And the viewer's spirit finally begins to soar! Day four, Bells…
It’s really easy to lay a shit on the Rip Curl Pro. It’s a contest that should’ve been retired, with all its great memories (1981, Mick’s four wins, Andy, Kelly) a long time ago, but one that now staggers like a drunk: great bursts of sentimentality followed by resentment and maudlin grief.
It’s like second-rate champagne. Once you’ve tasted it, y’ain’t never going to touch it again.
But the WSL show is a class act. No one deviates off script, even the losing surfers.
“It’s not the world’s greatest wave but it…it…provides some good action,” said the vaguely diplomatic Taj Burrow, who came last.
The roving commentator Peter Mel, excellent by any measure and a symbol of the great big-wave surfer, was intoxicated by the merchandise stand.
“Been scenes I’ve ever seen,” he said.
From Martin Potter on the closeout shore break. “This is where all the meat and potatoes come from.”
And so on.
It wasn’t until the iridescent, irresistible Mason Ho, here as an injury replacement, stole a last-minute win against the world champion that the viewer’s spirit began to soar.
“It feels really good to go good in front of all these cool people… whoo… I spilt my heart all over,” he said.
Watch that here.
And the horror of Sebastian Zietz scoring a nine-five and still losing.
Conner Coffin is a young and lovely boy doing beautiful things. Big brown eyes and real yellow hair, too.
Dusty Payne? Bold where others were timid.
Round 2 results:
Heat 1: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 13.43 def. Tim Stevenson (AUS) 11.67
Heat 2: Mason Ho (HAW) 10.64 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 9.80
Heat 3: Kelly Slater (USA) 12.90 def. Timothee Bisso (GLP) 10.50
Heat 4: Dusty Payne (HAW) 13.84 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.94
Heat 5: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.87 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 14.50
Heat 6: Adrian Buchan (AUS) 14.23 def. Alex Ribeiro (BRA) 5.27
Heat 7: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 13.94 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 13.84
Heat 8: Miguel Pupo (BRA) 15.10 def. Taj Burrow (AUS) 15.00
Heat 9: Caio Ibelli (BRA) 16.83 def. Ryan Callinan (AUS) 16.43
Heat 10: Stuart Kennedy (AUS) 13.20 def. Matt Banting (AUS) 10.57
Heat 11: Conner Coffin (USA) 14.53 def. Jadson Andre (BRA) 14.20
Heat 12: Michel Bourez (PYF) 16.77 def. Keanu Asing (HAW) 13.23
Round 3 Results:
Heat 1: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 17.00 def. Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 15.83
Heat 2: Nat Young (USA) 13.50 def. Stuart Kennedy (AUS) 7.67
Heat 3: Julian Wilson (AUS) 12.44 def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 9.67
Heat 4: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 15.47 def. Kanoa Igarashi (USA) 8.37
Heat 5: Wiggolly Dantas (BRA) 13.37 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 12.60
Heat 6: Mason Ho (HAW) 15.10 def. Adriano De Souza (BRA) 14.33
Remaining Round 3 Match-Ups:
Heat 7: Mick Fanning (AUS) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)
Heat 8: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Kai Otton (AUS)
Heat 9: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Conner Coffin (USA)
Heat 10: Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 11: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Caio Ibelli (BRA)
Heat 12: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Davey Cathels (AUS)
Fletchy a tad late with the hat placement
I used to enjoy this ‘edgey’ sort of writing. Now it’s just boring listening the constant criticism of things people are already aware of.
edgy
Mason Knocks out Adriano? Maybe there is a god.
Any competition day with Mason heats and wins is a good competition day.
so hard not to love Mason
Brother got robbed. Which begs the question why he and Sea Bass were surfing against each other in R2 when you had rookies matched up in the same Round. I realize that they bring last year’s rankings into the seeding but Kolohe should have gotten a lower seed than an injury replacement, right? Or is this all WSL Santarea bullshit that no one can explain?
Seabass would be a lower seed since he’s a replacement?…I think. Close heat, think Chloe got the best 2 waves.
well, seedings have always been based on prior year’s ranking for wildcards, replacements, and trials winners but only first event of the year. thereafter, they start seeding on this year’s rankings. what’s weird is that Stu and Seabass did not back themselves up on the QS last year and somehow the WSL has given them a seed/rank but fuck if i know what it is. they fell off tour just like Simpo. Dusty is the one really getting fucked with this, he did back himself up on the QS and missed by one spot, he should be first on the list every time.
Yeah…as I suspected…voodoo.
Snapper is last year’s final seedlings. Bells is 80% last year, 20% Snapper. Margs is 40% last year rankings and 60% this year rankings and so on.
ahhhh, didn’t know they blended it now. gonna be way harder to get guys in danger of falling off tour to back themselves up. been tons of injuries lately too, not usually this many spots open.
Fuck the reseeds, seed ’em up once and pushe ’em down the bracket from there! Seed off current rankings after first contest!
I believe the day started off with :
Ronnie: “We’ve got the purple headed monster coming up in the first heat, How about that size Joe ?”
Joey T : “The Easter bunny dropped a huge load on Bells this morning.”.
*note, this may not be word for word, but it was 12 hours ago, and it’s how I like to remember it.
While we a retiring contest let’s not stop there, lets flick trestle it’s only in to keep the loud mouth Americans( and there cash) happy and if we a looking at fickle then you could close the whole Europe leg down.
Portugal, yeah, euthanise that son of a bitch…
As I have suggested…kill Portugal and stop in NY on the way to France. I’m sure Speaker can drum up some big sponsors for a comp 25 miles from NYC, right?
Shit can the whole america’s N & S, no one will miss them
Yet Italo’s fins touched the heavens in last years final…
Trestles is alright. The tour should be made up of waves that I think fuck I’d love to surf that with one other (Trestles, Jbay etc) or waves that I think fuck I’d never surf that wave (Chopes, Pipe etc)
filipi is one of those guys who says F i never want to surf chopes either… judging by last years heat total of 0.0