave today something like what you had in mind?
Joel: Nah, not at all. I was really nervous yesterday cause the comp was on and I thought I was going to be surfing. But today I wasn’t too nervous at all. I paddled out thinking, okay, heat strategy, heat strategy. And I kind of went to myself, you know, I can’t overthink this. I’ve just got to surf the wave 10 feet in front of me. I know the wave at Haleiwa pretty well and where I need to be on it, let’s just worry about that. And when I take off on a wave I’ll just surf it 10 feet in front of me until I get to the channel. And that’s what I did.
And you got to the channel and you had a 10.
Maybe I got a new heat strategy?
Don’t think. Do.
Maybe no strategy is my new strategy.
And then you backed it up with a 9.87. At that point you must have felt your comeback was going reasonably well.
Yeah. Before I paddled out I said I felt like I was surfing at 80 per cent, but that’s by far the best surfing I’ve done since I cut my foot. Maybe I just needed that little push, starting back into competition mode, to get me going.
You do have a love affair with Haleiwa though.
Yeah it suits me, I like it. You can come off the bottom hard, and you’ve got a lot of face to work with. I love it. It’s also one of those waves that if you get a wave-starved heat it could be one of the worst heats of your life, but if it’s consistent and pumping like my heat today everyone can get good waves and it can be the best heat you’ll have all year. I’ve had heats out there where everyone has had nines. And I’ve also had heats out there where everyone’s had twos. It’s one of those places. Like that heat today was one of those heats that make you remember why you love surfing heats. Why you love being in a jersey. Everything was going my way. It’s probably what I needed, just a little tease of the good life after what I’ve had to go through with my foot. When you have heats like that, everything goes your way and you’re on fire you’re like, you know I could do this all day.
Until you surf your heat tomorrow and get a pair of twos.
Well you’re only as good as the heat you’re about to surf, not the one you surfed yesterday.
You started off with a 10 at Haleiwa last year, coming back off an injury, and it led to you winning the Triple Crown… today’s 10 must have been a good omen for you?
Yeah, I had a 10 in the early rounds at Haleiwa last year, didn’t I? That was against Dingo. Hopefully it’s like a blessing and it gets the Triple Crown going for me.
How’s the foot feeling? Twinges?
You know what? Since I got here, every day I wake up and it still feels pretty shitty. It feels like a block of wood on the end of my leg. It doesn’t move, it’s stiff and there are some crinks and cracks to get it moving, but that’s slowly disappearing. But importantly when I surf on it I haven’t felt any pain. I was feeling pain back at home, but it seems like a lot of that scar tissue is breaking up. Since I’ve been in Hawaii I’ve been trying to walk around barefoot a lot to break the scar tissue down and toughen up my foot.
And you said you felt like a bit of a crumpet when you first got back in the water. How’s a week on the North Shore been helping your surf fitness?
I’ve been surfing three times a day and I’m starting to feel good again. It’s like going on a boat trip; as soon as you put in four or five days straight of surfing you start to feel really good. By two weeks you can surf three times a day – or three heats a day – and then feel like going for a fourth.
You chalked up 19.87 out of 20 in your comeback heat today. Where do you go from here?
I was paddling out today thinking this was my first heat in a long time, I’ll be over the moon with two sevens. I’ll paddle out again tomorrow and I’ll be happy with two sevens, but I’ll be even more happy with a first or second. That’ll do.
8 COMMENTS
Tristan Murray says:
November 18, 2010 at 2:23 amGreat to see your comeback live on the net Joel, well done from a Kiwi Downunder
brian says:
November 18, 2010 at 2:57 amGreat to see you back. and a 10 has to feel pretty good. Enjoy the rest of your heats
harley says:
November 18, 2010 at 1:23 pmwell done joel. good luck with the triple crown and especially the 2011 tour.
hopefully you can go one better than 2009!!
Steve Shearer says:
November 18, 2010 at 6:38 pmYou made a lot look second rate out there Joel: made surfing fans realise what they’d been missing.
Committed bottom turns, QLD style and radical, fully rotated stop turns.
I thought your 9.87 was a better surfed wave then the Ten…but who cares…the result was correct.
Here’s hoping a strong Triple Crown showing builds momentum and acts as a springboard into 2011 for JP.
Steve Shearer says:
November 18, 2010 at 6:41 pmTop turns that is.
Steph Hendrickson says:
November 19, 2010 at 4:06 amSo, so good to see you back Joel…you’ve done the hard yards and really deserve it. Everyone in the office was so pumped…sending you lots of good vibes for the rest of the hawaii season. cheers, steph.
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