What a day! Hooray for Defay!
Finals day at the fair sex Fiji Pro. Why no title sponsor? Men or women, WSL can’t lock that shit down. Why not? One of the stops everyone looks forward to. Potential for magic.
Volcom had it, right? Split when ZoSea took over. Smart decision on their part, probably. But you’d think the WSL’d be able to find someone to kick down a bit of dough. Maybe there are reasons.
Hamilton started things off playing the one armed bandit, stealing title points from tour members. Hell of a lot of wildcard spoilers going down this year. No matter how Bethany finishes she’ll be the mainstream media darling over the next few days. Rest of the ladies can go to hell.
It’s really too bad she’s so religious. Obviously an amazing human, overcome adversity, positive mindset, blah blah blah. But I just can’t get behind anyone who uses the spotlight to push their faith. Which she does. Has her own bible thumper non-profit, uses surf to steal minds. Fuck that noise.
I’m sure that opinion won’t make me any friends. Whatever. She gets to push her agenda, I get to push mine.
Johanne Defay’s accent is absolutely fucking adorable.
Moore/Enever was pretty crazy. Gotta love C-Mo’s barrels, how she pushes through her turns. One of the shortfalls on the female end. Maybe it’s a lack of size, strength, but when it gets a little bigger a lot of the ladies back off towards the end of their turns. Enever was doing it pretty bad. Lip checks instead of top turns. On guys it’s a full fear move. Section starts to suck, run for the shoulder instead of bomb to the bottom. But the ladies are tiny, might just be difficult to bury a rail at full speed. They manage pretty well on the smaller ones.
Super mismatched heat. Not that Enever don’t surf real good, but Moore’s on another level. Surfs like a man. Which is an absurdly sexist way of praising a top level female athlete, I know. Sorry.
Hamilton and Defay got real lucky they didn’t draw her in the semis. Now they’ve each got a 50/50 chance for a finals finish. ‘Cuz Carissa’s on a tear and I’m calling a win for her while watching the quarters.
I’m increasingly impressed with Ms. Buitendag. Tons of power behind her turns, great style despite her lanky frame. She’s getting better too! Put Conlogue to sleep pretty effortlessly, but faces Moore in the next round. Gonna be pretty shocked if she makes it through that one.
Defay rips her first wave of the heat to shreds, things don’t look so good for Hamilton. 9.2, backs it up with a solid 7. Seven minutes in and Bethany’s combo’ed. Not that it matters. This ain’t her full time job, performance so far’s sure to earn her some more talk show appearances.
Man, type about the tiny weak little ladies backing off turns then Defay comes and puts the idea straight to bed. Absolutely hammers her third wave, snags an 8. Follows up with an even better one. Digs Hamilton a hole so deep she can’t see sunlight.
Sweet jeebus, Carissa is killing it this comp. Like, especially so. 9.77 on her first wave, just straight bashing the lip, snagging some cover. Repeating last round. Buitendag is surfing well but she just can’t touch Moore at her best.
Still though, Bianca is laying down some big swooping carves. Putting her size to good use. She’ll go down fighting. Her last post-heat interview was… odd.
Put some duct tape on her board, give it an “African fix.” Awful close to saying “nigger rig it.” I don’t think it’s unfair to suspect a South African of casual racism. Because of, you know, history.
Heat’s turned into a real back and forth battle. Might’ve written Buitendag off a bit too soon. Could be a shocker.
I’ve said it before, I’m saying it again. The WSL needs to stop running women’s heats when it ain’t good enough for the men. Give the ladies their own show, quality surf, they shine, sparkle.
Poor Bianca. Judges just handed the lead to Moore with a gross overscore. With the way these women are ripping a snap to hung up top turn shouldn’t be a 7.27. They can do better. Buitendag’s forehand carves are magic!
Moore did better. Has it in the bag with five minutes left. Blasted the fins out the back for her second 9+.
Ha! I forgot Hamilton rides for Rip Curl. Remember when they used slaves to make jackets? Remember how they just swept it under the rug?
Defay/Moore in the final. Nice end to a day of ripping.
The little French girl is on fire today, but so is the bubbly Hawaiian. Wish they’d just head into the next heat. I’ve got shit to do. Rather not wait around for them to get to business. I understand the reason for the break, but it’s slightly inconvenient for me.
Final starts on a lull. Weak exchange of single turn waves. Set swings wide and catches them out of position. So typical. Whole day on fire, final is a total anticlimax. No way of controlling it, no fix. Just cruel reality.
At just under fifteen minutes in Defay gets a decent one. 8.4. At the rate the ocean is delivering the goods it might be enough to hand her the win.
If Rosy Hodge agreed to play “would you rather” with me I’d come up with something way better.
But really I’d just stammer, trail off, and go hide in a corner somewhere.
Damn, disappointment. Really thought we were gonna get something special here. But the ocean doesn’t want to cooperate.
Seven minutes left and we start to see some energy. Moore on firing, links a huge bash into a finner. Comes unstuck and Defay is right behind her. Dismantles it all the way to the inside.
6.67 for Moore. Pretty high for a single turn. But it was an amazing smash. Defay earns an 8.7 though, so Carissa is in a deep combo and no matter what Pottz says she doesn’t have much of a chance.
Two minutes left and Carissa Moore needs 17.11. Show’s over.
What a day! Hooray for Defay!
Sucks that things ended on a slow note, but we got an entire day of top notch action.
If you don’t watch the women, and I know a lot of people don’t, go hit the heat analyzer. You won’t regret it.