|
On my recent gig filming the X Games Surf segment, I had a chance once again to hang with Surfing's best of the best in Puerto Escondido, Mexico.
Brad Gerlach has taken a step down a path that not many pro athletes travel. He has taken his idea for a "Surf Team" format called "The Game" to fruition. This is the format that the X Games has adopted for the 2005 E.S.P.N. segment.
"The Game" is similiar to a Basketball game with 9 or 10 team members, complete with Coaches, four quarters, time outs and score boards. The coach has four scoring surfers each quarter with the top scoring wave of each player added to make that quarters score. With one team in the water at a time, timing is everything.
With "The Game" taking place at the Mexican Pipeline the coaches were supplied with jet skis to cruise up and down the lineup, calling time outs, positioning different surfers in the lineup, and moving surfers in the waves like a human chess board. Each player must have a score each quarter so if someone doesn't catch a scoring wave the total is going to suck.
I have had the chance to travel the world on numerous adventures with the crazyman called "Gerr". Three years in Teahupoo with Billabong Pro; Hawaii's Jaws, and France, Spain, Mexico, Oregon, with the Odyssey. To see his vision of "The Game", after years of hard work, come to be the format that the X Games has chosen is the best. Gerr's newly formed group, The National Surf League headed by Jeff Cutler, that puts on "the game", is developing a great concept that is exciting to watch and even more fun to be a part of. They have run "the game" over 45 times, each time refining the rules to make "the game" surf team concept better.
It's great to see Gerr, a pro surfer change from an extreme tow-surfer/rock star/celeb/world tour competitor to an inventor and promotor of "The Game" as well as the Event Co-ordinator-organizer, rule book writer and main cheerleader. Gerr is one of the top surfers. He was #2 in the world and here he is giving back to his sport with his idea of the surf team concept.
|
Brad Gerlach |
Team Mexico |
Mike Parsons |
Rob Machado |
Taylor Knox & Pat O'Connell |
Jeff Cutler |
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
