"(He) still displays skills neither withered by age nor retirement…"
Taj Burrow, who’ll turn forty-three in June but who still displays skills neither withered by age nor retirement, will return to Championship Tour competition on May 16 when he competes in the Rip Curl Rottnest Search.
Burrow, who amassed a fortune as a pro surfer, twenty-five years with Billabong, nearly as long with Globe, and who wisely built a vast property portfolio to see him through his sunset years, ain’t doing it for the cash, clearly, but as an opportunity to perform in front of a home crowd.
His career was stellar, refused a seat on the WCT tour when he was seventeen, won rookie of the year when he did turn up, was runner-up twice to the world title, won twelve events, is a Pipeline Master, and he amassed ten million dollars in prizemoney, as well as a reputation for being “aggressively virile”.
“How do you press eject from this ride?” Taj told me a few years aback, “It’s a thrilling way to live…
The Rottnest event, which is gonna be a closed-shop to spectators, lights up at Strickland Bay, a B-plus sorta wave on the west side of the island, from Many 16 to 26.
Occy is coming in as a wild card for next years ‘Bondi Classic’ rumoured to be held in in January and rumoured to replace Pipe on next years schedule.
Aggressively virile! so good
The Cheyenne Horan of the 90s
Never a world champion but still a great surfer.
I think it’s awesome the wsl is having these heritage heats each comp!
Who gives a fuck other than TBs mate that is one of the primay sponsors ” Corsair Aviation” ,what a bunch of self anointed soft cocks , 2 much cash 2 much coke.
you do not like coke?
If you want an honest opinion on drugs have a chat with mrs mcaulay.
who is mrs mcaulay? and why would she know?
It’s Macaulay Culkin’s wife, she knows what drugs did to her husband
Basically, ignore the first day, then write the names on a piece of paper, collect in a jar and throw them to the wind. Collate the pieces of paper according to groups of three pieces close to each other. Ta dah!
I’d rather see Taj than Mick, but this old guy reunion bullshit is about as exciting as rohypnol with a Nyquil chaser. They should go back to running a legends heat when they needed to trot out some of the retirees and give the wildcard to someone who can bring something new to the table
No one cut a swathe through the vagina thicket that was the 90’s like TB god bless
Those girls , god love them , may have sabotajed any chance he had of becoming the Champ ….. Anyway , as a Pro Surfer , he succeeded and is still laughing all the way to the ( sperm ) bank .
Yes, I love them… and pro surfers… and sperm!
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Not to mention the age gap ????
For his own sake, I hope Taj does better than Mickey Fanny.
For pro surfings sake, I hope he doesn’t…
I am with you …
If Taj at 40 takes a miracle win , then Kelly might stay on tour ……. until 2091 to celebrate his 100 years of solitude …. on the CT ?
I like Taj, I used to wear his Globe shoe model. I think it still is the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn
This is fucken redickulous.
WSL is regressing at an alarming rate.
78 in the booth – micktory at narra and now fucken Taj as a wild card at Rottnest.
This is beyond lame. Taj is a stupid cunt for accepting this.
I liked him in the booth but just fuck off in a comp ….
Edit: hahaha he-she
Old cunts like yourself should make room for the younger commentators.
A friendly local rivalry or VENDETTA ?
Hahaha – true and ordinarily I’d agree.
Thank Jeebus that an internet page can be infinitely long.
Plenty of room for all, you cheeky young cunt.
“back in my day…..”
“When i was your age, i was younger”
Both Taj and Mick are still a decade younger than the slowly decaying Kelly Slater ?
Kelly should have bowed out 4 years ago. If it weren’t for the crooked foot reshuffle, a couple or three friendly calls from the judges and the cooked tank scores, he wouldn’t be there. It’ll be the same this year so he’ll be back on Tour next year. Lmao
He will do some damage!
Taj was the highlight of this contest in the box, but what’s with the stroll down memory lane? Next you’ll be telling me Guilherme Herdy is suiting up for Saquerema!
Taj has had a lot of fun in the box over the years….he was never one for the main break
It was his best of times and his worst of times and probably explains why he never won a world title …… A lover not a fighter ?
