Friday Night Flicks: Holy Water: The Gotcha Pro

Tonight would be a good night to go back in time. In anticipation for the upcoming Teahupoo contests (WSL and Olympics), let’s look back at the comp that started it all…the Gotcha Tahiti Pro.

The film is pretty rad — a Gotcha-era hidden gem and the comp came with controversy all its own involving Conan Hayes and Koby Abberton, who finished 1 and 2.

Let’s go to the Encyclopedia of Surfing to make sense of the controversy:

From EOS: Hawaii's Conan Hayes (above) got a pair of 10s in the final, and a 7 (surfers were scored on their best three waves, not best two), but one of his 10s was so much better than anything ridden in the event that the number was meaningless. Koby Abberton meanwhile got two 9s and a 9.1, and won the event. People who were there still recall Hayes' loss as the single worst call in world tour history, amplified by the fact that Koby (below), having necked a half-dozen Hinanos between the final horn and the presentation, galloped onstage, took the check, and bellowed out to the still-stunned gallery "Whoooooose the man?" Silence. 'Whooooose the man?" Still no reply, so Koby helped out. "Me! I'm the man!"

Koby Abberton, (controversial) winner of the 1998 Gotcha Pro.

Contest controversy with two controversial dudes, good stuff! The contest is historic (for a QS) and was bumped up to a CT the following year and gave us all the Cory Lopez iconography.

Cool to see this before the WSL and Olympic events over the next couple months. Crack open the archive tonight and lets hope a swell like the one they just has pops up over the next few weeks. —Travis

Here are all the 9-point rides since 2019 for comparison: