In consecutive heats! Wins Quiksilver Pro France!
Finals day of the Quik Pro! Carissa Moore won the battle, but Tyler Wright won the war! Champion of the world! Campeon del mundo! I don’t speak any other languages.
Good for her. I can’t properly express how much I love the lady and the power she’s brought to the women’s tour. It’s always kind of a bummer when the title doesn’t come down to Pipe, but the ladies don’t compete at Pipe, so that was a stupid thing to write.
Plenty of excitement on the men’s side too. Finals day saw fun looking surf. A little disappointing, we’re all hoping for sandy brown dredgers. But it was competition worthy. Shoulder-high to a grown man, glassy, the type of surf that’d have you salivating at your local. It’d be jammed packed to the gills crowded, and you’d probably leave the water angry, but in those few blissful moments before you paddled out you’d be on top of the world.
Keanu Asing has been on fire the entire event. Surfing smart, surfing well. Doing what it takes to win these days. Doing it flawlessly.
His semi-final heat against the tour leader was busy busy busy. Twenty waves between the two surfers, split down the middle.
The conditions handed Asing a pretty hefty advantage. His diminutive size meant that, while Florence was surfing slightly weak shoulder high lefts, Keanu was going top to bottom on overhead walls.
Asing grabbed the lead early, Double-J snatched it back with a double tap to kick slide reverse. A paddle battle for priority ensued. Florence won it, grabbed the first wave of the set, left Asing out the back to pick up the better one.
Florence grabbed the lead, but he wasn’t surfing as well as he could. Asing was surfing the best he ever has, within the confines of a heat. I’ve never seen him freesurf.
I’m writing it off to the the size advantage Asing enjoyed, but they looked like they were surfing on different days.
Keanu drove the first nail in JJF’s coffin at the midway point. Grabbed one outside, put everything he could into each turn, hopped across the flat section and smacked the oncoming lip pretty hard. 8.67. Backed it up immediately with an 8.1 on his next. Put John John in a hole he couldn’t dig himself out of.
Florence didn’t lay down, gave it his best. Found an 8.4 with roughly three and a half minutes left. Solid backhand smacks, a cool little lip clicker backside ollie 180 halfway through. But the judges aren’t really rewarding that level of kinda-aerial surfing these days. Nor should they.
Florence needed an 8.38 as the heat wound down. Twenty seconds left and a likely number rolled through, but Asing played smart, used his priority, and surfed it to the beach. Extended his lead, and grabbed the second best result of his career so far.
Sucks for John John, but still… third place is pretty solid. He retained the tour lead going into Portugal. With only two events left, and one of them being Pipe, you know Florence can taste the trophy.
Up next was Kolohe/Medina. Another busy heat, another twenty waves ridden.
Asing dropped a classic quote during his interview with Mel.
My body’s little. Running up the sand and stuff, it’s hard.
The swell delivered a nice pulse early on, both surfers put it to use. Kolohe with two solid turns and a fall on the end lip climb/floater thing. Medina tore the bag out of the following for an 6.33. Andino got the better score, a 7.33, which was confusing. But totally inconsequential as Medina’s next wave put them both to shame.
It was an impressive display of tactical confidence. Medina dropped out mid paddle battle, spun around on a crumbly left, left Kolohe to grab priority.
Two okay speed taps, the second off balance. It lined up, he pumped hard and boosted a big lofty alley oop. Stomped it perfectly. Then he did something I loved. He didn’t claim shit. He kept surfing! Tossed three nice little maneuvers onto the end. Put a stamp on it. Took the lead. 8.83.
The pulse disappeared and the next twenty-odd minutes saw the pair do their best with what the ocean offered. Which wasn’t a hell of a lot. Kolohe put in work, caught another seven waves, but couldn’t find anything the judges loved.
Holding priority with two minutes left, Andino took off on a bigger wave that looked to hold the potential for the score he needed. But he chose poorly, it fattened up like a freshman college girl, ending with Medina out the back holding priority as the clock wound down.
Twenty seconds left, Medina grabbed an inside puppy that stood up for him, top to bottom combo’ed it all the way. Finished with a go straight, “I’ve won” chop hop. Nine point zero. I wonder, if he’d fallen on that, would the judges have deducted points? Mysteries abound.
Kolohe caught one more wave, but Medina’d put him in a combo with his last, and that was all she wrote.
I’m not good with numbers, but this puts Kolohe, theoretically, in the title race, yeah? I mean, he’d pretty much have to win the next two events, but…
The men went on pause while Carissa and Wright paddled out for the final. As I’ve mentioned, Moore won it. By a wide margin. But that didn’t really matter because second place put Tyler Wright far enough in front of the pack to clinch her first title.
Asing and Medina. Tough draw for the Hawaiian, no way I’d bet on him. But you can’t script this shit! Right? Right!?!?
The surf dropped, neither surfer delivered anything magic. Asing continued to stay low and make it look like it was six feet rather than two.
Medina seemed rattled. Wasn’t surfing his best. Delivered a career highlight fuck-up with 1:38 left.
It was a small, closeout right. Not a good wave, but you never know with Medina. Two pumps and a backflip could be dropped, if he gets lucky.
So Asing played tactics, paddled in from the shoulder with priority to hold Medina off. Gabriel kicked out, clipping Asing with the nose of his board as he went.
Honestly, it looked like he barely touched Keanu. The Hawaiian could’ve probably made the drop no problem.
But this is sport. I’m not calling it a dive. Asing drew a foul. Masterful. Always delicious to see Gabby on the wrong side of a tactical blunder.
Interference! Though, unless I’m mistaken, it didn’t really matter. Asing had the scores he needed to win regardless. No asterisk needed. He used his talent, not tactics.
