Dane Reynolds’ perfect zero ride!

Now known as the best surfed zero point wave in a pro contest, many of us fans still feel burned by the call of interference against Dane on what would have been his heat winning wave. Down by 3.5 points, Dane took a end of heat left that may very well have been a 10.0 ride and certainly would have ushered him into Round 3.  Dane was taken out by Danny Wills, who intentionally forced an interference on Dane by dropping in behind the peak on a wave he and everyone else watching knew he would never make.  It seems almost unfair, since Dane didn’t prevent Danny from taking the wave as he was waaaaayyy too deep, and Dane didn’t prevent Danny from scoring.  I cheered as I thought Dane took the heat, and booed when I saw the judges reward him with a zero.  Though the call seems wrong, I ran to check the rule book.

Rule 118.01 of the ASP rule book reads, “In a one-on-one hear the priority disc system will determine wave possession. The surfer with priority has unconditional right of way for both directions on the wave selected. The second surfer cannot take-off on the same wave as the priority surfer, regardless of direction or the distance between them, unless the second surfer does not hinder the scoring potential of the surfer with priority, in which case the second surfer will score a zero (0).”

I guess rules are rules, but this priority rule needs to be revisited.  It’s much better watching the world’s best surf like the world’s best, rather than force interference calls on the guys that are smoking them.

Perhaps more impressive than Dane’s zero point wave were the three rodeo flips he tried pulling in the competition.  Seriously… rodeo flips… in the competition!  The future looks good!