Aussies grasping at straws
Hope he smokes Gabby in a rev off
Mick must have passed, fair call.
I think MF would had a lot more of a chance in the west than Narrabeen. Taj will have more of a chance. With all the ring ins it will be interesting to see the draw and who he comes up against. With four wildcards he might not get Italo or Gab first up.
Does anyone know how they decide who gets the better seedings of the wild cards ?
Two virgins – one left handed, one right handed – are placed on a small yacht which is scuttled by the west Australian sovereign navy somewhere off the Abrolhos. They are then left to their own devices for three months. Whichever is still alive and/or has accumulated the most seal blubber by the metric tonne on their deserted island seal clubbing base by the end of that period is allowed to choose the wild card draw. West Australians, eh?!
Ripper chooses. Claw loves this shit.
Surprised billy got a look in.
Fukn Sand Gropers are a thing..
There are virgins in Newcastle ? Since when ?
I was working in a bar fresh out of school. A pretty young thing came in and asked for a pina colada. a momen or two later she asked: “Can you make it virgin?”
I wondered how she knew…
I do concur …. the old blokes definitely have more of a chance on reefs .
The seeding should be on 2019 end of year QS rankings …. but because of the seeding round, a wildcard can go from 35 th or 36th seed and do a Cosby Colapinto , who won his first heat in the seeding round in Newcastle , and then came up against , not Gabriel or Italo , but 14th seeded Ryan Callinan …..You need a fuckin Super Computer with God’s own Algorithm to try to work out who surfs against who in the round of 32 , even though only 4 surfers have been eliminated .
I think what happens is if you progress from rd 1 to rd 3 as a wildcard you get re seeded higher than all the guys who made it out of rd 2. That shoots you up 8 places in the seeding.
Well that’s the only way I can make it work.
I am 99% certain ….. it depends on whether the surfer gets
a) a win in seeding round
b) a second in the seeding round
c) a win in the elimination round
d) a second in the elimination round
as well as current ratings and depending on which surfers go down in The elimination round …. IT IS COMPLICATED !
Best case scenario for a wild card is a) and had lowest seed in the round of 32 Jakob Wilcox come up against Kanoa Klaim and the worst case scenario was a CT surfer , Conner Oleary who got a second in the elimination round which had him come up against Magic Medina in the round of 32 ( sadly just before the wheels fell off Gabriel’s Tank , in the next rnd v Seth Moniz )
Here’s the clue:
https://www.worldsurfleague…
Go to round 3 and you’ll see it talks about round seed not event seed.
If they just did it via event seeding you’d always seethe #1 seed come up against the lowest seed still in the draw (presumably #32ranked surfer if the two wildcards and #34 and #33 have already dudded out in Rd2), regardless of whether that guy had come first, second or third in his Rd1 heat.
When it’s all said and done they should just make it a top 30 plus two event wildcards/trialists to make a pool of 32 surfers for the event. Saves two whole days of competition. Same goes for the Women but top 15 with one wildcard.
Thanks for taking a stance ……it has always been complicated …..
In 2016 , a kid from my club won the QS . He had a great start to the year in 2017 with a 1/4 at Snapper and a 2nd at Cloudbreak …..and was in 7th on the ratings but was still seeded way back further because it was based on a decreasing percentage of last years ranking and increasing percentage of the current years ranking until the mid year point when it became entirely from the current years …. so it was always all over the shop even before the new seeding round format …. not to mention the injury wildcard seedings .
I just feel , in my humble opinion , that a Wild Card is chosen to upset the Apple cart , title race etc …. by possibly knocking out top seeds in the round of 32 ….
Eg I want to see the wonderful Liam OBrian come up against A Gabe or and Italo and possibly do some damage and not like at Newcastle where the lowest ( real ) seeded surf in the round of 32 , Wildcard Cosby Colapinto somehow , after winning a heat at 1ft rock break , jump up 15 places on the rankings to surf against 14th seeded Ryan Callinan , leaving the bloke from my club , who spent a whole year requalifying , the joy of surfing V Medina ?