I still believe that given the alternative of no Fiji, most fans could live with a compromised webcast. I suggested at the time that Globe should have gone public with the technical difficulties right away (maybe even preemptively) and begged for patience. Doing that would have bought allot of good will as I can testify that the majority of fans were frustrated with sitting and waiting with no explanation, while perfect waves were being ridden. From our end it seemed like it was just being sloppily run, and nobody told us any different. Just my thoughts…

Merry Christmas Ceej!

Freddie P’s site has a bit up on this whole drama which you’ve likely seen. Here’s an excerpt of my response, my 2¢ if you like, to what Freddie said. The link to it is below for other readers.

http://insurfnews.com/?p=1322#comments

Diplomatic but fair call by you Freddie P.

However, Dingo is a notorious hassler and drop-in (he’s not alone) and I think in the heat of the moment his ‘instincts’ took over and he grabbed Hobgood’s leash on purpose. In slow motion replay his (Dingo) last few paddles were only with one arm and showed no signs of someone who was trying to free himself from getting unintentionally tangled in an opponents leash.

Question: Is pulling an opponents leash considered an interference? Or is it Unsportsmanlike conduct which is dealt with in a way that DOES NOT affect the outcome of the heat.

My call is interference on Damien Hobgood and Unsportsmanlike conduct on Dean Morrison. Does that change the outcome of the heat? Only if Unsportsmanlike conduct during a heat is considered an interference.

I believe the situation should have been addressed more clearly and deliberately by the judges. But I also believe the lack of action on behalf of the judges and head judge is symbolic of a judging system and panel that has shown significant flaws and inconsistencies all through the 2009 tour. Because of that, I believe, there has become a credibility issue with the ASP. It’s hard to take an organisation seriously when it consistently has questionable outcomes.

About the double call, in that case then my cents is that:

If a call was made on Dingo (judges accepting that indeed dingo grabbed the leash) there should follow a “disqualification call” (is there such a thing?)

so, double interference, both lose half of their lowest score. Surfer that pulled the leash gets disqualified for unsportmanship

You saying that Henry wont play 2010 world cup??

oopps.. I accidentally used my hand to control de ball.. I´m sorry Ireland..just keep up the hard work and in 4 years u´ya ve a shot at it..

shit happens

@Jason i know a big thing with the fiji event was fiji telecom as they had to use them to broadcast the event, we’ll we all know how sub par there service was,so Globe had to make desission send up there own satellite $$$, or spend alot of $$$ and put there hands in fiji telecom, so people can just get mad write in how bad the webcast is.sure there are other things but that always frustrated Globe

Since you guys work for Globe, maybe you can shed some light on why there is no Fiji again this year. That was always my favorite contest and you guys rip there!

We all know that if it had been real Pipe, Damo would’ve smoked Dingo anyways….

I was watching it live. At the time it seemed it wasn’t on purposed, but when I watched on surfline.com and then here on this blog I realized he made it on purpose.

You can see that he tried to grab Damien’s jersey and then grabbed his leash.

Dean had already done the same thing in a heat against the brazilian Andre Silva.

They cannot let this go unpunished!

In any other sport the “athlete” would be punished.

But the ASP is not a serious association. They let everything go.

They didn’t punished Sunny Garcia when he beated Neco Padaratz in the same event some yars ago. I think they just made him pay a fee of $1.000 or something like that. He should be suspended.

My best wishes to the Hobgood’s. You’re trully professional surfers.

It’s now known as the Dog Boy.

The Dingo.

Or more descriptively put,..

The Dean Morrison.