THE TEN BUCK PUNT ON MARGARET’S THAT ALMOST LANDED $100K

• GENERAL
• • 05.05.2022
• • BY LUKE KENNEDY

As you shed a tear over your favourite surfer’s failure to make the mid-season cut, spare a thought for Eddie Ryall. The Sydney surfer was just one pick away from a massive win with his round one multi-bet in the Margaret River Pro.

As a well-versed student of the WSL, Eddie decided he would have a ten-dollar flutter on round one at Margie’s. Therefore, to secure the multi-bet pay out he needed to pick twelve winners. This was no Fantasy Surfer Joe Turpel-spruiked pretend bet, it was a real-deal wager lodged at the local TAB with a printed stub as proof of purchase.   

Eddie Ryall demonstrating how to make good use of priority in a local board riders event.

Round one unfolded in typically fickle Margaret River conditions, but Eddie was six from six and feeling confident when Jake Marshall paddled out against Italo Ferreira and Jadson Andre in heat seven.

While Italo was obviously a firm favourite, the odds on Marshall multiplied the value of the win by four, so Eddie had figured why not risk his hard-earned tenner on the rookie natural footer from San Diego.

As the heat wound down, things were looking rosy for Eddie. With just two minutes to go, Jake was in front and holding down priority. Jadson was way back chasing a 9.44 for second, but Italo still only needed a 6.60 to clinch first.

Tragically, Jake kind of went walkabout, sitting wide and allowing Italo to frantically hunt an inside peak. Perhaps Marshall was comfortable in the knowledge that a second would see him through the round one heat, but he didn’t come close to sitting on the ever-threatening Ferreira.

“I was losing it,” recalls Eddie.    

Capitalisng on the complacency, Italo swooped on a frothy insider and unleashed. All Eddie could do was watch on and hope that Italo got smashed by the infamous ‘Converger’. “I was praying he got a crazy end section that was unhittable.”  

Instead, Italo pulled three, swift backside snaps – each one like a stab to the heart of Eddie. The judges dropped a 7.50 and the dream was over.

At that point it wasn’t totally demoralising, Eddie figured there would be another wrong pick in the back half of the round, but as it happened the underdogs kept winning – Leo Fioravanti and Joao Chianca were surfing to survive the cut and both won against more favoured competition.

When the froth settled on round one, Eddie was eleven picks from twelve, or in simple arithmetic 0.91 (That’s how much Jake had lost by) points away from an $111,000 payday. Curiously, it would have been right on par with the winners of the event, Jack Robinson and Isabella Nichols, who made $ US 80, 000 US a piece, which currently converts to almost exactly $AU111, 000 give or take a few hundred. 

Eddie probably couldn’t help but think of the family holiday or home deposit that might have been. Meanwhile, his surf-obsessed son, Will, would have had the quiver of his dreams.

Will Ryall putting it on rail with all the fury of a kid who has been robbed of a new quiver.

Desperate to vent his frustration, Eddie took to Instagram and tagged in Jake to let him know how costly his complacency had been. “Yesterday was a tough day @jakemarshall1 .” he wrote. As yet, Jake hasn’t responded.  A couple of days later Eddie can look back and laugh at what might have been, but the result still stings. “I haven’t been able to throw the ticket away,” he admits. “It’s just sitting there on the shelf.

The almost perfect ticket, scarred by one loss, shows the exact pay day Eddie missed out on $110,746.20.

The moral of the story here is that the only thing worth gambling on is the next wave you personally elect to ride and if you have a spare ten bucks make a sound investment and buy two cakes of wax.