hiya wa howa aswat

Okay so it’s just the video of an incident in Peniche that has been billed as Joel Vs the Bodyboarder… but at Supertubos, which the local bodyboarders pretty much own on a day to day basis, it should really be coined Joel Vs the Local.

From the stills posted on the Interweb it appears Joel burned a sponger, named as Peniche local ‘Barrela’, in a free surf session at his home break. From the outside you can imagine the tension that the arrival of a WT comp turning up at your break just as it’s starting to turn on, and from the other perspective the pressure that a world title contender falling in the rankings and desperate for practise, may create. Whatever, the rest, as they say, is recorded for posterity.

As you will see it is hardly Ali Vs Fraser, but the story is particularly interesting as it has sparked a lot of intriguing questions and passionate opinions across a broad range of subjects including: The behaviour of pros at their local breaks and when travelling, the old potato of surfers Vs bodyboarders, respecting locals, and the behaviour of ASP WT professionals in host towns/breaks, as well as which journalists on the spot choose to report, or rather not report, such incidents. You can even extrapolate opinions on the future of ASP commentators as Paul Evans, who to his credit cheekily asked THE question many would have cowered from…

All this from a single drop in!

Anyway, here is the video. Feel free to take sides, rant, sympathise, theorise or just laugh, it’s Joel Vs Barrela!