Would you rather see someone surf a set wave safely or a medium wave insanely?
The fundamental question needs to be asked: would we rather see someone surf a set wave safely or a medium wave insanely?
Dusty must be scratching his head. What spectator would rather see Kanoa safety slap his way to the beach than Dusty looking he’s auditioning for (insert bearded film-maker)’s next flick?
The WSL needs to come out and say it.
Wave choice trumps all other aspects of the scoring criteria.
While this (to a degree) makes sense at spots like Chopes, Fiji, Pipe etc, shitty shoulder-high and onshore Bells is the wrong time and place for the WSL to drive this point home. As far as quality goes, the difference between the set waves and the medium waves on a day like this is irrelevant. Yet still, the wave-height scoring bias is on display.
But why?
My theory: this trivial shit makes sense to the WSL’s target mainstream audience. Wave height is tangible to non-surfers. For the last few years, Paul Speaker and his team have been promising mainstream viewership. However, surfing isn’t basketball. It’s not soccer. There’s no ball-in-the-basket moment that makes sense to a corn shucker from Iowa.
So many of these contests end up being wave-selection affairs where the guy lucky enough to be on the right side of the rotation wins by default. If I had a nickel for every time a heat was coming down to the wire, and I knew the guy was going to get the score only because of the size of the wave he took off on, I’d have enough to buy the goddamn WSL.
My theory: this trivial shit makes sense to the WSL’s target mainstream audience. Wave height is tangible to non-surfers. For the last few years, Paul Speaker and his team have been promising mainstream viewership. However, surfing isn’t basketball. It’s not soccer. There’s no ball-in-the-basket moment that makes sense to a corn shucker from Iowa.
Let’s take another sport for example, figure skating. I don’t know shit about it. It all looks the same to me. Some twirls. Some awkward in between ‘dancing’. Some smiles. Then it’s over. I wouldn’t know how to judge that in a million years. Sure, I’ll see it on TV every four years come Olympic time, but that’s it.
That’s what surfing is to non-surfers.
Therefore, when you simply award the biggest wave with the best score, people have that moment of clarity. “I now understand surfing and want to buy Mick Fanning’s t-shirt!”
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Nice one. Wave selection is even more of a deciding factor in the QS – too many heats won by the guy who happened to have priority when the only good wave in 30 minutes rolled through.
wave choice will be mute-point when the tour stops in lemoore ca.
wha? I can’t hear you….
“Target mainstream audience”? Who the hell do ya reckon is watching this stuff? 1.6 billion non surfers? I will tell you who is watching the webcast: 60,000 (wild guess) interested surfers, a few thousand randoms and the CT crew’s extended families and business partners.
true. but they are obviously targeting main stream audiences. thats the goal. no shit its not gonna work
Dusty got so underscored yesterday Dusty threw it down Dusty for PRESIDENT
Spot on.
Like figure skating, surfing is subjective. Yes, there is an objective set of criteria for judging, but after all that is said and done, we can take into account that there must be an X factor which made the audience feel something.
So if an audience of non-surfers feel that a tangible score directly reflects that X factor, the WSL has then expanded their audience and more Mick Fanning t-shirts get sold.
Cha-ching!
if that is the case how did ADS beat the local kid bouncing to shore on a 1ft flat backward wave? fucken weird shit mate.
I don’t buy the line that catching the better waves is a matter of luck… We all know those dudes at our local break who consistently scoop up the best waves on the best days… you think that shit’s an accident?
Been awhile since i was that dude.
except for the fact that each heat is filled with the guys that always catch the best wave on the best days. did you forget that these are the top 34 competitive surfers in the world?
But even in that scenario, one is going to edge out the other and catch the better waves. It’s a supercharged microcosm of every other normal lineup in the world. When the wavepools finally hit the scene, THEN wave choice and lineup “strategy” (? don’t know if that’s the best term to describe it but you get the gist…) won’t have a place in competition…. but until then, kinda hard to deny that using your priority wisely to put yourself on the better waves indicates that you had the better knowledge of the ocean on that day…
Nevermind Dusty. Italo got fucking robbed. And this not just because I lost a fortune betting on it! Kanoa’s flappy wounded seagull shit getting a 7.87 or whatever straight off the bat was a travesty. Fair enough, it was the first wave, it happens sometimes. But thereafter it is judging perogative to wind their fucking necks in and scale the rest of the heat! Both Italo and Dusty outsurfed that malnourished little prick, plain and simple.
WSL are wetting themselves with excitement that they have a shot of getting the japanese market focused back on the tour and off their gloss pollished twin fins.. Kanoa will be pushed all the way into the top 10.. he is 2016’s medina…
Spot on. A betting man might wonder if it would be privy to gamble on Quinoa (pinched from another commenter) all season, particularly in Rd1 or Rd4, or in marginal shitty fucking waves…
Though the Medina case is slightly different – at least Medina was bringing a different approach. And he’s proved himself. Quinoa isn’t fit to lace Medina’s boots. (Even if you compare them both at the same age).
Good Read Einstein!!
When in the first heat of the day Joey says “pottz when is it ok to surf at 100%? do you save yourself for the finals? ” it shows everything wrong with the sport!!!
Medina got 7.67 for a big wave with backhand float/reo and finishing turn because of the size of the wave that’s it!!! Other guys were throwing multiple turns on med wave for 5s. It’s bullshit.
You cannot set the scale for the day in the first heat!!! Waves change tides wind etc etc. So often that is done. You can only surf what is in front of you – so if you go to town on a medium wave that gives the opportunity the score should be thrown!!
Yeah it’s funny that they’re always talking about saving their energy. They surf what, 90 minutes a day at most? Seems like they’re in good enough shape to handle that. It must be emotionally draining, poor things.
So why doesn’t my wife mind that I’m not built like a “set wave”?
Spot-on article. Reserve the unwritten size criteria for heavy tubes or tie-breaker status on equally-surfed waves!
My question is will masons jerseys sell faster than inflatable rafts during Katrina? Boom more racist than the inertia, your welcome.
Wow it forced me to down vote myself.
indeed, too nuanced a sport. reminds me of skaters doing shit switch and the crowd going nuts cause they actually skate while the XGames Fan scratches his head and decides to tune back in when people start backflipping snowmobiles.
It’s why bowl skating will never be respected, ” nah that guy risking 20 g’s of dental work and compound fractures for trying to do something, dyslexic ain’t shit”
DUSTY WAS RIPPING
There aren’t enough heats in 20 years to give you enough nickels to buy the WSL. Assuming 11 events a year, for 20 years, the most you could make is $561… and that’s if every heat met the criteria. Of course, discounting over 20 years would also make it worth a lot less!
PS. This was a good guest Gritter post.
Yes, Sam E taking “Top Guest Post of Recent Memory” award.
He nailed the criteria to writing a successful post:
-Have something to say
-Don’t try too hard
-Don’t be lame
And keep that shit short. I only read Rory’s 700-worders because we’re Facebook friends.
You read them because you love them.
Social media’s not about love, it’s about fucking.
Writing a successful post AND living in general.
Truth.
Fuck, I just realized that Sam E’s hawking some other neoliberal, middle-man surf business. At least he only links to it in his ‘Nertia writing and not here.
Can I take back my praise?
yo gotta pay the bills somehow
Isn’t that the justification that whores and thieves use, too?
precisely.
I’m still trying to really determine which title I prefer for myself, hooker or thief.
first i fuck, then rob
Bravo, Samuel Einstein!
how is it El Nino yet the WSL still getting the worst conditions
El Nino is bad for Oz isn’t it?
Idk but snapper was pumping until the circus showed up
Totally agree. They have been scoring the size of the wave for years and yet it’s nowhere to be found in the rulebook…
If 2 guys do the same smash off the lip but ones on a bigger wave…its more “high-risk” i think is the thinking behind it
Sure, that is logical. However, in practice it’s more like one guy does two turns on a big wave and the other guy does 6 turns and two airs and they give it to the bigger wave…
mick’s same carve 7 times or jadsons poo poo revo 5 times?
Idoit the point people are making about size is correct but the fact you can’t see the technical tweeks mick puts into each turn makes your opinion useless
You are so right! How could I be so blind?!
Don’t forget the vicious bottom turn of his, he’s won world titles with that thing, Lemmy!
find me another brazzo or aussie (other than joel) who can replicate the speed and torque in the hook like mr white lightning?Believe me lemmy if it was that easy we’d have a jap copycat world champ by now. PS reckon medina or ads could surf shipsterns like Our Mick? Never been a more deserving world champ. kook
Totes agree. Dusty out surfed that Asian kid by a mile.
True, but if Dusty wins a heat the entire thing comes crumbling down. I’m talking rivers of blood and locusts
Agree Dusty should have been the winner of the heat. Hope he makes it to round 3. WSL, We need good waves, not crap we can have at home. Bigger waves should be scored higher if well-surfed,
Are we expected to see safer surfing than an 85 year old man with a broken hip for the rest of the contest?
I would rather stare at a wall than re-watch those first 6 heats. Actually I found myself staring at the wall quite a bit.
I’d rather watch the heat analyzer of you watching the wall than watch those 6 heats.