Is four points just reward for this kind of barbarity?
I’m not exaggerating when I tell you it is, roughly, a 95-5 split on the merits, or not, of Kelly Slater’s backside air, unmade, but ridden out of.
Kelly is a matchless surfer (and, once, a first-rate swordsman, if the rumours are to be believed) and he advanced down a mid-sized left at a canter, though on an oblique line. He looked strong and compact so it was evident that…something… was going to happen.
He threw his blade men the air, seemed to fly into smoke and was lost from view, struggled to get free, but jerked his body enough to remount his board.
Beauty or barbarity?
The photo editor of Surfing Magazine, a purist of the game, wrote: “I guess I’m alone on this one but It seems the world doesn’t care if someone lands on their feet or on their belly. it’s time to start practicing 1080s and just as long as part of my body lands on my board and I can stand up then it’s the craziest move ever. Ok cool. Got it.”
On the beach, a cheer burst from every lip. Men took off their caps and shouted; women clapped their hands again and again. To their inexpressible disgust, the unmade, but ridden out of, air scored a 4.17.
“The greatest underscore in the history of surfing,” said the noted photographer Nate Smith.
“Best four point ride ever!” said the big-wave surfer Mark Mathews.
Kelly is now dead and gone, from contest, beaten by Mick Fanning’s simple, but effective, windmills.
Watch the air here!
And a compressed version of the heat, here.
Meanwhile, Mike Ho, Shaun Tomson, Cheyne Horan, Simon Anderson and Rabs had a heritage heat. And it was rad!
And the quarter-finals are here, very soon!
Filipe Toledo v Joel Parkinson (BeachGrit says Filipe!)
Adriano de Souza v Wiggoly Dantas (BeachGrit says Wiggoly!)
Ace Buchan v Mick Fanning (BeachGrit says Mick!)
Gabriel Medina v Nat Young (BeachGrit says Gabriel!)
Yeah, what would you have given KS if he’d landed it clean? It is possible ya know. People do it at this level, and when they do they get 9s. Note the above pic. Also if you will, go back and watch Kelly paddling back out after that ride; that’s not the paddling of someone who reckons he got a maxed out heat winning score. Me, I thought it was either gonna be a 9 or a 4; 15 years ago it’d have been a 10. But it’s fun to see all the comp rage.
I slept on this one…… so … kellys belly flop wasnt scored and the backside 360/top turn then reo got the 4point whatever? mmmmmm that makes sense but only in an olympic gymnast judging panel kind of way.. I thought we were waaay different to other “sports”…… Well pummel my horse.
beachgrit I’m disappointed in you for even engaging in this conversation. There is no debate here whatsoever. Slater fell, period. The 4.17 was generous.
Awesome how people get ‘disappointed’ in a site that is built upon the foundations of tongue-in-cheek fan boy quirkiness (DR & Chas) and verbose invectives (Rory). When that’s the site’s unpublished mission statement, I see no room for disappointment. The Inertia, Skurfline, MagicSeaweed, Swellwatch–now those welcome disappointment, or better yet, being ignored.
Bigger than that, i think we should confess to Filipe that another lover is serenading us…. you know who it is….. That jet-black disco-tech careless hair and those D battery thighs tossing tails with the same fervor lonely guys throw dollar bills to the stage as “Heaven” swings around the pole. I-T-A-L-O…. go ahead, let it roll slow off the tongue….. (i always do)…between the name, the look and the bashfulness, it’s enough to make even Filips dad a little nervous. Yes, he bent our knees on the Goldie and had us swooning by Brazil. and even though he stood us up at The End of the Road, we still blush every time he coils toward an end section. But be careful Filip, like any relationship, you gotta “keep things interesting” for fear of the next young stallion running off with the spoils….. ask (soon to be looking for a real) JOB, apparently, lighting yourself on fire and tossing yourself under a 6 foot lip only gets you, like, 1500 likes……. ,,
With Owen’s and Julian’s meltdown, Mick is the last hope of Richie Porta to get the title back to Australia.
Mick’s 7.7 in his round 4 heat is another example of how an australian head judge, all year long, can make a countryman world champ.
You mean like the way Gabby was over-scored all last year?
Somewhere, Shane Beschen’s Colonel Kurtz is muttering in perfect understanding: The horror. The horror…
Crazy yes, but It’s not a bodyboarding contest… A 4.5 at the most.
Off the point Negs, but the person to whom I leant Salts and Suits has tidied it away somewhere and can’t find it. In the meantime, have you read ‘Ghost Wave’ about the Cortez Bank? I can lend that to you instead. It’s great. Sorry about that.
All good, I should really just buy a copy anyway.
Don’t worry about Ghost Wave “We surfed a big wave” stretched out over 400 pages.
I reckon I couldn’t stomach it… But cheers anyway!
wait… you can read? or are these those books where you play a cassette alongside and it reads the words for you? you know… like.. the old lady who swallowed a fly
Thats one less Christmas card to send this year.
what if he atually wasnt going for a backside air3 but in fact a backside bigspin air to doggy style stomp….. he was only scored on what he was perceived to be attempting,,,,,,,,,,, ( cue x-files music)….. the truth is out there,
Sounds like you were doing some internal soul-searching today… Did you find God or the Demons at the skatepark?
1. I’d like to hear what KS has to say about it…
2. hate to say it,,,, but if they score that (unmade) flip an 8, every flailing duck needs the same number . then we’d have an excess of wanna be helicopter pilots unconcerned with their landing pads….
I’m no lobbyist for the judges, but they gotta follow the rule book based on the backlash and possible repercussions
nah i was just quoting pete mel from lowers from the day before haha,,, you should know better negz…. me and deepness go about as deep as the dave melville kiddy pool in wport….
….exactly.
It gets boring watching the same moves over and over. Are we watching robots? Give any pro surfer 10 tries to recreate Kelly’s move and I bet no one would be able to. should be scored higher off that alone.
Lost my shit at Kelly’s air, then lost whatever faith I had remining in the judges at his score.
i think it’s pretty clear that 80% of the surf population understands what a “made” maneuver is, and what the WSL is bound to. that said, 100% of the same population understands that was fucking sick, and that kelly should have at least got an 8.
…is this… the… Rob Gilley? Peerless photographer, specialising in photos of Blacks? Who turned to the pen, with stunning results?
bullshit. You’re going to give an 8 for luck? No way.
Couldn’t agree more. This whole Slater Belly flop thing should be in the Buzzfeed spam category. Wild,whacky, and zaney!, Yes but, underscored, no. The judges have criteria they need to stick to and it wasn’t a make.
i think doggy door barrels are waaaaaaay over-scored