And that’s how Keanu Asing won a fucking world tour event. I didn’t see it coming. Did you? Yes? You’re lying.
Asing moves up to 21st, above the cutoff. I sincerely hope he maintains his momentum. I love the little guy.
Watch highlights here!
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE FINAL RESULTS:
1- Keanu Asing (HAW) 13.94
2- Gabriel Medina (BRA) 7.00
QUIKSILVER PRO FRANCE SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
SF 1: Keanu Asing (HAW) 16.94 def. John John Florence (HAW) 16.07
SF 2: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 17.83 def. Kolohe Andino (USA) 15.03
WSL Women’s Top 5 (after Roxy Pro France):
1. Tyler Wright (AUS) 67,700
2. Courtney Conlogue (USA) 59,400
3. Carissa Moore (HAW) 54,400
4. Tatiana Weston-Webb (HAW) 48,400
5. Johanne Defay (FRA) 43,650
WSL Men’s Top 5 (after Quiksilver Pro France):
1. John John Florence (HAW) 48,150
2. Gabriel Medina (BRA) 45,450
3. Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 38,250
4. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 35,700
5. Kolohe Andino (USA) 32,150
keanu on the victory chair is almost as tall as a regular surfer….
What is it with christians and surfing these days. It’s so bloody boring. I want hookers running around backstage, silver platters of gack whilst surfers swagger about trying to remember what day it is.
Instead we’ve got two guys thanking god or some shit. What are they thanking him for? Moving the comp down to a bank which they should of done from the start?
I’m contemplating taking up rollerblading.
Oh and R.I.P Dylan. A truly lovely chap who my girlfriend immediately wanted to fuck on first meeting. Bastard.
Extra cuff for Dylan today…RIP a dude who had big things ahead of him.
So fucking upsetting.
I only met him twice but he had the same anxiety, self-doubt and troubles as the rest of us. He was a real gent.
A related story: a friend of mine – who happens to be a male model – used to go to the same coffee shop as Dyl. My friend couldn’t stand him, and, in fact, was the only person I’ve ever met with a negative opinion of Dylan. I’m relatively sure it was because everyone thought Dylan was so much more charismatic (but mostly, better looking) then him.
Take that, Taylor Knox!
the wsl is awful. unwatchable. winning a wsl contest is like being employee of-the-month at inertia. a real who’s who of garbage.
Also, Rory we need a drug addled World Title race calculation, I’d do it myself but I don’t do drugs anymore.
This is the best bit of writing I’ve read since visiting the beachgrit confines… well done
I won a total of $67 on Keanu this event!
Hells yeah lil brah.
Many competitors paddling back out, were close to where the surfer on the wave was about to do a turn.
Maybe it was just a beach break thing.
I awoke from sleep & turned it on about 10 minutes into the final. What was Medina doing paddling all over the place while the midget was picking off left after left, the same left I fell asleep to when Medina smoked the handsome Californian beatnik? All Medina had to do was sit with & outsurf the midget. No need for intimidation. That said, if there was a ‘god’, this god would not care about surf contests & surfers living an easy self-indulgent life. If they were praying together at the end of the final, that was the lowest thing ever in competition surfing. Did they pray for the Xtians being murdered in Syria by US covert forces or just pray for getting a gold or silver trophy?
Given the location, maybe the pair were busy praying to the slaughtered civilians of France: the three kids and their teacher shot by a gunman at their Jewish daycare centre, the twelve dead at Hebdo, the four dead at the Jewish supermarket, the factory boss decapitated in Lyon, the 130 shot dead in Paris last November, the cop and his wife stabbed to death in front of their three year old in June, the eighty-four mowed down in Nice in July, the decapitated priest two weeks later in Normandy.
Look below the surface, son, because you have no idea. The terrorists are armed by Saudi Arabia, France, USA. Why did the USA, France & NATO bomb Libya to help the terrorists take over there? Why did Obama make two cease-fires in Syria to stop Russia exterminating ISIS when the USA is not officially part of the war? Why does USA, France & Britain sell $billion of arms to Saudi Arabia, a country with the same national religion as the terrorists? Man, you are so stupid; completely brainwashed by the Zionist media. Didn’t your mother & father teach you the TV or (porno) internet is not 100% real or true? Do you really believe Zionists care about Jews? Read this, particularly the last part: Ten questions to the Zionists, by Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl : https://www.nkusa.org/pdf/T…
Pointing out the reasons why terrorists are pushed to blow themselves and murder people, and where they get their weapons from, doesn’t change the fact that innocent people, on both sides, paid the highest price. Bitchy crab was just assuming that Asing and Medina were praying for them, he didn’t deliver a lesson on geopolitics, unlike you, who’s obviously smarter than everyone…
Fuck Nick
You are obviously well read articulate and intelligent but honestly mate we just here to have a laugh take the piss and rip into the backslapping surf industry. Maybe need to tone it down a little or post these discussions elsewhere for your conversations
I officially endorse this statement.
hmmmmm, ol’ nick d antisemitic rant, me likey it…
Kook, watch this. Try to listen to the girl (rather than masturbate).
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Damn son!! You just got owned. Hard.
I am never owned. The only way to ‘own’ me is to do what Biblical-Communist-Zionists do; censor or exterminate.
If the rest of us were only that lucky.
Did someone say censor?
makes you feel like god there for a few seconds?
Seconds? I’m still buzzing now.
How high is strider? Bueller? Bueller?
I literally ran around screaming. For once it was “cheeeeeaaaaaaooooow” instead of “fuck” felt weird.
Medina begged for second place. Interfered twice and forced the call. I blame jesus.