“It’s hard to be really competitive with a good friend, whether it’s over a wave or a contest or a girl.” - Kelly Slater

“It doesn’t matter how much confidence you have; you can’t just run down and go for a surf and expect to win.” - Jordy Smith

The drive for excellence and progression that lies within surfers, especially those that are leading the way for our sport, is a unique one and such that trying to explain that drive is nearly impossible. We all see the wave differently, we all have our own views on the equipment best suited to ride that wave, and what it is that drives us as surfers to continually push ourselves differs from one surfer to the next.

Chris Malloy and Woodshed Films (The Moonshine Conspiracy) are set to release their latest production, One Track Mind, to stores on Oct. 7. The film features many of world’s top surfers in Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Tom Curren, Jamie O’Brien, Mark Occhilupo, Dane Reynolds and many more in it’s quest to dive into the their thought process and views on surfing, where it’s at currently, where it’s headed, and who is at the forefront of the march for progression. Featuring footage from Mexico, Indonesia, Micronesia, Trestles, and other world-class waves, One Track Mind is set to be a film you’ll want to keep your eyes on.

“To have that single-mindedness about things other than surfing is a challenge” - Tom Curren

The second edition of Billabong’s Freewave Challenge is set to kick off on the continental U.S. on June 20th. As summer officially kicks off, so does the follow-up to the inaugural virtual surf contest put on by Billabong this past winter in Hawaii. You gotta think surfers who are looking forward to entering their clips are praying that Jamie O’Brien has no plans to make his way over from the islands to take part in this edition of the Freewave Challenge. O’Brien took both 1st and 2nd in the Best Performance Ride category, while Huntington Beach’s Timmy Reyes easily brought home the Best Tube Ride honors with a Backdoor shack that many called one of the North Shore’s best waves of the winter.

With the growing success of the Freewave Challenge concept as a showcase for the best surfing outside of typical surf contests, the event has evolved and added new categories. Video clips may be uploaded and entered in five different categories: Monster Maneuver, Small Fries (16 and Under surfers), Best Barrel, Heartbreaker (Female Performance) and the Longest Ride. A total of $40,000 in prize money will be awarded to the surfers and videographers with the most progressive and popular rides. Surfers and vidographers have until Sept. 22 to get their entries entered before the judging process begins.

This new style of format for a surf competition is exciting in that the door truly is opened for any surfer that wants to enter. Jamie O’ and Timmy Reyes were highly deserving of their wins in the Hawaii version of the event, but how rad would it be to see some unknown surfer step up and take a win in the mainland version of the Freewave Challenge? With the best of the best being on the North Shore for the winter, it made it unlikely for anyone to come out of the dark to pull it off. The pool of contestants is sure to be quite a bit larger and the door wide open for any surfer on the continent to make a name for himself in this version of the Billabong Freewave Challenge.

Summer is set to start. If you feel like you have what it takes and want to make some extra cash just for doing what you love, be sure to check out the rules and regs for the Challenge and get set to capture your best stuff.

For the first time in 2 years, reigning world champion and current world no.3 Mick Fanning will finish a WCT event with the dreaded T-33 next to his name. Fanning was upset by Brazilian wildcard surfer Bruno Santos 10.00 to 9.17 in round 2 of a Billabong Pro that is really starting to liven up. “Things could be better,” Fanning said. “Every wave was a battle for fours and fives out there. They weren’t opening up and then I was either too wide or too deep – I couldn’t find the happy medium, but it happens. The waves were good, I wasn’t good.”

Fanning won’t be the only big name making a sooner than expected exit from Teahupoo. Jamie O’Brien had the unexpected misfortune of meeting Kelly Slater in rd. 2 following Slater’s round 1 loss to ‘Chopes-specialist Manoa Drollet. Kelly came out firing in their heat and O’Brien quickly found himself in an a combination hole that would lead him to sharing the same fate as Fanning following an 18.70 to 13.90 loss.

Kelly has now moved into rd. 3 where he will face the man responsible for putting him up against O’Brien in the first place, Manoa Drollet. “It’s excellent to beat Kelly,” Drollet said. “I feel bad, he was a bit pissed, but it’s a contest. I was lucky to get the best two waves of the heat, Kelly got one in the end and he almost came back. In this competition, the guy who gets the good waves is going to win the heat, and that was me today.” Drollet kept Slater out of position for most of their rd. 1 heat, forcing Kelly to take off deeper than he wanted do which resulted in the 8x world-champ getting pitched a time or two. Their rd. 3 match-up will surely see both surfers coming out ready for battle.

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This one’s for all of my degenerate gambling friends out there… you know who you are! Upon learning that bookmakers in the U.S. would be opening up their books and fielding bets on the 2008 WCT I decided to sign up for Surfing-Odds.com e-mail alerts which notify me of the listed odds in the days leading up to each event. My interest in the alerts wasn’t so much for the gambling aspect. In my very limited gambling experience, I’ve quickly realized I am a casino’s best friend and unofficially the worst gambler on the planet. What caught my attention though was seeing how and where they decided to place the odds as each particular event approached.

With the Billabong Pro Tahiti fast approaching, Surfing-Odds was right on cue with the odds for this event. After checking out the Teahupoo odds I thought I would pass on a couple of interesting bets for those who may be looking to lay some cash down on the upcoming event. They’ve even decided to get crazy on us and add a “to make the semi’s market.”

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By pulling off a dramatic perfect 10 point ride in the closing seconds of the final heat at the Air Tahiti Nui – Von Zipper Trials, Jamie O’Brien earned a spot in the main event of next weeks Billabong Pro. Make no doubt about it, O’Brien is the trialist that no one on the WCT is looking forward to matching up against, especially if swell charts stay true and Teahupoo keeps pumping out monster barrels the way it has been as of late.

His dramatic victory over Brazilian Bruno Santos was the stuff legends are made of and even O’Brien had to admit it was a bit ‘Slater-esque.’ “I’ve never came from behind the eight ball like that in the last minute,” said O’Brien. “I figured it’s the kind of stuff Kelly does, so I thought I would give it a try.”

O’Brien, the 2006 Pipeline Masters Champion and in my eyes one of the top all-around surfers in the world, has been taking a break from being on tour full-time to focus more on just surfing progressively. While doing so, he has pulled off impressive victories in several big contests, the likes of which include this years Da Hui Backdoor Shootout as well as Billabong’s inaugural Freewave Challenge.

A typical trialist might be intimidated knowing he will be opening up action in the main event against Pancho Sullivan and reigning world-champion Mick Fanning. Jamie O’Brien is anything but your typical trialist and he has let it be known that he’s coming after those guys - “I’m not worried about it, barrel riding is what I do, I travel the world so I can go and surf barrels. I’m down for the main event, I’ll take them down.”

Looks like the WCT regulars have officially been put on notice- Jamie O’Brien is coming for you.

Jaime Obrienteahupoo